Alpha Centauri Forums
Support and Troubleshooting
Stuttering Sound
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Alpha Centauri Forums
Support and Troubleshooting
Stuttering Sound
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| Author | Topic: Stuttering Sound |
| JTCullen |
posted 04-19-99 08:36 PM ET  
I have tried everything to correct stuttering sound for all voices in Alpha Centauri. I'm running a Pentium 200MMX, Ensoniq Soundscape (latest drivers), DirectX 6.1, Windows '98. I've installed the AC v3 patch, re-installed DirectX, changed read ahead values for CD-ROM and HD, re-installed AC, played with the Hardware Acceleration setting for sound in Control Pannel -> Multimedia. Nothing makes the problem better. I don't have any problems with any other DirectSound applications. The only problem I've had with stuttering sound is with Winamp. I increased the buffer size for DirectSound and the sound plays perfectly. Any ideas on how to correct the sound in Alpha Centauri??? Thanks. |
| russtom |
posted 04-20-99 03:29 PM ET
I have almost the exact same configuration: P166, 128MB RAM, 8GB hard disk, Ensoniq Soundscape with latest drivers, Win98, DirectX 6.1, V3.0 SMAC patch. NOTHING gets rid of the stuttering sound. This problem (for me) goes back to the demo, unfortunately, I ignored it. I have run DXDiag, and although the Ensoniq driver is NOT certified, it passes all software buffer tests, but fails hardware buffer tests. I will attach the results tonight. No other game gives me sound problems. |
| Black Chimera |
posted 04-21-99 06:24 PM ET
Man I hate that stuttering sound... it's like it rewinds itself slighty and plays again, and it's quite a pain to play with. I got the bright idea of trying to run it with a P120, but other than the stuttering, I'm fortunate enough to run it. My sound card has some items that are flagged with a !, but I can't find the site for the drivers. And like everyone else, this is the only game I have those problems with. For the love of God, somebody help us!  |
| russtom |
posted 04-21-99 09:23 PM ET
If anybody from Firaxis wants to peruse this post, this is the DXDiag report from my PC that I referenced in an earlier post. ------------------ ------------------ --------------- ----------------------------------------------- ---------------
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| DanS |
posted 04-22-99 08:51 PM ET
It was sort of odd. I had bad stuttering problems until I updated by video driver. The computer seems to work faster, and my stuttering problem is helped somewhat. Why? I haven't a clue. But that's the only thing I changed. |
| Knight_Errant |
posted 04-23-99 03:35 PM ET
I have had the sound stuttering problem as well. I ignore it, hoping a solution will present itself. I tried to update my graphics driver (Creative Graphics Blaster Exxtreme) it crashes my computer at random times, so I must stick with the older driver. My sound card is a SoundBlaster Live!, if that helps anyone. |
| LocustOfChiron |
posted 04-23-99 09:12 PM ET
It's DirectX 6.1, for some odd reason. Install Directx 6 over it and your problem will be solved. |
| Big K |
posted 04-23-99 10:49 PM ET
I have the same Fu***** problem. Make playing very irritating. Try everythihg, nothing worked... somebody HELP!!! |
| russtom |
posted 04-26-99 12:56 PM ET
LocustofChiron: So what happens to all my other games that require Directx 6.1? |
| JTCullen |
posted 04-26-99 04:08 PM ET
Just for fun, I instaled a Soundblaster Live! with the latest drivers. Problem solved. I didn't make any other system changes so there must be a conflict with the Ensoniq Soundscape driver. I do find it interesting that I never had a problem with any other DirectSound games. From reading the other posts here, it sounds like the Soundscape is not the only card that has the stuttering problem. BTW, the latest Soundblaster Live! driver are not DirectX certified, but I've had no problems. |
| martee |
posted 04-28-99 07:32 PM ET
I have installed a SB Live and now have the stuttering problem. Funny with my old awe64 I had no problem. Yes I have updated all the drivers both display and sound. My SB Live drivers are also not certified DX6. This is really too bad since I have been enjoying this game for a while now. Any Help would be great |
