Audio Issues - sometimes audio does not play
by torque2a · in · 01/17/2007 (3:11 pm) · 5 replies
Any assistance is appreciated! Thanks in advance. Using TGB.
Here's the summary of the problem:
When the game loads, all sounds work fine. As time goes by however, some sounds sometimes don't play, seemingly at random. This gets worse the longer the game is running until eventually it's rare that any play.
Techy stuff:
The only function I'm using is alxPlay. On the random failures it doesn't give me the error return of "0".
The sound card used is a Realtek High Definition Audio onboard an Asus motherboard. We've downloaded the latest drivers from realtek with no change.
To fix the problem I have tried both streaming and non-streaming audio, as well as creating a set of audio management functions which has had no effect on the problem. I've tried playing from the profile and from the handle as well as using multiple channels and rotating on each play. I have searched the forums for an answer but have not found one. I made a post on Decemeber 14th about it in the Audio section of the General Technical Issues For Game Developers section on the forum but received no response.
Here's the summary of the problem:
When the game loads, all sounds work fine. As time goes by however, some sounds sometimes don't play, seemingly at random. This gets worse the longer the game is running until eventually it's rare that any play.
Techy stuff:
The only function I'm using is alxPlay. On the random failures it doesn't give me the error return of "0".
The sound card used is a Realtek High Definition Audio onboard an Asus motherboard. We've downloaded the latest drivers from realtek with no change.
To fix the problem I have tried both streaming and non-streaming audio, as well as creating a set of audio management functions which has had no effect on the problem. I've tried playing from the profile and from the handle as well as using multiple channels and rotating on each play. I have searched the forums for an answer but have not found one. I made a post on Decemeber 14th about it in the Audio section of the General Technical Issues For Game Developers section on the forum but received no response.
#2
Any suggestions as I narrowed it down... same app works on regular Intel and non-Intel with same onboard audio. Thanks in advance for your assistance.
01/18/2007 (11:39 pm)
Isolated the problem to Intel Duo Core (multithreading) and OpenAL.Any suggestions as I narrowed it down... same app works on regular Intel and non-Intel with same onboard audio. Thanks in advance for your assistance.
#3
It seems that the sound plays once in a while, but 95% of time it doesn't play.
I didn't go through as rigorous testing as you, but I did notice that the files that weren't playing were a different bitrate than the files that were playing. Maybe you could check this out on yours and see if that also has something to do with it.
Files that would play were 1411kbps
File that would not play were 705kbps
I don't mean to hijack your thread of course :)
But it seems like we have the same problem. I don't know a way around it aside from using higher bitrate sound files (which isn't very good, as you could be saving memory). If you're still around, let me know if you see any similarities with the bitrate.
Garrett
08/13/2007 (10:39 am)
I'm having a very similar problem. All I'm using are the basics (alxPlay).It seems that the sound plays once in a while, but 95% of time it doesn't play.
I didn't go through as rigorous testing as you, but I did notice that the files that weren't playing were a different bitrate than the files that were playing. Maybe you could check this out on yours and see if that also has something to do with it.
Files that would play were 1411kbps
File that would not play were 705kbps
I don't mean to hijack your thread of course :)
But it seems like we have the same problem. I don't know a way around it aside from using higher bitrate sound files (which isn't very good, as you could be saving memory). If you're still around, let me know if you see any similarities with the bitrate.
Garrett
#4
bit rate for my .wavs' are 1.53 Mbps
Any ideas?
01/19/2008 (12:58 pm)
I have the same problem. It occurs more often when play multiple sounds. I've tried different channels and handles, but nothing seems to work for as well. I'm using sound blaster audigy 4, but have realtek audio soundcard built in to my mother board. Also using intel core duo.bit rate for my .wavs' are 1.53 Mbps
Any ideas?
#5
03/07/2008 (12:27 pm)
I have just found a solution to this if still needing help. I changed my files into .ogg format and it runs much smoother. The .wav files were a hit and miss, but adding "preload = true" helped a little. 
Torque Owner torque2a
Test with a Realtek HD sound device
When I run the latest version of Torque game builder, sounds are not working properly. Sometimes sounds play and other times they don't. It's intermittent.
I downloaded and installed the latest version of Realteks HD driver. The problem persisted.
I downloaded and copied to my game directory the latest OpenAL dll. The problem persisted.
Using a USB port, I plugged in an Edirol UA-25 external sound card and installed the latest driver. The problem was resolved.
So it seems there is an incompatibility issue between torque game builder and the Realtek HD sound device. We need to fix this ASAP.