Weird audio glitch

[ShinyNautili]

I've been having a... weird, sporadic issue I can't reliably reproduce with the audio. Usually after a little while playing, the audio will glitch out. I'm using a headset, and it's like the game almost completely loses the left audio channel, and heavily distorts the right, and it happens in such a way that within moments it's given me a splitting headache - because of this latter part, I haven't been able to test it much, because any time it occurs I literally have to go lay down for a few minutes. At first I thought my headset was shorting out, but as far as I can tell that's not the issue, since I only have trouble in OpenXcom. I was able to reproduce it on a fresh install of the latest nightly build, only settings I changed from the default being turning on a few of the xcom util mods. Windows 7 64 bit if it matters. Only seems to happen on the geoscape, affects both the music and sound effects.

[kkmic]

What is the version of you game files? I'm asking because there are some differences between them graphics-wise, but there may be something sound-related too.

Also, have you experienced this issues all the time or only using recent nightly builds? Are you using a wireless/bluetooth headset? Try turning off the headset's microphone if it has one.

Have you managed to reproduce the issue on another machine? I mean, it might be something related to your hardware/software configuration?

I'm not saying that it is not a OXC bug, but the more info you can provide, the better are the chances of finding/fixing the issue.

[ShinyNautili]

Sorry, had just come off getting the bug last night so I wasn't thinking very clearly -

Game files are whichever ones come with the Steam version of X-COM, which I believe are 1.4?

Audio issue has been happening... well, as long as I've been playing OpenXcom, which has been about the last week, all on recent nightly builds. I tend to grab the most recent one and update about every other day. Headset's a Turtle Beach X12 - not wireless. And I will try disabling the mic to see if it helps.

And unfortunately, I don't have another machine to test on. Part of the reason I put this in troubleshooting is because I expect it's something silly hardware/software related on my machine that's causing OpenXcom issues.

[kkmic]

Alright, try figuring out a pattern that can cause the glitch on your machine. That way, you can test future version for the glitch, even if other people cannot reproduce it.

Try a fresh "reinstall" - the nightly build plus the original data files, no mods/modifications at all.

If OXC is the only application that is causing this glitch on you OS, it could indicate an incompatibility of the sound system with your hardware/software. It would have been helpful if you could dual-boot your machine, just to be sure.



This might be a long shot: can you handle your way about a Ubuntu live CD? You can even install/uninstall it as a secondary OS on your machine directly from Widows - no repartitioning needed.

Otherwise, you might want to try a virtual machine from here: https://www.modern.ie/en-us/virtualization-tools (free, courtesy of Microsoft). I recommend VirtualBox, but Virtual PC might do fine too. You should get the XP virtual machine, it's cheaper on download size, setup time and resources.

If you can either dual-boot or use a virtual machine, try playing the game with an alternative/clean OS, to see if the problem still persists.

[ShinyNautili]

Installing and figuring my way around a secondary OS is... a bit further than I'm willing to go just to test this bug, tbh. I may like OpenXcom, but not that much.
I'll see if I can maybe borrow a laptop or something to check on later, though.

Fresh reinstall was what I meant when I said I was able to reproduce it on a fresh install - moved/renamed both the My Documents Openxcom folder and the program files Openxcom folder elsewhere to back them up, installed completely fresh, didn't touch the backups.

[cort]

What format do you use for music? Midi, mp3 or ogg?
I recommend you pay a visit here and download one of the OGG ones. You can find here more on how to use custom music.
You then either delete the midi files or in the new options screen for Audio you choose the source as OGG.
See if this will fix your troubles.

[ShinyNautili]

Switched to the .OGG files cort linked (from adlib, or at least that was what OpenXcom's audio option was set to beforehand) and it seems to have fixed the issue. At the very least, it didn't crop back up within about an hour and a half of playing, and it tended to crop up within about that timeframe beforehand. Thank you.

[kkmic]

Good to know.

Drop a line here if you encounter the bug again.