3D Sound disabled - any changes?
By
Cephalexin,
Posted on: 2011-02-23 09:21 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
Quote:
I have to do this as well. The only real drawback is that I have to answer a UAC prompt every time I start the game, but that's only a minor annoyance to me. I hear some people have game performance issues running in Compatibility Mode, but I've not noticed any real difference.|
Originally Posted by Cephalexin
Any updates to when/if 3D Sound may/perhaps/will be re-enabled?
Not too fond of setting the executable to run in XP-SP3 compatibility mode on a Win7 64 box just to enable 3D sound. Thanks |
I still think it would be nice if they would just fix CoH to work properly with Windows 7, but I imagine it would require ripping the guts out of the game's sound system and replacing it wholesale, and I doubt the devs care to spend that much effort on it. *sigh*
TargetOne
"If you two don't work this out RIGHT NOW, I'm turning this invasion around and going home!" - Emperor Cole
There are some significant driver model and IO changes from XP to vista/7. It could be an OS problem.
Then again I never heard that Cryptic ever started to officially support vista (and if not vista defiantly not 7)
I was just able to enable 3d sound using comparability mode. I had not know that.
If it is any consolation, you need to click the UAC button all the time anyways because COH elevates itself to run at ADMIN level to avoid problems applying patches.
Not to see if I will take a performance hit.
The reason why there is no hardware accelerated 3D sound is simple: Direct Sound was removed from NT6
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The suggestion has been made to the developers to convert the existing audio system to leverage OpenAL: http://connect.creativelabs.com/openal/default.aspx|
Windows Vista features a completely re-written audio stack based on the Universal Audio Architecture. Because of the architectural changes in the redesigned audio stack, a direct path from DirectSound to the audio drivers does not exist. DirectSound and other APIs such as MME are emulated as WASAPI Session instances. DirectSound runs in emulation mode on the Microsoft software mixer. The emulator does not have hardware abstraction, so there is no hardware DirectSound acceleration, meaning hardware and software relying on DirectSound acceleration may have degraded performance. It's likely a supposed performance hit might not be noticeable, depending on the application and actual system hardware. In the case of hardware 3D audio effects played using DirectSound3D, they will not be playable. |
OpenAL, while not entirely vendor neutral standard, was licensed under LGPL prior to version 1.1. It is currently promoted as an "Open Standard" by Creative and other Vendors, but has not been accepted by the Khronos.
Currently there is no official Architecture Review Board for OpenAL itself. Development of the API does continue through the public mailing lists: http://opensource.creative.com/piper...ry/thread.html
One of the rumors that pops up every now and then is that Khronos wants a proper OpenSL release to complement it's other Vendor Neutral API's, but certain hardware vendors (*COUGH INTEL COUGH CREATIVE COUGH*) are not interested.
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Cryptic has had nothing to do with this game for a loooooong time now. NCSoft bought out Cryptic's portion in early November of 2007.|
Originally Posted by _Zep_
Then again I never heard that Cryptic ever started to officially support vista (and if not vista defiantly not 7)
|
If you look at the System Requirements pages on the NCSoft Store site, they do indeed list Vista and 7 as supported OS's. The Going Rogue box also lists Vista and 7 as supported OS's. Oddly, they removed 2000 from the list of supported OS's.
Just for giggles I checked the System Requirements for some games that Cryptic DOES make, and they list Vista and 7 as well.
EDIT: The game still uses the Cryptic engine, which is why the Cryptic logo is still on the splash screen and boxes.
If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.
Black Pebble is my new hero.
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Not so odd.| Oddly, they removed 2000 from the list of supported OS's. |
Microsoft officially terminated support for Windows 2000 and there's been several API breaks between Win2k4 SP4 and WinXP Sp3.
No technical support staff wants to try and support a product the original vendor no longer wants to associate itself with.
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Let me rephrase that then.|
Originally Posted by je_saist
Not so odd.
Microsoft officially terminated support for Windows 2000 and there's been several API breaks between Win2k4 SP4 and WinXP Sp3. No technical support staff wants to try and support a product the original vendor no longer wants to associate itself with. |
I find it odd that they removed Windows 2000 from the OS list while still leaving nVidia GeForce 2, ATI Radeon 8500 and Intel i865G video cards on the list.
