Author Topic: Quiet Dialog in AoA  (Read 4587 times)

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Hello BP,
Just (re)downloaded BPComplete last night.
First mission of BP: AoA had some of the dialog super quiet. Some was fine (most of Bei's lines), but I found myself having to turn up the volume quite a bit to hear the wingmen.
I am running this nightly build:
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=90863.0

TechnoD11

 

Offline General Battuta

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Quieter than before? Check your audio settings in game.

 
Figured it out - needed to select "preload mission game sounds" in the launcher
Posting so someone else doesn't make the same mistake I made  :P

 

Offline General Battuta

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I...huh. That shouldn't make any difference at all...

 

Offline Vidmaster

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Hm, the second report about uneven sound volume...
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Offline General Battuta

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Right, but this is in AoA. That dialog hasn't been remixed.

 
Finished AoA last night. Everything was working fine until the last mission (Universal Truth), where the Temeraire's dialog was quiet this time.

I'll investigate further
EDIT
Happens on both the November 3rd and November 8th Nightly builds
« Last Edit: November 13, 2015, 12:57:43 pm by TechnoD11 »

 

Offline General Battuta

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Is it...like, really quiet? Can you just line to the Temeraire's lines side by side with other lines from that mission in the VPs, and are they still quiet there?

 
I think I figured it out.
Started playing WiH tonight and ran across the same issue, with both builds.
However, when I switched to headphones the problem went away completely.
Now understand that I don't mean I plugged in headphones, I actually have a SoundBlaster Z audio card, so I switched from speakers to headphones via a software switch in the audio control panel.

I am not sure how or why I am having issues, but using headphones solved them. I'll just use headphones from hereon out.

 

Offline gloowa

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Dunno if it's relevant, but i had this problem with BP for years.

I don't know what the issue source is, because in that time i changed hardware several times, but basically, every now and then, a random voice will become barely audible, while working perfectly after mission restart, some other line will have the volume super low. Usually it persists up until there is a pause in dialogue or the speaking party changes. For instance - if Simms has 4 lines in a row, and 1st one bugeed, all 4 will be super low, if there is no pause in between them.

I had (disappeared somewhere like 1 to 2 years ago) simmilar issue with "normal" FS2 campaign, except it's not the voice, but the beams and/or warp-in/out sounds. Sometimes they will be just barely audible even when i'm sitting on top of the emmiter, other times my ears will hurt. I am fairly certain this is SCP issue rather then BP issue...

Could it be some issue with audio distance? Like, for some reason, engine believing that the voice is being emitted very far from player position and adjusting volume due to range?

It was not much of an issue in WiH previously, with the voice being the comm squak, but now, it physically hurts me to have one of the lines (soooo. gooooood.) turn into murmur on the edge of hearing ability.

[edit]
Interesting. When i switched to soundcard on mainboard, the issue was gone (at least that's what i gatehered from quick playthrough of 1st mission of AoA, which always had this problem at some stage). Weird. Guess my headphones dislike SCP. Too bad playing on speakers is a no-go for me...

For the reference, i use Creative Fatality USB headset, comes with in-built sound card. Gonna run some test right now if it happens on speakers (as soon as i find any).
« Last Edit: January 12, 2016, 09:33:54 am by gloowa »
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Offline Dragon

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Sounds like SCP has issues with Creative audio subsystems. Weird. I'm certain that when playing with an integrated sound card, the voice is normalized perfectly. I paid special attention to that area during the beta phase.

Maybe try fiddling with the various "optimizers" that Creative usually provides? I used to use a SoundBlaster, I remember it having quite a lot of settings that could affect how things were sounding. Usually, they improved the overall experience, but maybe they can cause problems as well.

 

Offline AdmiralRalwood

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You might also try using OpenAL Soft.
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Offline gloowa

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You might also try using OpenAL Soft.
Oh? In what way?


Sounds like SCP has issues with Creative audio subsystems. Weird. I'm certain that when playing with an integrated sound card, the voice is normalized perfectly. I paid special attention to that area during the beta phase.

Maybe try fiddling with the various "optimizers" that Creative usually provides? I used to use a SoundBlaster, I remember it having quite a lot of settings that could affect how things were sounding. Usually, they improved the overall experience, but maybe they can cause problems as well.
Yeah, i know about those, and i don't think it's that. I THINK, i disabled all effects and filters before i removed the Creative tool. Gonna reinstall it later today, and check it out.

I dunno. My theory is that for some reason those lines are pushed into front/back channel (like in 7.1 or 5.1 speaker setup) and then the center line is only minimum volume. But that should not be possible with everything set to headphone, should it?
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Offline gloowa

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Ok, i did some more testing:

1) Selecting audio device in wxLauncher has no effect of sound device used - i have to switch default sound device in windows sound settings. Is that normal? (i vaguely remember that behaviour NOT being the case previously)

2) Selecting motherboard-integrated sound card makes everything work perfectly

3) Selecting USB Headset makes certain (and always the same) dialogue lines very quiet, barely audible. For instance: Act 1, 1st mission (the convoy escort), beggining with Kassim line "Who do you call rookies Suffron (...)" up to "Damn it Kassim" by Laporte is quiet. After that, it's all good volume except maybe one or two other dialogue lines here and there.

update to point 3)  Actually, it's even weirder. It will be the same lines, as long as the game in not restarted. Each time the game is started it's different, but will stay the same until next launch.

Does it make any sense to anyone? I tested it several times to make sure, and it's always the same lines that are quiet(see update to point 3)... Anyone has an idea if a mission exists where same fairly long dialogue segments can happen in different order? That would be interesting to test is it's same lines as well.
« Last Edit: January 15, 2016, 04:34:16 am by gloowa »
Adm. Petrarch: For your excellent record of confirmed kills, you reached status of Ace.
Laporte: Dude, WTH are you doing in Indus briefing room?

  
I have this problem to. I'm playing War in Heaven act 1 at the moment
Sometiimes some dialog is quiet, but not only dialog but even some ingame sounds, it's seems random what sound the game choose to be quiet.
And when I say QUIET, I mean QUIET. If 100% is normal volume, when it turns quiet it's aboutb 5-10%. It's barely anything, very annoying.

 

Offline gloowa

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I have this problem to. I'm playing War in Heaven act 1 at the moment
Sometiimes some dialog is quiet, but not only dialog but even some ingame sounds, it's seems random what sound the game choose to be quiet.
And when I say QUIET, I mean QUIET. If 100% is normal volume, when it turns quiet it's aboutb 5-10%. It's barely anything, very annoying.

Interesting... i did not notice this affecting other sounds... except maybe i sometimes get silent warp-in/outs (i.e. a giant ship warps in, i'm fairly certain i should hear the effect, but's it's not there). Could this be somehow distance volume fade? Like, sound playing at lowest possible volume because sound code believes that distance to source if sound is infinity or NaN?
Adm. Petrarch: For your excellent record of confirmed kills, you reached status of Ace.
Laporte: Dude, WTH are you doing in Indus briefing room?

 
It affects menu sounds, voice sounds, weapon sounds, communcation tabs, everything. It's almost random when it decides a random sound should be only 10% of what it should be.

Can we get some help with this? This is extremely annoying to deal with -.-

 

Offline General Battuta

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Is this issue only present in Blue Planet, or is it also present when running with no mods?

 

Offline karajorma

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Just played AoA again and I got exactly this issue with dialogue. I haven't noticed it at all when playing Diaspora on the same build.

I'll see if I can find a mission where it happens reproducibly.
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Offline eicca

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Anyone have an issue where there are no voices whatsoever in War in Heaven part 2? Part 1 worked just fine....