Playtesters wanted for new SH2 PC audio engine

[Polymega]

Since day one of its launch, Silent Hill 2 PC has been plagued with an awful audio loop bug. As you play, the sounds in the game would inevitably begin to loop infinitely until the game became too unstable and crashed. The "fix" for 20 years has been to run the game on a single core, but this was never truly a fix as it was a band-aid to mask the problem that still exists beneath.

Fast forward to today and @Gemini-Loboto3 has completely rewrote the audio engine for SH2 PC so that the game can be played on multiple cores with stable audio! This is a monumental achievement for the game/our project and, as such, will benefit greatly from having many people playtest this to ensure everything is working as it should. As you can imagine, replacing the whole audio engine is nothing to sneeze at, so testing is paramount.

This is where you come in: We'd like to ask you to playtest the new audio engine build!

What to test for

Play the game to completion like normal, that's it! As you play, just make sure nothing odd is going on with the audio. We recommend you take your time playing. Go in every room you can think of to make as many sounds in the game play. Perhaps save your game progress and load back into it from time to time. Think of any way to stress test the audio for the game.

All we're primarily worried about with these tests is audio handling and stability!

Prerequisites to test

• You are very familiar with the sounds and music of Silent Hill 2.
  • A lot of the ambient background tracks in the game loop in weird, creepy ways. You will need to be familiar with how these tracks sound to ensure you're not confusing intentional audio looping with bugged audio looping.
• You have used the Enhanced Edition project in the past and are comfortable/familiar with installing its project packages.
• Use the Audio Enhancement Pack with your tests.
• Use DSOAL with your tests.

Files to download

1. Download the testing module that has the new audio engine included:
   • d3d8.zip
     • Replace any files if prompted. Do not change anything within the d3d8.ini file except for the DisplayMode or WndModeBorder features.
2. Ask us which SH2 PC executable to test with and download the appropriate one below (Right Click > Save As):
   • SH2PC v1.0
   • SH2PC v1.1
   • SH2PC DC
     • You may want to make a backup of your original sh2pc.exe first.

IMPORTANT!!! Please leave a post here saying you're interested in testing and we will tell you what executable to download for testing. We need a pool of people to test all executables so it's very important that we disperse the different executables out accordingly!

Please ask which executable to use for testing before actually testing!!

Submitting your notes

It's just as important for us to know everything went smoothly as it is if there's any issues. Once you've concluded your tests please submit the following information to us:

• Game Version (this is the executable you used for testing):
• Operating System:
• CPU:
• Game played to completion?
• Any issues to report?

Thank you for your help!

We want this new feature to be as solid and stable as possible upon public release, so we appreciate your help in testing!

Volunteered testers:

Playtester	Version	Status
vStar925	1.1	Awaiting notes
MasterDarkSeid	DC	Notes received. DC - Audio looping.
FlintStride	1.1	Awaiting notes
Gwektro	DC	Notes received. DC - Audio looping.
PedroC47	1.0	Notes received.
Balthazor44	1.1	Notes received.
patrucksu	DC	Awaiting notes
wicstarry	1.0	Awaiting notes
Veynam	1.1	Awaiting notes
MarioTainaka	DC, 1.0	Notes received. DC - Audio looping. 1.0 - No major issues.
shpatter	DC	Notes received.
Sumea	1.1	Notes received. 1.1 - Audio looping.
DaniloElectricMonkeys	1.0	Awaiting Notes

[Polymega]

@DaniloElectricMonkeys Thanks for offering to test! Please use the 1.0 executable for testing.

@MarioTainaka Thanks for testing again!

@Gwektro Appreciate you really trying to break this feature. We've kind of known the DC executable has been the most unstable of the three, so if you're up to it, would you do another round of testing using the 1.0 executable? I'm curious to see if you experience any looping/crashes with that one.

@Sumea Thanks for the great notes here. Also thanks for capturing one of the issues on video. That error message you received was mostly likely this one?

