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Broken music with the new release

Barry_1066Barry_1066 Member Posts: 77
edited December 2017 in Technical Support
so far only found one music broken with the new release but I have not tested all - it is very distorted in the bass with drums - this was fine before this update.

Editing with my bug report for clearity:


Some custom music and a number of game sound effects have changed with the openAL change. I have some custom music that worked fine before and are horribly distorted in openAL. The sound of music that comes with the game is harsh and some sounds (not custom) are harsh and distorted since implementation of openAL.

Since this is global and being reported to me by others playing on my PW Realms of Annakolia I can say this bug is not just me.

this seems similar to Bug #34335 but the issue is more than one or two music files since all the music seems tinny and harsh and the sound effects are harsh and some just broken with odd sounds.

The openAL bug is effecting standard music - harsh
the openAL bug is effecting standard sound effects - harsh or distorted - in some cases broken
The openAL bug is effecting some previously fine custom music - the music plays but there is distortion -
The distortion is in particular in the bass range
NOTE: OpenAL seems to be very treble heavy and bass support shy.

This bug does not prevent play or login or graphic distortion - only effects sound effects and music.

Since posting some of my DMs have brought to my attention that voices as used with emotes are also off - as in tinny, scratchy and some pop and clash - the issue sounds like modulation overdriven - once overmodulation occures there is clipping and loss of data resulting in unpleasant sound.

Again - this has ONLY occurred with this update using the openAL.
Post edited by Barry_1066 on

Comments

  • SymphonySymphony Member, Developer Posts: 142
    I don't think this is something that should pipe through the Trello suggestion feature system, and issues with the latest patch should probably be reported into the Redmine bug database.

    https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/66998/how-to-report-bugs-you-find-in-nwn-ee

    The Trello Board Discussion is suitable for topics marked for additional discussion on the Trello Input that may require some creative decisions made by the community on how best to implement a feature to please everyone.
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,754
    edited December 2017
    Moved to Technical Support.

    Also, please, report issues on support.baldursgate.com
  • RananRanan Member Posts: 34
    I'm having the same issue with certain music files aswell, especially within the toolset. Some will only play for a little bit before they cut out, and some from Wyvern Crown sound pretty distorted/bitcrunched
  • FlashburnFlashburn Member Posts: 1,847
    I'm getting this too since the update that replaced the audio systems with openAL. Music and voices are lower quality. Voices in particular have this high frequency tone in them as a result of this degraded quality that gives me a headache, almost like The Mosquito.

    I reported this 3 days ago. I cannot play NWN:EE while the audio system is in this state.
  • AndarianAndarian Member Posts: 185
    Agreed. The last update butchered the custom score for my mods. Three are gibberish so far, and that's from just a few minutes of testing. As Flashburn says, the game is unplayable while the audio system is in this state.
  • AndarianAndarian Member Posts: 185
    edited December 2017
    A quick follow-up on this. I investigated which custom music files were affected, and it looks like they were all from two sources -- and most of them were bmus I had built myself. All of these files have been working in NWN for many years, so this still represents a potential backward compatibility issue. I found, though, that simply re-making them (using mp3tobmu v3.5 and Audacity, exporting as stereo) eliminated the problem. It was a bit of tedious work, but for me at least, the garbled music issue is now resolved.
  • Barry_1066Barry_1066 Member Posts: 77
    Since i no longer have the source music due to a 15 year old HD crashing and burning I cannot remake these. They were all made with mp3tobmu in the first place but i have no idea which version since that also went away with that hard drive.

    HOWEVER - as I have posted in my bug report, it is not just music - and all music is effected being tinny and too treble oriented, lacking bass support - but it is effecting voices (pops, crackle - *blinks at the Rice Crispy allusion* - ok will add snap for the full package, and effecting game sounds with the same snap, crackle and pop or just crunch and sputter with a sound nothing like what should be heard.

    SO - this is not an occasion problem to one or two custom music files, it is a global sound/music problem.
  • PhenomenPhenomen Member Posts: 33
    I also have almost every sound and music "cracking" randomly. VO in Witch Wake is completely broken and distorted.
  • AndarianAndarian Member Posts: 185
    edited December 2017
    Barry: I fully agree. The audio artifacts are still there (tinny sounds, crackling and popping, etc.) and are awful. And EE can't count on builders being around to re-make bmus if it wants to be fully backward compatible with existing mods. So this needs to be addressed one way or the other.

    One clarification, though. The process I used to re-make the BMUs didn't require access to the original source files. I used mp3tobmu to convert the garbled bmus to MP3, imported them into Audacity, immediately exported them back out to MP3 (setting them to stereo), and then used mp3tobmu to turn them back into bmus. When I put the re-created results into my music folder, they now worked. As I said it was a tedious process, and it shouldn't be necessary. But it apparently did solve whatever the problem was.

    I used mp3tobmu v3.5. It's still on the vault, and a link to it was posted on another thread. I'll see if I can find it and follow up.

    EDIT: Thread with link here. https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/924831/#Comment_924831
  • Barry_1066Barry_1066 Member Posts: 77
    Stilll not all fixed with the changes to the latest update.
  • FlashburnFlashburn Member Posts: 1,847
    Bumping this because its still not fixed yet.
  • AndarianAndarian Member Posts: 185
    Agreed. This is still not fixed, and it is still a major issue.
  • AndarianAndarian Member Posts: 185
    edited March 2018
    Bumping this again, because it needs to be bumped. Up to this point I've been setting this aside as "something that will be addressed eventually before release." With the news yesterday that NWN:EE is coming out of beta at the end of the month, there is no more time to wait on this.

    This audio issue breaks a good bit of the existing musical mod content for the game, and in a way that makes that work unacceptable for public release. It either needs to be fixed, NOW, or authors need to be told immediately that it will not be fixed and that they need to take other action to address it.

    If this isn't going to be fixed, then authors planning to re-release their work for EE and Steam need to get to work right away re-making much of the musical content for their mods. As my earlier posts on the thread suggest this can be done, but it is a fairly long and tedious process. It may also involve other peoples' work as well, and getting permission to re-release it in a form that will work in EE. From what I've seen much of the Community Music Pack, for example -- which has hundreds of tracks in it, and which many mods use -- will need to be re-done to address this problem.

    Can we please get clarification on this, as soon as possible? @JuliusBorisov, can you help?
  • Dark_AnsemDark_Ansem Member Posts: 992
    Andarian said:

    Bumping this again, because it needs to be bumped. Up to this point I've been setting this aside as "something that will be addressed eventually before release." With the news yesterday that NWN:EE is coming out of beta at the end of the month, there is no more time to wait on this.

    This audio issue breaks a good bit of the existing musical mod content for the game, and in a way that makes that work unacceptable for public release. It either needs to be fixed, NOW, or authors need to be told immediately that it will not be fixed and that they need to take other action to address it.

    If this isn't going to be fixed, then authors planning to re-release their work for EE and Steam need to get to work right away re-making much of the musical content for their mods. As my earlier posts on the thread suggest this can be done, but it is a fairly long and tedious process. It may also involve other peoples' work as well, and getting permission to re-release it in a form that will work in EE. From what I've seen much of the Community Music Pack, for example -- which has hundreds of tracks in it, and which many mods use -- will need to be re-done to address this problem.

    Can we please get clarification on this, as soon as possible? @JuliusBorisov, can you help?

    On my trello card it said they are going to do another massive audio related operation soon.
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,754
    There're a lot of issues the team has to take care of so not all tickets get quick reaction.

    Anyway, this bug is now submitted to the internal tracker so that the team can evaluate and triage accordingly. Thanks!
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