View Issue Details

IDProjectCategoryLast Update
0015612AI War 1 / ClassicBug - AudioAug 1, 2014 7:12 pm
ReporterKaleopan Assigned ToChris_McElligottPark  
Status feedbackResolutionreopened 
Product Version7.048 
Fixed in Version7.052 
Summary0015612: Sound when moving through wormhole stacks per unit
DescriptionThe sound when you issue an command for your fleet to move through a wormhole now stacks for every unit and gets insanely loud.
First appeared after the 7.048 or 7.049 update.
TagsNo tags attached.
Internal WeightNew

Activities

Kaleopan

Jul 31, 2014 10:01 pm

reporter   ~0038790

Im talking about the Wormhole.ogg

Kaleopan

Jul 31, 2014 10:03 pm

reporter   ~0038791

Also the sound of all weapons seems to be boosted by 1000%, don't know where that came from.

Kaleopan

Jul 31, 2014 10:22 pm

reporter   ~0038792

Last edited: Jul 31, 2014 10:27 pm

After some more testing this error applies to every sound that is even slightly spammable. Units entering or leaving a wormhole, units firing at the same time (for the love of your ears, don't ever enter a planet with hundreds of sentinel frigates) and units dying will create a mess of sounds.
It seems like there are way too many (if endless) channels for sounds to play simultaneously and every sound stacked will increase the overall volume to very unpleasant levels.
I'm currently running on 7.049 win7

Toll

Aug 1, 2014 3:16 am

reporter   ~0038797

Yeah, they redid how the sounds were played in the 7.048 patch. If I were to make a suggestion, I'd say only play the same sound once per frame (or once per 10-20ms if that's easier).

keith.lamothe

Aug 1, 2014 8:37 am

administrator   ~0038801

Yea, Chris said he'll get another timing thing in there to prevent superssoundspam.

Chris_McElligottPark

Aug 1, 2014 1:41 pm

administrator   ~0038810

Thanks!

* AI War has a... unique... number of projectiles and explosions going on at any given time, not to mention the number of ships going through wormholes at a given time or whatever. In the previous version of the game, this was limited by a RAM-inefficient method of having three separate copies of each sound effect in memory, and six copies of each explosion, and only being able to play each one once.
** The new system uses a more modern and much more RAM-efficient pooling approach, and is capable of playing a lot more sounds at once (so that it doesn't seem like something is silent). However, without any governer set on that, it can stack hundreds of copies of the same sound effect on top of itself, leading to the sound of distortions as well as a huge volume spike on those sounds.
** The game now makes it so that a given sound effect can't play more frequently than every 200ms, and that keeps the flexibility of the new system while removing the volume and distortion issues that resulted from excess stacking. It now sounds a lot more like previous versions of the game; to the casual ear, it should be identical, pretty much.

Kaleopan

Aug 1, 2014 3:38 pm

reporter   ~0038815

Sorry to bother you again.
While the problem with wormholes seems to be fixed all sounds played in battles with 500+ units still cause distortion and scratching among the different sounds played.
A delay of 500ms or more would be necessary if you wanted to make it sound like pre 7.048.
The overall sound level seems fine now.
I tested another copy i have on an older pc (pre 7.048) and adjusted a metronome to match the frequence of sounds being played while spamming the sound (i.e. passing through wormholes) and found rates at 75 to 80 beats per minute perfectly matching most of the sounds which translates to 0.75-0.8 seconds or 750-800ms per unique sound played if you guys want to fine-tune it :)

Chris_McElligottPark

Aug 1, 2014 4:50 pm

administrator   ~0038816

Thanks a ton, those are great ideas!

* Updated the delays between individual sound effects playing a copy of themselves further.
** Interface sound effects remain at 200ms, just so that it keeps feeling super responsive. The odds of that actually being a problem are really low anyhow, but just in case.
** Explosion sound effects are now at 500ms minimum interval.
** All other sound effects are now at a 700ms minimum interval.
** This does indeed seem to better approximate the sound playback in the prior versions.

Kaleopan

Aug 1, 2014 7:12 pm

reporter   ~0038819

Wow, you guys are awesome!
It really does feel a lot more like the old system now.
There's only a small difference left.

When you switch to a planet with active combat going on (from a planet where no sounds were played) you are guaranteed that every combat sound (for each ammo type) will be played at the same time and stay synced every 700ms (i assume combat sounds like lasers, rockets or other shots fired use the 700 ms interval) which results in a "choppy" playback.
I think this problem only exists with the shot sounds, explosions sound fine.
If it's somehow possible to break the sync of all shot sounds it would sound a lot more fluently.

I don't know if that's possible but assigning slightly altered intervals (e.g. 705 for rockets, 695 for lasers, 710 for beams, 690 for energy waves) to every shot interval or using random intervals (within 690-710ms range) after each shot could do the trick and break all the synced sounds into something less spiky and more fluent, so the game doesn't play all shot sounds every 700ms synchronously.

Again, you are awesome! :D

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
Jul 31, 2014 9:57 pm Kaleopan New Issue
Jul 31, 2014 10:01 pm Kaleopan Note Added: 0038790
Jul 31, 2014 10:03 pm Kaleopan Note Added: 0038791
Jul 31, 2014 10:22 pm Kaleopan Note Added: 0038792
Jul 31, 2014 10:24 pm Kaleopan Note Edited: 0038792
Jul 31, 2014 10:27 pm Kaleopan Note Edited: 0038792
Aug 1, 2014 3:16 am Toll Note Added: 0038797
Aug 1, 2014 8:36 am keith.lamothe Assigned To => Chris_McElligottPark
Aug 1, 2014 8:36 am keith.lamothe Status new => assigned
Aug 1, 2014 8:37 am keith.lamothe Note Added: 0038801
Aug 1, 2014 1:41 pm Chris_McElligottPark Internal Weight => New
Aug 1, 2014 1:41 pm Chris_McElligottPark Note Added: 0038810
Aug 1, 2014 1:41 pm Chris_McElligottPark Status assigned => resolved
Aug 1, 2014 1:41 pm Chris_McElligottPark Fixed in Version => 7.050
Aug 1, 2014 1:41 pm Chris_McElligottPark Resolution open => fixed
Aug 1, 2014 3:38 pm Kaleopan Note Added: 0038815
Aug 1, 2014 3:38 pm Kaleopan Status resolved => feedback
Aug 1, 2014 3:38 pm Kaleopan Resolution fixed => reopened
Aug 1, 2014 4:50 pm Chris_McElligottPark Note Added: 0038816
Aug 1, 2014 4:50 pm Chris_McElligottPark Status feedback => resolved
Aug 1, 2014 4:50 pm Chris_McElligottPark Fixed in Version 7.050 => 7.052
Aug 1, 2014 4:50 pm Chris_McElligottPark Resolution reopened => fixed
Aug 1, 2014 7:12 pm Kaleopan Note Added: 0038819
Aug 1, 2014 7:12 pm Kaleopan Status resolved => feedback
Aug 1, 2014 7:12 pm Kaleopan Resolution fixed => reopened