There are still hitches/stutters in the game, for sure. There are certain areas while exploring the town or specific points inside a building that seem to stutter the game for a moment. I too think this has to deal with the executable loading in new data from external game files.

[MarioTainaka]

@Polymega No Problem. i'm gonna be doing third test tomorrow with my new HDC Pack with the 1.0 exe as well. Forgive me for asking but are the A.I upscaled CG"s also gonna be in the upcoming update?

[Polymega]

are the A.I upscaled CG"s also gonna be in the upcoming update?

That's still the plan at this time. Certain things aren't 100% locked in until the week of release. :dizzy_face:

[MarioTainaka]

are the A.I upscaled CG"s also gonna be in the upcoming update?

That's still the plan at this time. Certain things aren't 100% locked in until the week of release. 😵

hmm.. okay :O looking forward to seeing your work.

[MasterDarkseid]

Okay so i've done a full run in hard mode. a 10 stars attempt to be precise with 1.0 executable like you asked had no crashes , had less stutter like pretty much none. No freeze at all.

I have figured the shooting kills tech with green spray and i plan to do another to see if the tech work.

In case you want to see the run to any issues feel free to go here.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1469860819

1.0 is working very well. Should i test 1.1. or do you have enough feedback.

[MasterDarkseid]

Okay so i've done a full run in hard mode. a 10 stars attempt to be precise with 1.0 executable like you asked had no crashes , had less stutter like pretty much none. No freeze at all.

I have figured the shooting kills tech with green spray and i plan to do another to see if the tech work.

In case you want to see the run to any issues feel free to go here.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1469860819

1.0 is working very well. Should i test 1.1. or do you have enough feedback.

Follow-up 1.0 is crashing as well. In the hotel after going to the restaurant to pick the fish key. After the piano cutscene with laura and going though the door an auido loop occur but he didn't crash the game right away. See for yourself.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1470032485

But i maintain what i told. 1.0 is definitely more stable than DC for sure...

@Gemini-Loboto3 @Polymega

[Sumea]

@Polymega indeed, that was the error I got. Unlike some other less graceful crashes other people had, but that was indeed the error window. - On very offnote but did notice it, the randomized stomping animation is nice and works (and did not crash anything)

As to say about the hitchng; indeed there is no real drops, slowdowns or anything such I could detect. I am extra sensitive to hitching or "Load hitching" as I used to have a bad HDD that caused system wide prolonged hitching. As in, if the HDD was installed, not even the one with game title installed; most sound loads from most games would cause from 0.5 to 4 second long hitch. So, I was able to "introduce" this sort of bug to all sort of games before sorting it out on my end the best I could. Tells something that with a little HDD flaw almost any PC game will have this hitching issue. Even Wii U would have these issues when I tested the HDD on the system. So, I am well aware of nature of hardware being able to change severity of this type of behaviour. Incidentally, I played using older 500/500 SATA SSD - so just seeing the load screen footprint once was suprising, and might be why I had no stutters but hitches. Heck if I could dig out that demon drive I probably would be crashing the game in no time, though I think I got rid of it for good.

TL;DR: Yep, that was the error code that I got in my crash. Me playing off a SSD might or might not been contributing factor in stuttering and hitching being minimal.

Now I have look into me and see can I keep the game running for long stretches more to test out likelihood of game runtime ending up in crash.

[DaniloElectricMonkeys]

Hey @Polymega I'm trying to download the executable but my browser and Windows Defender are blocking it. Any tips?

[elishacloud]

@DaniloElectricMonkeys, I am not sure how it is being blocked. But if it is blocked from the SmartScreen feature in Windows you can just click the "More Info" button to allow it:

[DaniloElectricMonkeys]

@elishacloud I use Opera, so the download never finished. I switched to Chrome, it gave me a security warning but I choose "Keep" and the download finished. But then Windows Defender imediatelly flags the file as a trojan and deletes it. I could pause Windows Defender but it's weird that it's flagging as a trojan

[Gemini-Loboto3]

It's not that rare for old exe to be interpreted by Windows 10 as virus/trojan, despite being completely fine. Resident Evil 1 has the same problem with the Japanese 1.01 exe: one of my discord users and I went and submitted the exe for revision to various antiviruses and so far only Mcfee detects it as a threat.