Basically, if you are going to remove one set of obsolete items out, removing the rest of them would make more sense.
If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.
Black Pebble is my new hero.
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Actually. Good point. |
Originally Posted by Texas Justice
Let me rephrase that then.
I find it odd that they removed Windows 2000 from the OS list while still leaving nVidia GeForce 2, ATI Radeon 8500 and Intel i865G video cards on the list. Basically, if you are going to remove one set of obsolete items out, removing the rest of them would make more sense. |
My guess would be that a large enough number of players are still using that obsolete hardware with Windows Xp. I would think it unlikely, but NCsoft / Cryptic / Paragon Studios haven't really been forthcoming with data on what hardware the playerbase actually has in hand.
The only reason I could see to maintain an OpenGL 1.4 shader path, if not for those users, is if NCSoft / Paragon Studios were planning to tackle the mobile market. However most of the tablets and other mobile devices in that market pretty much start at OpenGL 2.0 ES support...
So how would I go about setting the executable to run in XP-SP3 mode with Windows 7? I would like to experience the game in 3D surround and see if it's worth the performance hit and sheer annoyance in other areas.
The 3D Sound box of N/A makes me sad
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Open windows explorer (or right-click on Computer and choose Explore). Locate your City of Heroes installation folder. Locate and right-click on "cityofheroes.exe", and choose "Properties". Switch to the "Compatability" tab. Check the box next to "Run this program in compatability mode for", then select "Windows XP (Service Pack 3)" from the drop-down list. Then click "OK".|
Originally Posted by HunterPDX
So how would I go about setting the executable to run in XP-SP3 mode with Windows 7? I would like to experience the game in 3D surround and see if it's worth the performance hit and sheer annoyance in other areas.
|
If you decide the 3D sound isn't worth it, just repeat and uncheck the box mentioned above.
TargetOne
"If you two don't work this out RIGHT NOW, I'm turning this invasion around and going home!" - Emperor Cole
By the way: I'm no programmer, but I imagine Windows 7 does provide means for a game to determine how many channels of audio are available (e.g. 5.1) and address them directly. Then the game could remix its own sound across those channels and create its own 3D positioning. But this is hardly the same thing as DirectSound 3D, which I think had methods for a game to simply state where a sound should be positioned in 3D space, letting the API do the work of actually remixing it and adding delay, reverb, and echo effects.
(Someone correct me if I'm wrong.)
TargetOne
"If you two don't work this out RIGHT NOW, I'm turning this invasion around and going home!" - Emperor Cole
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You could make the API calls to the hardware directly to determine it but that then means they would need to test against a huge range of sound drivers. By calling a standard framework they only need to test against any compliant card - the card manufacturers will ensure their drivers handle all standard calls via the framework. This means if a new sound card is released the card manufacturer will test that it handles all framework calls and then it should work when a user plugs it into their system and installs the drivers. - If the game didn't use one of the frameworks then it could require a code update to handle the new driver.|
Originally Posted by TargetOne
By the way: I'm no programmer, but I imagine Windows 7 does provide means for a game to determine how many channels of audio are available (e.g. 5.1) and address them directly. Then the game could remix its own sound across those channels and create its own 3D positioning. But this is hardly the same thing as DirectSound 3D, which I think had methods for a game to simply state where a sound should be positioned in 3D space, letting the API do the work of actually remixing it and adding delay, reverb, and echo effects.
(Someone correct me if I'm wrong.) |
This is probably also why those older cards are still supported. If they fully support the framework they will continue to work.
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Anyone having trouble with UAC try the Norton Labs tool...
http://us.norton.com/theme.jsp?themeid=labs_uac&header=0&depthpath=0
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Hope this helps.
| The tool also has a remember me feature that allows users to suppress future prompts from the same action. |
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Any updates to when/if 3D Sound may/perhaps/will be re-enabled?
Not too fond of setting the executable to run in XP-SP3 compatibility mode on a Win7 64 box just to enable 3D sound.
Thanks
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