Choppy Explosion Sound FX

[stevehead]

This actually started back around either version 0.25 or 0.90 (cannot remember), but when multiple explosions occur simultaneously, the explosion sound FX become real choppy. It's weird, the problem isn't present near the beginning of a launch (say, I launch my rocket and have it immediately crash into the ground), but once I gain altitude (say ~5 km and more), any explosions will have the choppy sound, including any debris that hits the ground through staging (Kerbal X stock rocket's boosters for example). It seems like the sound engine is having issues dealing with multiple instances of a single sound being played simultaneously. I was hoping this would be resolved in 1.0, but it's still there.

I don't know if it's just me since I haven't found anyone else reporting the problem. This has become too much of a noticeable problem for me to ignore while I have been developing a new plugin that revolves around explosions. I have updated my sound drivers, re-installed them etc., and I have no sound issues in any other game/application. I've tried changing the audio settings in-game and I think that bumping the responsiveness in the normalizer to max may have helped very slightly, but I cannot tell. OpenGL mode seems to reduce the issue, but it's still there. All other sounds are fine in game, and it's definitely not the general sound stutter that can be common with the Unity engine.

System Specs

Windows 7 Ultimate x64

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Primary Monitor)

NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT (2nd & 3rd Monitors)

Integrated Audio (Realtek HD) on an ASUS P8 Z68-V Pro Motherboard

Intel i7-2600K CPU

16 GB DDR3 RAM

128 GB Corsair SSD / 2 TB Seagate HDD

Edited April 30, 2015 by stevehead

[Corovaneer]

Same here, but I even kinda like it. Nice bass sound

[stevehead]

It's unfortunately not pleasant for me. I'll try to post a video when I get a chance.

[abyss123100]

I also get choppy explosions, but completely random and without an actual explosion. I still have no idea why this happens, too lazy to troubleshoot.

[stevehead]

This is a demonstration video for my mod that I am developing. At about 0:34, the failure occurs and you can hear the very choppiness of the explosion sound FX. Obviously, I am forcing multiple explosions through my mod, but this happens in an unmodded install for me and that is exactly what I am hearing as explained in my original post. BTW, this is KSP v1.0.2, so it's still present.

[Majorjim!]

The sound among other things is bugged beyond belief. The fact that nobody has replied to this is worrying.

[Ival70]

I've only experienced choppy-sound (as heard in the video) when close to or above the sound barrier (and the faster I go, the more pronounced it becomes), which leads me to believe it has something to do with that. Anyways, they were going to do a sound overhaul for 1.0, but it was put aside for time reasons, and now they will be going through it for 1.1. I assume that they will be fixing this while they are at it.

[TheMoonRover]

Yeah, I get that all the time when something blows up at sufficient velocity in atmo. It sometimes seems to do it even for a single explosion. I assumed it was a feature; I like the effect. It sounds like it might be a somewhat broken implementation of sonic booms and/or the doppler effect. I know the doppler effect is/was simulated in some way, because this is in the changelog:

 ==================================== v0.18.2 RC2=======================================================

Bug Fixes and Tweaks:


* Music:
- Fixed an issue where some tracks were subject to doppler effects in flight.

[GorillaZilla]

Aye, I'm suffering from this bug too. Really kind of ruins the experiance of having an aircraft or rocket break up in flight due to design errors, It takes all the Viceral feel away from it....