Situation Update

DennyMala · Post by **DennyMala** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 11:53 am

Creative X-Fi Extreme Music. Driver version: 2.18.13

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 3:46 pm

I can confirm. I could hear Denny on BA's TeamSpeak (although he came in broken) but, both before he logged on to TS and afterward, all I got with the in-game chat was a brief display of his callsign. No voice. Even when I had Denny transmit for five seconds, all I got was that flicker of his callsign (instead of a full five seconds).

Also, Denny could not hear me. IIRC, he couldn't see my callsign either ... even while I was trying a 5-second test. At the same time, Starbuck was in the sector and he could hear me fine.

[Edited on 10-11-2010 by Marvin]

DennyMala · Post by **DennyMala** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 6:55 pm

Yup, I confirm what Marvin said.

I use comodo firewall and I put EM in the trusted files list.... just to add this info.

Post by **Vice** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 7:30 pm

Interesting, ok, maybe it's just some kind of resource issue, especially since the icon appears briefly and it worked fine with the (resource light) test program. How much free physical memory do you have on your system as listed in msinfo32? Does anything change if you turn off the music in the Options menu? Also, try changing the planet detail setting to 'Low' just to test with less memory consumption.

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 9:00 pm

Originally posted by Vice

Does anything change if you turn off the music in the Options menu?

I'm not sure but that might make a difference. Denny and I have about the same computer specs but I always turn off the in-game music. Voices, yes. Music, no.

DennyMala · Post by **DennyMala** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 9:07 pm

Mamory stat are the following:

Total phisical memory 2.048,00 MB
Available phisical memory 1,13 GB
Total virtual memory 2,00 GB
Available virtual memory 1,96 GB

Next MP session we'll try turning music OFF.... I usually keep that on. If that won't solve the issue, I'll move on to lowering the planet detail level.

Thanks Vice.

Post by **Vice** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 9:13 pm

It might be related to memory then. The game generally does need about 1.4-1.5 GB of available physical memory with the default settings. Reducing the planet detail will help free up more memory, also check to see if there are any other programs running in the background that you can stop to try and free up more for testing. Stopping the music will provide a little bit more memory also and may free up some needed resources with the sound card (although I'm not sure on this).

Post by **Marvin** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 5:27 am

Not sure if this will help, but I'd reduce the resolution of background stars first. They get fuzzy but otherwise look ok.

DennyMala · Post by **DennyMala** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 7:30 am

Will do.... I guess I'll have to get a new machine next year....

Post by **Marvin** » Sun Oct 24, 2010 11:20 pm

Denny made all the suggested changes prior to testing the in-game chat today. Nothing helped. But he did try one other thing that might offer a clue as to his problem ...

After the initial failure, we started using BA's TeamSpeak to coordinate further tests of the in-game chat. Denny was coming in broken even on TS. So he changed a setting in TS and, after, I could hear him loud and clear.

What he did was change a setting in the TS Sound Driver options from "Direct Sound" to "Wave" ... and it worked!

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Mon Oct 25, 2010 1:30 am

Yes. The game uses *.wav files for in game sounds....

So sound device inputs and outputs set to process any other form of sound like Direct Sound will not work....

Post by **Vice** » Mon Oct 25, 2010 2:03 am

Also, just to rule out some kind of quirky behavior of your X-Fi card using full duplex, temporarily disable/remove that sound card and try using the onboard audio. See if it works at that point. The stuttering behavior you encountered when trying to use TeamSpeak via DirectSound could indicate a problem.

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Oct 25, 2010 5:38 am

I'm sure Denny will plan on doing that for another test next weekend, Vice. Thanks.

DennyMala · Post by **DennyMala** » Mon Oct 25, 2010 6:42 am

Just to add a little bit of info, this behaviour started with Mercenaries and probably with the newest version of directX that probably have some argument with the Creative drivers.... TS had always worked wonders in direct audio.

The DXdiag and Creative diagnostics didn't tell anything wrong with the direct audio feature and audio tests was working good in there while local test with Direct Sound in TS was broken as on the net (and this is really indicatinc a problem there).

