Solution for sound problem after patch

[BlackVoid]

For those, who have still issues with the sound after 1.20:

I was affected by the sound "bug" too, even after 1.20. The game would CTD and instead of some sounds only screeching could be heard.

SOLUTION:
The bug is in one of your codecs not in the game or in the sounds. Most likely you have installed a codec pack or an individual codec that has replaced a standard one and IS BUGGY.

I had ACE Mega Codecs Pack 5.93 and after uninstall everything works fine. I can play all the sounds that were bad before and now they are clean and nice.
If you have installed some other pack, you may not be so lucky as some of these packs are notoriously difficult to remove from the system.
Uninstalling individual codecs (RISKY!!!) may or may not help - unfortunately I am no expert on codecs and do not know which ones the WITP sounds use.
Maybe someoene from MATRIX can tell us what codecs do the sounds use.

If you cannot fix the sounds by uninstalling the codec pack, these are the options:
1. Wait for Matrix to tell what kind of codecs do the sounds use, until then rename sound DIR.
2. Try to remove codecs individually immediately - AT YOUR OWN RISK. This may lead to not being to able to play movies, sounds AT ALL.
3. Reinstall Windows. This will surely work, so....

Hope this helps.

[Cyberbachi]

3. Reinstall Windows. This will surely work, so....

90$ to reinstall Windows or my Codecs.

Thanks for the tip. [:D]

[8|]

[SunDevil_MatrixForum]

I am sure there is an option 4, give it by this afternoon so Matrix can see if this works, I am sure there is another option than just the 3 listed. But thank you Blackvoid for bringing this up and offering solutions.

[Nomad]

ORIGINAL: Laurent_LAVAIL

3. Reinstall Windows. This will surely work, so....

90$ to reinstall Windows or my Codecs.

Thanks for the tip. [:D]

[8|]

So you installed a buggy codex and that is Matrixs fault? [:-] [X(]

[Cyberbachi]

ORIGINAL: Nomad

So you installed a buggy codex and that is Matrixs fault? [:-] [X(]

LOOOOOOOOOOL

WitP is a buggy game. Not my codecs.[>:]
Bugs are in all Matrix games... everys games, program work fine on my PC.[:'(]

Sorry guys, I like that game, but....... I can't play.[:(]

[SunDevil_MatrixForum]

Come on guys relax, Matrix will come up with a solution. [8D]

[BlackVoid]

Every other game/program worked fine too on my computer before. Yet, after codecs pack uninstall WITP WORKS FINE as well!

I believe this is not Matrix's fault. Simply the game uses a codec that is not commonly used by other applications and this codec sometimes happens to be buggy - depending on what kind stuff did you install on your computer.

Matrix could post the good codecs that the sound files use and people could install those - problem solved. I am a software engineer/programmer and I am pretty confident that this is a codec issue and not an actual bug in WITP.

[Erik Rutins]

Blackvoid,

I appreciate the suggestion and I'm very glad that it worked for you, but I cannot say that we've tested this to confirm your findings. I would not advise anyone to mess with their codecs or reinstall Windows at this point. However, this is an angle that we will look at to see if we can suggest some solutions in this regard for users to try. From our testing experience, a lot of problems went away with driver/DirectX updates.

Regards,

- Erik

[Cyberbachi]

Blackvoid is right.

I've unistall a codeck pack... now, I think it's work.


But I can't watch some videos now...[>:]

[SunDevil_MatrixForum]

porn vs. WITP the ulitmate showdown [:D]

[Mr.Frag]

porn vs. WITP the ulitmate showdown

[:D]

At least we know what you are doing between turns [X(]

[SunDevil_MatrixForum]

Nope keeping my hands on the keyboard and the mouse thank you, and my eyes on WITP. [:D]

[Nomad]

So does that mean we can not have porn in WitP? [:D] Open the base at San Francisco and there is a button to enter the red light district. [8D]

[BlackVoid]

Erik is right, first try the driver/DirectX update, if the problem still persists and you are not a computer expert, better wait for an official Matrix solution.

My solution is probably good, if all else fails, however it IS RISKY. You should only try removing any codecs if you know what you are doing and do not mind that after that:
1. you may not be able to play some (or any) movies
2. you may hurt your system and may have to reinstall it.

I was pretty concerned that I have to reinstall (worth to do to play WITP), but got lucky.

Shortly: Try it only at your own risk!

