The ambient sound problems

[G'Kyl]

I'm on the old model as well. Disappearing sound problems so far only after returning from sleep mode while in the middle of a race (any race mode). I get no engine sounds then, which is kind of cool, because 1.) you get a chance to listen to many sounds that otherwise you recognize only on a subconscious level as you are usually hardly aware of them and 2.) all sounds return in the next race.

Ben

[Rapier Racer]

Thats really quite strange, I didn't loose my sounds on Fort Gale when I stuck my PSP in sleep mode, twice in a row in fact. I have the slim PSP though.

[Dogg Thang]

I've been doing some more tests. I thought it might be a cache problem so I turned off the RAM caching but that didn't seem to help. I also thought it might be a save file problem as I noticed that, even with RAM caching off, the game accesses the memory stick after coming back from sleep but even switching memory stick and running a new profile didn't seem to help.

So it seems really weird to me that people like Rapier Racer aren't having the same problem but others are to different degrees. I'm really at a loss now to figure out what's happening. I can't imagine it's a faulty UMD or anything - I would have thought the chances of that would be slim to none.

Anyone else have any more ideas? Is there anyone else here with similar problems who have noticed any connections with any features or anything?

[mdhay]

I would just keep re-starting the race. it might just be taking a long time to clear up.Chances are I'm incorrect, but there's always that chance.

[Rapier Racer]

What about firmware versions did we compare those? I'm not running the latest update yet I believe its 3.80? I'm still on 3.71.

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah, I'm on that too. I should probably upgrade to see if it helps.

[Dogg Thang]

Just an update with the current end of story. End because I'm at a loss, not because I fixed it.

I upgraded to firmware 3.8 but no change unfortunately. So here's just about everything I tried:

Both firmware 3.71 (loaded straight from Pulse UMD) and 3.8 (downloaded through network update).
Tested without memory stick and with different memory stick.
Tested with RAM chaching turned off.
Tested with the ALVS (or whatever it is) turned off and on.
Tested with Dynamic Normaliser turned off and on.
Tested on both an old fat PSP and my new slim & lite.

The only thing I haven't been able to test is another copy of Pulse as I don't have one. I can't imagine it's a bad UMD though, could it be?

So what I'm left with is crowd sounds that vanish completely after one instance of sleep and the other ambient sounds disappearing in what seems to be a pretty inconsistant way. I can't keep track of what is triggering the disappearances. Sometimes Fort Gale has no sounds at all. Sometimes I have rain sounds. I only heard sirens on Metropia (or was it Arc Prime?) for the very first time while doing these tests. They were always gone by the time I got to that track before.

I have to say, it's really frustrating and disappointing because the sounds that are there, and the sounds that I can hear on the first race after a complete game restart, are really good and someone obviously put effort into them but, for the most part, I'm not able to hear them. I find it odd more people aren't commenting on it, making me wonder if my copy is indeed dodgy.

I'm guessing this won't be the sort of thing fixable in a download?

[Frances_Penfold]

It's not just you, Dogg-- I use sleep mode A LOT and usually race with the soundtrack off, and I am definitely noticing this as well. (Probably lots of folks tend to pump out the tunes when playing Wipeout so don't notice the loss of ambient noises-- hence lack of response to the thread.)

Haven't done nearly as much experimenting as you-- but I definitely notice loss of the crowd and also bird noises (the gulls at Metropia and the songbirds and Red Tail Hawk on Vertica) after use of sleep mode. As you say, the loss of some sounds is inconsistent-- sometimes I hear course noises in parts of the track and then everything goes silent.

This is the sort of things that many (or most) users probably won't notice or care about-- but I personally agree with you, I am pretty disappointed to loose the ambient sounds. I love the brilliant design and small touches that make Wipeout tracks feel so "alive," and it's a shame to loose part of this.

=> FOR FOLKS that aren't noticing the loss of ambient sounds... try this: (1) turn off the soundtrack; (2) go to racebox and select a Vertica black speedlap event; (3) go through the track, and notice the locations where you can hear the crowd; (4) notice that at the top of the hill, before the vertical drop, you can hear songbirds and the redtail hawk; (5) pause the game, and put it into sleep mode; (6) proceed to race again. You should loose both the crowd noises and the birds, with inconsistent play-back of other track noises.

[ZenDJiNN]

You're right. Never noticed it before but i've just tried that & it happened exactly as you said. Amazing how i never noticed it before but then i usually have the Music on pretty much most of the time.

[swift killer]

Has anyone experienced the sound from the game on surround sound? You should try it, the only thing that makes it aukward is that your holding the PSP in you hand and 9 times out of 10 looking down at the screen as opposed to looking at a big screen.

[Dogg Thang]

Well it's nice to know it's not just my copy I guess. Still... very frustrating. I'd love to know if it can be fixed at all. Or if SL is even aware of it. I would have thought it's something that would have been fairly obvious in bug testing.

If they know about it, maybe it will be fixed in the US release. On the one hand, I'd love to get a bug-free version. On the other, I guess I'd feel resentful that I bought a version that wasn't properly tested or that didn't have the time given to fixing it. But then I bought three copies of Pure so two copies of Pulse wouldn't be the end of the world.

[BARTgai]

yeah, i feel the same way. My parents imported Pulse as a gift for me, but I am worried that what i got was unfinished and full of bugs. That wasn't cheap either. I still have some cash, so i may hve to buy a US copy after all. a shame, because my parents spent a lot of money making sure i got pulse for christmas.