Sound Moddeling

No place else to put this and since it has more to do with 3D visual effects and sfx than it does with pog, here it goes...

Specifically it has to do with weapon subsims and the sfx associated with it. While modding weapons it could be easy to confuse a preformance anomoly with graphical preformance issues so here is something to note on this

Sfx can cause an effect that appears (visually) to be graphic stuttering but really isn't. The effect is dependent on the properties (audible type) of the sound and is more predominate at higher pitch bend levels while relativly independent of the volume. The effect is also independent of the avatar used for the bolt.

I.e depending on the sfx (sound ini) settings, you may see graphic stuttering when you pull the trigger. One could assume the graphical stuttering is because the graphical effect of the bolt suddenly appearing is not pre-cached (as predicted) in the graphic card. Testing shows however, this is not a graphic preformance problem but a sound issue! (actually thats obvious when you consider that Sfx is parented to the weapon subsim and not to the bolt)

Note: In this test the sound card and graphic card do not share the same IRQ, nor do either of them share an IRQ with other active resources.
The test was on WinXP with a Creative live 5.1 sound card so ok:
Rant: It's often been noted that creative can't make a decent driver for XP regardless if it's for a Live or Audigy. Apparently though it's not only Creative. Why the heck can't anyone make decent sound cards and drivers!! /Rant

Obviously it's very difficult to blame this on the EOC-Engine, or an unforgivable lack an acceptable technical sound implimentation in PC's in general, or whatever.

Whatever it is, the effect is repeatable. If you have any preformance issues when firing a new weapon you modded take a look at the sfx sound(s) too before you think "my avatar is too big"



Iwar2 Multiplayer Fan Site

Yep it seems the better the spec of the card the worse this problem is. My onboard C-Media had no problems, my new M-Audio Revolution needs the hardware acceleration turned down to stop it stuttering and crunching with every bolt. Changing the graphics to 16 bit seemed to help too, I will investigate more.

Jumbo

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Originally posted by jumbo

Changing the graphics to 16 bit seemed to help too, I will investigate more.

cool if you look into this with exempelary diligence like you did on the firewall issue

Note:
Imo reducing down to 16 bit graphics only relieves the symptoms but provides no cure.
i.e. by reducing you just minimize the total load on the system so the sound application/hardware has more resources to work with.

Anyhow, I've very little knowledge on sound issues (I always try to avoid the subject), so I'm very interested in your observations on this.

Iwar2 Multiplayer Fan Site