Software OrbiterSound breaks stock DragonFly (2010 on Win7x64)

[Usquanigo]

The title pretty much says it all.

I am at work, and my work machine is a Dell Optiplex 780, Pentium Dual-Core [email protected], with 4GB of RAM, and Intel Q45 Chipset Video. It's running Windows 7 Professional, 64bit.

Orbiter 2010 works just fine. And even with OrbiterSound 3.5 installed, just about everything seems to work. I stock DG, XR-2 (2010 version), LongEZ, and a bunch of other things (can't remember them all right now).

However, when I try to launch any of the DragonFly scenarios, Orbiter crashes once it starts to load/render the DF. Orbiter.log shows no errors, I just watch the stuff loading at the bottom of the loading page, then see it go white, then ask me to "close program".

I tried re-installing Orbiter (from the msi) and checked the DF, it worked. Then I added OrbiterSound 3.5.... and the problem came back.

So I decided to try the zip file instead, I just downloaded the 2010 zip package, unzipped it, checked, DF worked, added OrbiterSound.... and it broke the DF.

De-activating the module has no effect.

After re-checking that the stock DG does in fact work with all the above, I noticed it starts me in the 'pit, so I edited the DF scenario to do the same - still crashed the application.


At home, I am running Windows XP SP3, 32bit on a Pentium 4, 3.2GHz with 2GB of RAM and a GF6800/256. The DF works just fine with Orbiter 2010 and OrbiterSound 3.5.

I don't have a 64bit XP, nor a 32bit 7 to further pinpoint things.

Anyone have any ideas? I really like playing Orbiter on my work system (when time allows), and am trying to get more familiar with the DragonFly, and even start some space station building which pretty much requires it.

 

[Xyon]

OrbiterSound writes to its own log file. Does that show any errors? (OrbiterSound_Log.txt)

 

[Usquanigo]

Here's the contents of my OrbiterSound_log.txt -

Passed initModule - Ok
attempting focus change...
Focus not ready bypassing focus change - Ok
Passed initModule - Ok
attempting focus change...
Focus not ready bypassing focus change - Ok
Attempting RenderViewport initialisation...
Attempting GetStartValue initialisation...
Passed GetStartValue - Ok
Initialising directsound...
directsound initialised - OK
Passed RenderViewport - Ok
Attempting Mp3 initialisation...
MP3 found in playlist =  1
MP3 attempting to shuffle playlist...
Only one Mp3 no need to shuffle playlist
Mp3 initialised - Ok
Focus changed attempting to load vessel wave
Focus changed load vessel wave - OK
Attempting to load Mp3...
Mp3 loaded - OK
Attempting to play Mp3...
Mp3 is playing - OK
Attempting to close viewport...
Attempting to kill DirectSound...
DirectSound killed - OK
Passed CloseRenderViewport - Ok
Exited to Orbiter Launchpad - OK
Passed ExitModule - Ok
Passed initModule - Ok
attempting focus change...
Focus not ready bypassing focus change - Ok
Passed initModule - Ok
attempting focus change...
Focus not ready bypassing focus change - Ok
Passed initModule - Ok
Passed ExitModule - Ok

This is from a fresh 2010 zip extraction with only OrbiterSound 3.5 installed, and only that module activated.

---------- Post added at 03:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:47 PM ----------

Playing around with things some more, I decided to try Compatibility Mode, and set it to Windows XP SP3 on the Orbiter.exe, and surprisingly it worked. I had no modules active at the time, so I exited, activated FrameRate, the Scenario Editor, and Orbiter Sound, then went back in, and it still worked.

I still want to try to test on a Windows 7 32bit, but this suggests to me it's more about XP vs 7. I'll have to try this on my 'main' Orbiter install on this machine now, and hopefully it's the same. But it really does make me wonder what's going on and where the issue could possibly be.

 

[Xyon]

I just checked this out on Windows 7 x64, with no compatibility settings adjusted, and I'm not able to reproduce the crash, Orbiter sound and the Dragonfly are playing together fine for me.

Given that we're talking about sound here, I notice you didn't mention your audio hardware in your system specs. Best I can suggest, however, is to make sure you have a totally 64-bit windows 7 compliant audio driver which was written for your specific hardware.

 

[Usquanigo]

Curiouser and curiouser then.

Audio is integrated, whatever the system came with. Drivers included.

Just looked it up - SoundMAX Integrated Digital High Def Audio, driver date is from a year ago (June 09), and driver details shows a lot of dlls with "64" in the names, but doesn't tell me if it's 64 bit or not. I'll have a look at that.

The thing that throws me there though, is that OTHER ships work just fine - XR2, XR1, stock DG, and DGIV have all been tested on the ground and in orbit, both inside the pit and in externals, and everything is fine there.

And in externals, it's music only, so really anything should be fine there. :shrug:

 

[n122vu]

I'd also suggest running the DirectX diagnostic just for due diligence (dxdiag in the search box, or in the run box if you have it enabled) to see if any errors show up there.

---------- Post added at 03:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:16 PM ----------

**EDIT** Just tried it on my work machine - Lenovo T400 7417-PKU Intel Centrino 2 Dual Core @ 2.23 Ghz, 4GB RAM, Intel 4 Series Video, Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. Orbiter 2010, Orbiter Sound, along with other addons.

All of the Dragonfly scenarios work fine for me.

 

[Usquanigo]

Ok, so then the indication that it is my machine, and at that, probably the hardware, or at least drivers. And since it's cheap generic hardware which I can't easily find drivers for, they may as well be one and the same here.

The good news is that it works in Compatibility Mode, for whatever reason.

It's still odd how all those other ships worked though. Unless maybe there's something quirky about the audio for the DF, and maybe O-S tries to 'play' all the sounds, even when it's muted maybe? Might mean others might have a problem too then and I just haven't found it.

Either way, I'll run in C-Mode for now, and keep an eye out for an old Sound Blaster that I can slap in and get some real drivers for at some point.


Thanks guys. :thumbup: