How to: Update BF2 Audio version

[=98=]

Re: How to: Update BF2 Audio version

X-Fi Platinum (no 64mb, but has front face plate), crackle galore during normal everyday tasks and no crackling since setting it to audio creation more.

Creative cards with frontpanels have known problems with EMI effecting the cable that connects the two ends. I recently had this discussion with another person (which would explain it happening all the time).

[Minmaster]

Re: How to: Update BF2 Audio version

i don't get why only audio creation mode gives you no crackle and everything else does. that means the card is basically useless for you and you're probably better off using onboard sound. are you able to at least use hardware mode within BF games? if not, the audio probably sounds horrible and you'd be better off not using the card.

even though my x-fi card crackles with BF in x-fi mode, i have had no other problems with it in any other games. of course i haven't owned any other game that features x-fi mode but still, it's been solid outside of BF, specifically 2142.

[Leopardi]

Re: How to: Update BF2 Audio version

Are you guys sure you have Wave set at 50%? Of course it's gonna crackle if it's anything above 50%.

[Natt]

Re: How to: Update BF2 Audio version

FYI: The 1.50 patch only updates BF2OpenAL.dll from version 1.1.1.0 to version 2.1.8.1, the latest version is 2.2.05.

[-=NC=-Larva]

Re: How to: Update BF2 Audio version

Are you guys sure you have Wave set at 50%? Of course it's gonna crackle if it's anything above 50%.

This is a good point. If you don't have your Master, Wave and Speaker volumes all set in balance, chances are you will hear crackling, especially for explosions and such. Some speaker/sound card combinations are more finicky then others.

A good rule of thumb is to keep all of your volume levels below 75%... at least, if not lower. Then adjust your "Wave" and "Speaker" volumes accordingly until the sound is smooth and hiss free. Be patient and keep adjusting until you find the sweet spot, the optimal configuration.



Also make sure you display all of your channels in the Sound Mixer so you can mute any channels that you aren't using. Nowadays it's rare to even need the "CD Player" channel since almost everything runs through the "Wave" channel on most music players.



Also make sure you've got the latest audio drivers. If you're using onboard sound, then chances are the drivers you've gotten from your motherboard maker are outdated as hell, so do some research and find the homepage of the actual audio chip maker. Get the latest drivers from the source.




Finally, a little tidbit for users of fancy high-end audio cards such as the X-Fi Elite Pro: you can enable all 128 audio channels in BF2. To double the number of sounds you can hear simultaneously in BF2 go to your "My Documents\Battlefield 2\Profiles\000#\" folders. Open the "Sound.con" for each profile in subfolders 0001, 0002 etc., and change the following value from 64 to 128:

game.setChannels 128

It is also a console command. I'm not sure if you can permanently set this value using the console command or not - haven't tried that yet.

[Minmaster]

Re: How to: Update BF2 Audio version

vista doesn't have separate wave controls i believe.

[RangerXML]

Re: How to: Update BF2 Audio version

I take everything back, with 1.50 and the latest x-fi drivers, x-fi mode is incredible.

[Minmaster]

Re: How to: Update BF2 Audio version

BF2 works with x-fi on ultra high really well for me. the problem is 2142. x-fi mode spazzes out bigtime forcing me to use hardware mode instead.

[Jerad Gray]

Re: How to: Update BF2 Audio version

I know this is a bf2 forum, but its one of the few that actually mention the problem I'm having, for the longest time I've had 2142 and it worked great, but over the last few months something happened and now the orbital strike makes my speakers crack up really bad. Now a while back I went to a 64 bit os and I would think thats when it started, but I do remember playing 2142 and the sound effects for the orbital strike worked fine. Before I went to a 64 bit os, my speakers used to crack up if the volume was too high in the control panel, but I have tried turning my volume down to 25% and it still does it.
I suppose I should list my system specs lol, I have a Creative Sound Blaster XFi extreme gamer, and I'm running windows vista x64, I have 6GB of ram and a Nvidia 9600. I would test bf2 and see if the orbital strike on that game cracks up as well, but unfortunately I was one of the stupid people that bought the deluxe edition on EALink, and surprise surprise, they forgot to give me a CD key for special forces and of course, contacting ea gets me nothing but one e-mail that lists a bunch of stuff to try that had nothing to do with the missing cd key, and upon trying to get a second reply from them I got silence back lol.
But on to the point, if anyone knows if its a driver or something thats causing my sound to crackle up during the orbital strike I'd appreciate it.

[Jerad Gray]

Re: How to: Update BF2 Audio version

Well now I feel dumb...
Okay so I had the volume set to 27...

But it turns out that hidden away in the sound control pannel there is the old school XP advanced sound options which appearently unlike previous opperating systems, don't auto match the computer's max volume...

So I went ahead and set them all to match the max volume...

And behold, my speakers quit crackling whenever the orbital strike was used... at least I'm pretty sure thats what fixed it, would be the first time I bumped something else while I was going through settings lol.
I'm just disapointed that I didn't find this a few months ago, the frist time I went looking for the stuff lol.

[Minmaster]

Re: How to: Update BF2 Audio version

This is a good point. If you don't have your Master, Wave and Speaker volumes all set in balance, chances are you will hear crackling, especially for explosions and such. Some speaker/sound card combinations are more finicky then others.

A good rule of thumb is to keep all of your volume levels below 75%... at least, if not lower. Then adjust your "Wave" and "Speaker" volumes accordingly until the sound is smooth and hiss free. Be patient and keep adjusting until you find the sweet spot, the optimal configuration.

