Audio Weirdness.....?
by DALO · in Technical Issues · 09/10/2008 (10:49 pm) · 10 replies
Hello,
Well our game is almost complete and for some reason our audio, for no reason, has decided to take a turn for the worst. When the game starts, usually 1/10 times the menu music will play. Once you go into the mission, area 1 will play the ambient music, but not the level music, there are 2 loops that go together. All other area's/levels play the level and ambient music just fine. If I quit the mission and go back to the main menu, the menu music works everytime after.
Why in the world when first starting the game the menu music will only play by chance?? Has this happened to anyone else?
Well our game is almost complete and for some reason our audio, for no reason, has decided to take a turn for the worst. When the game starts, usually 1/10 times the menu music will play. Once you go into the mission, area 1 will play the ambient music, but not the level music, there are 2 loops that go together. All other area's/levels play the level and ambient music just fine. If I quit the mission and go back to the main menu, the menu music works everytime after.
Why in the world when first starting the game the menu music will only play by chance?? Has this happened to anyone else?
#2
Yeah, this one makes no sense to me. The audioProfiles load up first thing followed by the gui stuff. I tried actually scheduling the audio to start a few seconds after the main menu loads and found that after a second round of scheduling it'll work, but that delay is too long so I scrapped it. I threw in the command into the console just to make sure it works, and it does. So I know the audioprofile and whatnot are working. It just sorta happened one day and I can't recall at which point it did but since then I haven't been able to figure it out..........?
09/11/2008 (7:48 am)
Hey James, Yeah, this one makes no sense to me. The audioProfiles load up first thing followed by the gui stuff. I tried actually scheduling the audio to start a few seconds after the main menu loads and found that after a second round of scheduling it'll work, but that delay is too long so I scrapped it. I threw in the command into the console just to make sure it works, and it does. So I know the audioprofile and whatnot are working. It just sorta happened one day and I can't recall at which point it did but since then I haven't been able to figure it out..........?
#3
Every time it DOES work it gives me this number 1073741827
Does anyone know if these numbers are of importance or just some random Id number. Oh and to be a little more approximate, it plays every 1/4 to 1/6 of the time. I have tried stopping all audio with alxStopAll() and then calling my alx to play and it gives me the same result.
Here's a real twist. It does this on my new computer at home, Imac running windows, and my computer at work (oops, did I just say that) and it's a brand new dell x64bit precision. BUT on my ppc G5 mac, older computer, it plays the audio 100% of the time, so what the @#$%. Could this possibly be an issue resulting in newer hardware mixed with openAL?
*EDIT* Oh, and there's no errors or warnings in the console.
09/11/2008 (10:37 am)
Continuing on with debugging, when I echo the number to the console after calling alxPlay(...) Every time it DOES NOT work it gives me this number 1073741826Every time it DOES work it gives me this number 1073741827
Does anyone know if these numbers are of importance or just some random Id number. Oh and to be a little more approximate, it plays every 1/4 to 1/6 of the time. I have tried stopping all audio with alxStopAll() and then calling my alx to play and it gives me the same result.
Here's a real twist. It does this on my new computer at home, Imac running windows, and my computer at work (oops, did I just say that) and it's a brand new dell x64bit precision. BUT on my ppc G5 mac, older computer, it plays the audio 100% of the time, so what the @#$%. Could this possibly be an issue resulting in newer hardware mixed with openAL?
*EDIT* Oh, and there's no errors or warnings in the console.
#4
09/11/2008 (12:54 pm)
Just to make sure I tested the mac side of our game it works everytime, no issues. Is it possible that it may be a Service Pack 3 related issue? If this is the case then GG better seriously look into this.........I hope someone from GG is watching this thread......
#5
Any suggestions?
09/11/2008 (9:07 pm)
Ok, it's doing the same thing on windows service pack 2. This now makes it really baffling. Another thing I noticed is that sometimes when your running around the level the ambient music and melody music will suddenly stop. If you back track some distance it will sometimes turn back on, it's really bizarre. What would cause audio to start and stop and sometimes work? No audio engine code has been modified......very odd.Any suggestions?
#6
09/12/2008 (8:11 am)
Its starting/stopping as you move around sometimes? But this is the ambient music you are playing as a 2D sound right? If it was being played as a 3D sound or with an audio emitter then that might be expected.
#7
I'll post any findings.
09/12/2008 (8:15 am)
Yeah.........it's just bizarre? Well, at this point the only thing I can think of to do is resort to a 3 month old version and try and narrow it down.........?I'll post any findings.
#8
Also, it seems that sometimes, for some odd reason, when ever I call alxStop() to stop the music for one level and alxPlay to start the next level, which happens very rapidly, sometimes the alxPlay won't actually play anything. Do I need to wait a certain amount of time when stopping/starting audio? Or should it instant? Why would stopping a theorra video screw up my menu music and cause really weird things to happen?
09/15/2008 (10:31 pm)
Ok, I have somewhat solved the issue. When the game startups up it fades into a GG image then fades out. Then a gui with a theora ctrl plays a 4 second video with our logo on it. Once the gui that has the video is finished I previously made it stop with this command ChaoticLogo.stop(), the theora ctrl name. The reason I did this is because the theora video would still seem to linger, in memory, and cause the main menu to lag and chug for a few seconds after. Now, commenting out the .stop() line fixes the audio and chugs while trying to stop the video in the background of the main menu. BUT, if I stop it manually, it works great, flows nicely into the main menu, no chugging, but when I alxPlay(menuMusic) once the main menu loads up, the audio will NOT work.Also, it seems that sometimes, for some odd reason, when ever I call alxStop() to stop the music for one level and alxPlay to start the next level, which happens very rapidly, sometimes the alxPlay won't actually play anything. Do I need to wait a certain amount of time when stopping/starting audio? Or should it instant? Why would stopping a theorra video screw up my menu music and cause really weird things to happen?
#9
good luck man.
01/04/2009 (9:49 pm)
Out of curiosity, see if your 2D (i call them "global") sounds play louder when facing the ground or sky. for whatever reason this is happening to me. I am going to start a thread asking about this specifically so if i get an answer i'll let you know.good luck man.
#10
Click Here
01/04/2009 (10:18 pm)
I have posted a thread here that finally resolved all my audio issues. I hope it helps ;-)Click Here
Associate James Ford
Sickhead Games