[DaniloElectricMonkeys]

Yeah that seemed to be the case, thanks for the help @Gemini-Loboto3 @elishacloud ! Anyway, paused Windows Defender, downloaded the file and replaced it on the folder. Ready to test!

[Polymega]

I submitted the 1.0 executable to Microsoft's Security Intelligence and it automatically gave me the result of "Final determination: Not malware."

So this binary is already cataloged in their virus definitions as safe. Since I did resubmit it maybe this will correct any false positive results?

[Gwektro]

@Gwektro Appreciate you really trying to break this feature. We've kind of known the DC executable has been the most unstable of the three, so if you're up to it, would you do another round of testing using the 1.0 executable? I'm curious to see if you experience any looping/crashes with that one.

Alright I downloaded v1.0 & started a bit last night, I also finished Born from a Wish on DC & it was flawless with no issues at all. My plan is to play it out & start comparing/contrasting the current release to eliminate some notes I have. I know the unpredictable nature of SH2's sound can get me mixed up a bit lol. That should happen in the next 2-3 days.

But. one note I have about both DC & v1.0 is I've noticed some weird static 'noise?' in some of the ambience tracks at certain parts of the beginning, particularly going into the town, in the apartments going up the 3rd floor door leading to the Laura cutscene, & then specifically in room 202. Its subtle, but definitely there & its not a constant either. It comes & goes depending on the ambient track. It also happened in other parts of the game like in the Hospital & Historical Society. Not sure if that's already known but figured id point it out. I have a few examples of it below.

v1.0 Town: https://streamable.com/tsnmut Current release: https://streamable.com/acbpp8

v1.0 3rd Floor Door: https://streamable.com/s7xe4z Current release: https://streamable.com/n2f09z

This comparisons a little rough V1.0 Rm 202: https://streamable.com/2btqwi Current Release: https://streamable.com/b95n02

[Polymega]

I've noticed some weird static 'noise?' in some of the ambience tracks

Good ear and very interesting... We'll need to get Gemini's feedback on this as well. It sounds like it's adding a level of compression to the tracks?

I can hear the difference on all three, but it's most noticeable in your "Town" comparison. Second easiest one to hear the difference is probably the "Rm 202" comparison. Using headphones is the best way to hear the differences.

[MarioTainaka]

@Gwektro Appreciate you really trying to break this feature. We've kind of known the DC executable has been the most unstable of the three, so if you're up to it, would you do another round of testing using the 1.0 executable? I'm curious to see if you experience any looping/crashes with that one.

Alright I downloaded v1.0 & started a bit last night, I also finished Born from a Wish on DC & it was flawless with no issues at all. My plan is to play it out & start comparing/contrasting the current release to eliminate some notes I have. I know the unpredictable nature of SH2's sound can get me mixed up a bit lol. That should happen in the next 2-3 days.

But. one note I have about both DC & v1.0 is I've noticed some weird static 'noise?' in some of the ambience tracks at certain parts of the beginning, particularly going into the town, in the apartments going up the 3rd floor door leading to the Laura cutscene, & then specifically in room 202. Its subtle, but definitely there & its not a constant either. It comes & goes depending on the ambient track. It also happened in other parts of the game like in the Hospital & Historical Society. Not sure if that's already known but figured id point it out. I have a few examples of it below.

v1.0 Town: https://streamable.com/tsnmut Current release: https://streamable.com/acbpp8

v1.0 3rd Floor Door: https://streamable.com/s7xe4z Current release: https://streamable.com/n2f09z

This comparisons a little rough V1.0 Rm 202: https://streamable.com/2btqwi Current Release: https://streamable.com/b95n02

Good ear! I thought I was going crazy O_O

[MarioTainaka]

I've noticed some weird static 'noise?' in some of the ambience tracks

Good ear and very interesting... We'll need to get Gemini's feedback on this as well. It sounds like it's adding a level of compression to the tracks?

