Video and Audio BB Problems

[Louie the Toad]

Video -- burning vehicles or houses look fine from 100 meters and out. But closer thatn 100 m the flames turn to what looks like orange panes of glass.

Audio -- All sounds seem fine EXCEPT vehicle movement. No sound at all.

Solid and silent Toad

[Schrullenhaft]

You'll probably want to mention what platform (Mac or PC) you're on, which video and sound card you have, and what driver versions you're using with them in addition to the OS you're using.

Have you modified any sounds in CMBB ?

Are you saying the the 'flames' don't move when you get in at under 100m ?

[Louie the Toad]

In BB Not only do the flames not move, they look like flat vertical frozen polygons, no flickering. In addition the 100 m distance can be on the ground or at higher camera levels. Vehicle sound and flames work fine in BO.

Gun barrel smoke also polygonical. Other smoke and dust is fine.

My system:

PC Pentium II 450 mb 128 mb ram

3fx Voodoo 3 16 mb memory

Windows 98 Direct X 8

Sound Blaster Creative Ensoniquic 9x driver

resolution 1024x768

[Schrullenhaft]

I'd have to find a box to reinstall my Voodoo 3 in to check what I've seen with it. Which Voodoo driver are you using ? You may want to upgrade to one of the 3rd Party drivers available. Though I haven't used them myself, you may want to try some of the Voodoo drivers on Guru 3D (go to Videocard Drivers > 3dfx videocard drivers > download the '3dhq 1.09 Beta 5 Voodoo 3 Windows 9x drivers' - the fifth file from the top). Since I haven't actually used these particular drivers myself, I don't know how well they behave with CM. I suggest finding the 3dfx driver CD or driver files for your current driver version so you can reinstall them if things don't work out.

To use these latest drivers, I suggest uninstalling your current video drivers via the Add/Remove Programs control panel or any Uninstall/Remove Drivers program that may have come with your current set of drivers. Once this is done, make sure that there are no .INF files for your Voodoo in the C:\WINDOWS\INF directory (they may be named with 3dfx or Voodoo in the filename - otherwise you may have to open any 'OEMx.INF' files in Notepad to find out which one is the correct one to delete). On reboot install your Voodoo 3 temporarily as a 'Standard PCI SVGA' adapter and reboot. After this then install/extract the new drivers. You can remain at your current level of DirectX since even these 3rd Party drivers don't support DirectX 9 specifically.

Regarding your sound card. You may want to check out the latest drivers (which you may already have). I assume you have the 'Sound Blaster Ensoniq AudioPCI' sound card (Creative made it a bit confusing in naming some of their PCI sound cards). Here's the latest Windows 98 drivers. Download the 'Standalone driver for Creative Ensoniq...' file, the 'Sound Blaster PCI cards Web update' and the 2Mb & 4Mb wavesets. You may want to check your directories for an 8Mb waveset that you may already have installed (which isn't available to download, but may be on the original driver installation CD). Again make sure you have the CD or file(s) to reinstall your current audio drivers in case the new ones cause problems, etc.

You'll need to uninstall your current sound card (again with the Add/Remove Programs control panel or any particular Creative uninstaller - otherwise just 'removing' the device in Device Manager is a place to start) and reboot and skip any automatic driver installation (if you're given the opportunity to cancel them). You'll need to install the 'Standalone drivers' first, reboot and then possibly run the 'web update' file (though I don't know if it actually installs files for the Ensoniq cards). There may be mention at some point during the driver installs of installing the wavesets (which are necessary for MIDI audio playback). I believe this can be done (once the waveset files are extracted) by the audio control panel for the sound card (there's a 'waveset' tab or something of that nature).

To be honest I have no idea if either of these updates will solve the problems you're experiencing (they may even add to your problems). I had a system that was configured similarly to yours at one time, but I'll have to set it up again if you continue to have problems.

[ April 04, 2003, 02:33 AM: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]

[Louie the Toad]

Schullencraft.

Thanks for the detailed information. Frankly I was hesitant to do stuff that had the potential to really mess things up, with a questionable chance of solving the problem. So I first reinstalled BB. That did the trick for the sound.

I can probably live with the frozen flames and blocky smoke since some smoke is ok and the frozen flames only occur at short range. Maybe when I have some extra time I can upgrade my video.

Question. After reinstalling BB, I expected to have to also reinstall the 1.01 and 1.02 patches,

but the selection screen shows 1.02 at the bottom. I am not so familiar with BB that I can tell from limited game play that 1.02 is actually working.

Should I rely on the 1.02 showing at the bottom of the screen at the beginning of the game?

Still attempting to appreciate BB .... Toad

[Schrullenhaft]

If it shows 1.02 at the bottom of the initial screen, then that should be the version that you're running. I'm not sure what your reinstall did since it didn't replace the executable apparently. The only thing you would have to worry about are the texture differences incorporated with the patches. Some bitmaps are replaced, while others are added. So it is possible that you have some older bitmaps.

The 'blocky' smoke will probably be a feature of any Voodoo 3 driver. I hadn't noticed the 'frozen' flames before, but that is another feature that may not improve with any of the third party drivers.