Issue with music in Skies of Arcadia

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What steps will reproduce the problem?

1: Boot up the game, watch the intro video whilst listening to the background 
music
2: Start a new game and watch the cutscene/listen to the music and sound 
effects.
3: Sit idle in the first battle and listen to the song playing.

What is the expected output? What do you see/hear instead?

The expected output is: Music to play as normal (see youtube for replicas of 
what the music is supposed to sound like), and the clouds to, well, look like 
clouds...

But instead I see:
The instruments in the music seem to fade away rather quickly/vanish/cut off. 
This also seems to occur with certain sound effects. I assume it's because the 
game plays the music via a sortof midi function within the sound card which 
hasn't been emulated correctly yet? So I assume that if you correct the music, 
the sound effects will also be fixed.

Also various transparency issues, most noticeable in the opening intro and the 
first cutscene when starting a new game, where the clouds don't have the fog 
correctly implemented.

What version of the product are you using? What build? What plugins?

I use version: nullDC_104_r50

I use a *Edit This*Release*Debug*-NoTrace*Edit This* build --- Unsure where to 
find this? About says it was built June 20th 2010@1:32:06

I use the following plugins:

PowerVR Plugin: nullDC PowerVR -- Direct3D HAL [Jun 20 2010] (drkPvr_Win32.dll)

GDRom Plugin: Image Reader plugin by drk||Raziel & GiGaHeRz [Jun 20 2010] 
(ImgReader_Win32.dll)

AICA Plugin: nullDC AICA [Jun 20 2010] (nullAICA_Win32.dll)

ARM7 Plugin: VBA ARM Sound Cpu Core [Jun 20 2010] (vbaARM_Win32.dll)

Maple Plugin(s): Controller [XInput] (Jun20 2010) (XMaple_Win32.dll:0)

Ext.Device Plugin: nullExtDev (Jun 20 2010) (nullExtDev_Win32.dll)

On what kind of system?

My system specifications are as follows:

Operating System: Windows 7 64bit
CPU: Intel Pentium D CPU 3.00GHz
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series
Sound Card: Intel 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio (under Realtek 
codec)
Additional related hardware and/or software: Xbox 360 controller (though 
unrelated).

Please provide any additional information below:

nullAica Settings:
Buffer size: 2048
Sync to audio: Enabled
Global Focus: Enabled
Hardware Mixing: Disabled

DSP Emulation: Enabling adds an echo to everything, (which does happen in the 
Dreamcast game), but the instruments and sounds still cut out.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by noharddr...@gmail.com on 23 Jun 2010 at 1:43

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Forgot to add that I'm running a GDI/NTSC version of the game.

Original comment by noharddr...@gmail.com on 23 Jun 2010 at 1:55

[GoogleCodeExporter]

hey man try increasing the buffer size to 4098 in the nullaica sound plugin 
sometimes it fixes the problem
comment here if it worked
good luck

Original comment by oren...@gmail.com on 3 Jul 2010 at 10:02

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Fading music - same as issue 37?

Original comment by matbur...@gmail.com on 6 Jul 2010 at 9:08

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orenp90, increasing the buffer makes no difference.

matburgin, unsure if the two problems are related, but the music definitely 
plays at a consistent volume. It's just the individual instruments that seem to 
suddenly cut out. Or if there's a background noise like wind, you will hear it 
for a few seconds and it will cut.

I have included a sample of what one of the songs plays like (It's the battle 
music in the game). The continuous popping that you seem to hear roughly every 
second only get's heard when DSP emulation is enabled. Ignore the occasional 
stuttering, that's just my PC unable to record + emulate at full speed...

What it SHOULD sound like (minus the intro) is like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an3P8otlD2A

It's most noticable towards the end of the song, just before it loops to the 
beginning again.

Original comment by noharddr...@gmail.com on 12 Jul 2010 at 8:57

Attachments:

• [Skies of Arcadia Emu'd Battle Song.mp3](https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-attachments/nulldc/issue-147/comment-4/Skies of Arcadia Emu'd Battle Song.mp3)

[GoogleCodeExporter]

You're right, it's not the issue 37 fading music problem, it sounds more like 
issue 191 (RE:CV rain cutting out).

The wind effect heard in the first cinematic (after starting a new game, when 
Vyse is about to board the ship) should be constant, rather than cut out after 
a few seconds. Certain instruments in the battle theme should have more sustain 
(ie. they're cutting out too).

Original comment by matbur...@gmail.com on 23 Aug 2010 at 3:22

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Yes I would agree to that. I would imagine it's also the reason why the Jet Set 
Radio Title Screen music just fades away within a few seconds...

Original comment by noharddr...@gmail.com on 23 Aug 2010 at 7:48

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Possibly also related to Issue 193

Original comment by noharddr...@gmail.com on 23 Aug 2010 at 7:50

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Well I'd say JGR's music fade is issue 37, whereas this issue is sound cutting 
out rather than fading. Whether they're two different issues or one combined 
isn't clear without debugging.

Original comment by matbur...@gmail.com on 23 Aug 2010 at 8:44

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I've done a bit more testing and most of the music and quite a few of the sound 
effects in Skies don't play correctly, most obvious is when using a Sacri 
Crystal item the sound effect when the crystal is held in the air cuts out very 
quickly. Each case seems related to the sound problems in issue 191 and issue 
193.

Original comment by matbur...@gmail.com on 24 Aug 2010 at 1:39