Sound issues

Updated 06/17/2009

Many people seem to have sound issues. First off, if do NOT have Vista Service Pack 2 (for Vista), then install it. It has solved the problem for many people already, particularly the problem where game characters have high voices.

Vista 32 bit SP2: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a4dd31d5-f907-4406-9012-a5c3199ea2b3&DisplayLang=en
Vista 64 bit SP2: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=656c9d4a-55ec-4972-a0d7-b1a6fedf51a7&DisplayLang=en


If that does not do the trick, then try changing the hardware accelaration . It has been reported that it needs to be set to around 44100 Hz to fix it, 48000 is still too high.
In vista to find this, you right-click the speaker in lower right, select Playback Devices, find your soundcard in the list, right-click and choose properties, go to advanced tab, in the Default Format dropdown list choose 16 bit, 44100 Hz (CD Quality) or 24 bit, 44100 Hz (Studio Quality).
In XP to find this, Click START, Settings, Control Panel, Sound and Audio Devices, Speaker Settings, Advanced, Performance, and change the hardware accelaration there.

When you have no sound at all, then try disabling AGP in the dxdiag (start, run, dxdiag, sound tab)

Also make sure your sound drivers are up-to-date.

Another suggestion, by alx_mercer, which worked for everybody with xp sp3 so far, is to disable modem audio devices in the device manager.

Removing the 00audio.rcf file, as is suggested in this thread, only works temporarily, upto chapter 3. After that the bad sound reoccurs. Also people have reported that removing the file gets them stuck, so better leave that file in place. It's there for a reason. There must be a better solution.


Below are the suggestions of the official tech help:

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Make sure you have the latest video and sound card drivers from the manufacturers' websites.


All background applications must be shutdown prior to running the game.


Turn the hardware acceleration for your sound card to Basic.
1) Click the Start button > Settings > Control Panel.
2) Double-click on the Multimedia icon.
3) Select the Audio tab.
4) Click on the Advanced Properties button in the Playback section.
5) Click on the Performance tab.
6) Reduce the Hardware acceleration to Basic, the 2nd notch from the left.
7) Click Apply and then OK 2 times. Run the game now. Don't forget to turn the acceleration back up to restore the high-end features for your sound card when using other applications.

NOTE: For Windows XP
1) Click the Start button > Settings > Control Panel.
2) Double-click the Sounds and Audio Devices icon.
3) Click the Volume tab.
4) Under Speaker settings, click the Advanced button.
5) Click the Performance tab.
6) Reduce the Hardware acceleration to Basic, the 2nd notch from the left.
7) Click Apply and then OK 2 times. Run the game now. Don't forget to turn the acceleration back up to restore the high-end features for your sound card when using other applications.

If you are using Windows Vista please check to verify that your default sound format is not set too high:

Start menu -> Control panel
Double-click on Sound
Locate your default sound device, it will have a green check
Right-click on this device and select properties
Select the Advanced tab
Look at the Default Format drop down menu. If this value is set above 48000 Hz (regardless of bit rate) please change the setting to a lower setting.
Hit ok and close the sound and control panels
Try the game again

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If the issue still persists, then post below which Operating System exactly you have, attach a dxdiag and describe the exact sound problem.

Xingjian wrote:Problem: Sound crackles under cutscenes and in-game menu and it laggs the cutscenes and the menu.

I dont find attach button here, so i uploaded my dxdiag here -> http://tajpan.web.elte.hu/DxDiag.txt

I'm using Vista x64. In Vista there's no way to disable audio hardware acceleration, just if you disable it in the devices, but it doesn't solve the problem.

Try updating sound drivers. Yours are more than 2 years old.

Actually, I'm running XP SP3 and I have sound issues as well.
I'm not familiar with the crackles, but the volume is exceptionally low in this game. I have to turn it up quite a bit. It sounds like an unmastered song basically =)
especially the volumes between music & dialogue.

xingjian,

i think we have the same problem, did you notice that the problem only starts about 2 sec after the first cut scene?

dude in biohazard suit says " i knew this guy, he is black light" <- no problem until here

scene cut to other guy "he's ex blacklight now" <- problem starts

if the problem starts at the same place for everyone, then it means it's probably something having to do with the programming of the game

New update for Vista users, concerning the sound hardware accelaration. Posted by RaidSoft:

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you have to set it to 44100 Hz I believe to fix it, 48000 is still too high..

edit: in vista to find this you right-click the speaker in lower right, select Playback Devices, find your soundcard in the list, right-click and choose properties, go to advanced tab, in the Default Format dropdown list choose 16 bit, 44100 Hz (CD Quality) or 24 bit, 44100 Hz (Studio Quality)

This have solved the problem for everyone I know so far. Doesn't help lagging video cutscenes though I believe which is related to another problem, but shouldn't get any chipmunk sounds ingame.

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First post in this thread updated.

You cant change acceleration in Vista. Microsoft put it out from Vista. I searced the internet all day, and everywhere they said it has been put out from vista, they don't know why.


lkk100 wrote it:

"my theory is that it has nothing to do with the audio at all, rather the root cause seems to be abnormal cutscene playing speed, the audio problem seems to occurs only because the audio is programmed to be in sync with the motions... if your cutscene plays too fast, you hear chipmonk like fast audio, if your cutscene plays too slow, you hear deep cracking audio"

you are * right, its not audio problem, but speed. For me its slow motion, for others its chipmunk fast. What i dont know is why sp2 repair the chipmunk fast movies for gamers, but i doesnt help the slow motion.

The 3rd and the other cutscenes is slow motion for me too. There was a one cutscene that was normal speed and good for me, when he consume the officer who knows about his sister. There i hoped the sound issue repaired but no, the other cutsecenes afther that was slow motion too:S.

What the hack is going on with cutscene speed in this game? It's just a movie, its not something big that the video card must calculate a lot with it. When i crush the city and makes the video card work a lot its smooth and good. When the video card has nothing to do just play a simple movie it slows down or fast forwarding for the chipmunk sound gamers.

I tried using cheat engine to speed up the game clock, it doesnt seem to have an effect at all

Yeah and a news from me. I started the game load my seved game. And it begins with the hospital video, when they talking about blacklight. It started smooth, and after 3 seconds it slowed down. So its not just about you are in a cutscene or in the in-game menu. Its about how long you are there, when you started the game everything is good for 3 seconds:D. Then the computer realize that he must be evil with you and slows down the cutscene in-game menu and then the outside menu as well. The only thing he doesn't slow down is the playing while you destroy the city with alex.

But why? Its not about OS, or sound card or graphics card because it appeared on XP and vista as well, and ATI an GEforce as well. What is similar in all these configs?

Who knows? What is your suggestion? I try everything just to get this work. What is strange that first cutscene is very good. And the other is good for 3 seconds when yoi start the game so if it is codec porblem, how can the first cutscene run good?

It will be good if the creators upload the cutscenes in AVI somewhere, so when somebody reach a cutscene he pushes alt+tab watch the cutscene in windows media player and then go back to play:D

Same issue here with the sound. I can barely hear anything. I have to crank my speakers up to the max just to get it to a level above a whisper. If a truck rolls by outside, I can't hear a * thing. Running Windows XP SP3. Never had any sound issues with any other games and I have over two dozen games. Other than that, the game runs very smoothly aside from a teeny, eeny bit of lag.

I'm in the same boat as those who are experiencing very low in-game sound. To my knowledge I have the latest audio drivers, and setting the audio quality to 41000KHz @ 16 or 24 bit didn't help. Nor did any other setting, suggested or not.

I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate RC7100 64bit

The sound itself is fine, there's no crackle or distortion, it's just the volume being abnormally low, no matter what I do.

Met the minimum requirements? Heh try my shoes I'm sitting here with a brand spankin new $2000+ gaming computer and this game which doesn't even begin to tax its capabilities is failing to run properly. If I didn't know PC version will serve me better in the long run I'd go demand my money back and just fire this game up on the Xbox.

However I am starting to get really annoyed at the lack of tech support on this forum. To my knowledge no PC game release in history has gone so smooth it didn't need a large and competent tech team to monitor issues at release. Why there doesn't seem to be one behind this game being put out by a multi-billion dollar company is beyond my ability to comprehend.

Its been well over an hour, and coming up on two hours since their last post. At the very least at this point we should have gotten an update and a "please be patient we are working on it".

I'm currently using Windows XP SP3 and I'm getting the issue where my sound is VERY quiet.

I've tried reinstalling the game, dropping the acceleration, reinstalling DirectX, and updated my sound drivers to the latest.

Every other game / application's sound is perfectly fine, and everything is turned up to the max. The sound is just incredibly quiet.

Xingjian wrote:Yeah it's strange for me too, that Rudy alone is the tech team. He tries to help, but he cannot solve 100 problems alone.

You are very correct, and i'm not even a tech guy, but a moderator. I'm drowning in new threads at this very moment. Though it's just been released and therefore normal to get a lot of new threads, this is waaaaay too much for one person to handle, so I'm calling in some additional help. Hold on a bit longer. I'm calling the infantry.

I had this exact problem, borked sound issues, and changing my sound from 192000Hz 24-bit to 48000Hz 16-bit sound fixed the problem completely - even in the later cutscenes it works fine. I have the Realtek HD audio drivers for Vista, and here's how to do it with them:

Double click on the orange speaker in the taskbar (bottom right).
Under "Speakers", click on the "Default Format" tab.
Use the drop-down menu to select "16 Bits, 48000 Hz (DVD Quality)".
Hit OK and play. Hope this helps.

Vista 32-bit here. I'm having the same problem with sound crackling during cutscenes and the pause menu.

I updated my audio drivers, but that didn't do anything. (had to rollback to my old driver because the new one was causing problems).

After trying alot of things. I'm beginning to think this is a problem with the game itself. Any word about a fix from the tech team yet?

The only real way to fix this for everybody, including the GPU issues, is with a patch.

Anybody knows if the makers are working on one?

Cheers

I literally have no options here, I'd like to say about 25% of the people that purchased prototype, and will purchase prototype are and will have this issue.

I'm running Windows XP, latest updates.

I've updated my directx 9.0c to the latest version, updated my sound drivers, tried the suggested fixes (setting hardware acceleration to basic) and still have the issue. I've never had sound issue with a game, ever, in all the hundreds of games i've played, never had ONE problem. Which is why I'm so confused.

I don't have the option to set my frequency or bit rate, nor should I have to. That solution is a workaround not a fix.

Is the tech team going to do something? I'm pretty disappointed considering this game looks amazing.

I really hope that they release a patch for all this very soon...I've tried all the methods, Now i can't even load my game without it crashing, first no sound now i can't play my save...Cry out to devs for Patch .