Sound Problem When Reading Notes

[thigikna]

I had a problem with my game where there was no audio, but there was a thread I found a while ago that fixed it by setting your headphones frequency to 44100 hz, which restored the sound, but there's still one more problem. Whenever I change pages in a note, the sound would mute, and I would have to restart the game to get it working again. This isn't really a deal breaker, but it basically means if I want to read a note in a mission (usually with useful information about loot spots in the level), I have to quit the game afterwards or I won't be able to play the game. Really kills the mood of the game for me, so I've been scouring the internet for solutions. I tried both the official and unofficial installers, I tried downloading the game from ModDB, but still nothing. I did however, find an old 2.08 build of the game on ModDB. I figured at this point my computer just doesn't like the 2.09 version so I would download that version and hopefully it would work. And something interesting happened. I loaded up the training mission and read the book to check if it was working, and this awful compressed (very loud) page turn sound effect played that nearly blew my eardrums out. So the sound was working at least, but it's almost worse now that my ears are getting blasted every time I read a note! My theory is that this sound effect was (rightfully) taken out of the game, and some line of code still refers to it playing, but I know nothing about coding so I wouldn't know how to fix it. If anyone finds a solution please respond ASAP. I've played all the Thief games and Dark Mod is the only reason I keep living.

[stgatilov]

13 hours ago, thigikna said:

there was a thread I found a while ago that fixed it by setting your headphones frequency to 44100 hz, which restored the sound

Yes, I recall report about such strange behavior.
I have 48 KHz 24-bit setting, and never had any problems with TDM sound.

Maybe there is some bug in resampler, which does not always happen.

Quote

I tried both the official and unofficial installers, I tried downloading the game from ModDB, but still nothing.

Yes, it is definitely not an installation problem: the game simply does not work well on your system.

Unfortunately, it is quite likely a bug in OpenAL library. A bug in TDM is also a possibility, of course.
I'm afraid the last version without OpenAL was 2.05. You can get it via tdm_installer, and it will work perfectly... but it is quite old for today.

Quote

Whenever I change pages in a note, the sound would mute, and I would have to restart the game to get it working again.

I have heard reports like "does not work" and "constant noise", but this behavior is damn strange!
Definitely worth investigating.

Quote

This isn't really a deal breaker, but it basically means if I want to read a note in a mission (usually with useful information about loot spots in the level), I have to quit the game afterwards or I won't be able to play the game. Really kills the mood of the game for me

Yes, it is of course unplayable in such state.

Quote

I loaded up the training mission and read the book to check if it was working, and this awful compressed (very loud) page turn sound effect played that nearly blew my eardrums out.

Sorry for that.
Good god this is not teledildonics hardware!

Quote

My theory is that this sound effect was (rightfully) taken out of the game, and some line of code still refers to it playing

I don't think this sound was changed from 2.08 to 2.09.

It is more likely that there is a bug which fills sound buffer with garbage data. Garbage data is an interesting thing: it can be correct data, all zeros, some infinite values, or very low values, ... pretty much everything, depending on some random factors.

Quote

I've played all the Thief games and Dark Mod is the only reason I keep living.

Whoa! That's the spirit!

Unfortunately, such issues can take days to debug without any result in the end So I'm afraid you will need your patience a lot.

[stgatilov]

1. Do you run TheDarkModx64.exe ?
2. Do you use Windows 10?
3. Could you please write which CPU do you have?
4. Which FM did you play, which book did you read? I guess the problem happens everywhere, but please bring at least one example for clarity.
5. About the loud sound: was it some weird noise, or was it intended sound just too loud?

[stgatilov]

Could you please download the attached batch file and use it to start TDM (version 2.09)?
It sets two environment variables which enable OpenAL internal logging.

When playing, please get to the location where this bad sound happens (or where it is missing), and let it trigger.
After that, create condump, then finish game and exit.

Please provide:

1. File "openal_log.txt" in the TDM directory: it must be created if you start TDM via attached script.
2. The condump file that you recorded.

P.S. Note that you can have both TDM 2.08 and 2.09 side-by-side.
Or you can switch between versions pretty easily using tdm_installer.

run_with_openal_log.cmd

[stgatilov]

And one more thing to try.

