No In-game Sounds On Vista

[Strider2k]

Ok so some of you have seen my on IRC asking about this, figured I'd see if anyone else could help that maybe doesn't go on irc or wasn't there when I was

Basically, when starting the game the intro music, menu music and sounds work fine. But when I get in to an actual game, no music, no sounds.

Things that I've done:

*Fresh install using the DLable version from site as well as Dling a new op2.clm file.
*Drivers for audio devices all up to date
*DXdiag reveals "no problems"
*Used Compatibility tab to run game in mode for older OS (tried various ones)
*Run the game as administrator


Anyoneh ave any other suggestions? This is really horrible, OP2 with no sounds just virtually unplayable to me

Thanks.  

[Eddy-B]

problems becoz of vista ....  WHY am i not surprised ?! :rolleyes:

[BlackBox]

problems becoz of vista ....  WHY am i not surprised ?! :rolleyes:

I don't understand why everyone is all "problems because of Vista OMFG OMFG VISTA SUCKS." The exact same thing happened when XP got released. Get used to it, the first release of any new version is going to have bugs.

I run Vista right now, it has its problems, but XP had its problems when it got released as well. They release service packs to fix a lot of the problems.

I guess I fail to see how a post like this is going to help a user though...

---

Anyway, I did think of one other thing you could try. Check to see if any other programs are open that might have exclusive use of the sound device. (Stuff like media players do count. Basically anything that is capable of making noise). Close everything else that you possibly can that might do this. (Again, media players, games, etc are usually the only things that would do this. The typical IM client is not going to lock the soundcard for exclusive use {if it does, that's a really bad design on their part}).

And the last thing to check: Are sounds turned on from within game? Check in the preferences and make sure sound effects are turned on and turned up to something higher than zero.

 

[Strider2k]

yeah, tried that too. And preferences was checked as well. I'm doomed :/


Edit: ok so I have some progress.

Just randomly I decided to shut everything down again, do a reboot, and shut all un-needed processes down as well and started game. It's in windowed mode, so I also brought up the volume mixer, cranked my speakers, than once in game started to crank the volume on the mixer. No sounds, no music. BUT! They sounds and music are being created. The sound bar that indicates the sounds was going up and down, as if with music, and when I did something, like clicking on the command center, which I know makes a sound, the bar would SPIKE, so it appears the sounds are being created, but the speakers aren't getting them. Could it be a codec issue by chance?  

[BlackBox]

Shouldn't really be a codec issue since all the sound files for the game are uncompressed wave files (PCM, basically the raw data that gets sent to the sound card. There is no codec needed).

I did think of a couple other things you can check. When the game is running (and presumably attempting to output sound), click the mixer and make sure the program isn't turned down lower than the rest of the mixer (the Outpost 2 sounds should be at the same level as everything else).

You could also go to the Sound applet in the control panel and check the following things. Click on the device that you use for sound output in the playback screen (for me it's just "Internal Speaker/Headphone", I also have the SPDIF interface but am not using that. Click whichever one you are actually using to output sound) and hit Properties. First go to Enhancements and you might try turning some off / disabling all enhancements. Go to Advanced then and restore the defaults (the button might be grayed, that is okay).

For my settings (but again, it might be different for you. If you're using a dedicated sound card it will almost certainly be different settings from my onboard audio).
I have the "default format" set to "DVD Quality." If you have a high end sound card, it can probably output in some 24 bit format. (You could probably leave this setting alone though). The next thing would be to try unchecking the "Allow applications to take exclusive control" and / or the "Give exclusive mode applications priority" options... if a settings change doesn't work, set the setting back. You might have to reboot for some of it to actually change.

The last thing you should check is any separate control panel supplied by the sound card vendor if you have one; maybe it's preventing the sound from being played.

Hopefully that helps, unfortunately there isn't a whole lot I can really think of.

By the way, what sound card do you use?

[Strider2k]

SOLVED \o/



While taking a crap of all things, I remembered that my computer seemed to always have a "Realtek Audio Manager" running that I always ignored. Went to check it out and discovered, of all things, an incorrect speaker setup! It was set for "5.1" and not "Stereo"  So i fixed that and started OP2 up, boom, done deal


Thanks everyone for all the help. That was a royal pain for me lol

[BlackBox]

No problem

Hopefully we will meet you on IRC sometime for games