Audigy 2 ZS - 1.09 & 1.08 Dropouts

[mrcash2009 0]

Hi,

Ive been using 1.08 since I got the game back in November using on board audio. Some expected clicks and pops etc but all fine.

I have an Audigy 2 ZS in another machine not capable to run Arma and ive just installed it to my new(ish) machine.

I grabbed the latest creative driver available from the site and installed and works fine in windows etc.

In Arma Im getting total audio madness ...

Dropouts and ducking (all volume lowering to near silent) of battle field audio, my own gun sound dropping out completely, heli's flying overhead audio stuttering and disappearing, chatter pausing like "Target that ............. ** Radio fuzz for 20 seconds ** ............ man" ... its crazy.

Ive reset my audio settings and tried with AND without acceleration and EAX both 1.08 & 1.09 and its the same not matter what. Also If I go to audio settings just from the main menu and move the slider, the example audio (voice,gun,music) will duck and be lower opposite to mys slider level setting and wont be consistent at all!? Its really odd. Also Ive tried this Vanilla and with mods, and still the same.

Ive installed the OpenAL driver when I got the machine too.

My specs are AMD 64 X2 6000+ (with dual CPU fix), 2 GB Ram, NVidia 8800GTS 760 MB (latest driver) Asus MN2-SLI Deluxe Mobo (latest controller and mobo drivers) & of course Audigy 2 ZS (latest driver available).

Ive checked driver setting for mixer volume etc etc and nothing obvious. Its driving me mad its a real show stopper.

My quesion is .. does anyone else with an audigy 2 ZS with 1.08/1.09 have anything like this with there setup at all? Ive searched the boards but saw nothing to do with Audigy and nothing much about EAX .. is there an issue that im missing with Arma itself?

Any pointers and help would be great, ive checkout out the sticky thread for tips, but short of latest driver which I have ... im lost.

[Mr_Tea 0]

Check for newer OpenAL drivers.

[mrcash2009 0]

Check for never OpenAL drivers.

I had my onboard still on and disabled in bios and re-installed but still the same.

I see open AL is 2.03 from december but :

http://developer.creative.com/article....&aid=46

The bottom link URL to the exe just dies ... ive googled but all link to this page, anyone got this file or know a mirror?

[Mr_Tea 0]

Make sure to uninstall the drivers for the onboard audio.

[mrcash2009 0]

Ok,

Ive uninstalled Audigy Drivers & Open AL. Switched onboard audio back on, went into system and then removed the onboard audio driver, back to bios & switched off onboard.

Installed latest audigy driver again and then open AL the very latest. Rebooted, Went to Creatives site and used the Automatic update to check my machine and "All up to date" was the message.

... back into game ... and still a mess

I have found that if I just go to the main menu and select audio settings and mearly move the sliders, its all ramdon levels, if I move effects on its own the voice sound will be quite, then loud (not even touching the radio slider) and then the gun test sound with effects on high will disapear and not play, if I "reset" this will kick it back into touch and then .. move a slider and it goes mad again.

I have found in game that if you restart it will all be back to normal and after a few seconds sound will become lost and become more and more quite, then gun gets lost ... voice pauses. Makes me laugh, my on board audio was better! LOL.

EAX and hardware acceleration on or off, it still goes mental. Totaly lost.

[ArmaVidz 0]

In the Creative control panel - locate the CMSS or CMSS 2.0 and disable it. Also be sure there are no "Environment Settings" like "Big Room" or "Large Hall".

See if that helps.

[Placebo 28]

I see open AL is 2.03 from december but :

http://developer.creative.com/article....&aid=46

The bottom link URL to the exe just dies ... ive googled but all link to this page, anyone got this file or know a mirror?

Link worked fine for me, I mirrored it: oalinst.exe - 0.75MB

[mrcash2009 0]

@ArmaVidz .... cheers I did switch all that off.

@Placebo ... thanks very much, honestly in both browsers that link just times out.

Well Im starting to realise what this "might" be. Is there a channel limitation with Audigy 2 ZS, I tried smaller battles and some missions and things seemed ok. So I made a mission and slowly added more and more units, low and behold the more the more dropouts and cutting and delays in voice etc.

One example on a smaller mission was the background distant audio of rumbling would cut out when I reloaded my weapon, and I could repeat it over and over, if I moved a little on the map it then wouldn't happen ... odd things like that, which sound like channels cutting out to me.

I think I have realised this game hits the limit of Audigy 2 pretty easy once you pile on enough units and larger battles.

Before I decide that its a limitation of channels, anyone got any tweaks, or anyone with same card on large battles that slowly showes the same?

Problem is one large battle has worked no problem with my onboard sound with EAX but no hardware acceleration, yet the same on audigy 2 ZS with or without Hardware acceleration and EAX the dropouts happen on the same mission ... which still niggles me a bit.