Try to set cvar "s_force22kHz 1" in console immediately after you start TDM.
Then try to play game.

Does normal sounds play well? Or you get the same problems with more sounds now?
In particular, do rat squeaks play properly? (e.g. at the beginning of Saint Lucia or New Job FMs)

 

[thigikna]

Hello, thank you for all the replies. I just woke up but i have school in a bit so it may be a while before I can test these things. I can give you my specs tho.

1. I tried both the x64 file and the non-recommended 32-bit file from the official website.

2. Windows 10

3. CPU: i7-6700 (still have a shitty pre-built from a couple years ago I decked out with more ram and a new graphics card)

4. I tried the training mission, A New Job, and found a random fan mission, Business As Usual. The same effect happened in all three.

5. It was just a page turn sound effect, but it was mixed way louder than any of the other sound effects. Would have been fine if it was quieter. If you're still curious I can record a video of the sound, but that will have to happen after school. I will test these things out as soon as I get the chance.

[thigikna]

OK, I just tried both things you suggested. First I used your .bat file and got the necessary logs:

openal_log.txtmy_nasty_issue.txt

Second, when I put that command in the console and started A New Job, the sound worked fine for a couple of seconds, but once I turned the corner of the first alleyway the sound stopped. I did some more testing with this command on and I found that jumping on wooden surfaces causes the sound to cut out. Hopefully my logs tell you something helpful.

[stgatilov]

6 hours ago, thigikna said:

Second, when I put that command in the console and started A New Job, the sound worked fine for a couple of seconds, but once I turned the corner of the first alleyway the sound stopped. I did some more testing with this command on and I found that jumping on wooden surfaces causes the sound to cut out. Hopefully my logs tell you something helpful.

Just to clarify: the sound stops from jumping on wooden surface if "s_force22kHz 1" is set. But does not stop from jumps on wooden surface when this cvar is not set, right?

 

P.S. You might also want to disable EFX and HRTF in sounds settings, then restart game.
The is some small chance that it would fix the problem.

[stgatilov]

I managed to reproduce the problem (maybe another one, but definitely a problem) on my machine by setting resampler=bsinc24 in OpenAL config, plus "s_force22kHz 1" in game console on start.

Please try the following:

• Open "C:\Users\Miles\AppData\Roaming\alsoft.ini", in text editor.
• Find line "resampler = bsinc24".
• Add a sharp at the beginning of this line, aka "#resampler = bsinc24".
• Now start TDM again and check.

If you start TDM with "run_with_openal_log.cmd", then you can later check "openal_log.txt": it must not contain the following line:

AL lib: (II) LoadConfigFromFile: found 'resampler' = 'bsinc24'

Most likely you will be able to set 48 KHz frequency back if you like.

[thigikna]

Alright, I will try these things before I go to bed. Damn time zones >:|

[thigikna]

Wow! Amazing what a single character can do! It fixed it!

You were right, the loud sound I was hearing in the 2.08 version was intended, just super loud for no reason. Not only that, but the game seems to load twice as fast now than it used to (somehow?). I very much appreciate your help in all this.

BTW, sorry I didn't get to respond last night, it was already late when I saw and responded to your message. But I just woke up and things are working as intended

[stgatilov]

Trying OpenAL 1.21.1: it seems this problem has been fixed.
At least I don't have any issues with bsinc24 resampler.

I guess I'll update OpenAL for TDM 2.10.

[SeriousToni]

I just updated to 2.09 and had the same problem. Thankfully the

• Add a sharp at the beginning of this line, aka "#resampler = bsinc24".

fixed it for me too. Thank you! Will this have any negative effect on the 3d audio in The Dark Mod?

[stgatilov]

8 hours ago, SeriousToni said:

Will this have any negative effect on the 3d audio in The Dark Mod?

No.

[Thfpjct]

having same problem but it seems that the sharp that i'm supposed to add at the beginning of said code is already there, and removing it won't help either

[Fabski]

On 7/5/2021 at 6:02 AM, Thfpjct said:

having same problem but it seems that the sharp that i'm supposed to add at the beginning of said code is already there, and removing it won't help either

Same happens to me