I can hear the difference on all three, but it's most noticeable in your "Town" comparison. Second easiest one to hear the difference is probably the "Rm 202" comparison. Using headphones is the best way to hear the differences.

I've tested this myself and this also adds compression to simple stufff like the menu sounds and dialogue. It's really subtle but it's there..

[MasterDarkseid]

So basically all exe is crashing. Or at the very least i managed to make them crash all of them. Hotel seems to be a point where crash seem to occur more often then the rest.

My 1.0 exe and DC exe had crash at the hotel just at a different door.

[Gemini-Loboto3]

I might have to change a bit the formula used for ADX decompression, if that's adding subtle static; I'll reverse the entire formula Criware uses, just to make sure it's not placebo (can't really hear a difference on my head set).

As for the "Can't unlock" error, can anybody confirm if that happens without DSOAL? I'm starting to suspect it might have something to do with that, since I had the same issue on Win11 at the hotel, but it went away as soon as DSOAL was removed. If that's the case, I might have to resort to replacing that DLL with an integrated solution.

[MasterDarkseid]

From my part i haven't heard any static sounds but, I know that DC and 1.0 exes crash at the hotel. Doors audio might be the culprit. DC exes is my favorite executable due to the new enhancement that other exes don't have.

@Gemini-Loboto3 RE3 door crashes flashback.

[MarioTainaka]

I might have to change a bit the formula used for ADX decompression, if that's adding subtle static; I'll reverse the entire formula Criware uses, just to make sure it's not placebo (can't really hear a difference on my head set).

As for the "Can't unlock" error, can anybody confirm if that happens without DSOAL? I'm starting to suspect it might have something to do with that, since I had the same issue on Win11 at the hotel, but it went away as soon as DSOAL was removed. If that's the case, I might have to resort to replacing that DLL with an integrated solution.

I can confirm that it might be a generic error. I get this sometimes if Alchemy refuses to hook for example in MGS 2

[Polymega]

@MasterDarkseid @MarioTainaka @Gwektro @Sumea We really appreciate you all testing and submitting your notes back. We hope others will do the same in due time. All four of you experienced the audio glitching/looping at some point which forced you to close and restart the game. We really need to figure out if this is being caused by Gemini's new audio engine or some outlying factor.

If you all are up to it, can you please do another round of tests and report back if you experience another situation where the audio bugged/looped on you?

For this test:

1. Please use the following executables:
   • MasterDarkseid: DC
   • Gwektro: 1.0
   • MarioTanaka: DC
   • Sumea: 1.1
2. Open the d3d8.ini file and set AudioClipDetection = 0
   • This will disable the "pop/click" fix, so you will hear popping/clicking when audio is cut short while playing.
3. Remove the DSOAL files from the game's directory:
   • alsoft.ini, dsoal-aldrv.dll, dsound.dll
4. Perform playthrough test

Please let us know if you experience anything funny with the audio this time around. In the meantime, Gemini is looking into the audio "noise" that Gwektro shared examples of.

Thanks all

[Balthazor44]

Game Version : 1.1 Operating System: Windows 11 CPU: Intel i7-11800H & NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 GPU Game played to completion? Yes (In Water) Any issues to report? I experienced no noticeable issues whatsoever. I spent a great deal of time poking into every last corner of the environments, going back and forth into menus or the map screen, whatever I could think of to try and break the game, but I had no issues whatsoever. The only thing I may have noticed was that it seemed like I was hearing "background noise" during the reading of Mary's letter that I don't recall hearing before. I plan to replay the ending with the pre-fix version and with the PS2 version to see if I hear the same thing. It may be that I just never noticed it before since I wasn't paying as close attention as I was this time.

