Hello I have been working on my mod lately and I've hit a big roadblock. I've been adding full custom sounds for all weapons and vehicles. Along the way, sounds stopped working. I have read in several locations that there is a sound memory limit in BF2. However, I do not know how to tell this limit or how it works. Some documentation said if you write MEM in the mod tools exe it shows available sound memory. I did so and there seemed to be a lot of sound memory left, unless that value is displayed in bytes or some small unit. I rewrote my sounds to no longer use any stock level sounds and fully recreated a .sfx file so I could be efficient with my sound use, but I still find myself hitting a limit. Do .sfx files factor into the sound memory or is it is the .snd files? I assume .asfx files do heavily cut into the memory. Basically I'm looking for a method to know the sound memory limit and how to efficiently use sounds. Hopefully this is something addressed in the 64 bit classic collection, because just having 1 hover vehicle with fully custom sounds seems to put me at the limit.
Infos on memory limits can be found here: https://sites.google.com/site/swbf2modtoolsdocumentation/sound_engine_guide (https://sites.google.com/site/swbf2modtoolsdocumentation/sound_engine_guide) (look for memory)
Have you accumulated the size of your sound samples yet?
If not, you should check if you exceed the memory limit.
I ran into some problems with the sound when I had used a wrong configuration for 1 sound file.
You should double-check your sfx and asfx configurations and the sample files:
- Make sure that you use the recommended sampling settings.
- Do you use only sound effects, or streams as well?
- Not sure if mono/stereo channels can cause an issue.
- It's best to use the recommended sampling rate and encoding already in the sample (I had some trouble when I used 32bit format instead of 16bit).
If nothing else helps, I would suggest removing one sound at a time and test again.
I know it's tedious, but usually leads to the solution.
Good luck!
Thank you for that link it is very helpful. I've been on that site many times but never ran across that page. I have checked my configs as I noticed if there is even 1 typo my sound breaks. Interestingly, my effects folder is 5.06mb which is way below the 32mb limit suggested for PC in the guide, but is just under the 6mb sound limit for xbox. Maybe I have to define the 32mb memory somewhere else
Edit. I am messing around with it and just by adding 1 additional flyer landing sound it seems to break stock sounds on my map. I thought it was related to exceeding the bank size, but in the .snd file I see the land sound has foley related groups so maybe my issue is related to that
Mem
1843584 free of 33554432 (33.55mb) works, no landing sound
1449984 free of 33554432 (33.55mb) broken
weirdly, my 387kb wav increased the sound bank by as much but seems to have a big impact on sound memory even though its a flyer landing sound
Well you were correct. I had used the yavin sfx file as the basis to build my world's sfx file. In it that sfx has 2 sounds that are specific to that world and don't have the usual ..\..\global\effects\ stuff in front, so I noticed them. Once I removed it the new sounds began working too. Thank you a lot for getting me past this roadblock. I thought for a while I had hit the sound limit and would not be able to accomplish several things I wanted to do with my mod, and was considering shelving it
Thanks for helping, MetalKiller :cheers:
I am glad that it work now.
Let us know when your mod is ready.
I am curious to check it out.
Anytime ;)