Interim SOUND PATCH (Please Read)

[Mr.Frag]

I am one of those whining modem download pains so a few questions ofr those that have gone through the pain. My issue was not with R2D2 noises or tearing metal. Mine is with degradation of game speed. If I use the sounds it take 2.5 times longer to watch a combat summary and then, within the game scrolling and such is diabolically slow. Has this change made any differences to that - has anyone else actually got this problem?

Wobbly, sound cards have a CPU loading effect, the better the sound card, the lower this loading. As this loading is taking time away from what can be used to process and crunch the numbers, it will affect your performance. The amount of the impact is based on (a) quality of the card and (b) bit density of the sounds.

In you case, even though the 22k quality is nowhere near as good, you are faced with a choice between speed and quality. Coupled with the length of time it takes to download, you might want to give it a try as rough sound is better then no sound and if it doesn't work to your liking, you can just rename the directory back to nosound.

[Marc_Mitscher]

ORIGINAL: Marc_Mitscher

ORIGINAL: Mr.Frag

I tried the 44hz version more fully last night. The distortion is now gone but two new problems have cropped up: 1) an intermittent clicking noise is heard in the background; and 2) the music skips every once and a while. So far the stock sounds are the only ones I can play with no problems.

The stock sounds are a mix of 22, 44, and higher. Shifting them all to 44 has actually increased the load on your system. Sounds like you are buckling under the strain now.

I can try a 1:1 mapping on density and see what you end up with, but what you are saying is pretty much what I expect.

Sound support is usually the cheapest part of most computers. This is generally one of those *you get what you pay for* cases with most systems having OEM Soundblaster Basic type cards or onboard chipset sound (even worse).

my system is a P4 3.0 GHZ , Asus P4P800 mb, 1 G DDR 400 memory, Geforce FX5900, Windows XP pro and a Hercules Game theater 7.1 sound card. WITP should not be straining my system, although it might be time to upgrade my sound card.

After Mr.Frag's comment that the issue might be with my system, I did some fiddling around. It turned out the problem was in my sound card's control panel. I had bumped up the volume to 100% some time back to test out a pair of headphones. I reduced the volume to 70%, increased the speaker's volume and voila! problem solved. The 44hz sound pack rocks! [:D]

This is off topic, but would replacing my current sound card with a Audigy 2 ZS make an appreciable difference.

[Mr.Frag]

After Mr.Frag's comment that the issue might be with my system, I did some fiddling around. It turned out the problem was in my sound card's control panel. I had bumped up the volume to 100% some time back to test out a pair of headphones. I reduced the volume to 70%, increased the speaker's volume and voila! problem solved. The 44hz sound pack rocks!

This is off topic, but would replacing my current sound card with a Audigy 2 ZS make an appreciable difference.

Not off topic at all. One of the things I have learned from the school of hard knocks ... when installing sound cards, choose the *DRIVER ONLY* option as all the tons of other crap they bundle in with these toys generally results in other problems and they really only ever work on driver fixes. Looked up your card specs ... don't know that the ZS would make any real difference, but clean drivers with all the junk removed might help.

So it sounds like your card was being over driven at the amp level ... interesting ... I break windows at 100% volumn, but I have rather expensive powered speakers and use my machine as my stereo [:D]

[maikarant]

The 44 khz patch also worked perfectly so far. But I just played two turns, and with a bit of luck the standard 1.21 patched version could do that, too. But I don't have any complaints about sound quality.

[Marc_Mitscher]

ORIGINAL: Mr.Frag

After Mr.Frag's comment that the issue might be with my system, I did some fiddling around. It turned out the problem was in my sound card's control panel. I had bumped up the volume to 100% some time back to test out a pair of headphones. I reduced the volume to 70%, increased the speaker's volume and voila! problem solved. The 44hz sound pack rocks!

This is off topic, but would replacing my current sound card with a Audigy 2 ZS make an appreciable difference.

Not off topic at all. One of the things I have learned from the school of hard knocks ... when installing sound cards, choose the *DRIVER ONLY* option as all the tons of other crap they bundle in with these toys generally results in other problems and they really only ever work on driver fixes. Looked up your card specs ... don't know that the ZS would make any real difference, but clean drivers with all the junk removed might help.

So it sounds like your card was being over driven at the amp level ... interesting ... I break windows at 100% volumn, but I have rather expensive powered speakers and use my machine as my stereo [:D]

Thanks, I will give it a try to see if it makes a difference.

[2Stepper]

I guess now that I've installed the sound patch I have one question. Where to put the system sound in the program? I have everything set to 3 with the exception of music volume which is at a 2. The bomb volume has quieted a good deal. I DO however still get some "ticking" sounds on the beach landings and occasionally what sounds like a spark sound when lots is going on. Theres so many SFX files playing at once its difficult to determine which...

