If you have updated to 1.20 and STILL HAVE SOUND ISSUES

[CoffeeMug]

ORIGINAL: robuk23

ORIGINAL: Damien Thorn

Since the WitP sound files are just mp3 files with a different extention, maybe it would be possible to use a utility to convert them to wav. It might be worth a try.

Great! Glad it's working for some of you guys as well.

Good idea about the mp3 2 wav, i'll try it later on

Hi guys,

I tried it and did the following:

- renamed all *.sfx files to *.mp3
- used CDex to convert the *.mp3 to *.wav
- renamed the *.wav to *.sfx

and I still have a f*** up sound playing eh stuttering. [:(]

Well, I begin to loose hope here and I am sick of trying to fix the sound issue instead of playing the game ...

At least, the NOsound option is still open. [8|]

Cheers,

CM

[Jaws_slith]

Erik,

I think that it is clear now how the problem can be solved (just use the format of UV) Is it a big problem to post those files for people with sound problems?

Regards

[Raven68]

I have exhausted the whole codex issue on both of my PC's and the game still CTD's everytime when combat animations are on. At this point I am giving up and would like to know if there is a way to get my money back for this incomplete product!! I really would like to see the game work but I dont feel spending 70 bucks on something that doesnt work it very right. I am a software engineer by trade and fully understand how things like this pop up, but I shouldnt have to fork out money and then patiently wait for a patch to get what I've already paid for. The CTD issue is a show stopper and or fatal error for me and many of you out there. I cannot play the game at all and if I had bought this at the store I could return it.

[Norbastus]

Salute,

luckily i have UV as well. Installed UV again and copy all sound files in WitsP directory. Voila sound and no CTD anymore.

Regards
Yogo

[Oleg Mastruko]

UV comes with much less sound than WITP, and they are generally of lower quality so this workaround is not satisfactory for me.

I like WITP sounds when they play OK but they seem to CTD the game.

O.

[Oleg Mastruko]

Allright I managed to solve the problem on my PC! Try if it works for you as well.

As others have hinted - BlackVoid, Beezle and Gunnar - problem is not the sounds themselves, and most probably not the DirectX nor the drivers for your sound card.

It's not even the MP3 sound codec, it's the god*amn MP3 *filter* that garbles the sounds and produces CTDs! As Gunnar explained you can't find that filter anywhere in the Control Panel, so you'll have to find it and destroy it manually.

Gunnar and I had different filters on our PCs - he already explained how he managed to destroy his, this is how I destroyed mine and managed to play the game without CTDs and garbled sound (knock on wood). Pay attention - uninstalling this da*ned thing in the Control Panel wasn't enough! I had to unregister the filter from the Windows Registry, and this is how I did it.

I believe the AC3 filter I had is more common on user Pcs as it comes with various DivX and codec distributions so try this solution - it is my guesstimate it will work on many PCs.

Go to your system disk, then go to Program Files folder/directory. Find the subfolder named /AC3filters. If you have the problem *I* had - you'll have this folder. In this folder/dir you'll find several batch programs (.bat extension).

Find the batch file named "un registerfilters-win2000.bat" and double click on it. Filters will be unregistered and you'll be able to play the game. At least that's how it worked for me. Don't be confused by Win2000 in the name of the file, it works for WinXP as well.

Hope this helps.

Oleg

[Grotius]

In general I agree that WITP sounds are better, but there are a couple UV sounds that I really miss. One is the Catalina sound without the "Radio" chatter, which I find annoying. Another is the camera sound for recon missions.

How can I selectively install UV sounds I like? Is there any guide to which file plays which sound?

[Wilhammer]

I applied the methods described on this board by others to clean up the codecs, more specifically, the AC3 Filter sound codec.

This did NOT solve the problem - I still CTD.

NOSOUND is my only method to play.

[DrewMatrix]

Is there any guide to which file plays which sound?

It is easy to test for yourself. The UV files are wav files. The WITP sounds play as wav files if renamed (rename with batch dos command, search this forum or ask if you don't remember DOS batch files).

Then:
Open the sound directory, open the Windows media player. Arrange the windows so you can see both at once. Double click on each wav file and hear what it is (or see if it is the problem on your particular system if you have a problem).

I listed elsewhere in this forum the sounds that crash the Win Media Player on my machine. I don't know if all people who still have problems have them with the same files. This seems quirky. There may be a different reason for the problem on one machine vs another.

Anyhow, you can review all the sounds in less than 5 minutes.

[Mr.Frag]

Why go through all that trouble.

Just double-click on the .sfx file and when it asks you what to open it with, select Media Player.

Once done, that file type will be registered as a type that uses Media Player and clicking on any of them from then on will take you right into Media Player.