As for codecs, a good place to start would be: http://www.divx-digest.com/
I recommend not to install any pack, instead try to find the codecs you really need and install them one by one. This way you will know what you have on your system and can easily change or remove it if needed.

It is a pain to get all the ones you need, but at least you do not bog down your computer with 100s of useless codecs in a pack. Also, it is best if you consult some experts on a forum (eg:http://www.divx-digest.com) about what to install. (Try to find some threads about it before posting.)

[Erik Rutins]

Blackvoid,

Thanks, I very much appreciate your suggestion, just don't want to have folks who might read your post and aren't experienced enough to do this creating more problems than are fixed. For those who want to do this at their own risk, the page to check from Blackvoid's links for codecs and such is:

http://www.divx-digest.com/software/index.html

Personally, apart from the base Windows XP installation, all that I have installed is the DivX Codec from http://www.divx.com/divx/download/ which as far as I know shouldn't affect this. I also have Quicktime and iTunes installed as well as a fully updated Windows Media Player. Each of those may have some effect in this area.

We'll look into this and see if we can figure out how much of an effect this might have. For those who are adventurous, please post your results in this thread and I'll check back to see if a pattern develops. Thank you.

Regards,

- Erik

[BlackVoid]

Erik,

You should consider installing some codec packs on a test machine and see what happens.
Sorry, if I am stating the obvious...

[guke]

Got my sound to work too.
I have just been able to play a whole scen 15 turn without CTD [:D]
Sound ist not garbled anymore.
I strongly suspect the Fraunhofer MP3 codec that I had installed before
caused the problem.
What I did was install the nimo codec pack to see if updated codecs
would help but they didn't. I then uninstalled the codec pack again
and it removed almost all codecs except the default XP ones, even
some that I had had on my system before installing the codec pack.

Maybe it would be a good idea if we would do a little poll to see
which sets of codecs work and which don't. We might then be able
to determine which individual codec causes the problem.

I currently have the following audio codecs installed (witp sound working):

IMA ADPCM Audio CODEC
Microsoft ADPCM Audio CODEC
Micrsost CCITT G.711 Audio CODEC
DSP Group TrueSpeech(TM) Audio CODEC
msg723.acm
Sipro Lab Telecom Audio Codec
Indeo audio software
ctmp3.acm
Microsoft PCM-Konvertierung

[Kadota]

It may be safer to disable suspect codecs through the control panel rather than uninstalling them. That way you could reenable them if it doesn't help or need them for other applications.

[guke]

I've found out what caused the problem on my system.
It's a DirectShow AC3 Filter. I guess for some strange reason
the DirectX Architecture decided to put this filter into the processing
chain for the witp sounds and then the filter can't cope with the
mp3 data.

The name of the filter is ac3audio.ax and it's located in
the Windows/system32 folder. When I rename that file to
buggy_ac3audio.ax, witp works without any problem. When
I rename in back to it's original filename, I get garbled sound
and CTDs again.

So maybe a good workaround for those people that still have
sound problems would be to rename the file before starting to play
and rename it back to it's original name afterwards in order to
avoid potential problems with AVI playback.

Of course, all of this could be specific to my computer.

regards,
Gunnar

[Banquet]

ORIGINAL: guke

Got my sound to work too.
I have just been able to play a whole scen 15 turn without CTD [:D]
Sound ist not garbled anymore.
I strongly suspect the Fraunhofer MP3 codec that I had installed before
caused the problem.
What I did was install the nimo codec pack to see if updated codecs
would help but they didn't. I then uninstalled the codec pack again
and it removed almost all codecs except the default XP ones, even
some that I had had on my system before installing the codec pack.

Maybe it would be a good idea if we would do a little poll to see
which sets of codecs work and which don't. We might then be able
to determine which individual codec causes the problem.

I currently have the following audio codecs installed (witp sound working):

IMA ADPCM Audio CODEC
Microsoft ADPCM Audio CODEC
Micrsost CCITT G.711 Audio CODEC
DSP Group TrueSpeech(TM) Audio CODEC
msg723.acm
Sipro Lab Telecom Audio Codec
Indeo audio software
ctmp3.acm
Microsoft PCM-Konvertierung

I had the Fraunhofer MP3 codec too, so tried disabling it. Unfortunately I then got a CTD, which I haven't been getting after the patch.. I wondered if it would cure the squishy sound effects I was getting but no luck.