Prior to this fix, I would get severe stuttering all throughout the game. That stuttering is no longer occurring for me. Additionally, prior to this fix, if I ran the game with the GPU setting "Threaded Optimization" enabled, during the game engine cut scenes the audio and video would get increasingly out of sync until the game froze or crashed, particularly during the Angela on the stairs cut scene. Disabling that setting would remedy that issue. Now, with this fix, running the game with the "Threaded Optimization" setting enabled for the GPU caused no issues and the cut scenes ran fine.

That's about all I can say. The game ran beautifully for me. I figure on taking the game for another spin with the DC executable and see how that goes, unless you'd prefer me to try the 1.0.

[MarioTainaka]

@MasterDarkseid @MarioTainaka @Gwektro @Sumea We really appreciate you all testing and submitting your notes back. We hope others will do the same in due time. All four of you experienced the audio glitching/looping at some point which forced you to close and restart the game. We really need to figure out if this is being caused by Gemini's new audio engine or some outlying factor.

If you all are up to it, can you please do another round of tests and report back if you experience another situation where the audio bugged/looped on you?

For this test:

1. Please use the following executables:

   • MasterDarkseid: DC
   • Gwektro: 1.0
   • MarioTanaka: DC
   • Sumea: 1.1

2. Open the d3d8.ini file and set AudioClipDetection = 0

   • This will disable the "pop/click" fix, so you will hear popping/clicking when audio is cut short while playing.

3. Remove the DSOAL files from the game's directory:

   • alsoft.ini, dsoal-aldrv.dll, dsound.dll
4. Perform playthrough test

Please let us know if you experience anything funny with the audio this time around. In the meantime, Gemini is looking into the audio "noise" that Gwektro shared examples of.

Thanks all

Alright i'll take a look and get some testing done between now and monday.

[shpatter]

• Game Version: DC
• Operating System: MacOS (Windows 10 64-bit using Crossover (like Wine))
• CPU: Apple Silicon M1
• Game played to completion? Yes
• Any issues to report? Different font of menu buttons (compared to other executables). If quickly switch buttons in the menu, the sound will be cut off. The gameplay has become more laggy(it's probably because of what I'm playing on).

[PedroC47]

• Game Version : 1.0
• Operating System: Windows 11 22H2 build
• CPU: Intel i5-8250U
• Game played to completion: At the labyrinth part (after James jumps through the holes etc) Any issues to report: Absolutely nothing that feels out of place/no weird looping (as reported by other users) and it's the best version so far, very stable and the 3D audio works well.

[Gwektro]

@MasterDarkseid @MarioTainaka @Gwektro @Sumea We really appreciate you all testing and submitting your notes back. We hope others will do the same in due time. All four of you experienced the audio glitching/looping at some point which forced you to close and restart the game. We really need to figure out if this is being caused by Gemini's new audio engine or some outlying factor.

If you all are up to it, can you please do another round of tests and report back if you experience another situation where the audio bugged/looped on you?

For this test:

1. Please use the following executables:

   • MasterDarkseid: DC
   • Gwektro: 1.0
   • MarioTanaka: DC
   • Sumea: 1.1

2. Open the d3d8.ini file and set AudioClipDetection = 0

   • This will disable the "pop/click" fix, so you will hear popping/clicking when audio is cut short while playing.

3. Remove the DSOAL files from the game's directory:

   • alsoft.ini, dsoal-aldrv.dll, dsound.dll
4. Perform playthrough test

Please let us know if you experience anything funny with the audio this time around. In the meantime, Gemini is looking into the audio "noise" that Gwektro shared examples of.

Thanks all

Sure, Ill start it tonight!

[MasterDarkseid]

I'm on it.

Edit: @Polymega So yeah there's a few static sounds. Most of them are in the prison , and one at apartment or hospital can't remember.

There was also an audio looping at eddie. Exe : DC.

If you want the footage here you go

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1471952260

[MarioTainaka]

@Polymega Alright so... I ran it again with the DC exe and audio clip detection off and no DSOAL. and... WELP! There is looping. When you get to the bowling alley with Laura. This was after 2 hours of play.

