Sounds

[thebumb]

Thanks for the advice Martin...me too!!

[PaulH2]

Well you do need a good soundcard since sounds in game are scenery assets and very resource hungry, the fact that the game still relies on the now outdated microsoft direct x sound instead of the much better Open Al. I really hope RSC sort out the outdated sound system.

Agreed. Personally, unless and until the sound system in RailWorks gets an overhaul (and there has been some circumstantial evidence that this may be the case), I wouldn't invest in a new soundcard. If they make the change over to OpenAL, a much more stable and hardware agnostic sound system should be the result.

Paul

[smartie38]

Well you do need a good soundcard since sounds in game are scenery assets and very resource hungry, the fact that the game still relies on the now outdated microsoft direct x sound instead of the much better Open Al. I really hope RSC sort out the outdated sound system.

Hope I'm wrong but I'm guessing RSC would have ditched directsound and moved over to openAL by now if they were going to, I often get alot of sound glitches especially on external views when using the alchemy app from creative, perhaps RSC expect most of us to run ts2012 on an oudated operating system if we want all the sounds working correctly!

[PaulH2]

Hope I'm wrong but I'm guessing RSC would have ditched directsound and moved over to openAL by now if they were going to, I often get alot of sound glitches especially on external views when using the alchemy app from creative, perhaps RSC expect most of us to run ts2012 on an oudated operating system if we want all the sounds working correctly!

Well new (as in recent) OpenAL files turned up again with the TS2012 update. The aren't used but RSC must have had them there for a reason...

I believe there was also a brief comment on one of the interviews a few months ago that sound was being looked at (or should that be listened to) though no detail was given.

So although we have no facts to go on, I do hold out some hope that a revised sound system may be in the works...

Paul

[bartdude]

I agree that sounds have often been a weak component of Railworks,not just in complexity but level also,being especially feeble from passing AI trains. AP have done some great work on individual/multiple units but the overall ambient sounds are weak. Railway networks are not quiet places ! The ancient MSTS is far superior in this aspect. So much so that when OR achieves full compatibility with MSTS(and that's happening soon),I can see myself abandoning Railworks for long periods to rediscover the huge amount of stuff I have accumulated on MSTS ! Good Graphics,good sound and great frame rates in OR is something to consider !

[gptech]

I often get alot of sound glitches especially on external views when using the alchemy app from creative, perhaps RSC expect most of us to run ts2012 on an oudated operating system if we want all the sounds working correctly!

It wouldn't surprise me to find that the majority of PC's that the game is installed on use on-board sound, and I've yet to hear of any issues running that hardware under *new* operating systems, and surely the onus is on Microsoft and/or Creative to resolve any compatability issues with their products, not RSC?
RSC have their faults, and a long list of things they should sort out, but this problem is not of their making.

[growler37]

Hi,
The sound problems that all versions of RW suffer from are well documented, try a search on this and other forums and you will find a host of problems, sounds cutting out,spluttering steam locos,looping, i get some of these problems, and i have a high spec sound card and system, that runs cubase and other music recording software without a glitch, so blaming machine specs totaly is wide of the mark.
Regards
Kev

[smartie38]

RSC have their faults, and a long list of things they should sort out, but this problem is not of their making.

Did I say the problem was of RSC's making? Microsoft ditched directsound with Vista, that os was released many years ago yet this sim is still using directsound, imo moving the sound engine over to OpenAL should be high on their list of `to do` things, considering this is a sim & sound plays a massive part in adding realism, luckily the alchemy app enables on the bells & whistles like eax, reverb etc on my x-fi titanium card but it's not without glitches, something that wouldn't be a problem if the sim used openal natively.

Oh and there's a very good reason why you don't hear from users of onboard sound talking about having issues using that hardware on `new` operating systems, because onboard sound doesn't have hardware features like eax etc, only dedicated sound cards have that.

[gptech]

I don't know if you were responding to me there Kev, but I do realise that RW does have problems with sounds cutting out, particularly with steam loco's; I've run across them myself.
My post was more concerned with smartie38's assertion that the problems he has (and others have) with Creative's drivers/EAX/Alchemy under Win 7 (I presume) were something RSC should fix.
If you weren't responding to me, forgive me for being so damned paranoid!

[jimmyshand]

I use onboard sounds and as far as I know don't have any dedicated soundcard at all. Generally I get by ok but I've had long-standing issues with AP soundpacks on demanding routes. First thing to noticeably go for me is one of the horn tones in a 2-tone loco. Next to go is usually the track joint sound in cabview. I've also suffered the spluttering/stuttering steam engine sound when running at speed but then I believe this to be a widespread problem anyway. On less demanding routes I have no issues at all with sounds. As soon as I load a demanding route or scenario then certain sounds are always the first casualties. Definitely a memory/resource issue as it doesn't happen on lesser routes as described and it seems those with high spec rigs don't seem to suffer or at least not as bad. The problem is not so bad as to make me feel the need to rush out and buy a soundcard however. Generally onboard sounds seem to be ok for the job.

[gptech]

Did I say the problem was of RSC's making?

Well, to me you did...

perhaps RSC expect most of us to run ts2012 on an oudated operating system if we want all the sounds working correctly!

which implies that in your view RSC are expecting you/us/them to run on XP in order to use EAX.
Whilst I agree that moving to OpenAL would be a huge benefit to all it would appear to be low on RSC's list of 'things to sort out', and for every one they sort there'll be 50% of users complaining that their pet peeve hasn't been seen to. The core of the game is aging, no doubt about that, but when released it worked with the then current Windows/EAX bundle, the fact it doesn't now is because

Microsoft ditched directsound with Vista,

and yes, it's not un-reasonable to suggest that RSC should/could have acted sooner to implement a replacement sound sub-system--do they have the talent in house to do such a task?--but they are a small company running to a budget and possibly in their budget/business plan, sales of DLC have to come first to continue running.

Oh and there's a very good reason why you don't hear from users of onboard sound talking about having issues using that hardware on `new` operating systems, because onboard sound doesn't have hardware features like eax etc, only dedicated sound cards have that.

Othe than that other Creative Labs products, THX, of course---probably not as immersive as EAX but does feature positional sound and something akin to reverb.

[ashgray]

Following BigPeter's temporary locking of the thread last night, to allow the element of "attitude" that has crept in to cool off, I'm re-opening it.

I'm also keeping a close watch on it....

Ash