[Snydeman55]

Well, 1.21 solves every issue I had with the sound...EXCEPT that during air bombardments of ground targets I get frequent electric sounding ZZZZ ZZZ ZZZ sounds. Any ideas?

[dkatman]

the following is my take on the 4 approaches suggested in this forum for fixing the sound bug
1/ the "pinata" approach- blinding swinging away by installing patches for this..that and everything else
2/ the "hell with it" approach - rename the sound folder and not care about audio
3/ the "rabbits foot #1" approach - try few different pcs hoping one of them was blessed by god
4/ the "rabbits foot #2" approach - putting right hand thumb up the left nostril works.. but the problem of course is timing.. trying to figure the best moment during aircombat.

most programmers fear intermittent bugs due to the nature of the bug's inconsistant behaviour.

but i always the answer lies within the inconsistancy itself... and do that not by looking from the inside.. but from the outside.. ie: a user..
it is an interactive process of course.. but very simple.. just look for events which the software executues that are random ..

this bug normally happens in air combat.. because there large number of permtutations which air combat can result.
a single air comabt can use 10+ sound files.. many times over in an infintate combinations.
this bug is intermeittment becuase it only happens when a a few of the sound files are played in a certain order.

so i went looking in the sound files.. the bit rates.. the 200+ sound files are not all the same bit rate.. 3 bit rates 64kbs, 128kbs, 196kbs..
the bigger the bit rate.. the better the quality of the sound.

everyone's love are awesome graphics makes this software a PIG.. even with 512mb memory.. this PIG makes the cpu 200-300mb paged memory... that why this PIG uses 90% to 95% of cpu.. the cpu is running flat out.

the audio software has to load a different filter..codec.. whatever everytime the bit rate of the sound file is differs from the bit rate of the prior sound file.
If you are lucky ie: you did in fact had your finger up your nose at the right moment... the driver the sound software needs is still sitting in main memory...
BUT if you forget to pick your nose and the driver is sitting in paged memory.... CRASH....

short term fix... create 3 sub folders for each bit rate bit rates 64bs, 128bs, 196ks.. load all the files in media player to identify bit rate then move the sound files into the appropriate folder...

then pick 1 of the sub folders and move all the files into the sound folder.. it WORKS... i use 64kbs files... i not get all sounds.. but is better than none


cheers

dkatman

[Mr.Frag]

short term fix... create 3 sub folders for each bit rate bit rates 64bs, 128bs, 196ks.. load all the files in media player to identify bit rate then move the sound files into the appropriate folder...

So you have basically pinned the problem down to certain sound drivers that have problems with various bit rates.

The Microsoft codex's in Media Player handle variable bit rates so people running clean machines with just Microsoft stuff have no problems at all while the rest of the world goes belly up everytime a sequence of sound clips change rates.

Wonder if kicking them to WAV's then back to a fixed rate of 64 gets around this for good. Anyone have any converters handy?

[Zorfwaddle]

Ive got Musicmatch 8.2 and I can go from MP3 to WAV and back again... but not SFX...

George

[dkatman]

actually using both 64kbs and 128kbs sound files seems to work ok.

i think the problem is with 196kbs.. the majority of the 196 files are large music and intro file...
but there are about 35 of the files under 200k.. some of which used in aircombat. here is the list of 196kbs... try experimentiing a little..
for example i am killinng 196kbs files over 100kb


1032.sfx 7,080
1028.sfx 5,568
1034.sfx 5,424
1031.sfx 5,328
1026.sfx 4,680
1029.sfx 4,124
1027.sfx 3,813
1030.sfx 3,298
1033.sfx 3,205
1502.sfx 1,518
1025.sfx 1,489
1602.sfx 709
1601.sfx 700
1009.sfx 488
1070.sfx 474
1600.sfx 461
1071.sfx 448
1021.sfx 374
1020.sfx 326
1050.sfx 262
1040.sfx 239
1006.sfx 201
1182.sfx 201
1180.sfx 185
1004.sfx 179
1181.sfx 171
1177.sfx 165
1179.sfx 165
1010.sfx 160
1178.sfx 155
1011.sfx 147
1015.sfx 141
1007.sfx 134
1186.sfx 133
1183.sfx 131
1176.sfx 131
1008.sfx 130
1188.sfx 126
1000.sfx 120
1051.sfx 120
1053.sfx 120
1003.sfx 120
1005.sfx 116
1192.sfx 111
1045.sfx 110
1187.sfx 110
1002.sfx 106
1001.sfx 103
1089.sfx 97
1701.sfx 96
1700.sfx 87
1193.sfx 78
1052.sfx 72
1090.sfx 71
1191.sfx 71
1017.sfx 8
1018.sfx 7
1016.sfx 5


