Problem with music

[Kelly]

Hi everyone!

I'm finally putting the finishing touches on my game, adding little flourishes of interactivity and whatnot. I decided to add some music to my game in MP3 format but when it loads it plays a bit too slow. Also, using the AGSCREDITZ.dll for my closing credits, the music warbles and pops all through the closing credits. It sounds terrible.  I tried OGG format but had the same results.

My machine is only a year old but I'm assuming the problem lies with it. Maybe it doesn't have the horsepower to process the game and the music at the same time? Any thoughts on how I can fix this or should I just release a silent game?

Thanks, all.  

[Archangel (aka SoupDragon)]

What soundcard do you have?

[kelly]

Um... I'd have to ask the hubby when he gets home. I know it's directx compliant. I use it to listen to CDs and MP3s all the time. I know it was some name brand I'd never heard of before. He likes to tinker and build PCs and this was something he got a good deal on.

According to the Device Manager, it's a Crystal SoundFusion. I have no idea if that tells you guys (and gals) anything at all. I never muck around inside the case so I don't know much about the goings on in there.

Does AGS prefer some cards over others? If so, I'll tell him to quit buying cheap crap and put a real card in there!  

Thanks for replying so quickly! I'll be back on after dinner tonight to see if anyone else has any ideas!

[Archangel (aka SoupDragon)]

The first thing to do is to try an updated driver for your sound card... try and find the manufacturer's website on google. If that doesn't solve the problem, then go into the multimedia section of the control panel, and try moving the slider for hardware acceleration for the sound down a notch or two - or if it isn't at the top, up a notch or two. The slider could be found anywhere depending on which OS you're using, sorry I can't help you more there.

[Ishmael]

What resolution your game is? It might be that a combination of a cheap card, high res and high quality music causes that... What bitrate the music is?

[kelly]

Music bitrate is 64 kbps. Resolution of the game is 640 x 480, hi color.

I'll play around with the sliders for my music after the cook-out today (Yay, Labor Day!).

Thanks for all your help, everyone.  

[kelly]

The plot thickens!

After the cookout, I tried adjusting the sliders under the mutlimedia tab to no avail. I even tried swapping the MP3s with some nice simply MIDIs but it still sounds terrible.

Here's the strange thing, whenever any text box opens up on the screen (like "Why would I want to pick up that rock?" or something just as simple), then the music snaps back into a nice sound. But as soon as the box closes, the music starts to warble and drag. Same thing happens if the game starts to play a .FLIC.

Should I assume I need more hamsters turning the wheel in my PC? It's barely a year old!

Thanks all.  

[Ishmael]

What DirectX version your machine has? That's one thing that can cause this, an old DX version.... I assume you don't need anything inside your computer, since 640x400 games in hi-color with music run fairly in my 266 MHz 3 year old piece of varying conditioned parts...

And... Not sure how much it has effect, but RAM amount could be another cause... if there's not enough of it. In that case you need something new inside....

[Archangel (aka SoupDragon)]

Yeah, I once had a weird problem with AGS; it was magically solved by grabbing the DirectX 9.0 runtime from downloads.microsoft.com . Go get it! Oh, and remember to put all your hardware acceleration sliders back to where they were, lest you get another weird problem

[kelly]

Well, I give up. I've tried moving sliders around, I've tried downloading DirectX 9, etc. etc.

Nothing has worked. I went so far as to copy the game onto my sister-in-law's computer {which is much older than mine... She's just as much of a cheapskate as my husband, her brother. }. Anyhoo, on her computer, it played just fine.

Thanks for all your help, everyone. I guess the only thing left to do is get that cheap man of mine to fork out the dough for a real sound card.

Thanks so much for trying!