Sound is laggy/stuttering

[loftar]

I just installed a new client to try and debug this. It has a new :audiobuf console command that sets the audio buffer size, to see if that is the problem. It is run like ":audiobuf 1024", for example, which sets the audio buffer to 1024 samples, which is also the default value.

Anyone who has this problem, please try setting the buffer size to something much larger, like ":audiobuf 8192" and see if that relieves the problem. If it does, please try values in between to try and find the minimum buffer size that works for you.

For the record, my system is perfectly fine with buffer sizes as small as 128 samples, which is why I thought 1024 would be more than well enough margin.

By the way, if you have this problem, please post whether you have a single-core CPU. I kinda doubt those even exist anymore, but just to make sure.

[xAwsomedavex]

I just installed a new client to try and debug this. It has a new :audiobuf console command that sets the audio buffer size, to see if that is the problem. It is run like ":audiobuf 1024", for example, which sets the audio buffer to 1024 samples, which is also the default value.

Anyone who has this problem, please try setting the buffer size to something much larger, like ":audiobuf 8192" and see if that relieves the problem. If it does, please try values in between to try and find the minimum buffer size that works for you.

For the record, my system is perfectly fine with buffer sizes as small as 128 samples, which is why I thought 1024 would be more than well enough margin.

By the way, if you have this problem, please post whether you have a single-core CPU. I kinda doubt those even exist anymore, but just to make sure.

I can confirm that this indeed does fix the problem, I tried 8192 and it fixes the problem. Anything lower than that value and it sometimes stutters, but putting 8192 removes the stuttering completely.
System Specs:
Optiplex 780 MT
Core2Duo E8400 3.0Ghz
8GB DDR3
Radeon HD 5570

[romovs]

6700 - no issues with sound (almost. sometimes when loading new areas there is a slight delay + jump in cpu utilization. Btw, cpu utilization due to flavor objects is insane...)
4770K - no issues with sound (same as 6700)
2520M - choppy on the default, 4096+ ok

All of the above is under Linux using integrated GPUs.

[loftar]

Thanks for testing, it's very helpful.

4096 or 8192 seems very excessive for the default buffer size, though, as it worsens the accuracy of audio timing. I'm not immediately sure what kind of balance to strike to solve this then, though.

[Bruthol]

Hard to do on the developer side I guess since it depends a lot on the client stuff.
I'm facing the same problems when I have to build things for earliest versions of IE.

Now I can gladly say : fuck them, use chrome and its v8 (or at least firefox). But I guess you can't do that.

This would make me axe you about why java. But I need to sleep, and I know you'd put too much time answering for our own good.

[xAwsomedavex]

Thanks for testing, it's very helpful.

4096 or 8192 seems very excessive for the default buffer size, though, as it worsens the accuracy of audio timing. I'm not immediately sure what kind of balance to strike to solve this then, though.

I will continue messing with the audiobuf and other options to see if it'll help to lower it from 8192. I will test this also on my lower end CQ57 laptop.

[xAwsomedavex]

I tried the game on my laptop without messing with anything and sure enough, the music/sound effects were very choppy. I went ahead and turned all the graphical settings off (shadows, aliasing, lighting, and AF). The next thing I did was try 4096 audiobuf, it wasn't too bad. The sounds were perfect if I was standing still, but once I started moving the sounds got choppy. I decided to bump it up to 8192 and the sounds were great even if I was moving around. My computers must be really bad for them not to like anything lower than 8192.

CQ57 Specs:
Celeron B800 1.5GHz (2M cache)
Intel HD Graphics (Sandy Bridge)
4GB DDR3 Ram
160GB HDD

[sfbmod]

Confirm this is an issue on my Core 2 Duo processor PC. Sound is very annoyingly choppy on any buffer setting below 8196. And unfortunately the third party clients do not have your wonderful console command Loftar.

[MagicManICT]

unfortunately the third party clients do not have your wonderful console command Loftar.

They should if they've updated properly, or you downloaded the update (if necessary).

Back to replying to loftar. I didn't have any issues with stuttering before this update, and now it stutters. I haven't tried adjusting buffer sizes yet.

[SiO2]

I just installed a new client to try and debug this. It has a new :audiobuf console command that sets the audio buffer size, to see if that is the problem. It is run like ":audiobuf 1024", for example, which sets the audio buffer to 1024 samples, which is also the default value.

Could anybody post a link to the guide? I have never had a deal with the java programming staff, but the sound is annoying, so I want to help it out.