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Silfarion
Silfarion
Join Date 04/2008
+3

Sound Problem

April 15, 2008 10:10:05 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
I'm getting popping/crackling noises, glitchy music, etc.

Alright, I know this has happened a lot before, and I did some major searching around, but...

Nothing I tried worked. Setting hardware acceleration to basic? Nope. Setting audio acceleration to basic? No. Setting the hardware sound to true doesn't do anything, same with it being on false.

I updated my drivers, I close all background programs, I set all the graphics as low as they can go, and it still persists. It's especially bad when the game is trying to load anything.

I use a built in asus sound card with ac'97 audio drivers, and this is the only game that gives me problems.
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Silfarion
adamwhizbang
Join Date 04/2008
0
Reply #1 April 15, 2008 10:30:09 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
You're not alone. I've got a Soundblaster X-Fi card and it's doing the exact same thing. Looks like they've got some basic sound issues with this game.
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hydrocarbn
Join Date 09/2007
+45
Reply #2 April 15, 2008 10:38:49 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Turn off sound hardware acceleration in user.setting.
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Silfarion
Silfarion
Join Date 04/2008
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Reply #3 April 15, 2008 11:26:03 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
That doesn't solve the issue.

I tried reinstalling the game, and it worked for the first time it loaded after installation, but every time after that the noise problems started up again.
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Silfarion
Silfarion
Join Date 04/2008
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Reply #4 April 16, 2008 10:38:33 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
This static-like sound is driving me insane. Nothing I do works. The sound cuts out a lot and makes tons of crackly noise.

There has to be a solution. If there isn't a solution on my end there has to be one on the game's end.
I've tried all the recommended fixes and none of them work, I'm at the end of my rope here.
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Silfarion
psugar
Join Date 03/2007
+16 moderator
Reply #5 April 17, 2008 1:34:24 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Hi Silfarion,

Sorry to hear about your troubles with the sound

I know you said you've tried all the recommended fixes but I just wanted to let you know what the current list of "things to try" with crackly sound looks like:

1) Go to the sound settings and move the sliders on to cause a quick volume reset.
2) Make sure you have the latest drivers for your sound card
3) Make sure you don't have something strange running in the background (youtube always causes problems for me).
4) Turn bloom off if you have it on. Try turning down your graphics settings.
5) Open your user settings file (in the Settings directory of the game install directory) and set SoundUseHardware to TRUE.
6) Go to your Sound and Audio Device Properties in control panel then to the Audio tab and go to the advanced Sound playback and on the Performance tab set Hardware acceleration to standard.
7) Check if the problem still exists in windowed mode (video settings)

Most of the problems people have had with the sound have been resolved with one of these. The static sound is usually a result of the game not being able to get sound data to your sound card fast enough for some reason - often because the amount of data it is pushing to the video card is hogging the system bus, so turning down your graphics settings can help alot.

Failing that, could you post the name of your Asus board?

Thanks
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Silfarion
Silfarion
Join Date 04/2008
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Reply #6 April 17, 2008 6:14:19 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
I've tried all of those, and none of them work. Right now, the only solution is to start and quit the game over and over until on one of the start ups it works. It usually takes 4 or so tries to get the sound to work, and then it works fine until I close it again.

The motherboard name is: p4p800-e Deluxe
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Silfarion
psugar
Join Date 03/2007
+16 moderator
Reply #7 April 17, 2008 6:58:05 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Hi Silfarion,

Have you had a look around the web for alternate solutions? I came across a couple through Google that looked like they might be helpful:

http://www.techsupportforum.com/hardware-support/motherboards-bios-cpu/46336-p4p800-onboard-sound-static-crackling-noise.html

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20061221092911305&board_id=1&model=P5N32-SLI+Premium&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

Disclaimer: I have no idea if these will work or not.
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Silfarion
Silfarion
Join Date 04/2008
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Reply #8 April 17, 2008 11:21:35 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Hiya,

I tried both of those solutions, with no luck. Normally, I'd expect this crackly sound to be from an overflow of information, but it does this even when there should be little to no information going through at the time. And this wouldn't explain why it works sometimes, but not all the time. My first guess would be a motherboard problem, but since this is the only game I experience this problem on, I doubt that would be the case.

My sound drivers are all updated as well. I'm completely clueless as to what could be wrong.

I have searched somewhat on the internet with no luck.

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Silfarion
psugar
Join Date 03/2007
+16 moderator
Reply #9 April 18, 2008 1:20:20 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Damn. Can you send in a dxdiag to support@ironcladgames.com with a link to this thread? I'll have a look through and see if there's anything that jumps out.

BTW, another cause of this problem (although pretty rare) is having problematic drivers for some USB devices, so as a test you could try unplugging any non-essential peripherals.

