Sound Cutting Out

[HACKr]

Okay don't come in here expecting much as I'm so spacey (for certain reasons) I'm surprised I can even form a sentence.

Anywho, we all know GT2's glitch with the sound cutting out during races. It usually comes after periods of extended play, but what causes it? That's what I want to find out as it happened to me playing through the Gran Turismo World Championship once more. The sound was funky for not just one race in the series, but each and every race. Hmmm, what could cause this?

So I got two quick (read: incomplete) theories with absolutely no thought put into them whatsoever. Here we go:

1>>> The sound engine of the game could be allocating more channels than possible with the Playstation's hardware... okay I got lost halfway through thinking through this one. Sorry

2>>> It may have something to do with some sort of malfunction of the sound engines effort to properly mix the sounds. I mean as in the volume and pan of each sound.

Heres some random sound related stuff that I am sure of and may have a bearing on finding out how the sound gets glitched out:

>The music during racing is played directly from the disk just like a cd player. It is XA, so it is a bit of a different animal than normal CD playback, but in programming it is EXTREMELY easy to implement (anyone look at the Net Yaroze manuals?) and the system itself takes care of most of that. The background music is not completely tied to the game's engine.

>Gran Turismo 2 was developed solely on and for the PS1, and uses the PS1's hardware specific FX processor and such. (Could this mean that there is a problem with the sound hardware rather than the game engine?)

So anyway, to try in some way shape or form to get to the bottom of this, I could really use first hand accounts of GT2's sound glitching, along with what hardware it was running on (PS1, PS2, Emu) and approximately how long you've been playing the game before it started happening.

Sorry if this seems too random, and If you have trouble figuring out what I'm trying to say. I am so like 'woah' it's not even funny.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Confusing but insightful, I spent 5 minutes scratching my head trying to understand what you're trying to say from paragraph 4 onwards.

Anyway, here's what I know about sound glitching:
I got the NTSC version 1.0 disc and I play on the PS1. The sound glitch occurs in the Laguna Enduro as well as in the GT World Cup. In the enduro the music cuts out at around lap 30 or so, and the sfx starts to disappear around lap 50 before disappearing altogether at lap 60. The sfx would come back on for a while, then cut out again. This happens till the end of the race. In the World Cup the music before the countdown is messed up. In race music and sfx are fine. Both of these happened when I first entered these races, so you could say the glitch was there all along and not a result of extended play.

 

[Sniffs]

ahhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeem*

did you people forget the PSOne is a RESHELL?

the PSX went through several different iterations (like the PS2 and 3), including changes to the chips and laser configurations before it was Reshelled into the Bare Bones PSOne case. this interference may be specific to only some revamps.
in my case it's also bent and distorted AV connectors. wires tend to brake after being curled in one position for so long.

I rarely have this happen, though (as I don't leave a console ON for 18 hours straight or more). I've had it happen with GT4 more often.

 

[HACKr]

Confusing but insightful, I spent 5 minutes scratching my head trying to understand what you're trying to say from paragraph 4 onwards.

Anyway, here's what I know about sound glitching:
I got the NTSC version 1.0 disc and I play on the PS1. The sound glitch occurs in the Laguna Enduro as well as in the GT World Cup. In the enduro the music cuts out at around lap 30 or so, and the sfx starts to disappear around lap 50 before disappearing altogether at lap 60. The sfx would come back on for a while, then cut out again. This happens till the end of the race. In the World Cup the music before the countdown is messed up. In race music and sfx are fine. Both of these happened when I first entered these races, so you could say the glitch was there all along and not a result of extended play.

Whoa man, music cutting out? This kind of thing kinda makes me lean towards the idea that this may be a fault with the Playstation's hardware.

ahhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeem*

did you people forget the PSOne is a RESHELL?

the PSX went through several different iterations (like the PS2 and 3), including changes to the chips and laser configurations before it was Reshelled into the Bare Bones PSOne case. this interference may be specific to only some revamps.
in my case it's also bent and distorted AV connectors. wires tend to brake after being curled in one position for so long.

I rarely have this happen, though (as I don't leave a console ON for 18 hours straight or more). I've had it happen with GT4 more often.

1. Yes, PSOne is somewhat of a reshell, though the hardware has been slightly modified to fit the smaller case (no parallel port on the system anymore) and the BIOS have changed in the PSOne (no more seizure style visualizations in CD player mode.)

