posted 02-15-99 04:03 PM ET        

Situation: I have a Dell Dimension PII 400Mhz w/64 meg RAM. The Crystal chip is playng through Altec USB speakers with ProLogic. I did a full SMAC install (16.8 gig H/D) after defragging. Prior to the patch the sound was fine--no problems as reported below. At that time I had DirectX6.0, and OEM sound drivers from May 1998.

Installed SMAC patch Saturday and had many of the problems reported by others. First no sound, but fixed that with the .ini file fix. Still getting lots of random pops in game, and lots of echoing on the voice overs, particularly "production complete", "drone riots", and "maximum population reached." The files seem to play over each other, with one launching before the other is finished when multiple states exist i.e. if a base has both riots and completes production on the same turn. I've also seen up to six bases, all of which completed production on the same turn, announce it, with the sound file running six times, one sylable delayed, so the first one is still speaking as the last one begins. A real babble of sound. None of the files is garbled or indistinct, just talking over each other "out of time phase" if you can picture what I'm describing.

Today I did the following: d/led Directx 6.1 from MS and installed. Got latest audio drivers from Dell (they're written by Cirrus Logic BTW), dated August 1998, and installed. Note to Dell owners--first try installing them didn't "take", Win95 on reboot asked again. Second time worked. .ini file has both ds3d=0, and EAX=0. SMAC patch is still installed (I like all changes except sound issues and don't want to go backwards!)

I booted SMAC on both Prologic and regular Stereo settings (Altec has a utility to set this as well as balance the speakers/subwoofer.) Prologic sounds the best, and if my ears don't decieve me the sound is "richer" than it was on Dx6.0 and old sound drivers. But alas, the "echoing" is still there, although all in-game and movie popping IS gone now.

That's where I am. I ran the DirectX Diagnostics (the sound tab) and it reports all fine except the last test segment, where it says my hardware only suports software buffering and not hardware buffering. (Maybe that means something.) It also reports the sound drivers are not certified by MS (odd that both Dell and Cirrus, big players, would allow this) although they pass the diagnostic except for the buffering test. And, as I said, previously there was no echoing on the non-patched full install.

Don't know what you changed in the patch, but maybe the above will give you some leads. The game is playable now, but the babble when multiple events happen on the same turn is a little annoying. I was thinking that perhaps the full install doesn't allow an "assumed lag" the CD-spinup and read would take on a smaller install, but I don't want to reinstall small to check. Plus, it worked before the patch (no echoing) with the same sized install.

Good luck. Know you guys will work down the list to this eventually.

posted 02-15-99 07:26 PM ET            

Bruno: By copying the exe back over the installed one, you're partially set to v1.0 and partially set to v2.0. Basically, reinstall the entire game, apply the patch, then manually set the EAX and DS3D lines to 0 in the alpha centauri.ini file. That's what the problem with your setup.

jkm

posted 02-15-99 08:03 PM ET            

To add a few things to what I posted before:

1) the CrystalFusion chip "may" not only be a Dell issue. It's on an OEM Intel motherboard. Now, it might be one made to Dell's specs, or Intel might have sold it to other manufacturers. Even if it's only Dell they've been pushing the on-board sound option as a way to hit price point and save the $100 for a built-in Zip drive instead of a sound card (saves a slot too.) So, it might be bigger than Dell owners, or not, is my point.

2. The in-game music plays fine, and doesn't seem to be affected at all. No popping, no echoes. Only the .wav files (the voice-over files.)

3. I "think" the popping and the echoing are separate issues. Even when I fixed the .ini file to be ds3d=0 and eax=0 I had popping (and echoing.) Previously, with both at "=1", I had no in-game sound or music at all. With the new Dx6.1 and sound drivers I get rid of the popping, but not the echoing.

4. I assume that sound worked for the QA folks (duh), and that many/most of the people running the patch aren't having trouble. But perhaps (I'm no programmer, so bear with me) the problem isn't only a "sound" problem. It might be manifesting through the sound, or the sound hardware/software could be opening up a new, unintended logic route in the patch code (maybe to do with the PBEM or hotseat modules.)

The reason I say this is the echoing sounds like a new base is being "housekeeped" before the last has finished its comments. I assume there's a logic loop that runs through the base list in that phase, calling subroutines to calculate resources, look for drone riots, finished production, etc., and if the code finds that the state is met it jumps to another subroutine to update to the new state, and orders the .wav file played at some point. How it knows to wait for the end of the .wav file before playing the next base's .wavs I don't know, but right now its timing is off, almost like it's allowing a jump to the next base's housekeeping loop out of the middle of the last .wav subroutne call.

Now, if that's true, I have no idea how sound hard/software could cause it. Might be a dumb idea; like I said I'm no programmer. But it's unusual for a patch to break formerly working sound. This case is suspicious because Brian went deeply into the .exe to rework code on the new PBEM, etc. stuff, rather than just fixing unit specs. So, maybe the sound glitch is evidence of something deeper. I can live with the sound (I'll go to unpatched if it drives me crazy) but I'd like to know all the base housekeeping is really being done before it moves to the next in line.

Hey, one more thing. I know you must feel like you're at the end of a big, wide funnel, and the whole world is throwing mud down on you. The game, as shipped, is fantastic, and worth every penny. If you didn't change a thing I'd feel like I got more than my money's worth. Right now I'd guess things there are crazed, but it's a good kind of crazed. We all just want it to be perfect, and it's darn close. So take a deep breath, don't lose perspective, and take 'em one at a time. You guys are doing good work. I'm sure all this will be fixed soon, and like I said, right now it isn't even very broken. Don't let 'em wear you down! <g>

posted 02-15-99 10:12 PM ET            

Of course, I checked the volume controls. Then I went to the DirectX sound test. The first ten or so trials were good, but then I got the "illegal operation" message. I have a Crystal Sound Fusion, like Snoman.