| Warpig |
posted 04-29-99 10:39 AM ET
My experience with stuttering/crashes and the SB sound cards: I never got SMAC to run on anything but emulation only (lowest acceleration setting for the SBAWE64 card). Unfortunately, this setting resulted in the continual stuttering and generaly poor sound quality throughout the game. I recently upgraded to the SBLive! Value card. The upgrade itself made no difference at first. Then I noticed that DirectX was still listing several of the old AWE64 drivers even though DirectX had been reinstalled. I manually removed the old drivers from the /windows/system directory and reinstalled DirectX yet again. DirectX now lists only the newest files and all DirectX tests pass - but, SMAC still won't run on anything but emulation mode (stuttering bigtime). I had the DS3d/EAX lines in ac.ini set to =0 as suggested by Firaxis when I had the trouble with the AWE64 card. "Grabbing for straws" at this point, I change these settings back to =1 and EUREKA! I now have beautiful environmental sound at full acceleration with no stuttering. I played a five hour session yesterday with NO crashes. Later I did get the, now well documented, crash that occurs when an enemy aircraft scrambles in defense of a nearby ground unit. Hopefully changing the 'ForceOldVoxlAlgorythum' setting will solve this. At least I have seen this suggested before. Anyway, thats my saga. Prolly won't help many people, but maybe a few can glean somthing from it. THese sound problems are a real shame because the SFX,voice-overs and movies are quite good when heard as they were ment to be. I feel like I am playing a whole new game. Warpig |
| LarsHanson |
posted 04-30-99 02:13 PM ET
I have been doing a lot of research and troubleshooting on the sound cards under NT4 playing SMAC. I just loaded Win2K beta 3, build 2000, and the problem was supposed to go away - but didn't. Here is a list of what I have found, and what might be applicable to SB sound problems in general. Machines: Between these four platforms: 1)Dell GMT 166/Win95 with SB16 runs SMAC with perfect audio - movies, sfx, and voices. No problems under any version. 2)Gxa 266 NTW4 SP4 with Crystal sound - stuttering audio. (DirectX 3.0a) To be expected under NT4. 3)Gxa 266 Win2K with Crystal sound - perfect audio. (DirectX 7.0) Win2K supports sound card. 4)PII 350 with PCI128, Win2K - sound stutters. Win2K does not support the PCI128, although there is a workaround to utilize the NT4 driver. That is what I'm using currently. Hardware acceleration decrease has no effect. So I guess I have to wait for official Win2K drivers for the PCI128. I did have an SB Live - and returned it. POS. SB Live uses two IRQs - but the second does not appear under System Resources. The PCI bus gets very confused. It conflicted big time with both Matrox Millenium and Stealth Diamond video cards - and the PCI bios on my brand new ASUS P2B couldn't straighten it out. The PCI128 uses 1 IRQ - that problem went away - with no sacrifice in sound quality. I don't have a lot of conclusions from all of this - except that the more complex the sound card, the more likely it is to have the stutter problem. Hardware acceleration has an impact on middle of the road cards, like AWE32. But at the high and low end there appears to be no impact. Why SMAC and not other games? I believe SMAC - through DirectX - tries to grab more control of the hardware than other games do. And the combo of hardware, OS, and application has to be nearly perfect for it to function. I think Firaxis needs to include a DirectX disable mode in the next patch, and use conventional sound access like Civ has. This would eliminate about 30% of the posts to this forum. But Creative Labs and Microsoft have to bear a good deal of the blame - there is a big difference between just supporting hardware under DirectX, and having it perform optimally. It is very revealing that even though Win2K has DirectX 7.0 included, the hardware compatibility list is extremely limited - for Creative Labs products, nothing above AWE32 is supported in Win2K build 2000. Very suspicious. |
| Warpig |
posted 04-30-99 02:47 PM ET