2. PSX?

3. Sound cutting out on GT4? That's strange, but it's a whole other story for me right now.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Ah yes, I got the PSX, not PS1. Sorry, my bad.

HACKr: Yes the music does cut-out halfway through the race. But I'm pretty sure it's not a problem with the PSX itself. I mean, it doesn't happen in other races, or in other games. Just in GT2 and in the Laguna Enduro. It might be a problem with my TV's speaker though, it's 10 years old anyway .

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Ha! I'm so like "whoa" too!

1). I've never encountered sound cut outs in GT4, and as we all know I've played a lot of GT4.

2). I read somewhere that GT1 uses about 75% of the capacity of the CD disc, and that development wasn't rushed, so they got it right. GT2, on the other hand, uses almost all the capacity of its CD (sim disc, anyways), and as we know, its production was rushed, and things are screwy. As to the reason why they are screwy, I have no clue other than what you're (trying) to say. I'm not good with a lot of computer-speek, tho. So I'm afraid I'm a bit lost.

3). I did an experiment once. I did a spectacular race at the World Cup in Rome (in my '92 Mitsubishi 3000GT). I saved the replay. In the original replay just after the race, the sound was cutting out. But when I watched the SAVED replay, the sound was fine! Try this!

Not sure if it has anything to do with your theories, tho, HACKr.

 

[HACKr]

Well, in all seriousness, I'm thinking something along the lines of improper sound device implementation due to the fact that the game was rushed, but that's not a complete enough theory for me, so more digging will indeed happen. I mean I'll look more when I put down my Nintendo DS (I just got one, it's pretty kickass.)

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Well, in all seriousness, I'm thinking something along the lines of improper sound device implementation due to the fact that the game was rushed, but that's not a complete enough theory for me, so more digging will indeed happen. I mean I'll look more when I put down my Nintendo DS (I just got one, it's pretty kickass.)

Agreed. They are kickass.

 

[Thiele]

Ha! I'm so like "whoa" too!

1). I've never encountered sound cut outs in GT4, and as we all know i've played alot of GT4.

2). I read somewhere that GT1 uses about 75% of the capacity of the CD disc, and that development wasn't rushed, so they got it right. GT2, on the other hand, uses almost all the capacity of its cD (sim disc, anyways), and as we know, its production was rushed, and things are screwy. As to the reason why they are screwy, i have no clue other than what you're (trying) to say. I'm not good with alot of computer-speek, tho. So i'm afraid i'm a bit lost.

Not sure if it has anything to do with your theories, tho, HACKr.

The size of the GT1 CD is 573MB. If you select the files it says they use 628MB. GT2's GT disc's size is 589MB. If you select the files they use 608MB. So neither are really close to using the whole capacity of the disc. I think the CD's hold up to 700MB.

EDIT: That's for the PAL version anyway

 

[Pupik]

I've also noticed the sound cuts out during the Apricot Hill enduro, and the World Championships. I don't remember offhand nor exactly, but I recall the Skyline JGTC and the Altezza LMs doing a lot of the intermittent sound cutting-out; but only during 5-race series and enduros.

I've never had it happen during the individual races on my v1.0 NTSC disks, no matter what car you are using, and I've played GT2 for hours and hours straight.

I only note hearing the sound disappearance towards the end of a 5-race championship series (as opposed to the 5 individual GT-All Stars races), maybe it's a memory or buffering issue (I don't know the exact term), since the hardware always resets and cleans out the memory after each individual race. In a series, it has to retain information like the cars used and the running point totals. Enduros save the lap and time information, not to mention the large replay size.

 

[lgtngtr3]

with me the honda nsx car sound engine is a little diffenrent at 6.000 rpm.it changes and at 7.000 rpm it goes back to normal.what is happening?

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Are you talking about sound cutting out? Or just a normal NSX engine sound? This thread is all about GT2's sound, which starts getting glitchy in some longer races.

An NSX engine features VTEC, which is a system of variable valve timing that adds a boost of power at higher rpms by changing the lift & duration of intake and exhaust valves. As revs go from 6,000 to 7,000 and higher, what you're hearing is the valves and the VTEC system kicking in, basically.

 

[Sniffs]

*tilts head* you must be talking about the engine effects in gt4. as far as I know, the GT2's are all simply idling sound loops matched to the ingame engine speed. some of the loops can still be heard ieven in GT4. i can hear the repeating hitch occasionally.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Actually, the VTEC sound exists in GT2 as well, only at higher revs, as it's supposed to.