I've make some test with the Alligator and the Hind, and I've found that in the Alligator when you flight over the max. speed the "we fly to fast" voice is heared in the same moment that the main rotor is damaged instead before (i've no tested with other helicopters).

With the Hind I've hit the ground with the nose at hight speed and high angle, instead of explode i've get engines/rotor damaged (only rarely happpens, but happens).

[ sorry, some of this ended up as thinking-out-loud, have tried to coherentify it ]


I saw a previous comment of yours about that, hence my remark about possibly missing some obvious option somewhere.
The Sacred Text for the Abit TH7II board is a bit thin on detail, and says not much more than "AC97 Digital Audio controller integrated" and "AC97 2-channel Audio CODEC on board". The bit on driver installation mentions 'ALC 100/200' and the Realtek site lists ALC 101 and 201 in the 2-channel section, as distinct from 6-channel and 8-channel chips.

The Realtek control panel sound-position test does put the sounds in the right place, but ultimately that's doing stereo things to stereo sounds for a stereo output.

This is with XP Home SP3, all patched/drivered up, and directional sound on everything else seems to work OK.


I am wondering if the chipset is seen as, or declaring itself as, capable of lots of things when it isn't, and I can't shake the feeling that the root cause is that the chipset does not have a 'native' 5.1 capability - so even if the driver doesn't go 'eek', it might be that it isn't coping as well as it might. The reason I lean towards something like this (e.g. behind the sound API, is something perhaps being automatically 'corrected' by the system or driver, beyond anyone's control?) is that eech-1.13 on the win98 box (Creative AudioPCI, again 2-channel only, no 'native' 5.1) has the same direction trouble.

"5.1" is not mentioned in the game nowhere.
_DS version uses stereo with panning, OpenAL version just gives the voices to the library/driver, and they render the sound according to the system settings.
The game itself does not know if you use stereo speakers, headphones, 5.1, 7.1 or anything else.

Perhaps not, but it does get a mention or two in the changelog, hence my speculation on old hardware/drivers not being quite sure what to do with it.
I shall not speak such heresy again!


OK. That explains why there is no "obsolete_hardware=1" option that I could see
It also tells me where to look for things to try.
The system settings are for headphones at the moment. Perhaps I should try one or two 'wrong' settings to see what happens.

Another fun example, if I am parked facing south with a truck/tank column heading south that is approaching from the back left, they pass on the left hand side, but as they pass, the sound goes from the left side over to the right. Unfortunately I couldn't say for certain which of these these were the 'back' or 'front' sounds as they aren't in isolation (canopy is open, engine is running, several vehicle engines as well...).

Just to be sure I'm not going mad, I did a load of tests, including telling the windows control panel I had loads of speakers (and none) but it didn't make any difference. As with all such things, it started out nice and methodical but soon turned into a 'try-this-try-that' session...

The on-board 2-channel sound has been disabled and the new 5.1 sound card is set for headphones, and 3d-audio 'enhancements' are off, after a fight (I won) with the (now deceased) card/driver app that was insisting that what I really wanted was a concrete-room reverb even if 'aargh no stoppit' was selected.

Using OpenAL, set to 'generic software' (ISTR someone made a comment about the 'generic hardware' setting being glitchy?).
As a result, voice volumes seem to be consistent, and the card seems much better than the on-board at coping when things get hectic.
There do not seem to be any more random 'mutings' of sounds, though as I set 'ui_sounds_muted=0' this might simply be masking the issue, should probably re-check (but switching between chase/cockpit is OK). Or just leave it alone, since it works.

As regards the _DS version, this seems to be significantly louder, especially with the co-pilot voice, though ATC and ground control voices are quite variable, and I'm only hearing landing gear up/down on the left.

As for sound direction, I still have the same problem.
May or may not be helpful, but potentially reproducible, and easier than trying to find a handy moving convoy : hovering, raising/lowering landing gear, sound direction changes depending which way the helicopter is facing. (in a hokum - didn't try this in others)

Still just me getting this?

Is it just me or is there no more overtorque warning sound?

I faintly remember it going off above 100% torque, but now I only get the visual warning in the HUD.

Two minor details that one of you devs may want to add to eechcentral:

1) The installation notes don't specify when one should install the 1.14.1 patch. I just tried installing them right after installing 1.14.0 and it worked fine.
2) The instructions for combining EEAH and EECH say that they should both be in the same "Razorworks" folder, but if you get them from GOG.com that's not the default folder.

The installer from GOG allows you to change the installation path.

I know that, and I actually do change default paths most of the time. But it makes little sense to mention a "Razorworks" folder when new users will, in all likelihood, purchase EECH from GOG.com. Even if they change the default path, why on earth would they call it "Razorworks"?

Because the original installer from backintheday did.

Users should not turn off the grey matter between their ears just because there's a "How To..." out there.

Frankly, it doesn't matter what the installation folder is called ("Yourmom" or similar would also work), as long as EEAH and EECH get installed into *one and the same folder*.