[Mr_Tea 0]

I use to play ArmA an Audigy 2 value, EAX-enabled with 5.1 surround without any problems.

[mrcash2009 0]

Ive tried a different PCI slot and still the same.

My last test proved wrong because in vanilla using smaller battle sounds dipped and voice paused

I loaded up Medieval 2 Total War which using EAX 4 and zoomed around a large fort battle replay with many units ... no problems at all.

I just don't know really now.

[max power 21]

I have an audigy 2 zs and I experience none of the problems you describe.  I would continue seeking a solution.  Perhaps you could post further details about any other programs you may be running at the same time...

[mrcash2009 0]

Not running anything else other than the game. PS - Its XP Pro SP2 fully up to date.

Ok, I completely un-installed Arma - re-installed to 1.04 out the box, no mods, loaded up and ran the mission I was testing before I un-installed ... its the same!! Dipping in overal volume, pauses and no endings to chatter, weapon fire not working, then coming back .. I was thinking an un-install was going to do something, so not matter how its patched, modded etc ARMA on my system with Audigy 2 ZS ... doesn't work correctly .....

>>>>>>>>>> <<<<<<<<<<<<

@Plaintiff ... whats your machine specs? This is really bugging me now, I might check out my Mobo and see if theres problems ... thing is other games are ok .... I really am lost as to a fix.

I give up (nearly).

[ArmaVidz 0]

Try testing the Direct Sound output:

Start Menu>Run>Dxdiag>hit "ok" button>"Sound" tab>Click "Test DirectSound" that might give you an indication if the 'system' is buggered, or if the bug is specific to Armed Assault.

[max power 21]

@Plaintiff ... whats your machine specs? This is really bugging me now, I might check out my Mobo and see if theres problems ... thing is other games are ok ....  I really am lost as to a fix.

I give up (nearly).

a8r32 mvp

2 gigs ram

4400+

2 crossfire x1950s

audigy 2 zs platinum

xp pro sp2

[mrcash2009 0]

Dxdiag no errors, all fine, direct sound good. As I say Medieval 2 Total War runs fine and thats EAX4 and hits the sound allot in large battles and flying all over the map with no glitches or problems. System is good, I'm very anal about updated and configured drivers I check them out all the time.

Its the only time ive ever had something like this with a game, it a new system (for me) and the combination and Arma is just not playing ball ... very annoying indeed especially when everything shows fine and its still the same. Its a like a wind up!

Thanks for your specs, so in large battles are you good then? PS what large battle examples do you have? Also watch patch version of Arma?

I have it on one 500gig Sata2 drive including the swap file, I "wonder" if thats anything?? (thinking out loud about something that might be another cause) plaintiff how do you have the game installed, on separate drive to swap file?

I also wonder if Nvidia Graphics driver (I have 169.21) and Audigy could clash in some way?

Most people complain about FPS .. thats no issues on my system all high etc ... just the bloody sound (the last thing I would have thought would be an issue).

[max power 21]

Dxdiag no errors, all fine, direct sound good. As I say Medieval 2 Total War runs fine and thats EAX4 and hits the sound allot in large battles and flying all over the map with no glitches or problems. System is good, I'm very anal about updated and configured drivers I check them out all the time.

Its the only time ive ever had something like this with a game, it a  new system (for me) and the combination and Arma is just not playing ball ... very annoying indeed especially when everything shows fine and its still the same. Its a like a wind up!

Thanks for your specs, so in large battles are you good then? PS what large battle examples do you have? Also watch patch version of Arma?

I have it on one 500gig Sata2 drive including the swap file, I "wonder" if thats anything?? (thinking out loud about something that might be another cause) plaintiff how do you have the game installed, on separate drive to swap file?

I also wonder if Nvidia Graphics driver (I have 169.21) and Audigy could clash in some way?

Most people complain about FPS .. thats no issues on my system all high etc ... just the bloody sound (the last thing I would have thought would be an issue).

Occasionally after a long time of playing online, sometimes there are slight delays for me when the AI is speaking.

I've played through the whole campaign, many hours of EVO, all the SP missions, the HALO mp mission, other assorted user missions. The only time it starts misbehaving is when I need a reboot after quite a while- and it hasn't done that to me lately. Most of my experience is playing with 1.08. Some of the sound stuff is a little messy in terms of comparative volume in 1.09. You'll hear bullet cracks but not necessarily the muzzle report of weapons fired directly at you- but I think this may be related to the High Dynamic Range sound engine and the new volume settings (the loud sounds drowning out the quieter sounds) rather than a # of voices issue.

The long pauses in AI radio dialogue, I used to get after a while in the old patches but that's been fixed for me so far. I get some crashes related to some incompatibility with the VON system and the newer Creative drivers. There was a recent thread about that with a link to some older drivers that work.

