CTD/sound SNAFU here as well (SOLVED!) (Full Version)

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Oleg Mastruko -> CTD/sound SNAFU here as well (SOLVED!) (8/8/2004 7:03:49 PM)

I came back from vacation, installed WITP (1.21) on my main machine and blammo! CTDs and sound problems as per zillion previous posts on this board.

While on the vacation I played on IBMs laptop and everything worked fine (I haven't installed 1.21 on a laptop though, just 1.10).

OK; I read the various workarounds for the sound problems - if I remove or rename sound folder there are no crashes but then I play without sound, which I don't like. I followed BlackVoid's and Beezle's advice regarding this problem (thank you guys), but none of this satisfies me. And I wonder how many PC-phobic people would have knowledge to follow their advice.

Using UV sound is not a complete workaround, as UV came with less sounds and most in WITP are better quality.

2by3 obviously knows about this problem, and I will patiently wait for it to be resolved, hopefully in the next patch.

All said, I think 2by3 made a huge mistake when they decided to use MP3 sounds in the game, and they decided to do the switch very late in the development (late May IIRC). Main game download was some 150 MB smaller, but so many people have problems because of this, and subsequent patch, weighting 125 MB all but eliminated any advantage "smaller" main download might have achieved. They should have stayed with WAV format for sound.

Due to the number of people and posts about CTD/sound problems I assume there's going to be more 100+ MB downloads just to corect this problem. Sigh.

Oleg



Damien Thorn -> RE: CTD/sound SNAFU here as well (8/8/2004 7:51:20 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Oleg Mastruko
All said, I think 2by3 made a huge mistake when they decided to use MP3 sounds in the game, and they decided to do the switch very late in the development (late May IIRC).

I agree. Since we know that UV-formatted sounds work fine, I suggest the best way for 2by3 to fix this problem is to release th WitP sounds in UV-format (which I think was .wav). Sure, it will be a big download but do it once and fix it. Everybody should be able to get it even with the slowest connection if you let your conputer download overnight.



Oleg Mastruko -> RE: CTD/sound SNAFU here as well - SOLVED (8/8/2004 8:57:09 PM)

Allright I managed to solve the problem on my PC! Try if it works for you as well.

As others have hinted - BlackVoid, Beezle and Gunnar - problem is not the sounds themselves, and most probably not the DirectX nor the drivers for your sound card.

It's not even the MP3 sound codec, it's some god*amn MP3 *filter* that garbles the sounds and produces CTDs! As Gunnar explained you can't find that filter anywhere in the Control Panel, so you'll have to find it and destroy it manually.

Gunnar and I had different filters on our PCs - he already explained how he managed to destroy his, this is how I destroyed mine and managed to play the game without CTDs and garbled sound (knock on wood). Pay attention - uninstalling this da*ned thing in the Control Panel wasn't enough! I had to unregister the filter from the Windows Registry, and this is how I did it.

I believe the AC3 filter I had is more common on user Pcs as it comes with various DivX and codec distributions so try this solution - it is my guesstimate it will work on many PCs.

Go to your system disk, then go to Program Files folder/directory. Find the subfolder named /AC3filters. If you have the problem *I* had - you'll have this folder. In this folder/dir you'll find several batch programs (.bat extension).

Find the batch file named "un registerfilters-win2000.bat" and double click on it. Filters will be unregistered and you'll be able to play the game. At least that's how it worked for me. Don't be confused by Win2000 in the name of the file, it works for WinXP as well.

Hope this helps.

Oleg



Marc von Martial -> RE: CTD/sound SNAFU here as well - SOLVED (8/8/2004 9:18:34 PM)

Did you install some kind of third party codec packs or maybe a mediaplayer that enforced installation of codecs / filters ?



Oleg Mastruko -> RE: CTD/sound SNAFU here as well - SOLVED (8/8/2004 9:23:38 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Marc Schwanebeck

Did you install some kind of third party codec packs or maybe a mediaplayer that enforced installation of codecs / filters ?


Don't know whether you asked before I managed to solve my problem or after, but the answer is - sure I did. This particular filter that caused my problems is very popular as it comes within many codec-packs, and independently as well. I think everyone in my office has it (they don't have WITP though - unfortunatelly [:D]).

In Control Panel, under Add/Remove programs it is listed simply as AC3 Filters. Even if you uninstall it from there (as I did) it won't go away, you'll have to repeat the steps outlined in my post above to remove (un-register) it from the Windows Registry for good.

Oleg



Marc von Martial -> RE: CTD/sound SNAFU here as well - SOLVED (8/8/2004 9:36:37 PM)

I asked "after" [;)] . Which specifc AC3 filter is that, got a link?



Marc von Martial -> RE: CTD/sound SNAFU here as well - SOLVED (8/8/2004 9:37:36 PM)

quote:

In Control Panel, under Add/Remove programs it is listed simply as AC3 Filters. Even if you uninstall it from there (as I did) it won't go away, you'll have to repeat the steps outlined in my post above to remove (un-register) it from the Windows Registry for good.


