r70 sound problems with Heretic

Post by **Enjay** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 23:29

When testing the level from the other bug report you just fixed, I noticed Heretic sounds bad - lots of sounds get broken up. Other games seem to be OK. I'll make a recording and post my specs - but I thought it was worth reporting quickly because you said you are trying to get a new release out.

Post by **Enjay** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 23:34

OK, Here's a recording playing the level that the bug report was about - but it happens with normal levels too.

http://www.rowand.myzen.co.uk/gzdoom.ogg

My sound card is a SB Audigy and here are my sound settings:

You haven't adopted the Zdoom sound code have you?

Post by **Enjay** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 23:44

And it's the same with the new release.

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 0:02

Shit. But considering that the current sound code's lifespan is close to its end don't expect me to do something about it. If you want to play existing Heretic levels just use 1.1.0 instead.

Post by **Enjay** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 0:07

Is the sound code for Heretic different to the other games in some way or is it just a bit less likely to show this problem in the other games because of some particular reason or other?

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 0:28

No. I think it was caused by the scripted ambience that's exclusive to Heretic.

Can you re-download 1.1.1? I think I found the cause and after recompiling it sounded ok to me.

Post by **Enjay** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 0:32

Using the exe with a time stamp of 3 minutes past midnight, the bug still remains.

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 0:36

Hm. For me it made a big difference.

Ok, in that case you are out of luck. I won't invest any debugging time in dying code.

Post by **Enjay** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 0:37

Fair enough.

Post by **Enjay** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 1:19

FWIW, it isn't just original/old Heretic levels that are affected. My Heretic Thief level sounds awful - and it does not make use of any Heretic built in ambient sounds.

However, if I load it using doom2 as an IWAD, heretic.wad as a PWAD (primarily for graphic and sound resources) and an additional sndinfo to make sure the Heretic monsters make noises in Doom mode, it sounds fine.

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:00

Hm. Ok. Then it's down to 2 things: The SNDCURVE processing or some game specific setting. How does Hexen sound for you?

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:16

Ok, now I hear it too. I had 3D sound on where the distortion doesn't happen for me. Now I'm quite sure it's the SNDCURVE.

... 5 minutes later...

and indeed it was. The array was never fully initialized and contained random data.

Now it sounds ok to me even in 2D mode. I'll upload 1.1.02 right away.

Post by **Enjay** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 12:39

1.1.02 fixes it for me too. Thanks.

I noticed in the news thread someone mentioned repeating sounds in a sound sequence having a slight pause between them. I noticed this last night too with 1.1.01 and a looping ambient sound. However, things were so borked I couldn't really tell. I think it still exists with 1.1.02 so I'll put together a little test WAD.

I also get Nash's quiet menu sounds problem. 3D sounds need to be on. When using the menu to start a new game from the titlescreen, the menu plays at normal volume. However, after starting a game, press esc to call up the menu and then move up and down through the options and the menu should be way too quiet. This was in Doom and Heretic When loading my Heretic Thief level, the menu, the menu sounds were so quiet that I thought there weren't any.

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 12:55

If the quiet menu sounds are only with 3D sound on I don't care. The implementation of the currently used 3D sound code is incomplete. Better not use it.

Sorry for the mess. If I had known that the FModEx sound code was that buggy I wouldn't have upgraded at all until it had been stable.