ATC stutters in fs9

[ksan1 0]

 Hi, I have a problem with stuttering with both the atc and pilot voice.  I have tried disabling
the sound card, and no joy.  My sound cards are up to date and I have not experienced any
other sound problems.  The engine sounds, etc are fine.  The instructional voices are good. 
DirectX says everything ok.  I don't know how to adjust/shut down the "accelerators"??. I
recently did a system restore and virus/malware scan and have all the latest Windows updates. 
I tested the sound and have the same problem even with FS9 being the only installed software
(aside from what came with the factory). I have re-installed fs9 several times with the same
problem (yes I purchased the discs).  I have also lowered the various settings to minimum and
lowered framerate but to joy there. I love to fly (former CFII with medical limitations
which makes FS9 a godsend).  The interactive ATC system is great and if I could just get the
stutter to stop I would love it.  Many thanks to anyone with some good Ideas.   KSAN1. specs:

Acer Aspire 5251 (notebook), AMD processor, V120 (2.2GHz), ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 Graphics
 up to 893 MB Hyper-Memory, 2 GB Memory, 250 GB HDD, Windows 7 64 bit home premium, Realtek HDMI
Audio Card,
I have tried other fs9 forums with not much luck. I also know many others have had the same

problem.                                             Please help.  thanks Ksan1.

I will attach a .wav file I recorded with a simple voice recorder to give some indication of the problem.. oops I

received a warning that I can't attach that file..sorry.  The best I can describe the problem is.."Montgomery ground

da da da da Cessna dadadada, taxi dddaaaaa, etc)

[Luis Hernandez 566]

Mmmm... Win7 64 bit and just 2GB of RAM won't help much. I'm not sure, but I think there's no sound acceleration slider in Windows 7. What I recommend (apart from at least 2 GB more of RAM) is to play with the sound quality settings in FS9, to see if there is a difference between low, mid and high. And also, defrag your HDD.

[ronzie 21]

For your notebook pick the Win desktop theme as Win XP classic or other to get rid of the resources used for the 3D Aero desktop themes, even if you upgrade to 4 MB RAM. In addition your RAM clock speed is low at 2.2 GHz.

 

Your Realtek audio I believe is a mobo mounted chip and not a separate card with its own ram. Upgrading to 4 MB is definitely in order.

 

FS ai modeling also uses ram resources as do "fancy" airports and other high detailed 3D models.

[ksan1 0]

Yea, thanks folks...I have tried cranking all the settings to minimuim levels.  Didn't think of the desktop.  I will give it a try.  There seems to be a lot of people with the problem.  I am also looking into the memory thing.   The funny thing is everything else works well even with the settings on the highest settings.  If nothing else works I think I will just record some generic atc chatter on my voice recorder and let it run while I fly. .Thanks again for your responses    ksan1.

[mebull 27]

 

Please help. thanks Ksan1.

 

Another thing to check: In DirectX make sure sound acceleration is set to basic.

 

Regards,

Mel

[Luis Hernandez 566]

Another thing to check: In DirectX make sure sound acceleration is set to basic.

 

This is the slider I mentioned that I can't find in Windows 7.

[mebull 27]

 

This is the slider I mentioned that I can't find in Windows 7.

 

I use Windows XP, so I'm am not sure about the location in Windows 7. Search for 'dxdiag', it is a diagnostic and settings tool, part of DirectX the setting I referred to is located in the sound tab. ( In Windows XP it is located in window / system32 ---W7 is probably different? )

 

Regards,

Mel

[ronzie 21]

You can load dxdiag by typing dxdiag in a command window or using the run command in the start tab. I tied it this way on Win XP and though I have it on a laptop I did not try it on Win 7 as Direct X may not be installed on that. I do not run FS on the laptop.

[ksan1 0]

Thanks again to all who responded.  I have DirectX v9 which shows accelerators are enabled but has no access to any user controls from which I can turn them down as suggested in the sound troubleshooting section of fs9.  Are these accelerators associated with the video display adaptor?  I have tried disabling the sound card and running is diagnostic mode, disabled startup programs one at a time and restarting, I have also tried cutting back on services, and eliminated all other games installed on the computer.  When I tried monitoring system performance I did notice when I fired up fs9 it was using 100 percent of the cpu.  The one thing I don't understand is why everything else works so well even with all the settings cranked up to the max.  Even with a ton of addon scenery both downloaded and produced by myself using gmax scenery design.  The flight instruction sound works great..."You failed another checkride...come back and try again!"  Anyway I guess my only hope is to buy more memory.   By the way, anyone know is the sound files for ATC instruction is in the same WAV format as the other aircraft sounds and if not where I can locate them and maybe fix them at their source??   Thanks   ksan

[mebull 27]

 

I have DirectX v9 which shows accelerators are enabled but has no access to any user controls from which I can turn them down as suggested in the sound troubleshooting section of fs9.

 

Access dxdiag the way Ron suggested, at the top of the new window that opens click on the 'Sound' tab. In the middle (sort of) find the "DirectX Features" section. There is or should be a slider there and also should indicate in text at what level the acceleration is set, reposition the slider so you see Basic acceleration above it, then exit.

 

 

By the way, anyone know is the sound files for ATC instruction is in the same WAV format as the other aircraft sounds and if not where I can locate them and maybe fix them at their source?

 

The ATC instructions - voices etc are located in the main sounds folder, file named: with a .GVP extension such as 'Evp_Accelerated.gvp ***** yours may be named different but will have .GVP as the file extension *****. To edit the GVP file requires a program called EditVoicePack and most likely wouldn't fix the stutters anyway.

 

To answer your question specifically; No the ATC instructions for flight etc are not in the same format as the engine sounds, with the exception of opening the entire GVP formatted file with EditVoicePack where individual phrases and words can be accessed.

 

Regards,

Mel

[ksan1 0]

Access dxdiag the way Ron suggested, at the top of the new window that opens click on the 'Sound' tab. In the middle (sort of) find the "DirectX Features" section. There is or should be a slider there and also should indicate in text at what level the acceleration is set, reposition the slider so you see Basic acceleration above it, then exit.

 

 

 

The ATC instructions - voices etc are located in the main sounds folder, file named: with a .GVP extension such as 'Evp_Accelerated.gvp ***** yours may be named different but will have .GVP as the file extension *****. To edit the GVP file requires a program called EditVoicePack and most likely wouldn't fix the stutters anyway.

 

To answer your question specifically; No the ATC instructions for flight etc are not in the same format as the engine sounds, with the exception of opening the entire GVP formatted file with EditVoicePack where individual phrases and words can be accessed.

 

Regards,

Mel

Thanks again Mel.  I have tried many times accessing the accelerator control in directX and unfortunately I does not appear in my version or directX??? I have no trouble getting directX (winrun-dxdiag-sound tab- but no features.  When I click the video tab there is a features section showing: DiretX Features under which it shows:  ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250

    DirectDraw Acceleration:     Enabled

    Direct3D Acceleration:         Enabled

    AGP Texture Acceleration:  Enabled   But still there is no control for these accelerators???

I have DirectX Version 11.  Do you have any idea where I can access these controls other than directX??  If so do I just Disable all of them or just one of them?    thanks again    ksan

[geoffco 0]

In Windows7, there is no way to change the sound acceleration - it was dropped when they moved to DX11 (or perhaps even earlier). I see you are using an AMD graphics card - I am too, and with some drivers I am getting very similar ATC sound stutters... I rcommend you get RadeonPro.

 

This may or may not help you, but the situation with my setup is this:

• Catalyst Drivers 13.1 and later without RadeonPro - Smooth sim but ATC sound stutter
• Catalyst Drivers 13.1 and later with RadeonPro - Flickering sim and no ATC sound stutter
• Catalyst Drivers 12.11.beta6 and earlier without RadeonPro - No flicker or sound corruption but awful FPS performance
• Catalyst Drivers 12.11.beta6 and earlier with RadeonPro - Very slightly 'stuttery' sim, reasonable FPS (20-30 on 8.19 million pixels resolution) and perfect sound.

 

I have asked about all this on the ReadonPro forum, but the developer does not know why RP is helping here. However, it clearly has an effect.

 

Based on that, I would give RadeonPro a shot. If you are lucky enough to not get the bad flickering, you can try the latest CCC drivers...

 

EDIT: PS. In my case, I strongly doubt that it is an issue with having enough memory or 'grunt' on the processor. It pretty much has to be drivers at some level or another.

 

Good Luck
Geoff

Edited April 10, 2013 by geoffco

[ksan1 0]

Thanks a lot Geoff.  I just read your response and will definitely  look into it.  That is the most promising response yet.  Every once in a while I think I have this whipped.  Last night I was fiddling with the catalyst controls that control 3D settings and when I went back to fs9 I had a long period with no stutter then for no reason at all it started again.  I know this thing will work with my computer.  I will hope the RadeonPro will work well for me.    Thanks again   ksan

[PSSDash8 1]

        There is a fix to these stutters. Just read the post on it from IRISH JIM on the tactical post.

 

                                                                                                       Eric Hutchinson