Yep, thatīs the problem with a lot of "third party" codec / filter installers and packs. They can really wreck your system if you donīt know what youīre doing, or how to help yourself [;)]



Oleg Mastruko -> RE: CTD/sound SNAFU here as well - SOLVED (8/8/2004 9:43:42 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Marc Schwanebeck

I asked "after" [;)] . Which specifc AC3 filter is that, got a link?


Ugh. Sorry dude. I removed it from my system, shot it with a 12 gauge shotgun, burned the remains with napalm, spat on them, and fed the source code to my pet giant white sharks I keep in a pool just for cases like this. [:D]

Really, I'm so glad I solved this and removed the damned thing from my PC to be able to play the game I never looked for the specifics.

The .ax files, the ones that caused the problems, are named iviaudio.ax, and mpgaudio.ax, so for anyone wishing to investigate into this any further is would be good idea to search for these.

I *think* it was this one:

http://ac3filter.sourceforge.net/ <= [sm=00000054.gif][sm=00000055.gif][sm=00000106.gif]

Oleg



Oleg Mastruko -> RE: CTD/sound SNAFU here as well - SOLVED (8/8/2004 9:47:53 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Marc Schwanebeck

Yep, thatīs the problem with a lot of "third party" codec / filter installers and packs. They can really wreck your system if you donīt know what youīre doing, or how to help yourself [;)]


From now on I'll install only the code that comes from Microsoft and Matrix [;)] Including betas. [:D]

O.



Damien Thorn -> RE: CTD/sound SNAFU here as well - SOLVED (8/9/2004 6:40:05 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Oleg Mastruko
Go to your system disk, then go to Program Files folder/directory. Find the subfolder named /AC3filters. If you have the problem *I* had - you'll have this folder. In this folder/dir you'll find several batch programs (.bat extension).

Find the batch file named "un registerfilters-win2000.bat" and double click on it. Filters will be unregistered and you'll be able to play the game. At least that's how it worked for me. Don't be confused by Win2000 in the name of the file, it works for WinXP as well.

Hope this helps.

Oleg


I have WindowsMe and there is no AC3filters folder. How do I unregister filters and what is a filter? Will this cause other programs to not function?

I'd prefer just getting some plain wav formatted sounds for WitP. I don't care how long it takes to download.



rogueusmc -> RE: CTD/sound SNAFU here as well - SOLVED (8/9/2004 7:52:05 AM)

Step 1)

Get rid of ME

[:D]

I'm a 2000 fanboy myself...never had a problem with it.



guke -> RE: CTD/sound SNAFU here as well - SOLVED (8/9/2004 7:58:19 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Oleg Mastruko
...
The .ax files, the ones that caused the problems, are named iviaudio.ax, and mpgaudio.ax, so for anyone wishing to investigate into this any further is would be good idea to search for these.

I *think* it was this one:

http://ac3filter.sourceforge.net/ <= [sm=00000054.gif][sm=00000055.gif][sm=00000106.gif]

Oleg


Interesting,
it looks like we had different AC3 filters causing the same problem. (mine was named ac3audio.ax)
I don't think it's the filters themselves that cause these problems because:
1. My machine had no problems playing mp3s other than the ones in witp.
2. From my understanding an AC3 filter should have no part in playing mp3s
3. Why would 2 different filters with different code cause the same problems?

I believe there must be something wrong with the sound files that causes the filter/DirectX
to act up. AFAIK the filter is mainly needed to extract the AC3 audio data out of an DVD-mpeg.

BTW: Googling for ac3audio.ax shows that other games have problems with that filter too
(The Sims for example). But then again it might be a different problem.

regards,
Gunnar



Oleg Mastruko -> RE: CTD/sound SNAFU here as well - SOLVED (8/9/2004 8:21:16 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: guke

Interesting,
it looks like we had different AC3 filters causing the same problem. (mine was named ac3audio.ax)
I don't think it's the filters themselves that cause these problems because:
1. My machine had no problems playing mp3s other than the ones in witp.
2. From my understanding an AC3 filter should have no part in playing mp3s
3. Why would 2 different filters with different code cause the same problems?

I believe there must be something wrong with the sound files that causes the filter/DirectX
to act up. AFAIK the filter is mainly needed to extract the AC3 audio data out of an DVD-mpeg.

BTW: Googling for ac3audio.ax shows that other games have problems with that filter too
(The Sims for example). But then again it might be a different problem.

regards,
Gunnar


Well right now I'm experimenting with WITP installation on my work PC (that is configured verymuch similar as my home PC). Both have this damned filter and there's no doubt about it - this filter is a game killer.

I have to thank you, because without your tip I would perhaps miss this altogether and go on seeking the problem elsewhere (well sooner or later I would find the culprit, but thanks to you it was sooner rather than later).

I think this filter resides in memory right from the Windows start-up and "feels" it has to do something with any MP3 sound you play. I guess it's responsible for "metallic" sounds that are heard by many of those who have problems (right before the game crashes altogether), so no doubt this filter is trying to do something with the sound (though I'd rather live without it's help).

O.



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