White noise

Dark1 · Post by **Dark1** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 9:17 pm

Very occasionally, something goes wrong with the sound. All the sound effects will suddenly be replaced with white noise - like a flashback to the 80s, loading something from cassette. Then after an unpredictable amount of time, just as suddenly as it happened, it flicks back to normal again.

Using the custsounds.oxp, so I don't know if that's anything to do with it.

Is this a known bug, or is it just me?

Version 1.64, on Powerbook G4 1.5GHz, 1gb, and OSX 10.4.7

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 1:50 pm

Hmm, no. Is there anything in the log? I don’t think[/] there are significant changes to the sound code between 1.64 amd 1.65, so that’s bad. This kind of thing is of course hard to debug when they only happen to other people…

m going to make a serious effort to focus on one thing for the next release, and it’ll probably be the sound code (all that improved looping and variant stuff, as well as allowing large sound effects to be streamed). I’ll try to remember this problem while I’m at it. :-/

Selezen · Post by **Selezen** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 5:26 pm

I used to get that a lot with badly compressed MP3s - it often happens if one is performing some other action on a computer when compiling (or ripping) a music file, or if the decompression codec on the computer is a bit ropey...

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 6:14 pm

Selezen, what you’re describing sounds like playback buffer underflow (unless it occurs in the same point in a file every time). The Oolite sound code plays silence if this happens, and I’m reasonably sure that part is robust, but it’s one of the first things I’ll check when I go home.

Dark1 · Post by **Dark1** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 2:26 pm

It's just done it again! Now using v1.65. In a witchspace misjump, lots of stuff going on with Thargoids, laser in much use, and bam... white noise sound effects.

Checked the log, and I see this entry:

Code: Select all

2006-07-31 14:51:16.874 Oolite[6060] OOCASoundMixer: failed to connect channel <OOCASoundChannel 0x13d2fc0>{ID=3, state=stopped, sound=<OOCABufferedSound 0x5f52f00>{"laser.ogg"}}, error = kAudioUnitErr_CannotDoInCurrentContext.

Then 32 minutes later, again in the middle of a fight (not easy when all sound effects sound the same), it cures itself. But nothing relevant mentioned in the log this time.

Any help?

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 7:24 pm

Gnah! Are you sure that’s 1.65?

Dark1 · Post by **Dark1** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 9:06 pm

Ahruman wrote:
Gnah! Are you sure that’s 1.65?

Absolutely positive.

So can we gather it is just me then?

Did it again a few minutes ago, but solved itself within seconds this time. When it happens, it's always in the middle of a fight with lots going on and lots of sound effects going at once. Plus don't forget, using the customsounds.oxp, so many of these sound effects are long sustaining. Don't know if that's relevant.

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 10:24 am

Could be, although you should be getting a different message in that case ("Out of sound channels! Pretend you're hearing laser.ogg"). The idea was that this should practically never happen, but the channel count is set based on the built-in sounds, and running out with custsounds.oxp is acceptable. Although I do have a plan there…

If it’s just occasional and self resolving, I shall refrain from tearing my hair out.

jonnycuba · Post by **jonnycuba** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 3:09 pm

Ok I've just had an instance of this bug too... white noise followed by an overall reduction in the sound output of Oolite (system sounds etc are normal volume).

Odo987 · Post by **Odo987** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 1:58 am

Dark1 wrote:
So can we gather it is just me then?

Nope, I just got it.

Oolite 1.65
Mac Dual-G4 1.25GHz
OXPs: Behemoth, Lave, Tori, X-ships
I am NOT using customsounds.oxp

Was playing normally when suddenly all internal sound effects turned into deafening white noise. Tractor beam, laser shots, etc. I think the spoken messages were unaffected. iTunes playing MP3s in the background was normal.

The log suddenly filled up with a whole pile of these:

Code: Select all

2006-08-05 21:46:17.087 Oolite[669] OOCASoundMixer: failed to connect channel <OOCASoundChannel 0x13b7730>{ID=3, state=stopped, sound=<OOCABufferedSound 0x551df40>{"warning.ogg"}}, error = kAUGraphErr_InvalidConnection.
2006-08-05 21:46:17.123 Oolite[669] OOCASoundMixer: failed to connect channel <OOCASoundChannel 0x13b7730>{ID=3, state=stopped, sound=<OOCABufferedSound 0x5517460>{"laserhits.ogg"}}, error = kAUGraphErr_InvalidConnection.
2006-08-05 21:46:17.180 Oolite[669] OOCASoundMixer: failed to connect channel <OOCASoundChannel 0x13b7730>{ID=3, state=stopped, sound=<OOCABufferedSound 0x5518c90>{"hit.ogg"}}, error = kAUGraphErr_InvalidConnection.

Edit: Technically it wasn't white noise, it was much harder, lots of square waves in there. Lasted for a minute, then I got blown up by a bunch of pirates who took advantage of my extreme disorientation. Interestingly the log only lists 23 sound errors from 21:46:14.336 to 21:46:17.609, but there was no way this only lasted three seconds.