cheers

dkatman

[dkatman]

here are the 128kbs sound files

1062.sfx 498
1279.sfx 356
1061.sfx 174
1084.sfx 169
1300.sfx 159
1301.sfx 158
1159.sfx 135
1157.sfx 135
1162.sfx 135
1201.sfx 129
1161.sfx 126
1160.sfx 126
1163.sfx 126
1158.sfx 126
1402.sfx 120
1238.sfx 120
1400.sfx 120
1202.sfx 119
1156.sfx 115
1408.sfx 109
1236.sfx 104
1058.sfx 89
1144.sfx 88
1292.sfx 87
1293.sfx 87
1276.sfx 86
1275.sfx 86
1055.sfx 84
1306.sfx 82
1305.sfx 78
1217.sfx 76
1232.sfx 73
1129.sfx 71
1212.sfx 71
1126.sfx 68
1116.sfx 68
1213.sfx 67
1067.sfx 66
1068.sfx 66
1237.sfx 60
1311.sfx 56
1406.sfx 50
1230.sfx 50
1127.sfx 50
1200.sfx 49
1312.sfx 49
1085.sfx 48
1284.sfx 48
1128.sfx 48
1203.sfx 47
1280.sfx 47
1405.sfx 46
1115.sfx 45
1117.sfx 45
1310.sfx 45
1395.sfx 44
1282.sfx 39
1394.sfx 38
1204.sfx 37
1231.sfx 29
1407.sfx 26
1391.sfx 26
1392.sfx 26
1393.sfx 25
1603.sfx 13

[dkatman]

removing the 196kbs sound files works much better...
but neither audio codec or the bit rate is not the real problem..

the real problem is cached/paged memory.

i have 2 monitors.. i have task manager performance app running on my 2nd monitor.

anytime the ai is running.. cpu usage AVERAGES 99%

i have 512mb.. and pf usage grows by 200mb after loading witp.. and the page file gets bigger and bigger over time.


during the orders phase i would think win os is caching all mplayer flies .. so it can move more of the graphic and unit data files back into main memory.

the REAL solution is 1gig of memory.


i have 2 suggestions for your programmers...
1/ dump sxf codec and use media player 9 codec... listen i hate microsft too... but the reality is that the win os is written to optimize to player 9 codec
2/ do some extensive testing on pcs with 256mb ram.. coz i not sure is possible you can write a bug free version of this software for a 256mb pc.


i hope this helps

cheers

dkatman

[Caranorn]

Just thought I'add I have the CTD as well with version .21.

In my case at least using the UV sounds (renaming them to .sfx of course) works very well. I also tried disabling the AC3 filter thingy but had no luck and decided I was getting way too deep into something I don't understand in the least (I'm a converted Mac user;-), so I undid all my messing in that area.

In any case it would be good if people still having the problem posted their RAM here to see whether it's indeed the 256MB machines that have the problem (yes mine is 256MB).

For the rest I've sent my DirectX diagnosis file to Matrix and hope they can get something out of that.

Marc aka Caran...

[guke]

ORIGINAL: dkatman


the real problem is cached/paged memory.

i have 2 monitors.. i have task manager performance app running on my 2nd monitor.

anytime the ai is running.. cpu usage AVERAGES 99%

i have 512mb.. and pf usage grows by 200mb after loading witp.. and the page file gets bigger and bigger over time.


during the orders phase i would think win os is caching all mplayer flies .. so it can move more of the graphic and unit data files back into main memory.

the REAL solution is 1gig of memory.

I don't think this is the problem. On my system WitP uses ~180 MB (physical + virtual) memory out of 512MB total.
I still have about 250 MB of free physical memory left.
This is during the the 1st player turn, where I got CTDs very often when I clicked on a "Done" button for example.
After I removed the offending direct show filter, I have perfect sound and no more CTDs.

Besides, swapping is supposed to be transparent to applications (except for the obvious time penalties).
If an application is not able to cope with unpredictable timing while running on a multitasking OS with virtual
memory then that application is broken.

As for the CPU running at ~100% while the AI is doing it's turn, if this were not the case that would be another bug [:)]
Microprocessors either run or sleep. When they have nothing to do they sleep until they get woken by a hardware
interrupt, otherwise they run on full speed.
During the AI turn the CPU obviously runs all the time because there are no external events to wait for.

regards,
Gunnar

[Erik Rutins]

Thanks for your patience everyone. Once I return from GenCon, I will be posting a test patch for everyone still experiencing problems to try out. Should be next Thursday/Friday.

Regards,

- Erik