Bugs in the latest Beta Update

[SgtFusion]

In the latest Beta Update, I have noticed a few bugs. They are:
1. After playing a training game, the appropriate fanfare for the medal I've earned starts playing, but is cut off about a second later.
2. The [Intermediate] scheme doesn't work properly. If I select it, it keeps all of the settings from the previously selected scheme. If I select it right after starting W:A, it has all of the weapons set with no ammo (I didn't check the other settings).

I am using Windows 7 Professional x32.

[GrO]

Where did You download the Beta Update?

These are not bugs in the Beta Update itself, cause I've never heard about any issues with [Intermediate] scheme or any other one. For me it's working fine too.

[SgtFusion]

I downloaded it from the official Team17 website. I found that the bug doesn't happen every time, just when I first try to use [Intermediate] after installing W:A and installing the update. Also, I don't get any music after the nuclear explosion at the W:A intro.

[GrO]

Are You using drivers from Win7 and Windows Update or You've installed them manually?

[Lex]

If you installed a modified version of WA, these are possible problems. Removal of audio is a common cracker solution to reduce filesize. Another possibility is if your CD is scratched in extremely precise spots causing only these 2 audio problems to occur. Unless PCM audio playback was removed from DirectX or your sound driver (not really plausible), it's a matter of missing or corrupt files.

The intrinsic schemes like Intermediate are stored in WA.exe. It's impossible for them to be wrong unless WA.exe is abnormal (impossible if you installed the update correctly).

Another possible cause is if you're trying to run the game in some [new / very bad / written by an insane person] virtual machine software or Windows emulator. I'm almost certain that's not the case though.

[GrO]

The intrinsic schemes like Intermediate are stored in WA.exe.

I didn't know that, but why they're existing in User\Schemes location?

[Lex]

[DC] The 13 intrinsic schemes (Intermediate, Pro, Blast Zone, etc.) have corresponding scheme filenames beginning with "{{nn}}". These are "fake" scheme files; they are placeholders for the intrinsic schemes. In the combo box the "{{nn}}" will not be displayed, and the intrinsic schemes' names inside "[ ]" brackets will be substituted for the filenames; you may move these placeholder files to whichever folder you want underneath User\Schemes. If these files are deleted or moved outside the User\Schemes folder, they will be recreated by W:A on start-up.Oh, interesting. I hadn't read about that change. Anyway, notice that WA recreates those files if they somehow leave WA\User\Schemes, meaning that those schemes are stored inside WA.exe.

This feature was added so you could move the intrinsic schemes to whatever subdirectory you wanted.

[SgtFusion]

I use a CD image that I created from a legal copy of W:A, and I haven't had these problems with previous versions of the Beta Update.

[SgtFusion]

Is nobody going to help me?

[Lex]

I can't reproduce your scheme-selection issue.

I haven't tried to reproduce your post-training audio issue.

Making a video explanation would get your issues more attention. As this thread is presently, your issues aren't interesting, detrimental, or believable enough to spend time on.

Yes, I do realize how brutally heartless that sounds.

[SgtFusion]

I can't reproduce your scheme-selection issue.
That doesn't matter any more, because it only happened once (after I first reinstalled the game and Beta Update).
As this thread is presently, your issues aren't interesting, detrimental,
So what if they're not interesting or game-crashing? If they're bugs, they're bugs and they need to be fixed.
or believable enough to spend time on.
Do you think I'm lying or something? I didn't try only once to reproduce them. I did the same things multiple times, and the issues happened each time.

Anyway, I just did some more testing and found that the issues only happen with Windows 7. They don't happen with Windows XP*.


*Note: I tested in Windows XP on a virtual machine. I can't play properly on a virtual machine because of problems I have with the mouse, so just using Windows XP to play instead of Windows 7 isn't an option.

EDIT: Here's some video evidence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvcvjzynZw8 . There's no proper picture because the program I used to record couldn't handle W:A's palette properly.

[Lex]

I just tested and couldn't reproduce either audio problem you've reported.

I'm the first to tell anyone that bugs should be fixed, but as things stand, this trivial sort of problem that: only happens to one person, probably isn't a bug, doesn't matter to anyone but that person, and has a mysterious cause isn't worth discussing unless it can be proven to be widespread and/or ongoing and/or stability-threatening and/or fun-threatening and/or sales-threatening. Thanks for the report. It'll be kept around for searches and discussed later if it ever actually matters.

[SgtFusion]

Which version of Windows are you using?

[Lex]

Vista. Since you're the only person experiencing these audio issues (meaning the Windows 7 tester pool totals 1), you can't be certain it's the Windows version causing these issues to happen. I personally doubt it is, anyway. Have you tried in a Windows 7 VM? I have a feeling it'll play the audio correctly there too.

[CyberShadow]

Fanfare sounds are presently played via DirectShow. This is overkill, but the W:A frontend developers found this method simpler than manually streaming the .wav files chunk by chunk to DirectSound (that's what the in-game code does). Therefore, the behavior depends entirely on how your system is configured to play WAV files. The problem might be caused by a codec or codec pack you installed.

Sorry I didn't reply earlier. The above came to me just now, after re-reading the entire thread again.

[SgtFusion]

Thanks for replying. In that case, I really don't know what it could be. How could I find out?

[CyberShadow]

Reproduce the problem, then minimize W:A and check its module list with something like Process Explorer. Look for modules that are not part of W:A and not created by Microsoft.

[SgtFusion]

I didn't find anything on W:A's module list. Did I do something wrong?

[CyberShadow]

You mean, nothing suspicious?

[SgtFusion]

I don't know exactly what you mean by "module list" but I didn't see anything attached to W:A.

[CyberShadow]

Process Explorer calls this the "DLLs" view (for the lower pane).

[SgtFusion]

I found a few that weren't created by Microsoft or part of W:A, including Cyberlink MPEG-4 splitter (clm4splt.dll). What do I do now?

[CyberShadow]

Check the folder they're located in and see if that corresponds to something you've installed?