[Polymega]

Do you know if this was BGM looping? Or was it dialogue or SFX looping? Which PC did you test on?

[MarioTainaka]

Do you know if this was BGM looping? Or was it dialogue or SFX looping? Which PC did you test on?

It was BGM Looping. Tested on my main pc with a Ryzen 7 3700X and the DC exe.

EDIT: It takes a while for SFX to start looping as well if you keep playing but it happens eventually.

[Gemini-Loboto3]

We might have a new build that disregards the errors causing the loop+crash and fixes the noise. Stay tuned.

[MarioTainaka]

We might have a new build that disregards the errors causing the loop+crash and fixes the noise. Stay tuned.

This might sound weird... and tottally crazy... but i've noticed the errors happen alot more of you throw more cores at the game.

[MasterDarkseid]

We might have a new build that disregards the errors causing the loop+crash and fixes the noise. Stay tuned.

We'll be waiting.

[MarioTainaka]

We might have a new build that disregards the errors causing the loop+crash and fixes the noise. Stay tuned.

Alrighty i'm ready and waiting.

[Balthazor44]

I went back and replayed the ending on the pre-fix version and the PS2 version. That noise I was hearing during the reading of Mary's letter does exist in the pre-fix version but not the PS2. It's too bad it's there, but at least it appears to be nothing related to this fix. I'll be starting another play through tonight with the DC exe.

[Polymega]

@All Gemini has put in a new pull request for his audio engine. Once Elisha merges the PR he can make a new build for testing. This new build should hopefully fix the looping issues most of you have reported on. Additionally, this new build fixes the subtle noise issue that Gwektro reported on.

Once the new build is made I'll let you know what parameters to test under. There's a certain approach I'd like everyone to test, so please wait with testing until that time.

---

Gemini sent me an early copy of this new build which I just got done testing:

Game Version: 1.0 Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit CPU: Intel Core i5-4300U CPU @ 1.90GHz (my laptop) Game played to completion? Yes Any issues to report? No!

I did this playthrough on my laptop. This test is very important and promising. Why is that? When Gemini first started working on this project I was out of town. So the only PC I had with me to help him test was my fairly weak, integrated graphics laptop. Before this test just now, all other times where I attempted to play the game to completion on this laptop I have experienced some form of issues with the new audio engine.

For this new build, Gemini reversed engineered and exactly replicated the ADX formula for audio handling. That I was able to play this game to completion on my laptop without issues has me feeling hopeful none of you will experience loops/crashes in your future tests. Fingers crossed.

Again, I'll make another post with new testing parameters once the new audio engine build is merged. Please wait until that time!

---

@Balthazor44

I went back and replayed the ending on the pre-fix version and the PS2 version. That noise I was hearing during the reading of Mary's letter does exist in the pre-fix version but not the PS2.

I heard it too with the test I just performed. It's been a while, but I thought we used the PS2 dialogue file for this. I can check this at a later time to confirm.

[Gwektro]

Okay cool, ill wait in the meantime then.

I finished a playthrough with the previous parameters last night & was completely stable with no new issues up until the final boss area where it looped/crashed with the SndObjDSound::Unlock warning walking up the steps to the boss room.

[Sumea]

I have been bit under weather. What it feels like that the first beta test build basically prolonged but did not eliminate the issues. I could remember because the looping issue before would be as swift as first three screens of the game. Sorry I did not respond to further testing quickly enough, stand by for new build unless I decide to whirl the build around and see if I notice anything else with headphones instead of speakers.

[Gemini-Loboto3]

This looping is different compared to the original one, it's caused by the error message hanging the game audio for debugging purposes. The next version will have a switch to suppress the errors and remove the looping. If it's a real error it will make the game crash, but if it's what I suspect, it can be disregarded and should cause no looping whatsoever.

