Blue Monkey
Archon Without Portfolio
Has anyone found a solution to the units not playing all sounds? I've had this problem and I see here many others have as well.
Unit Sound Problems
- Thread starter Blue Monkey
- Start date
ejday
King
I've had sporadic unit sound problems. Usually, it goes by unit as some of them seem to consistently play while others don't – although I haven't tracked it very carefully, to be honest.
It's very likely that the .ini for the hushed units simply has the wrong name for the associated sounds (or the right name, but no sound in the folder). If that's the case, I'm not sure it'll rate an Aspyr fix.
It's very likely that the .ini for the hushed units simply has the wrong name for the associated sounds (or the right name, but no sound in the folder). If that's the case, I'm not sure it'll rate an Aspyr fix.
I've been doing some experiments, as I usually play with sounds off so wouldn't notice this sort of issue. I seem to get consistent battle sounds from warriors (I've only tried early game), but no sound for worker actions.
Looking at the file sets I think it may be that some sounds are specified as .amb files which Mac OS and Quicktime don't recognise, and others are .wav, which it does. My guess is if we could convert .amb files to .wav we'd be in business. Any sound experts here?
Looking at the file sets I think it may be that some sounds are specified as .amb files which Mac OS and Quicktime don't recognise, and others are .wav, which it does. My guess is if we could convert .amb files to .wav we'd be in business. Any sound experts here?
Brad Oliver
Civ3/4 Mac programmer
AlanH said:
It's probably best not to waste your time on this - I'll be attempting to take care of this in a future patch.
ejday
King
Okay, so much for the "no fix" prediction.Brad Oliver said:
Cool.
Thank you, Brad!
Thanks Brad. I've now convinced my self this is the explanation. I changed the Worker.INI file's Sound Effects references to:
ROAD=WorkRoadShovelIn.wav
MINE=WorkMinePickAxe.wav
and I then heard worker noises when I started a road or a mine.
I was coming to the conclusion that conversion is non-trivial. I found mctools.osx, and it seems to try, but doesn't recognise the sound file type of the .amb files. Error message is "unknown sound file type - extension not set".
ROAD=WorkRoadShovelIn.wav
MINE=WorkMinePickAxe.wav
and I then heard worker noises when I started a road or a mine.
I was coming to the conclusion that conversion is non-trivial. I found mctools.osx, and it seems to try, but doesn't recognise the sound file type of the .amb files. Error message is "unknown sound file type - extension not set".
Blue Monkey
Archon Without Portfolio
Brad Oliver said:
It's minorly annoying: doesn't affect game play, but definitely reduces enjoyment. I really appreciate your continued work to make our leasure time obsessions even more fun.
Brad Oliver
Civ3/4 Mac programmer
AlanH said:
Actually, it is non-trivial. The .amb files are custom MIDI files that use wav files as samples to play cues at certain timings. Most of the .amb files play a combination of .wav files, as you are probably noticing.
Nope. I'm no expert on sound files. All I notice is that the .amb files don't seem to play at all.Brad Oliver said:Actually, it is non-trivial. The .amb files are custom MIDI files that use wav files as samples to play cues at certain timings. Most of the .amb files play a combination of .wav files, as you are probably noticing.
Is this related to the problem where the music just stops? Anyone else have that problem? I had the same problem on the old Civ3, maybe it's just my computer? (Powerbook G4 12")
The music stops but the unit sounds (at least the ones that work!) and all the other sound effects continue. To get the music back I open up Preferences screen or open up a diplomatic channel to a foreign civ. That restarts the music, no need to change prefs or actually say anything to the foreign civ. Weird. (Reloading works too, but takes longer.)
The music stops but the unit sounds (at least the ones that work!) and all the other sound effects continue. To get the music back I open up Preferences screen or open up a diplomatic channel to a foreign civ. That restarts the music, no need to change prefs or actually say anything to the foreign civ. Weird. (Reloading works too, but takes longer.)
Brad Oliver
Civ3/4 Mac programmer
benjaminz said:
I'm not aware of any problem where the music flat-out stops (it does halt a bit during heavy AI). If anyone else experiences a complete music stop like that, I'd be interested in hearing more.
Blue Monkey
Archon Without Portfolio
Brad, what i'm noticing is not a music or ambient sounds; and it seems to be a problem that is not with a specific unit. All units play some of their sounds (notably fidgets and deaths) but some (noteably attacks and workers digging or chopping) seem never to play. From posts I've read in various threads, it seems to happen to people with all sorts of different Macs, running different OSX versions, so it doesn't seem to be a hardware problem.
Note that when I did my test with .amb files I wasn't referring to "ambient" or background sounds. A .amb file is just a specific type of sound file. Some of the worker actions, for example, use .amb files while others use .wav files. It's my belief, based on a very small sample test on two files, that the .wav effects play OK and the .amb ones don't. That could explain the lack of some sounds and the presence of others. It would not explain Benjaminz' report of music stopping abruptly.
Blue Monkey
Archon Without Portfolio
Sorry about the mutual misunderstanding Alan. My reference to ambient sounds was not to the .amb files. I haven't looked at the folders to try to identify which individual files are associated with the non-functioning sounds. I was trying to give Brad some clues to work with about the in-game situations where the problems occur.
Brad Oliver
Civ3/4 Mac programmer
Blue Monkey said:
No clues needed. The sound effects that are .amb files are the ones you're not hearing.
See my experiment further up. If you change the .ini files to refer to .wav files instead of to .amb files then you hear unit sound effects. I guess that would be a way to get *some* sounds out of those units. Though of course, they are not persistent during the units's activity in the way the .amb ones are meant to be. They'll just happen once as you order the unit to do something.
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