OpenXcom Forum

OpenXcom => Troubleshooting => Topic started by: The Intelligent One on January 22, 2017, 09:15:51 pm

Title: Having sound problems
Post by: The Intelligent One on January 22, 2017, 09:15:51 pm
I started playing the game again a few days ago, and as usual I quickly decided to turn down the music and have my own going in the background. I quickly noticed, that turning down the music did the same for the sound effects, and after a bit of research I found out it was because of the default MIDI music format. So I found the music in mp3 format somewhere (at this point I can't remember where or if it was the original soundtrack or remixes or something either) and when I put them in the appropriate folder at first I had no sound in the game, then randomly just a bit after exiting the options screen the sound came back, and I could turn off music with SFX still being there.

After a while I started sometimes crashing. It mostly happened at the end of random missions, but every time I finished those missions it would happen. The first time I could solve it by using debug mode and finishing the mission like that. Another time it randomly worked in one of my tries after it kept crashing. Last time I couldn't solve it in any way so I started searching around again, since the first time I did that I didn't find any useful info, so I thought it was because of FMP which I had just started using. (BTW can I get some tips for that, or a link to a place where I can find some tips? :D )

This time I found that it was because MP3 is also buggy in OpenXCom, so I went and got the Adlib-flac package from the Fenyő site (https://users.atw.hu/xcom-sounds/) but that just made the game crash after about a second or two of opening it. So I got the Adlib-ogg version, and now I have no sound, like when I first put the mp3 files in. I tried deleting the midi files, turning the music format to ogg, auto, adlib, or back to mid, messing around with the audio levels, reinstalling the game and actually loading up a game and hoping that would work, but nothing seems to do it. Can anyone help me with this? I'd prefer to have the original soundtrack files so if I decide to turn the music back on it'd be the same, but if that's not possible I don't mind just getting pointed to whatever that works.

For the record I'm using the current nightly the xcom files are from the collector's edition. I installed with the exe file, no portable installation.
Title: Re: Having sound problems
Post by: R1dO on January 22, 2017, 11:43:07 pm
First of all, if you experience crashes try to provide the log file (and some specs of your computer like Operating system). Now the best we can do is guessing.

As for the music, in the options part of OXC you can turn down the music while still keeping the sound (and even UI) effects. There are separate sliders for this.

The crashes might be because some files are missing (hence the request for the log file, it should indicate that).

Small tip, if you want to mess with music files while leaving the originals alone.
In your personal mod directory (the one where you've installed FMP) you can create music mods. Those mods can be activated ingame (make sure they are at the bottom of the list to ensure they override all other mods).

To create such a mod do the following steps (assuming you are inside the mod folder):
1) Create a named directory for your mod (e.g. myMusic). This name will be visible in your mod list.
2) Under myMusic create a folder called SOUND
3) Put your music files inside that folder
4) Start game ... activate mod ... enjoy your music.

Hope this helps.
Title: Re: Having sound problems
Post by: The Intelligent One on January 23, 2017, 12:36:25 am
Yeah, sorry about the lack of info, I always manage to leave out some obvious but critical info while include others. I'm on Win 10 and the crashes are not a problem now, at least I've read in a few places that the MP3 format is what's buggy and causes it, so it shouldn't be a problem anymore. If you meant the crashes when I have the flac files, I can provide the openxcom.log file, but there's nothing useful in it from what I can see.
Code: [Select]
[22-01-2017_23-18-56] [INFO] Data folder is:
[22-01-2017_23-18-56] [INFO] Data search is:
[22-01-2017_23-18-56] [INFO] - C:\Users\Int\Documents\OpenXcom\
[22-01-2017_23-18-56] [INFO] - D:\Games\OpenXcom
[22-01-2017_23-18-56] [INFO] - D:\Games\OpenXcom
[22-01-2017_23-18-56] [INFO] User folder is: C:\Users\Int\Documents\OpenXcom\
[22-01-2017_23-18-56] [INFO] Config folder is: C:\Users\Int\Documents\OpenXcom\
[22-01-2017_23-18-56] [INFO] Options loaded successfully.
[22-01-2017_23-18-56] [INFO] SDL initialized successfully.
[22-01-2017_23-18-56] [INFO] SDL_mixer initialized successfully.
[22-01-2017_23-18-56] [INFO] requested file not found: openxcom.png
[22-01-2017_23-18-56] [INFO] Attempting to set display to 1920x1080x8...
[22-01-2017_23-18-57] [INFO] Display set to 1920x1080x8.
[22-01-2017_23-18-57] [INFO] Loading data...
[22-01-2017_23-18-57] [INFO] Scanning standard mods in 'standard'...
[22-01-2017_23-18-57] [INFO] Scanning user mods in 'C:\Users\Int\Documents\OpenXcom\mods'...
[22-01-2017_23-18-57] [INFO] Mapping resource files...
[22-01-2017_23-18-57] [INFO] Resources files mapped successfully.
[22-01-2017_23-18-57] [INFO] Loading fonts... Font.dat
[22-01-2017_23-18-57] [INFO] Loading extra resources from ruleset...
[22-01-2017_23-18-57] [INFO] Data loaded successfully.
[22-01-2017_23-18-57] [INFO] Loading language...
[22-01-2017_23-18-57] [INFO] Language loaded successfully.
[22-01-2017_23-18-57] [INFO] OpenXcom started successfully!
[22-01-2017_23-18-57] [INFO] Using software scaling routine. For best results, try an OpenGL filter.

