music quit playing in echoes

[XIII]

I just downloaded echoes a week or 2 ago, great game.

Anyways the first few times I played it everything was fine. Now when I start it up the sound starts to skip on the Logo screen (with the red green and blue animals) and in game there is no music anymore. I haven't changed anything in it's options, or anything on my pc that I know of.

Any help?

Oh, also the sound is fine playing DUO and DUOtris.

I seen you wanted this in the other thread about the music error so I'll post it too in case it might help.

ERROR DATA LOG
06/01/07 : 20:22:45
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2828 : XML_Read() ::: tag not closed '>' :::
2828 : XML_Read() ::: Tag not recognised :::
87 : Total errors: 2


GAME DATA LOG
06/01/07 : 20:22:45
Display Mode:1024 x 768 x 32
Timer Reset
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
87764 : User Exit (escapekey)

[fog]

Hi XIII and welcome

Well if it used to work then it's safe to say that either the game has become corrupt somehow or, more likely, you have changed something on your PC.  Have you changed anything, installed something or done any windows or driver updates that could be causing the problem?

It may be worth downloading the game again and then at least we can rule out the game being corrupt.

[XIII]

Thanks for the welcome

I tried downloading it again (both the .zip and .rar) but it keeps doing it. When the game starts it sounds like it wants to start playing, it kinda skips like a scratched cd, but then stops.

Also I tried this, if I put my own mp3 in the my music folder, it plays them fine... but if I copy the FKD Reality mp3 and put it in the my music folder, it still skips. But the FKD Reality mp3 plays fine in Winamp, it don't skip or anything. Just seems weird that it still skips even in the my music folder, but my own mp3s don't.

The only thing I have done was install another game and a program to unzip .rar files. Maybe the game changed something that's messing only echoes up, because everything else seems to work fine.
I guess if it's something that the other game did and I don't know what, I can always just use my own mp3s since they play, but I liked the FKD Reality music

[fog]

Thanks for the extra info.

Well that sounds like there's something strange to do with the FKD Reality mp3 (or more specifically how it's encoded) as others work fine.  I'll see if the FKD chaps have any idea

[AaronF]

That's very odd indeed. I could try re-encoding it and posting it here and see if that works.

I just reformatted my computer, so I'm working on getting everything re-installed atm, but I'll post it when I get that done.



Aaron

[Michael_King]

The encoding shouldnt cause any problem at all on anyones PC.. MP3 is a standard format supported by every computer i would imagine, unless of course there is a problem with the end-users computer.

 Try these;


 Reinstall Windows Media Player
 Run scandisk on your windows & system folder to ensure there are no corrupt codecs/filters, system files generally,
 Try playing the track directly in media player from start to end,
 Make sure you using an up-to-date DirectX version,
 Try running Defrag on your master drive.

 Sounds like your computer doesnt like the game executable using the system audio controllers.

[AaronF]

it seems like if that were the case though, he wouldn't be able to play any mp3's without it messing up. It's only messing up on ours.

[XIII]

I just tried playing it in Windows Media Player (version 11) and it works fine, it also works fine in Winamp (version 5.35), it played from start to finish in both. My DirectX is version 9.0c. So everything seems up to date.

The included music for DUO and DUOtris works fine while playing those games, it's only on echoes that the included music "skips". Even if I move the particleillusionloop.mp3 to the Echoes My Music folder it still skips, but my own mp3 files do not. I was playing New Order - Confusion that I ripped from my own cd and it plays fine, along with any other mp3s I've ripped myself.

Right now I only have that New Order song in the My Music folder. I just noticed yesterday that even on the Loop My Music option it will only play the song once then quit. But if I go into the option screen and switch the option again, to play/loop my own music, it'll start back up and play through it, but only once again.


While I was testing stuff, I decided to right click and copy the DUO and DUOtris mp3s to my desktop. I opened the Echoes folder up to the Music folder and moved (not right click copy) the particleillusionloop.mp3 to my desktop also. I put one of the DUO mp3s in the folder in it's place then renamed it to particleillusionloop and those even started "skipping" even though they play fine in their own games.

I also tried putting the particleillusionloop.mp3 in the DUO and DUOtris My Music folders, and it plays fine in both DUO and DUOtris while playing the game.

If I had a way to record the sound when the game was on, I would. I could try to use my mp3 players mic, but I don't know how good it will sound. I might try it tomorrow and see what it sounds like and if you want I can try to find someplace to upload it so someone can hear it.

