Audio issues under Win7

[LeadCommando65 10]

Hi,

yesterday I installed Win7 x64 on my computer, because I had very low performance under Vista x64. So I decided to change to Win7 because of the recommendations and experiences about better performance with Win7 and ArmA2.

Now I have really weird audio issues. The sounds are scratching and listen distorted. It's like I'm having a little demon in my PC who's pushing the current up and down. Simply, I can't play the game like this.

I tried to use -winxp parameter or even the compatibility mode of Win7, but nothing changed. The sound card is an HD Audio onboard card on a P5Q-E motherboard.

Anyone has an idea? I didn't have these problems under Vista, but don't want to switch back, cause Win7 seems to be a lot faster.

Thanks in advance.

My PC Specs:

Intel Core2Duo E8400

Mainboard P5Q-E with HD Audio onboard

nVidia Geforce 8800GT / driver 190.38

PS: Sadly, my performance didn't increase due to the change.

[Bulldogs 10]

I hear there are some issues with HD onboard audio under Windows 7 right now, but check your motherboard manufacturers website and the HD audio website to see if they have any win 7 beta drivers.

[LeadCommando65 10]

They have even final drivers for Win7 and they are currently in use on my PC.

[delevero 10]

i have the same problem. Disable surround sound and run the game in stereo.. you properbly have to choose to only use 2 speakers in windows then the "deamon" will go away and the sound are good....

[LeadCommando65 10]

i have the same problem. Disable surround sound and run the game in stereo.. you properbly have to choose to only use 2 speakers in windows then the "deamon" will go away and the sound are good....

Thank you, this worked :).

Is there any way of forcing ArmA2 to simply use stereo (command line option, ...) ? It's annoying to turn surround sound off and on, cause it's not just one switch to click :(

[oktane 0]

i have the same problem. Disable surround sound and run the game in stereo.. you properbly have to choose to only use 2 speakers in windows then the "deamon" will go away and the sound are good....

I had this too, Distorted sounds, coming out of the wrong speakers. (example put a M1 infront of you, tread noises come out back speakers, engine bass out fronts no matter where you are looking, clicking, tearing, horrible LOUD sounds)

I fixed it by setting, under Playback, my SPEAKERS as a default communication device. If the default communication devices is set to my headset(which is the logical choice), it goes apeshit. I tested every option I could think of, and that communications (telephone icon) setting is the only one that causes it to go crazy. (bitrate, exclusive priority, effects, all work fine)

I believe the equivalent to this setting in XP, is the VOICE tab under Sounds and Audio Devices.

This may be a game bug, or the xAudio2 libs are broke in some way that concerns that setting. I will download the DirectX SDK and see if the positional xAudio samples work fine, if so then its a BIS BUG. (see edit, it is)

Windows7 final (msdn)

Realtek HDAudio driver ver 6.0.1.5898

7.1 surround via analog cables to Yamaha RX-V663

Profile:

// doesn't matter if they are set to 1 or 0, that I can tell. They are probably ignored since there is no need to support hardware limited EAX nor is there hardware acceleration in xAudio2. Someone correct me if these settings actually have an effect. (on different OS's perhaps?)

soundEnableEAX=0;

soundEnableHW=0;

Note: If you have a creative labs card, DO NOT USE CMSS. This is not surround sound in any way, its taking front speakers and copying them to the rest. You want pure 4.1, 5.1, or 7.1, unadultarated surround sound without Creative gimmics enabled.

---------------------------------------------------------

Edit:

After testing with XAudio2Sound3D sample (I had to edit some things in it to remove the reverb SourceVoice code because it crashed) it seems clear that the problem is not in XAudio2. It appears by mistake BIS is pulling some properties of the default VOICE/Communications device and trying to render the main audio device with those caps. This could be number of channels, bitrate, etc. In other words, it is probably trying to open up the default sound device with the default communication device's capabilities. This is not a hardware problem, nor an OS problem, it's a ArmA2 problem.

Here is the sample I used, compiled and ready to test positional audio, along with the source code: http://www.506th-pir.org/scripts/oktane/XAudio2MultiChanTest.rar

Edited August 13, 2009 by oktane
Added sample Link - Updated sample link, was 404

[LeadCommando65 10]

Thank you very much!

This really solved my problem. I have great surround sound now

I just defined my speakers as default (not as default communication device), again. Something must have been messed up with this. But now I don't have set any default communication device, but everything works. I think there must be a conflict between the defaults in windows and arma2.

Edited August 11, 2009 by LeadCommando65

[Dwarden 1124]

I had this too, Distorted sounds, coming out of the wrong speakers. (example put a M1 infront of you, tread noises come out back speakers, engine bass out fronts no matter where you are looking, clicking, tearing, horrible LOUD sounds)

I fixed it by setting, under Playback, my SPEAKERS as a default communication device. If the default communication devices is set to my headset(which is the logical choice), it goes apeshit. I tested every option I could think of, and that communications (telephone icon) setting is the only one that causes it to go crazy. (bitrate, exclusive priority, effects, all work fine)

I believe the equivalent to this setting in XP, is the VOICE tab under Sounds and Audio Devices.

This may be a game bug, or the xAudio2 libs are broke in some way that concerns that setting. I will download the DirectX SDK and see if the positional xAudio samples work fine, if so then its a BIS BUG. (see edit, it is)

Windows7 final (msdn)

Realtek HDAudio driver ver 6.0.1.5898

7.1 surround via analog cables to Yamaha RX-V663

Profile:

// doesn't matter if they are set to 1 or 0, that I can tell. They are probably ignored since there is no need to support hardware limited EAX nor is there hardware acceleration in xAudio2. Someone correct me if these settings actually have an effect. (on different OS's perhaps?)

soundEnableEAX=0;

soundEnableHW=0;

Note: If you have a creative labs card, DO NOT USE CMSS. This is not surround sound in any way, its taking front speakers and copying them to the rest. You want pure 4.1, 5.1, or 7.1, unadultarated surround sound without Creative gimmics enabled.

---------------------------------------------------------

Edit:

After testing with XAudio2Sound3D sample (I had to edit some things in it to remove the reverb SourceVoice code because it crashed) it seems clear that the problem is not in XAudio2. It appears by mistake BIS is pulling some properties of the default VOICE/Communications device and trying to render the main audio device with those caps. This could be number of channels, bitrate, etc. In other words, it is probably trying to open up the default sound device with the default communication device's capabilities. This is not a hardware problem, nor an OS problem, it's a ArmA2 problem.

Here is the sample I used, compiled and ready to test positional audio, along with the source code: http://www.506th-pir.org/scripts/oktane/forums/XAudio2MultiChanTest.rar

there is no OpenAL support so EAX/HW options shall be inert (A1 leftover)

we will look over Your findings in next days , thanks for Your time and report

[oktane 0]

But now I don't have set any default communication device, but everything works.

Yes when you set your speakers as the default communication device, the phone icon disappears, yet it is still set as the default communication device I think. There is only room for one icon so it displays the Checkmark, which means default playback device.

I'm glad it helped!