All that said, my primary "annoyance" is quelled with the improved sounds for the bombs. I still hope there's sort of a "final dustup" of the sound setup for the game, but this'll do nicely until then. Thanks Frag for the hard work.

[Mr.Frag]

2S, try reducing your Windows system volume overall and Raise the In game volume controls to a higher level to make up for it ...

I set them all to 5 in game, then adjust my Windows volume to be acceptable. The crackle/hiss/pop type stuff is generally the sound card being overdriven.

[2Stepper]

ORIGINAL: Mr.Frag
I set them all to 5 in game, then adjust my Windows volume to be acceptable. The crackle/hiss/pop type stuff is generally the sound card being overdriven.

"Overdriven" or overworked? Either way I can certainly give it a go. Hadn't really noted such things with other programs, but then it might be the sound format is sensitive. I think I still have my wav volume set to 50% but the overall system volume is still set to max.

Will muck about with it a bit and report back anything of note.

[Mr.Frag]

ORIGINAL: 2Stepper

ORIGINAL: Mr.Frag
I set them all to 5 in game, then adjust my Windows volume to be acceptable. The crackle/hiss/pop type stuff is generally the sound card being overdriven.

"Overdriven" or overworked? Either way I can certainly give it a go. Hadn't really noted such things with other programs, but then it might be the sound format is sensitive. I think I still have my wav volume set to 50% but the overall system volume is still set to max.

Will muck about with it a bit and report back anything of note.

Over-driven is normally crackle and pop ... Over-worked is skipping ... but those are about a vague as one can get with sound problems ... You can also play with the slider on the DXDIAG sound page and see how differing levels of hardware abstraction help ... *just* remember, it takes a reboot to pick up those slider changes in DXDIAG.

[Grotius]

Wobbly, I never had any trouble with sounds slowing down the game, and I still don't with the 44 patch. I have no idea whether it helps or not. Did you try the 22 patch? That might help you, since the files are smaller.

[Bombur]

All the sounds have been resampled and reduced to 22 kHz, Stereo in Windows Media Audio format instead of relying of the million and one different mp3 codex's out there. On a side none, this should also help speed up things for borderline computers as it is much easier to handle a 22 kHz tack vs a 192 kHz track.

If you are *still* having problems after this, I suggest you go to:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window ... efault.asp

And download the correct latest version for your operating systems. (top two links)

-It finally worked to me. Thank you Mr. Frag

[Wilhammer]

Unfortunately, despite this new patch, I still get CTDs.

Recap: I have not experienced distorted sounds in the past, just CTDs corrected by changing SOUND directory name to NOSOUND.

I applied the patch my current installation after renaming the dir back to SOUND.

I have an Audigy 2 ZS Sound Card.


--------------------------

Windows Media Player 10 is out; I'll see if that, perchance, helps.

[donkuchi19]

I played the first week of April 1942 with the 22khz patch with no problems. I played about the next 5 days with the 44khz patch and had a CTD. I am updated to 1.21.

I was checking future ship arrivals. I had closed out all of the filters and then reopened them from CV and BB down to DD. I then sorted them by arrival time. When I clicked the back button, I got a black screen. It stayed there about 1 min then I got the Send Error Report message. It then went to Desktop.

I just thought you might want to know.

Thanks.

[Mr.Frag]

I was checking future ship arrivals. I had closed out all of the filters and then reopened them from CV and BB down to DD. I then sorted them by arrival time. When I clicked the back button, I got a black screen. It stayed there about 1 min then I got the Send Error Report message. It then went to Desktop.

That one sounds more like a bug coming from the Ship Reports lists, not the sound. That one comes and goes, been hunting it forever ... It never happens twice in a row (ie: you can load your turn right back up and be fine).

[donkuchi19]

Thank you Mr. Frag. As always very quick response.

[donkuchi19]

Hi again,

I may have a repeatable save for you on the back button bug. I just tried to restart the autosave of the crash noted above. It did the exact same thing again. Two times in a row.

[Mr.Frag]

A repeatable save????

OMG!!!!

email it! [8D][8D][8D][8D][8D][8D][8D]

[donkuchi19]

It is sent. I hope it helps.

Don


BTW: The only thing I think I forgot to send is that I am playing as the Allies.

[leehunt27@bloomberg.net]

Nothing comes up when I right and click and try to save on the 44 hertz link for the sound patch. My PC definitely needs it (Alienware, but it crashes during turn phase like everyone else's). Is this link down? I asked support@matrixgames.com but didnt hear back. thanks...Lee

[Mr.Frag]

nope, working fine right now. Just checked it.

Try like this ... left click this link

ftp://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/WarInTheP ... atch44.exe