No sound in Ultrastar Deluxe (Retroarch problem?)

[james79k]

Please, do not create duplicate issues I just checked through the issues and can't see a similar issue. I start Ultrastar Deluxe and it works as usual except there is absolutely no sound: no song music or sound effects. I tried resetting my laptop to original sound settings and tested the sound files independently and the mic - they are all playing and correct. So Ultrastar looks like it's working with the equaliser effect and all the functions work but there's just no sound at all.

Actual behaviour

Tell us what happens

I think the only thing that caused this is that I downloaded retroarch during the week and deleted it. I've never had any issues with Ultrastar until now.

Expected behaviour

I redownloaded Ultrastar and deleted the old version. Also had previously removed retroarch and switched off computer completely. Issue is still ongoing.

Tell us what should actually happen

What can i do? The only solution seems to wipe my computer completely to factory settings.

Steps to reproduce

Please supply step-by-step instructions so that anyone with the same environment can reproduce the issue. Whenever you offer a description, imagine yourself in the shoes of someone who has never encountered this problem before and would like to know exactly how to observe it under a given set of conditions. Here is an example:

1. Open the ultrastardx.exe
2. Click on button X, then on the menu that appears, click Y
3. Wait for 3 seconds, and note the appearance of an unexpected message

Details

Provide some additional information:

• USDX version: most recent 6/23
• Operating System + version: windows 11 HP laptop

[barbeque-squared]

It sounds like it's getting muted somewhere. I don't have Windows 11, but I recall that in other versions you can set some per-application volume somewhere. I'm not sure what it was called, I think it was right-clicking the systray speaker icon and then "Volume Mixer" or something? I'm not sure what it's called nowadays.

If that doesn't look like it fixes it, there should be a setting (in Windows) somewhere about whether your output device is 44100 Hz or 48000 Hz (depending on the device, there might also be other settings). From my experiences on Linux, USDX really wants 44100 Hz (but I can't comment on whether this is also true on Windows).

If you try to play a song in USDX, does it go immediately to the scoring screen or does it "play" as normal? In particular check that the length is correct. If it goes immediately to the scoring screen, it might be an issue in USDX, in that case I'd ask you to post the Error.log file (you can find it in the same directory as the exe).

[james79k]

Thanks I found the application volume in volume mixer and there was an option to reset for all apps, i tried this and it didn't do anything

I also tried to change the output device from 48000 Hz to another level but it wouldn't let me change it

The songs do "play" as normal all the way through but with no sound. It indicates sound is there in the graphic equalizer effect but there's no sound at all

I tried downloading Ultrastar World Party to see if that has the same error and it works fine, perfectly.

Not sure what's going on, I though when i previously deleted Ultrastar (both old and new versions tried) and then reinstalled it would fix it but no luck, there's something that Retroarch did that seems to have messed everything up. It's the only new program I've used inbetween Ultrastar sessions

[s09bQ5]

Can you try USDX 2023.5.0? Maybe it's the new PortAudio DLL that causes the problem. If 2023.5.0 works, you can try running 2023.6.0 with the old portaudio.dll.

[jowie007]

I can confirm that I had to downgrade to get any sounds. I installed USDX on a Raspberry PI 4 (with Raspberry PI OS), while following these instructions. So i had the newest release installed and received no sound output. After deleting the version and installing the 2023.5.0 it now works fine.

[s09bQ5]

@jowie007. that's a completely different situation. On Raspberry Pi OS you are not using the PortAudio DLL that we ship for Windows. You are not even using the AppImage or Flatpak that we release if you follow Sebastian Segerer's instructions. I don't see anything in the git history that changed between 2023.5.0 and now that is related to sound output on Linux. We only fixed some memory leaks in the audio decoder handling. Please try again to build the most recent release and attach your Error.log in a new Github issue.

[jowie007]

Okay, nevermind. I installed the newest version again, and now it works. But thanks for your detailed explanation :)