Will do this try next time using the on board audio device that I disabled in BIOS. I apologize in advance to Marv as that will probably take some time to set the volume levels as I'm starting from scratch.

Vice, I created a while ago the TXT file you told me to set the device, may I delete it or leave for the test?

[Modificato il 25/10/2010 da DennyMala]

Post by **Vice** » Mon Oct 25, 2010 4:44 pm

Yup, you can delete or rename that file.

DennyMala · Post by **DennyMala** » Tue Oct 26, 2010 10:29 am

Roger, deleted it.

DennyMala · Post by **DennyMala** » Mon Nov 01, 2010 8:04 am

Tried it but to no avail. Nothing heard on the other end and nothing I was able to hear or see.

I didn't saw the callsign under the chat bar when Marv was talking and he didn't saw mine.

A maibe interesting note is that TeamSpeak was working great under direct sound this time so it seems that there is something borked with the creative driver-direct-X update probably but that still the game won't let me do any in game chat even with the on board Realtek audio device that works with direct sound.

Vice, let me know if I can add something to ease your work, Marv probably will add something about this.

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Nov 01, 2010 4:34 pm

I really don't have anything to add. I had to swap USB ports for my headset 'cause, while testing a Mercenary mod (at the time, I was leaving the headset plugged in on the back-side), I started getting a beep ... turned out, all of a sudden, my computer wasn't recognizeing the headset. So I disconnected the headset and now only plug it into the front-side USB when I want to use it. I think I made a few adjustments to TS and have, as yet, not really tested the front-side USB with Mercenary's in-game chat. (Which is why I said I don't have anything to add.)

Post by **Vice** » Mon Nov 01, 2010 4:44 pm

So to confirm, you can't hear others talking to you and you can't talk to them? Or can you hear them but they can't hear you? What kind of mic are you using? And to re-check, the 'In-Game Voices' setting in the Options menu is set to 'On'?

DennyMala · Post by **DennyMala** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 8:11 am

I CAN'T hear anyone and they CAN'T hear me.
I'm using a head set with two small jacks (mic and headphones) that I plug in the back part of the PC as usual. The testing program works by the way and TeamSeak works good too (in both software and direct audio modes).
In game voices are ON and chat icons in the players list are all BLUE.

[Modificato il 2/11/2010 da DennyMala]

DennyMala · Post by **DennyMala** » Wed Nov 03, 2010 7:39 am

I have an updated NOD 32 running on the system all the time and Comodo Firewall, and being somewhat careful in going around on the net should have kept me safe from that.

I'll do a scan of the system and report back, but it's strange how such virus could affect only the link between direct x and audio driver, especially after an update of direct x.

[Modificato il 4/11/2010 da DennyMala]

DennyMala · Post by **DennyMala** » Sat Nov 06, 2010 8:35 am

Scan done and system is clear.

Anything else Vice?

Post by **Vice** » Sat Nov 06, 2010 4:51 pm

Did you try disabling the Creative sound card entirely and just use the onboard audio? I'd like to review your system specs in more detail, just follow the steps here: http://www.starwraith.com/evochronmercenary/faq.htm#8

DennyMala · Post by **DennyMala** » Sat Nov 06, 2010 8:51 pm

Tried disabling the Creative board and using only the on board device but to no avail... only worse quality sound.

I'm sendin the e-mail right now, avoiding a complete description of the problem as it can be found here. I'm inserting a link to this topic for quick reference.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Post by **Vice** » Sat Nov 06, 2010 9:29 pm

Couple of steps to try:

- Remove the Logitech Mic completely (so only the Creative X-Fi device is show in the device manager). A few things I've read suggest Logitech devices can conflict/interfere with Creative sound cards. Once completely removed, launch the game using your X-Fi sound card mic input only and test again. Also try it with the test program to verify it still works as well.

- Temporarily stop as many non-essential background tasks as possible (particularly the Nod32 and Comodo programs). Try to get up to 1.4-1.5 GB of free physical memory rather than the 1.1 or so it has now.