The crashes are both the regular Windows crashes, "OpenXcom has stopped working"

As for the sliders, yes I can see, but if I have the format set to MIDI the music slider changes the volume of everything in the game not just the music, and that's the problem. Anyway in the meantime after some testing I found out that the game only crashes if I have certain files in the sound folder from the adlib-flac package. The one that made the game crash immediately was gmstory.flac. After I took it out the sound came back and I could change the volumes separately again, but when I loaded a save it crashed. So decided to see what would happen if I switched back to ogg format, and now that works. So my issue seems to have solved itself randomly again, which is great for me until it happens again.
Title: Re: Having sound problems
Post by: R1dO on January 23, 2017, 12:56:46 am
No problem .. sometimes the obvious info is not obvious for those that are new to the game ;)

As for the log, that one indeed does not show anything. But since you've stated that it works at the moment i suspect that the log comes from the last 'well behaving' game.
Unfortunatly OXC does not keep older versions of that log. It is overwritten upon each restart of the game. So it is best to store a copy of that file directly after a crash ;)

If your music slider affects all sound you indeed have found a bug. Unfortunately i cannot reproduce it here, if you can reproduce it reliably and show us the precise steps that would be of great help.

Good to hear you can at least play the game again.
Have fun rescuing earth
Title: Re: Having sound problems
Post by: The Intelligent One on January 23, 2017, 01:40:55 am
Quote from: R1dO on January 23, 2017, 12:56:46 am
No problem .. sometimes the obvious info is not obvious for those that are new to the game ;)

As for the log, that one indeed does not show anything. But since you've stated that it works at the moment i suspect that the log comes from the last 'well behaving' game.
Unfortunatly OXC does not keep older versions of that log. It is overwritten upon each restart of the game. So it is best to store a copy of that file directly after a crash ;)

If your music slider affects all sound you indeed have found a bug. Unfortunately i cannot reproduce it here, if you can reproduce it reliably and show us the precise steps that would be of great help.

Good to hear you can at least play the game again.
Have fun rescuing earth

Yeah, I noticed that the log is only from the latest game, so the one I provided is when I had the flac files, which made it crash. It's definitely not from when it was behaving. As for the music slider, the bug is already a known bug, or at least the wiki mentions it. Check the warning in the volume section (https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Audio_Options_(OpenXcom))
Title: Re: Having sound problems
Post by: R1dO on January 23, 2017, 01:58:43 am
Ah, so i' ve learned something new as well. Thanks for the pointer.

Too bad the flac bug still eludes us (i suppose you already ruled out the known flac 24bit 'bug' mentioned on the same the page).
Title: Re: Having sound problems
Post by: The Intelligent One on January 23, 2017, 02:10:26 am
Quote from: R1dO on January 23, 2017, 01:58:43 am
Ah, so i' ve learned something new as well. Thanks for the pointer.

Too bad the flac bug still eludes us (i suppose you already ruled out the known flac 24bit 'bug' mentioned on the same the page).

I actually didn't see that before, because I only looked at the page when I was having the MIDI problems and I didn't care about anything else. I suppose it's certainly possible that the problem is that, the only thing I'd say that's making doubt it is that some files definitely worked and I think it'd be strange to have some files with 24 bit sample width and other with different. Although I have absolutely no idea what it means, so it could certainly be something completely normal.

But if that is indeed the problem then that means I've had trouble with two known bugs, and with another bug that randomly fixes itself (talking about the no sound problem I had with ogg at first, fo course) :D