Very enlightening post Lars. Keep up the good work. BTW, my initial glee over having solved all my SMAC related problems was a bit premature. After having played several sessions since the changes were made, it is now clear the incidence of random crashes is greater than before. Maybe an average or 1 crash per 1-2 hrs of game play. Enough to be a bit annoying but not enough to ruin the gaming experience. When I was using the AWE64 on emulation only, I cannot recall a single crash. Fortunately, these crashes do not result in hard lockups - just kick me back to the desktop. Warpig |
| benoitpoulin |
posted 04-30-99 09:31 PM ET
I had the same problems, and more, until i removed a shareware program, TOTAL RECORDER. After, everything works. Check that. |
| LarsHanson |
posted 05-02-99 12:22 AM ET
BENOITPOULIN's comment tripped a thought. We have seen lots of posts about sound problems with nearly identical hardware configurations - one person has stuttering, the other is fine. Software would seem to be the only uncommon ground. Hmmm... I went downstairs to my Dell 166 /Win95 machine - which had been running SMAC perfectly - through patch 3. I haven't played a game on it recently, since getting my new machine. Now the sound is hosed on the Win95 machine!! This is good, because I know exactly what has been loaded on that PC since it was working. a) Netscape Communicator 4.04 b) RealPlayer 5.0 G2 c) Bleem! demo d) SMAC patch 3.0 That's it. The Bleem! demo hosed it up pretty good, but I finally got it unloaded. I uninstalled RealPlayer and Netscape, but the sound is still bad - AND I got my first-ever crash in sound.dll. I plan to uninstall and reinstall SMAC later without the patch. We are getting closer. Netscape has a built-in media player with all sorts of sound adjusts - including a 2 sec buffer I was sure was the cause of the stutter - but its still there. RealPlayer runs in system memory and accesses sound and video. Bleem! lies to your system and tells it your PlayStation CD is actually a PC game. I hope Jeff and Brian take a look at this post, and look at the possible conflicts between DirectX and these types of programs. It would certainly account for the "some have it, some don't" nature of sound problems, across similar platforms and configuration. For the first time in my professional (computing) life, I wish I knew something about software - particularly how it accesses the hardware. For the first time, I'm starting to believe the truth may be out there. (But I'm also sure that the Lone Gunmen would tell me that Microsoft and Creative Sound are conspiring to corner the PC audio market - so be careful what you believe). I'm going back to unloading and reloading. I will get you updated.
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| russtom |
posted 05-12-99 01:00 PM ET
Since no one seems to care about those of us that have Ensoniq Sondscape cards, I have uninstalled SMAC. It will stay uninstalled until Firaxis issues Enhancement V4.0, assuming that the sound problems are fixed in that patch. It really is too bad, SMAC is a great game. Without sound, however, it isn't worth it. |
| RockGroin |
posted 05-13-99 02:31 PM ET
Not to be a jerk, but those Ensoniq cards are really terrible, IMHO. I haven't known too many people that DIDN'T have problems with them. I also agree that (based on what I've seen from comments everywhere) that it does appear to be an issue within the DirectX layer of software. I DO diagree: Without sound, SMAC is still quite worth it. |
| JTCullen |
posted 05-13-99 07:33 PM ET
SMAC is the only gave that ever gave me trouble with my Ensoniq. I used the card with at least 50 different games over the years. With the exception of SMAC, music and sound in DOS, Win '95, Win '98, and all versions of DirectX always worked fine. Even the Soundblaster emulation was flawless. |
| martee |
posted 05-13-99 08:09 PM ET
I just installed new livewire2.0 for my SBlive and guess what THE SOUND STILL STUTTERS !!!!! Has anybody figured out a way to fix this short of removeing SMAC from the hard drive. Any help would be great |
| russtom |
posted 05-14-99 09:38 AM ET