I'll also try out those other thing tomorrow too. The Defrag and Scandisk etc.

it seems like if that were the case though, he wouldn't be able to play any mp3's without it messing up. It's only messing up on ours.

Yeah it's only messing up while playing Echoes with the DUO, DUOtris, and particleillusionloop mp3s.



More testing info:

I also just tried right click and copy of my New Order-Confusion mp3, moved particleillusionloop.mp3 to the desktop, put the New-Order-Confusion in it's place and renamed it to particleillusionloop and it played fine when "game" was selected from options for music.




Just in case any of that was confusing, we now have:

Duo.mp3, won't play in the Echoes My Music folder ~ won't play renamed as particleillusionloop.mp3 in the Echoes Music folder ~ plays fine while playing the DUO game.

FK'D Reality Compositions - DUOTris Loop.mp3, won't play in the Echoes My Music folder ~ won't play renamed as particleillusionloop.mp3 in the Echoes Music folder ~ plays fine while playing the DUOtris game.

particleillusionloop.mp3, plays fine in the DUO My Music and Music folders ~ plays fine in the DUOtris My Music and Music folders ~ won't play in the Echoes My Music or Music folders ~ also plays fine in Windows Media Player and Winamp.

My own mp3s, plays fine in all 3 games in the My Music folders ~ plays fine renamed as particleillusionloop.mp3 in the Echoes Music folder.

So it seems as if Echoes is having problems playing any FKD Reality mp3s for me.

[fog]

Woah.  I think I'll let the FKD Brothers get their thinking caps on about that one ans see if they can come up with a solution.

This however sounds like a problem for me to look into as it's a coding issue....

Right now I only have that New Order song in the My Music folder. I just noticed yesterday that even on the Loop My Music option it will only play the song once then quit. But if I go into the option screen and switch the option again, to play/loop my own music, it'll start back up and play through it, but only once again.

I was playing New Order - Confusion...

Good choice

[XIII]

Woah.  I think I'll let the FKD Brothers get their thinking caps on about that one ans see if they can come up with a solution.

This however sounds like a problem for me to look into as it's a coding issue....

Right now I only have that New Order song in the My Music folder. I just noticed yesterday that even on the Loop My Music option it will only play the song once then quit. But if I go into the option screen and switch the option again, to play/loop my own music, it'll start back up and play through it, but only once again.

I was playing New Order - Confusion...

Good choice

Don't know if you mean the original or not. It's the Confusion (Pump Panel Reconstruction Mix) from the Blade soundtrack, I bought it just for that one song. Still a good song either way

Yeah when I was testing that stuff earlier, I kept playing the one time just to make sure that it stopped with the option set on loop my music and not the shuffle my music option, since the one time I was playing (when I got that 9 mill score on easy), it stopped playing after the song finished.

[fog]

Don't know if you mean the original or not. It's the Confusion (Pump Panel Reconstruction Mix) from the Blade soundtrack, I bought it just for that one song. Still a good song either way

Unfortunately I'm old enough to remember the original version.

We should do a survey into what music people listen to while playing if the don't listen to the FKD Reality track.  It would be interesting to see what type of music people prefer.

[XIII]

Well I tried the Defrag and error check now and neither changed anything.

[Michael_King]

I actually think its a buffer problem going on in game time, where the music is streaming chunk by chunk, but isnt updating the buffer in time for it to continue playing.

 How much ram does your computer have?

[fog]

I actually think its a buffer problem going on in game time, where the music is streaming chunk by chunk, but isnt updating the buffer in time for it to continue playing.

 How much ram does your computer have?

Not sure it can be a RAM problem Mike if it's only effecting one track.  I'd simply try re-encoding it and seeing if that solves the problem.

Fingers crossed that works as it's certainly the easiest solution

[XIII]

I actually think its a buffer problem going on in game time, where the music is streaming chunk by chunk, but isnt updating the buffer in time for it to continue playing.

 How much ram does your computer have?

Not sure it can be a RAM problem Mike if it's only effecting one track.  I'd simply try re-encoding it and seeing if that solves the problem.

Fingers crossed that works as it's certainly the easiest solution

It's not only 1 track though. It's any FKD Reality mp3. So he could be right, but I don't know why it would only effect the FKD mp3s and not any others I try, if it's a memory problem. Like I said, my own mp3s play fine, it just skips the 3 FKD mp3s (Duo, Duotris, and Echoes) if I play them in Echoes.

Anyways I have 512mb of memory and 1.8ghz cpu.