[ISSUE]Help, Strange Noises in game

Zoltan · Feb 27, 2017

Hi,

Today I discovered that I had a variable noise in Exanima, it's quiet difficult to explain so I have recorded the phenomenon.

I have tested other games, played music, watched a movie, it's only present in Exanima (Need an Exorcist?)

I welcome any help to find a solution.

Peasant135 · Feb 27, 2017

It seem like the sound emanates from the torch your character is standing by. Can you still hear the noise in the practice arena?

Zoltan · Feb 27, 2017

Yes I can hear the sound everywhere in the game, but a different pitch.
Even in the starting screen or the character selection.

Orlacktherof · Feb 28, 2017

Zoltan said:
Yes I can hear the sound everywhere in the game, but a different pitch.
Even in the starting screen or the character selection.

There's almost always a torch or a fire going on somewhere in the game. You might have a corrupted fire sound file or something

I wonder what would happen if we put this sound into a SSTV decoder...

Zoltan · Feb 28, 2017

Well, I fail to see the relation to the torch, I have tested without with same result.

It may seem strange to say that but I have a loss of sound quality in the noise when recorded.

Anyway here is another demonstration without the torch illumination

Sorry Orlack but I don't have time to test the SSTV decoding

I will remove and reinstall the game, I hope this get fixed.

Zoltan · Feb 28, 2017

Well I have uninstalled and tried different versions back to 6.5.2 and the noise is still there, I begin to believe I had the volume loud enough I didn't pay attention to this before.

Can any of you try to turn off music and lower sound to 0 in game and raise the volume of your headphone/speakers to let me know if I am the only one with this issue ?

Thanks

Zoltan · Mar 1, 2017

Well I have searched a bit and found this Steam forum post > https://steamcommunity.com/app/362490/discussions/0/620713633863165343/

Seem to be a Coil Whine issue.

What I am puzzled with is that I only heard it recently, maybe on of my components is failing.

This only happen at the moment with this game, I don't know If I should be relieved or sad...

Tony · Mar 1, 2017

Zoltan said:
Well I have searched a bit and found this Steam forum post > https://steamcommunity.com/app/362490/discussions/0/620713633863165343/

Seem to be a Coil Whine issue.

What I am puzzled with is that I only heard it recently, maybe on of my components is failing.

This only happen at the moment with this game, I don't know If I should be relieved or sad...

Have you tried setting the sound volume to 80% or so in the Window's sound properties? I had some weird issue where if I set the volume in Windows to 100% it would make strange noises in some games but reducing it to 80% seemed to have solved this problem for me so it may be worth trying. If it's coil whine it should be coming from your PC hardware and not your PC speakers/headphones.

Zoltan · Mar 1, 2017

Tony said:
Have you tried setting the sound volume to 80% or so in the Window's sound properties? I had some weird issue where if I set the volume in Windows to 100% it would make strange noises in some games but reducing it to 80% seemed to have solved this problem for me so it may be worth trying. If it's coil whine it should be coming from your PC hardware and not your PC speakers/headphones.

Thanks for the suggestion Tony, I am rarely above 60% of the main volume control of the device so unfortunately that is not it.

You know what Tony? You are totally right about that coil whine, I jumped too fast to a conclusion and didn't even think about the actual meaning of the words.

Now the search for a cause continue...

BrecMadak · Mar 11, 2017

Yep same annoying problem I had one year back, had my PSU changed and all that noise gone. It was only making in this game in the exact way you described Zoltan.

Midcal9 · Mar 18, 2017

Do you have a sound card?

Zoltan · Mar 19, 2017

Midcal9 said:
Do you have a sound card?

Unfortunately no Midcal.

Midcal9 · Mar 19, 2017

Zoltan said:
Unfortunately no Midcal.

Becuase if you did I could recommend you to disable it and use your mobo to provide the sound, or the other way around. Delete all mobo realtek codecs and disable its builtin sound card in bios in order to use the sound card only. But you can't because you didn't bother getting a 50$ sound card...

Disable your GPU's sound, if you have nvidia it's called Nvidia high definition audio, see if it causes it. If not then uninstall all your sound codecs and install the latest ones unless you have not done it before.

And if you really like exanima you could for example reinstall windows...

Zoltan · Mar 19, 2017

Midcal9 said:
Becuase if you did I could recommend you to disable it and use your mobo to provide the sound, or the other way around. Delete all mobo realtek codecs and disable its builtin sound card in bios in order to use the sound card only. But you can't because you didn't bother getting a 50$ sound card...

Disable your GPU's sound, if you have nvidia it's called Nvidia high definition audio, see if it causes it. If not then uninstall all your sound codecs and install the latest ones unless you have not done it before.

And if you really like exanima you could for example reinstall windows...

Well...I feel like I'm made guilty for not having bought an external soundcard, but maybe I get it wrong.
The motherboard include a SoundBlaster Recon 3Di chip so no Realtek here.
I never install the audio driver for Nvidia.

Ho no doubt here I like Exanima but no way I am reinstalling Windows to hypothetically fix that issue, my days of Windows XP reinstall routine are long gone.

Thanks for you efforts.

Midcal9 · Mar 19, 2017

Zoltan said:
Well...I feel like I'm made guilty for not having bought an external soundcard, but maybe I get it wrong.

The motherboard include a SoundBlaster Recon 3Di chip so no Realtek here.

