Music/Sound Track: is it there?

[kirkpp]

May sound odd (no pun intended), but I'm not sure if sound is working correctly on my computer, with this game or not. I first played Civ4 on my old computer, which was definitely up to the task, and my new computer just arrived, and it does seem to be handling everything fine. Sound, video, graphics - all appear to be zippy and performing well, except:

Where's the sound track??? I know with my old computer I rarely heard music playing (though i did later on in the game, but even then, not continuously). I blamed this on my inadequate hardware, but now, with most parts of the game performing swimmingly, I expected to hear the traditional continuous sound track - but I do not! Does this game have a continuous sound track, or are they trying to be tricky or something by bring music in and out?

I don't think I'm having any hardware malfunctions, ambient sounds are all there. If I zoom into a village, I can hear the "music" that I believe is actually part of the ambient sound track. But, FWIW, I have a Creative SB X-Fi, on a Dell, w/ Pentium D 3.4 GHz, 2 GigRam.

Is there a sound track on this game? If so, is it *supposed* to play continuously?

TIA,

Kirk

 

[Akhenaton]

Is there a sound track on this game? If so, is it *supposed* to play continuously?

Yes, but the volume depends on the camera angle, it should be most audible with the default camera angle that you get when you start it with default settings.

You could also check your speaker setup, it might be that your 3D sound settings are messed up so that the channels that should be fed are getting a "blind spot" due to a camera angle variation. There relevant settings are under Options Screen/Audio. With Audigy 2 and 6.1 sound I've found that the setting "Use System Settings" or something to that effect produces most consistent results, but in that case you may still have to check that the speaker settings are correct in two separate places (Windows settings under "Sounds and Multimedia" as well as the GUI "console" talking directly to the card drivers ("Creative Audio Console" with SB).

However, it's still possible that there are bugs in there and it doesn't always work (hasn't happened to me), because Miles occasionally throws errors on "Set3DSoundPosition" even when it seems like working just fine.

Do you hear music in the menus?

 

[kirkpp]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Yes, but the volume depends on the camera angle, it should be most audible with the default camera angle that you get when you start it with default settings.

You could also check your speaker setup, it might be that your 3D sound settings are messed up so that the channels that should be fed are getting a "blind spot" due to a camera angle variation. There relevant settings are under Options Screen/Audio. With Audigy 2 and 6.1 sound I've found that the setting "Use System Settings" or something to that effect produces most consistent results,

I tried this, still doesn't work.

Do you hear music in the menus?

Yes. I just tried out setting the custom music folder (on the in-game audio options panel) to one of the music folders that comes installed with the game, and oddly enough, music started playing right off! Now, I'd still like to play back the full sound track, as it was designed to be play back - but there is starting to look more like an install problem, than a hardware problem (hrrmph).

 

[kirkpp]

I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling - and same deal. I can get the soundtrack to play if I check the custom music folder, and then set it to Civ's own soundtrack files:

C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\Sounds\Soundtrack

Maybe that means everythings working fine now, but I'd still like to find out what went wrong. I suspect there is still a bit of game design that I'm missing out now (like perhaps matching eras to music genres, or something like that). Not a big deal, but if there's an answer out there, I'd love to hear it!

 

[kirkpp]

Bump.

Now someone else out there must have seen this problem! It's got to be an install problem, I've seen this on 2 computers now (and quite different computers, at that, though there are some similarities in config), so it seems more than probable to be somehow installing something improperly, or somehow failing to know where the music assets are stored.

If no one out there can give me anymore info on this problem - would anyone care to comment on the effectiveness of emailing to 2K Tech Support? Are they responsive to emails?

 

[ACEofHeart]

Not sure if this helps,, keep in mind,,there is "no" sound track for the Ancient Era,,only starts in later eras...
there is a mod that adds it to the game...

 

[Putz]

I have seen the same issue with the sound working and then not. I have some files in the civ4\music directory and on occasion, no matter the camera angle I have no "soundtrack". I tried unselecting the custom fold box and then rechecking the box, and on occasion it works. I do have to admit I couldn't stand the opening music and found the location of the intro music and replaced it with something more metal than vocal.