Weird Sound Problem..

[Rattlesnake8]

When i load up the Supreme Commander demo i get no sound at all. However when it gets to the menu the sound resumes and when playing everything is fine. The exact same thing happens with the C&C 3 demo. The intro has no sound, but the menu does.

In C&C 3 when playing the campaign, sound works perfectly except for when the in mission briefs happen. (the box top right appears and someone talks). I can't hear what they are saying. However the mission briefing (just before missions started) i could hear everything perfectly. All other sound works and every other game i have works perfectly.

Anyone have a similar problem or know how to fix it?
I have a surround sound setup with 5 speakers and a sub. Kind of weird that it works with all games except these 2 demo's.. and even then it's only the intro.

I want to get both games, but i want to be able to watch all cutscenes/intros and everything with full sound.

[xG4m3rx4xl1f3]

Are you using vista? If so, sounds can be weird like that for games, and there is a new driver available thats supposed to help that.

[Rattlesnake8]

No im not using Vista.. using Windows XP.

[Cotterik]

could be some sort of driver issue with your Sound Card. Check its upto date. I realise thats probably really stupid to say.

If that doesnt work, check the support forums for each game, Its surprising to find out how many other people have the same problem when you look on there. I had a problem with C+C3 where an 'outofmemory' error popped up and froze. It seems that alot of other people have it, and its an on-going problem that needs to be patched. It may be the case with your problem, and a patch for both games may have fixed it.

[Rattlesnake8]

Thanks Cotterik.
It's just a weird problem that happens with both those games, yet others work fine.

Oh, and with C&C3, the EA logo appears with sound, the intro cutscene just after it has no sound.

[Karlsweldt]

Could be that your sound scheme may not be compatible. All audio clips should default to a 'stereo' mode, but some audio clips may default to 'surround' or an "EAX" type. Check what scheme your sound setup has. Not all audio clips have the encoding to work with 5.1 or 7.1 sound schemes. Some games will crash, if the "EAX" type scheme is default.

[Rattlesnake8]

If that were the case then how come the EA logo works, as does the menu, mission briefing and in game. Just the intro.. very weird.

[Karlsweldt]

Video data is one issue.. and usually defaults to whatever the desktop settings are, unless the user-configured settings are set as default. With sound data, unless the encoding is present in the file for enhanced sound schemes, it should default to either a mono or plain stereo mode. It may be the type of media player that is default to your system, not recognizing the parallel link of the video and audio data.
You aren't alone.. found many links in a Google search for "Supreme Commander sound issues".
Could simply be the demo player doesn't recognize the high IRQ or DMA assigned to your sound setup. Not a new problem.
There should be some patches available from the vendor which may correct the issues.

[Rattlesnake8]

Thanks a lot Karlsweldt! :)
I'll do a search and see if anyone has found any fixes for the issue.

[Karlsweldt]

Found THIS (http://www.att.net/cgi-bin/websearch?cmd=qry&qry=Supreme+Commander+Demo+patches&image.x=0&image.y=0) from a Google search..
and even here at 3d Gamers there are patches listed for many games.

[Rattlesnake8]

Thanks, i'll check it out when i get some time. Im not keen on downloading a patch for the demo.. but if it fixes it then it doesn't tell me if the full version will be the same or not.