I would try going for some older drivers and disabling the audio bling in the game settings (not necessarily in that order) to see if that has any effect.

[mrcash2009 0]

Well I have the original install disks for the card, but on this machine when i run setup it says words to the effect that "there is no audigy2 ZS installed on the system !?" (even when windows finds new PCI hardware too).

Yet the creative download of the latest driver you can get installs fine. So I cant go back to old drivers at the moment.

Cheers for replies guys, all appreciated

[max power 21]

Well I have the original install disks for the card, but on this machine when i run setup it says words to the effect that "there is no audigy2 ZS installed on the system !?" (even when windows finds new PCI hardware too).

Yet the creative download of the latest driver you can get installs fine. So I cant go back to old drivers at the moment.

Cheers for replies guys, all appreciated  

Try totally uninstalling all creative software, rebooting, then reinstalling it.  This above fact points to somethign external to the game going wrong. This problem has to be satisfied before you can begin to ascertain whether the problem is game related or not. It could just be that the game is sensitive to your hardware issues in the same way that that drivers disc is.

[Misfit Leader 1]

Don't worry about the strange sound volume ingame.

BIS don't really well managed the sound volume since ArmA was released.

To let you know what it's look like.

ArmA sound volume modify some windows volume mixer. (the best example i have is the ArmA radio volume modifying the TeamSpeak sound volume.. ahum! )

And the second erratum of BIS, there is no really volume bar. ArmA look the others volume bar to set it louder or silent.

Lets take some examples :

Effect Volume : 5 | 10

Radio Volume : 5 | 5

Music Volume : 5 | 5

First example 5 - 5 - 5

Same volume for all !

Second example : 10 - 5 - 5

Suddenly Radio & Music volume are like at very low without any reason (they are still at level 5 on the volume bar..) & effect volume is boosted.

This second example is the problem.. when you put a sound louder than the others, it will became louder and the others will become so quiet in comparison.

Hopefully the windows volume control are at last debugged (it's very annoying when using teamspeak, you have to set radio volume higher than effect & music if you want hear something.. but the problem is the ingame message reporting spotted ennemy that is too much louder in comparison to the teamspeak.. & bang bang the ears..)

But for the volume settings, the bugs still here in the beta.. persistant since 1 year.. be proud BIS !

How can you set your volume, if the volume change itself.

When you put radio volume to 5, you want it to keep that volume & not to become so quiet because you put effect volume on 7.

I am using an Audigy 2 ZS platinum. If you want my currently installed driver, i can send them on the internet on a sharing website. They are perfectly working, here is the name of the installation file :

"creative_pilotes_unifies_audigy_-_audigy_2_et_audigy_4_2.09.0016_3462.exe"

Doh and i should say you to never use EAX & hardware acceleration for audio settings. BIS never had them to work correctly and they can bring the game to an unstable status.

[mrcash2009 0]

Paul .. rapidshare a link would be great im interested in that idea if you know they work good.

I have tried with EAX & HW Acceleration on and off .. and it still happens either way, but yes I will leave it off.

Also Paul your bang on, it totally threw a red herring when I realised about how the volumes work, then I realised that wasn't part of my problem, I understood that was just a BIS volume setting thing as once you get the logic to it, it works right every time = not my issue I have just a normal thing.

I just need it right so it doesn't loose channels and drop effects which is the current situation.

If you want, just PM me the link to the driver you have if thats cool with you mate

@plaintiff .. it does throw up some question and your right, although I haven't gone down that route too much as other games are working fine (EAX 4 etc) ...

Im a tweak-geek and I cant let this one slide ... its bugging the hell out of me and want to nail it

[Misfit Leader 1]

Here is the link.

http://rapidshare.com/files....xe.html

Hope that would help.

[mrcash2009 0]

Thanks, 2 things ... that rapidshare link times out and no page found? I tried in Firefox and IE7.

Also I just realised they might be what i'm already using .. the install file I have is :

"SBAX_WBUP2_LB_2_09_0016.exe"

... so i'm thinking thats the same? I might be reading into that LOL. Either way I will try but that link is not happening for me at all.

[Misfit Leader 1]

rapidshare.com is down

[mrcash2009 0]

Ah I see, yep they are ... great I use them for storage ...

I will keep trying ... thanks again.

[simonfitba 0]

I think this is something to do with the latest Creative drivers.

I have a xfi xtreme music card and I had EXACTLY the same problem as the OP with distorted/muffled sounds in ArmA when every other game/app was fine.

My pal Rhodite was kind enough to close the thread before I had a chance to talk out a solution

Unfortunatly I couldn't fix the problem, so I just did a system restore to roll back to the old (but working) drivers. Shame as I really wanted 5.1 sound...

Hope you find a solution.