Just out of curiousity, what other games are you running that don't have problems?
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eanderson420
Join Date 03/2008
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Reply #10 April 18, 2008 10:32:14 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
I suggest that you do a search on my post about this issue Psugar and you will see I have teh exact same issue. The only thing that works with this game is either a fresh install of the game or the sound drivers. I've listed all of my testing and its clear that it is in fact something with the game.
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Torque524
Join Date 02/2008
0
Reply #11 April 19, 2008 5:03:37 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Hi all,

I also had a sound problem after installing patch v1.04, in which no sound played at all: no music, no UI sounds, no ship sounds, nothing.

I tried fixes number 1 through 5 to no avail. But fix number 6 of lowering the Hardware Acceleration to Standard has fixed the problem and sound works fine now.

I just wanted to throw this out there as reference for those who have similar issues. My hardware: an Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe mobo with a Creative Audigy2 ZS Platinum sound card and Logitech z-5500 5.1 speakers. I've got the latest audio drivers as well.

Thanks for the suggestions psugar. Are there any plans to permanently address the issue?

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Silfarion
Silfarion
Join Date 04/2008
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Reply #12 April 19, 2008 1:22:14 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Sent in the report.

The games I play include Neverwinter Nights 2, Freelancer, Oblivion, Civilization IV, Warcraft 3, Half-life 2, and a few others.

I'll try the USB fix now, that could be it as I haven't installed the drivers for some of my USB stuff yet.

Also, something weird I found out that fixes it. I turn the volume down to 0 on all of the volume sliders, then I close the game, reopen it, start/load a game, and then reset the volume levels after the game has loaded. If I do that then the sound works.
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PixelOrange
Join Date 02/2008
0
Reply #13 April 19, 2008 6:44:17 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Yup, new patch and now I got a odd sound issue. It kinda sounds like the sound is mono and horrible quality. I got a Audigy 2 ZS and Creative doesn't believe in making new drivers.
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Torque524
Join Date 02/2008
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Reply #14 April 19, 2008 7:04:56 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Yup, new patch and now I got a odd sound issue. It kinda sounds like the sound is mono and horrible quality. I got a Audigy 2 ZS and Creative doesn't believe in making new drivers.


Try lowering the performance tab in #6 of the fixes above. It worked for me and we have similar sound cards.
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PixelOrange
Join Date 02/2008
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Reply #15 April 19, 2008 7:13:59 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Ok, I did all that stuff up there with no luck. I then uninstalled the game, rebooted, installed, patched, and now I have my beloved sound back.
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mafutnyoas
Join Date 05/2008
+6
Reply #16 May 19, 2008 6:43:07 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Hi all. I have a SB Audigy 2, and my sound is perfect, except with the fact that I can't seem to get sound out of more than 2 speakers. Anyone else have this?

Not sure if this will help anyone, or if this even does anything at all but, I went into the Sins readme file and found this:


/*********** Readme file excerpt *********************

Important Files
---------------

* If you need to manually change the game's settings, access save games, screenshots or
other related files, they can be found at:

XP: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire

Vista: C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire

************ Excerpt end ***************************/


I opened the usersettings file and noticed that hardware sound was set to FALSE. I changed mine to TRUE in hopes of solving my "no more than 2 speakers" dilemma. Hope this helps somebody.

Anyone know how to get quad or surround sound enabled in Sins? Thanks.
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psugar
Join Date 03/2007
+16 moderator
Reply #17 May 20, 2008 2:45:13 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
mafutnyoas: The game doesn't natively support surround or quad. You should be able to get these effects by using the controls on your sound card.
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mafutnyoas
Join Date 05/2008
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Reply #18 May 20, 2008 4:41:03 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Thanks psugar. I had to reinstall my drivers to get the quad sound working for Sins. What is the difference between using hardware or software in the config file? I didnt notice a sound or performance change.
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psugar
Join Date 03/2007
+16 moderator
Reply #19 May 20, 2008 7:43:34 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Some soundcards have hardware buffers; this is kind of a holdover from when system RAM was more precious, I think. At this point it's mostly an annoyance as using hardware buffers is a lot flakier than software, and most machines have more than enough processing power to mix down the sound buffers. But some users have reported that using hardware buffers solves some weird behaviour (for most people it's likely that using hardware would cause more problems) so we left it in the settings.

Cheers
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Silfarion
psugar
Join Date 03/2007
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Reply #20 May 20, 2008 7:44:36 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Which means that if you didn't notice a sound or performance change, your soundcard works fine...
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Silfarion
mafutnyoas
Join Date 05/2008
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Reply #21 May 21, 2008 9:09:30 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Great, thanks for the very descript answer psugar.
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