Weird Audio Glitches

from Sins Forums
This was actually a problem in the beta for me as well, and I mentioned it on one occassion, but never really got a response. I figured it was just an issue with the Beta, but now that I am getting the same audio interference on the final version I thought I'd bring it to light once more.

During the course of the game I experience crackling/popping sounds as the music and the other audio effects occur. It's quite annoying, as it's incessant, and the zoom level affects the amount of interference. While zoomed out all the way, the crackling becomes increasingly irritating and frequent, and the music/sound effects even slow down. The same thing occurs when zoomed in all the way. The best point I've found (thank god) is mid-zoom but even then there is considerable crackling. It would be good to note that I am using Vista Ultimate 32-bit.

Any ideas?
16,349 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
1) Try disabling bloom in the video (or effects, i can't remember) menu. I know it doesn't make any sense, but try it.

2) Do you have anything running in the background? Anything media-related, like web browser, quicktime, etc?

3) What are your machine specs?

Cheers
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
1) Tried it. No dice.
2) Everything's closed that I can see.
3) Dell Latitude D820 (Laptop)
Vista Ultimate 32-Bit (DX10)
2.16 Ghz (2 CPUS), ~2.2 Ghz
2046 MB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 120M (GeForce 7400 Chipset)

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Gah. What sound card do you have?

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Odds are you need newer sound drivers - which may be tricky given how rarely Dell updates their audio drivers (and the poor quality of them).  (:(  
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Speakers (SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC)
Digital Output Device (SPDIF) (SigmaTel High Definition Audio)

I'll try looking for a different set of audio drivers. In the meantime, think running the game in XP Compatibility Mode might help?
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Sure, have a go with that. Incidentally, a search on crackling sigmatel vista turns up a lot of results, it seems this is not an uncommon problem. Hopefully the latest drivers will help.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
It is most likely you sound drivers or even your sound card all together(though less likely)...

I have experienced similar anomolies in the sound of games on a previous computer, updated drivers, and all is good. Dell usually has good customer support so give them a call and see if they can help you out.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
I'm getting the same problem with an X-Fi running the newest drivers which are somehow from 2006. I'm going to load the beta driver from 2008 and see if it helps.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
Installing the beta X-Fi drivers fixed the audio problem. Disabling Bloom did not help.