[PedroC47]

Game Version : 1.0 Operating System: Windows 11 22H2 build CPU: Intel i5-8250U Game played to completion: At the hotel, after playing the videotape in room 312 Any issues to report: Exited and re-entered room 312, and the game crashed with this message. As looping is concerned, nothing audibly detectable to report.

EDIT: Restarted the game and completed it, nothing further to report

[GlitchyReal]

I'd love to contribute again if you need still need more testers!

EDIT: I'm very familiar with the game and what's normal, but can you detail the specific behavior we're looking for or example problem spots?

[Polymega]

@ALL Thanks for your patience. Elisha has merged the new audio engine updates. May I please ask you to test this under the following parameters:

• Test build: https://github.com/elishacloud/Silent-Hill-2-Enhancements/files/8606554/d3d8.zip
• Ensure EnableCriWareReimplementation = 2 in d3d8.ini (you can add this as its own line if it doesn't already exist in the INI file)
• Ensure AudioClipDetection = 1 in d3d8.ini
• Use v1.0 executable with your tests.
• Use the Audio Enhancement Pack with your tests.
• Use DSOAL with your tests.

If all goes to plan, you should experience no audio loops/issues. I've tested with these parameters the other day and everything went swimmingly.

As you all test this, I plan to test again using the parameters above except with the DC executable. Assuming I experience no issues with the DC executable, I will ask you guys to do a final test with the DC executable as well. Then, assuming all goes well for you guys with the DC executable, I think we can call the new audio engine a success!

---

@GlitchyReal These tests are to ensure the infamous "sound loop" bug no longer happens. This bug has plagued the PC port since day one of its release.

[MarioTainaka]

@ALL Thanks for your patience. Elisha has merged the new audio engine updates. May I please ask you to test this under the following parameters:

• Test build: https://github.com/elishacloud/Silent-Hill-2-Enhancements/files/8606554/d3d8.zip
• Ensure EnableCriWareReimplementation = 2 in d3d8.ini
• Ensure AudioClipDetection = 1 in d3d8.ini
• Use v1.0 executable with your tests.
• Use the Audio Enhancement Pack with your tests.
• Use DSOAL with your tests.

If all goes to plan, you should experience no audio loops/issues. I've tested with these parameters the other day and everything went swimmingly.

As you all test this, I plan to test again using the parameters above except with the DC executable. Assuming I experience no issues with the DC executable, I will ask you guys to do a final test with the DC executable as well. Then, assuming all goes well for you guys with the DC executable, I think we can call the new audio engine a success!

@GlitchyReal These tests are to ensure the infamous "sound loop" bug no longer happens. This bug has plagued the PC port since day one of its release.

@Polymega I'm on it. I'll be going on Silent starting Wednesday for maybe a couple of days as i'm heading back into a work week.

[Polymega]

Thanks, MarioTainaka. Please use your HDC pack for your tests!

[DaniloElectricMonkeys]

Hey @Polymega I didn't find the "EnableCriWareReimplementation" in my .ini file so I added it at the end. Is that ok?

[Polymega]

Hey @Polymega I didn't find the "EnableCriWareReimplementation" in my .ini file so I added it at the end. Is that ok?

Yep! That's fine. I actually added it to the very top (as its own line) of the INI so I could find it quickly. On that note: @elishacloud it looks like this feature isn't included in the INI.

[Balthazor44]

Sounds good, I'm starting another play through right now, I hope to have that done by this time tomorrow. Then I'll start over with the DC exe.

[MarioTainaka]

@Polymega this is what my ini is looking like right now. Is this correct?

[GAME FIXES] ; Detects when the audio is stopped prematurely and fades out to avoid pops in the sound. (0|1) AudioClipDetection = 1

; Prevents Audio Looping Errors By Implenting Criware's middleware system and disabling debug messages EnableCriWareReimplementation = 2

; Corrects the color and lighting levels of the catacomb's meat cold rooms. This fix also requires updated 'ps189.map' and 'ps193.map' files in 'sh2e\bg\ps\' to work. (0|1) CatacombsMeatRoomFix = 1

[Polymega]

Yeah that's good!