Sound Drop Outs / Crackling / Popping

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jstange
Beiträge: 37
Registriert: 22.07.2020 18:13:47

Sound Drop Outs / Crackling / Popping

#1 Beitrag von jstange »

Hello,

since the beginning I have been hearing some minor crackling from time to time during running the sim. At first I did not pay much attention to it, but it's been probably getting slightly worse recently - I hear various popping and crackling even when the train is stationary. Today I've been trying to get to the bottom of this, I have tried to increase and decrease the ZusiSim process priority and it was actually making the issue better and worse (the lower the priority the worse the problem was). Interestingly sometimes the sound is totally clean during the whole session no matter what priority I give to the process. CPU nor GPU is not overloaded when the issue occurs (actually far from that).

No other program using sound nor any game on this PC is exhibiting this behaviour (and although this PC is rather weak and old, some of the games running on it are much more demanding than Zusi both in terms of CPU and GPU).

Is anyone else experiencing something similar? Is there a way how the sound buffer within the sim could be increased if this is an issue with how Zusi uses a CPU? Or any other idea?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

linusf
Beiträge: 140
Registriert: 03.05.2016 17:45:46

Re: Sound Drop Outs / Crackling / Popping

#2 Beitrag von linusf »

jstange hat geschrieben: 24.04.2021 22:54:59 Is anyone else experiencing something similar? Is there a way how the sound buffer within the sim could be increased if this is an issue with how Zusi uses a CPU? Or any other idea?
My guess is no. You are always the only one hearing this. Both in Train Simulator and now in Zusi. No offence meant :)

jstange
Beiträge: 37
Registriert: 22.07.2020 18:13:47

Re: Sound Drop Outs / Crackling / Popping

#3 Beitrag von jstange »

Hi Linus, no, here in Zusi it's different, it's not about wrong loops, it is for sure either a Zusi sound subsystem issue or my HW issue...

EDIT: And to add to this I am starting to believe it could be related to various USB controllers connected to my PC. I am using two throttle controls directly in Zusi and on top of that xpadder to give me a Sifa pedal. When xpadder is running the sound issues tend to get worse - I believe there could be some conflict between xpadder's and Zusi's access to these devices. Additionally Steam is trying to access them too as it has some controller function integrated into it, I did my best to disable it, but not sure if it did the trick.

This leads me to a question if I could simulate the Sifa pedal just using Zusi's controller settings without using xpadder, but I'll open an extra thread on that in order not to mix topics.
Zuletzt geändert von jstange am 25.04.2021 09:30:20, insgesamt 2-mal geändert.

jonathanp
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Registriert: 01.06.2015 14:11:25
Aktuelle Projekte: http://www.zusidatenbank.de/
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Re: Sound Drop Outs / Crackling / Popping

#4 Beitrag von jonathanp »

Whoooosh :hat2

Seriously, on my PC I do not have this Problem even if the framerate is very Low or the sim process completely freezes(admittedly these problems happens almost always with Train Simulator and not Zusi) - the current sound buffer will be looped instead.
Zuletzt geändert von jonathanp am 25.04.2021 09:30:14, insgesamt 1-mal geändert.
Autor - Zusi 3 C++ Client, zusidatenbank.de - Das Zusi3 Addon-Datenbank

jstange
Beiträge: 37
Registriert: 22.07.2020 18:13:47

Re: Sound Drop Outs / Crackling / Popping

#5 Beitrag von jstange »

jonathanp hat geschrieben: 25.04.2021 09:22:27 Whoooosh :hat2
? I am sorry? :D

EDIT: Ok, thanks. originally you just posted Whooosh, so I was not sure what it was supposed to mean :)

jonathanp
Beiträge: 284
Registriert: 01.06.2015 14:11:25
Aktuelle Projekte: http://www.zusidatenbank.de/
Wohnort: BW Schöneweide

Re: Sound Drop Outs / Crackling / Popping

#6 Beitrag von jonathanp »

OK, just to close it out, if I had problems with sound I would also be the only one hearing them, unless I invited a friend round to listen too, which I can't due to infection control regulations :whatever Welcome to the world of German humour.
Autor - Zusi 3 C++ Client, zusidatenbank.de - Das Zusi3 Addon-Datenbank

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Carsten Hölscher
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Re: Sound Drop Outs / Crackling / Popping

#7 Beitrag von Carsten Hölscher »

Is it possible to use another sound device? For example a USB sound card or USB headset or something like that?

Carsten

jstange
Beiträge: 37
Registriert: 22.07.2020 18:13:47

Re: Sound Drop Outs / Crackling / Popping

#8 Beitrag von jstange »

Yes, Carsten, it was something I was thinking about too. I should have a USB sound card somewhere, just need to find it and will test it out.

Just out of curiosity - why do you believe it could be any different with another sound card when other apps are not having this issue? Is it something you encountered before on some systems?

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Carsten Hölscher
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Re: Sound Drop Outs / Crackling / Popping

#9 Beitrag von Carsten Hölscher »

I am not aware of anything like that. Can you produce a video of the effect?

Carsten

jstange
Beiträge: 37
Registriert: 22.07.2020 18:13:47

Re: Sound Drop Outs / Crackling / Popping

#10 Beitrag von jstange »

The thing is that there are sessions where the problem does not appear at all...and all of a sudden I get clicks every 10-20 seconds. I will be looking into this further and I'll try to record a video if it's still an issue. However, it's just clicking and popping like playing an old vinyl (sound drop-outs obviously).

I will test the USB sound card as well.

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