My Ensoniq Soundscape also works flawlessly with every other major game - Starcraft, Warcraft I and II, Civ DOS, CivWIN, Civ II, AoE, AoE Expansion, Sid Meier's Gettysburg, SimCity 2000, SimCity 3000, Civilization:Call To Power (yes, I bought the POS), Railroad Tycoon, RRT Deluxe, RRT II, the list goes on and on. BTW, this means it either works as a native Soundscape or in SB emulation mode. I find it very interesting that Jeffrey Morris from Firaxis hasn't stopped in to this post with the usual diatribe about EAX and DSD. Firaxis must know that they have a DirectX problem. Like I said earlier, SMAC has been uninstalled. It will stay that way. I will also think twice about buying another Firaxis game. I am a disgruntled Sid Meier fan. I go back to Civ DOS (like the rest of the world). And before anybody tries to flame me for having an uncertified DirectSound card, Firaxis has obviously (with good intentions) walked a little too far over the technological cliff. |
| Rackam |
posted 05-14-99 09:52 AM ET
I'm not sure if this helps much. I have a Diamond MX-300 and I'm playing the game out of the box {patch 3.0 wont install >:/ } and I've had no problems with sound. One thing that could help, have any of you installed the DirectX media web drivers? These have the directX mpeg decoders. One thing, I have hardware acceleration on it disabled {another game was having sound and video problems} ~Rackam |
| Jeffrey Morris FIRAXIS |
posted 05-14-99 10:27 AM ET
Sorry, on vacation. Do all sounds stutter or only one type? Is it voice, sfx (combat for instance), or music, or all of the above? I also noticed under your DX info that the test result was blank. Try running the DXDiag.exe directsound test and see what happens. Also, does this only occur with v3.0, or did it occur with them all? jkm firaxis games |
| russtom |
posted 05-14-99 01:29 PM ET
Jeffrey: The problem has existed al the way back to the demo. I was remiss in not reporting it then. Oh well. It has existed in all versions (1.0, 2.0, 3.0). And, so you don't have to read the entire thread, I have a Gateway 2000 P166XL, which is a: P166, 128MB RAM, 8GB hard disk (4GB free and defraged), Ensoniq Soundscape with latest drivers, Win98, DirectX 6.1, V3.0 SMAC patch. Anyway, the stuttering happens during the opening movie narration, in the main menu when I select any menu option, such as rainfall amounts, and in the music, voice narration, and sound effects (such as combat) during the game. I have removed and reinstalled DirectX 6.1, my *uncertifed* Ensoniq Soundscape drivers, even my Matrox Millenium/M3D drivers (for the hell of it). No luck. I have run DxDiag and the DirectDraw/DirectSound tests. All test pass except for DirectSound hardware buffering (not supported by the card). I will repost the DxDiag results tonight. |
| JTCullen |
posted 05-14-99 08:29 PM ET
I swapped my Soundscape out for a Soundblaster Live! Value and all sounds work fine in SMAC 3.0. With the Soundscape, SMAC 1.0, 2.0 & 3.0, all the sounds in the game stuttered, (voices as well as all other sounds). The opening menu sounded like it had an echo. Sound during movies played fine. |
| Graison Swaan |
posted 05-16-99 04:52 AM ET
I too have the stuttering sound problem. I think it has to do with the games playback of the mp3 files. Bad decoding or poor programming? |
| russtom |
posted 05-16-99 01:10 PM ET
My latest DxDiag results: ------------------ ------------------ --------------- ----------------------------------------------- --------------- -------------
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---------------------------------- |
| Jeffrey Morris FIRAXIS |
posted 05-16-99 03:59 PM ET
I don't know if it's the problem or not, but your ensoniq direct sound drivers are almost two years old and labelled beta. Creative Labs bought ensoniq, so perhaps they have more recent drivers available. jkm firaxis games |
| russtom |
posted 05-17-99 10:04 AM ET
Jeffrey: The Ensoniq drivers I have are the latest offered by Ensoniq. They label them as "production". Unfortunately, Creative doesn't support the Ensoniq Soundscape, and Ensoniq only maintains a web site for the drivers. I realize that I have to replace the card eventually anyway, but I only have problems with SMAC. Look at a previous post of mine to see the games it does work with. I realize that Firaxis (or any other software vendor) can't guarantee 100% compatibility, it is just frustrating because I really, really love SMAC. Without sound, it is still a good game, but the effect is somewhat diminished. |
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