I never install the audio driver for Nvidia.

Ho no doubt here I like Exanima but no way I am reinstalling Windows to hypothetically fix that issue, my days of Windows XP reinstall routine are long gone.

Thanks for you efforts.

Most video cards came with sound software installed by default. Right click on Start, go to System, hardware configuration and then sound. You should see your motherboard software there and your videocard's sound software. It must be present there, otherwise your monitor's speakers wouldn't work for example. If you have Nvidia card it is called High definition audio.

Anyways, I had a different problem with my sound and I think I might have fixed it by disabling all sound software and hardware apart from my sound card. In my case my pc would freeze and lock up with looping sound, it had nothing to do with my hardware overheating or my power supply having some voltage issues. When it would happen while I was playing the newer games I'd have no other option apart from rebooting the PC.

When It happened while I was playing in Dark Messiah 2006 the game engine crashed and I could actually use my pc, browse net, listen to music etc while hearing the looping sound, it's almost as if there were at least 2 different, completely separate sound channels.

Here is what would happen to me;

My best guess is this, you have a sound software issue, something doesn't properly read what is going on in the game. And yes, I would defo reinstall windows for exanima.

Zoltan · Mar 19, 2017

Midcal9 said:
Most video cards came with sound software installed by default. Right click on Start, go to System, hardware configuration and then sound. You should see your motherboard software there and your videocard's sound software. It must be present there, otherwise your monitor's speakers wouldn't work for example. If you have Nvidia card it is called High definition audio.

By default with plug&pray Windows search for the WHQL driver, but you can decide to install the drivers/software's found on you CD/DVD or more often the last version online at the manufacturer website.
In my case I can see the following :

Midcal9 said:
Anyways, I had a different problem with my sound and I think I might have fixed it by disabling all sound software and hardware apart from my sound card. In my case my pc would freeze and lock up with looping sound, it had nothing to do with my hardware overheating or my power supply having some voltage issues. When it would happen while I was playing the newer games I'd have no other option apart from rebooting the PC.

When It happened while I was playing in Dark Messiah 2006 the game engine crashed and I could actually use my pc, browse net, listen to music etc while hearing the looping sound, it's almost as if there were at least 2 different, completely separate sound channels.

Here is what would happen to me;

Nasty freeze indeed.

Midcal9 said:
My best guess is this, you have a sound software issue, something doesn't properly read what is going on in the game. And yes, I would defo reinstall windows for exanima.

I'm not smart enough to guess the cause of this unfortunate noise issue, I may sound stubborn but in this day & age a clean install is not an option, too much time involved to do so.
I'll wait the next disaster that force me to reinstall and meanwhile I'll live with that ugly bug buzzing in my ears.

Midcal9 · Mar 19, 2017

Zoltan said:
By default with plug&pray Windows search for the WHQL driver, but you can decide to install the drivers/software's found on you CD/DVD or more often the last version online at the manufacturer website.
In my case I can see the following :

Nasty freeze indeed.

I'm not smart enough to guess the cause of this unfortunate noise issue, I may sound stubborn but in this day & age a clean install is not an option, too much time involved to do so.
I'll wait the next disaster that force me to reinstall and meanwhile I'll live with that ugly bug buzzing in my ears.

Switch all Nvidia outputs off. Not Plugged in is not the same as switched off. Also, try unistalling your sound drivers and installing them again. If that doesn't help then I got no idea how to help you.

Also, shouldn't your mobo use realtek sound drivers?

Zoltan · Mar 19, 2017

Midcal9 said:
Switch all Nvidia outputs off. Not Plugged in is not the same as switched off. Also, try unistalling your sound drivers and installing them again. If that doesn't help then I got no idea how to help you.

Ok I will test, I don't have much hope but it does not hurt to try.

Midcal9 said:
Also, shouldn't your mobo use realtek sound drivers?

No, not this one, specs here : http://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/G1Sniper-Z97-rev-1x#sp

Thanks

Midcal9 · Mar 19, 2017

Zoltan said:
Ok I will test, I don't have much hope but it does not hurt to try.

No, not this one, specs here : http://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/G1Sniper-Z97-rev-1x#sp

Thanks

That's an older, fancier generation I guess. I got Z170GamingK3. Install the latest BIOS, maybe that will help.

Imo this is your Mobo's sound blaster issue, or it is somehow related to it, IE there is something else in your system that's in relation to or together with your sound blaster that is causing it.

Try to experiment with it, for example, disable your sound system in your bios and use your HDMI nvidia output as your main sound source. You will only be able to use you speakers for it though. Try to localize the problem by eliminating things which could potentially cause it.

If everything else fails you could spend on 50 euro on a sound card, get Asus Xonar or something.

ThreeSixNine · Mar 20, 2017

Sorry if irrelevant, but it is a gpu whine. You can easily solve this by limiting your in-game FPS via some external program like RTSS or any other that suits you.

Either that or you can also turn on V-Sync which in my opinion is tiny bit worse hence the input lag.

Gpu whine in my experience is caused by too much FPS (300+ values usually), but its not consistent game-to-game since i can get 500+ in some other titles (CS:GO for example) and gpu does just fine.

Anyway, hope this helps, cheers

P.S. I usually limit my games at 100 so i dont see as much tearing (I have 60Hz monitor).
If you have 120-144Hz you should probably set it to 180-200 or so, so that tears get removed faster.