Finally, a little tidbit for users of fancy high-end audio cards such as the X-Fi Elite Pro: you can enable all 128 audio channels in BF2. To double the number of sounds you can hear simultaneously in BF2 go to your "My Documents\Battlefield 2\Profiles\000#\" folders. Open the "Sound.con" for each profile in subfolders 0001, 0002 etc., and change the following value from 64 to 128:

game.setChannels 128

It is also a console command. I'm not sure if you can permanently set this value using the console command or not - haven't tried that yet.

1st, creative has already said the crackling/static is due to memory address issue, not some volume mismatch issue. i did still try your suggestion and the guy after you matching and lowering the different channels and it doesn't help at all.

also, i tried looking for sound.con file but it doesn't exist in either BF2 nor BF2142 folder in documents. there is a audio con file but it doesn't have a line that says game.setChannels. this is on vista btw. if i can actually set the # of channels without using x-fi mode, that'd be nice. i want 128 channels but i can't run x-fi mode due to crackling. and the game doesn't allow you to use 128 channels on hardware mode, making it a x-fi mode only option. there's probably a way to get around this though.

[-=NC=-Larva]

Re: How to: Update BF2 Audio version

1st, creative has already said the crackling/static is due to memory address issue, not some volume mismatch issue.

If they were honest enough to admit it, it'd sure be nice if they were eager enough to fix it.

i did still try your suggestion and the guy after you matching and lowering the different channels and it doesn't help at all.

Sorry to hear that. It was only a suggestion, not a guarantee.

also, i tried looking for sound.con file but it doesn't exist in either BF2 nor BF2142 folder in documents. there is a audio con file but it doesn't have a line that says game.setChannels. this is on vista btw. if i can actually set the # of channels without using x-fi mode, that'd be nice. i want 128 channels but i can't run x-fi mode due to crackling. and the game doesn't allow you to use 128 channels on hardware mode, making it a x-fi mode only option. there's probably a way to get around this though.

In XP64 the Sound.con file is in the same folder as the Audio.con folder. Vista must store the file somewhere else then. I know that Vista sometimes stores configuration files in a virtual store in a subfolder somewhere in the C:\Users\ directory. Use Windows Explorer and search "Everywhere" for this file name - make sure to have the checkbox clicked that tells Vista to search in hidden folders as well. That should help you find it.

If you still can't find it, then it might be because BF2 automatically deletes the file if you save your audio settings to something other than x-fi mode. Have you tried Ultra-Quality X-Fi mode with EAX on? Then set your channels to 128 voices? See what happens - what have you got to lose?

[Minmaster]

Re: How to: Update BF2 Audio version

yeah, on BF2, i have it set on x-fi mode, ultra high (128 voices), eax on. works great, no static during artillery, etc.

my problem is BF2142, using the same settings as BF2 or even just activating x-fi mode, i get static/crackling during orbital strikes. therefore i am forced to use hardware/high/eax on.

the funny thing is, BF2 used to have the same problem as 2142 and somewhere along the line, it was fixed. probably an update to creative's x-fi drivers since during that span, no BF2 patch was released. (this is pre-1.5 patch BF2 just got)

in vista, the my documents folder of xp is in the user folder. there under documents folder lies BF2 and 2142 setting files. but neither one of them have sound.con file. instead, the audio.con file has all the settings of your audio options, like software/hardware/x-fi mode and high/ultra high settings. high/ultra high is what determines 64 or 128 voices. i tried changing it manually via txt edit by putting it on hardware and forcing ultra high but when i start the game, it goes back to the default. it checks if x-fi mode is on before allowing 128 voices. this sucks because i am sure they can allow 128 without x-fi mode, but they are probably enforcing this due to their special agreement with creative and promoting x-fi card.

even though some people can't tell the difference between 64 (high) voices and 128 (ultra high) voices, having played both, there is a huge difference in audio quality when using ultra high. also you can hear much more sounds that you never heard on lower settings. like the sound of wind blowing between the buildings in berlin and the tugboat horns on tunis harbor. it really sucks going from ultra high to high. i can't imagine playing on medium or low.

since it seems like creative figured it out for BF2 (intentionally or not), i am hoping the next update to the drivers will fix it for 2142.

[Jerad Gray]

Re: How to: Update BF2 Audio version

Agreed, there is a huge difference on 2142 between 64 and 128 creative/hardware sound, the hardware high sound sounds reasonably bad in comparision to the creative ultra high sound.

Also ignore my last post, after a restart the crackling returned and I have no clue why it stopped in the first place.

If they were honest enough to admit it, it'd sure be nice if they were eager enough to fix it.

If you still can't find it, then it might be because BF2 automatically deletes the file if you save your audio settings to something other than x-fi mode. Have you tried Ultra-Quality X-Fi mode with EAX on? Then set your channels to 128 voices? See what happens - what have you got to lose?

I was thinking it sounded lke something to do with bad memory handling, after the os is fired some times you keep hearing random noises after the os has stop, often nosies that the os doesn't even contain.

I'll get that second thing a try, and only thing you can lose is time lol.

[imported_Talbot]

Re: How to: Update BF2 Audio version

wow, this latest openal update actually fixed the static/crackling x-fi mode for me in BF2. i noticed BF2142 uses the same BF2OpenAL.dll file so i tried the same thing but unfortunately the audio still went crazy during orbital strikes. at least its fixed for BF2, i was never able to use x-fi mode because audio went haywire everytime i tried.

creative did something obviously which fixed BF2's x-fi, hopefully they figure it out and fix the same issue for BF2142.

B*llocks, f*0*k and sh*;t.

My heart leapt a little when I saw this thinking that I would finally be able to play 2142 with the audio options cranked to the max :dead: