Deus Ex speech issue

[Skilgannon]

There was another topic about this before, but it pertained to newer processors and doesn't help me much, plus is over a year old.

Basically, I have a problem with speech being cut off during a conversation before the line is finished. Often with NPC's and rarely with JC.

I have a fresh install of DX: GOTY v1.112fm.
Windows XP SP2
P4 3.0Ghz (single core, obviously)
ATI Radeon x1950 Pro

I think it may be something to do with the enhanced OpenGL renderer, as I used the latest one for DX (v2.1) and it happened much more frequently and cut more of the speech off, so I rolled back to v2.0, where it happens less. Anyone got any thoughts on this?

EDIT: While I think about it, I also cannot seem to put the game in 1280x1024. The option is there, but if I try to use it, it sets the game in a much smaller resolution, with the HUD taking up a large proportion of the screen.

[bobby 55]

You can change your resolution in the ini. This example is from mine:
[WinDrv.WindowsClient]
WindowedViewportX=640
WindowedViewportY=480
WindowedColorBits=32
FullscreenViewportX=1920
FullscreenViewportY=1080

There is something here about the speech. You could try making uses direct sound=false. That's in the DeusEx.ini as well. I had to turn it off because of the scratchiness that wouldn't go away. I'm using the OpenGL renderer too. I'll try and find that thread relating to speech.

[Galaxy.GalaxyAudioSubsystem]
UseDirectSound=False
UseFilter=True
UseSurround=False
UseStereo=True
UseCDMusic=False
UseDigitalMusic=True
UseSpatial=False
UseReverb=True
Use3dHardware=False
LowSoundQuality=False
ReverseStereo=False
Latency=40
OutputRate=44100Hz
EffectsChannels=16
DopplerSpeed=6500.000000
MusicVolume=153
SoundVolume=204
SpeechVolume=255
AmbientFactor=0.700000

[Skilgannon]

Ok, I'll give those a whirl and see if they make any difference. Will report back...

EDIT: Ok, editing the ini to change the resolution didn't work, it still made out as if the resolution was set to something like 640x480, even though it says 1280x1024 in the menu (and the ini).

Setting UseDirectSound=False has improved the cut-off situation somewhat, but not fixed it. I think I've sussed what's causing the issue though, though not how to solve it. Using the intro as a baseline, it seems any time that the FPS exceeds 200, the action goes too fast for the sound to keep up. So the "scene" plays out visually, whether the intro camera work or a conversation, but rather than wait for the sound to catch up or keep playing animations until the line finishes, the engine just skips to the next line, cutting off the audio. As far as the game is concerned, it's not doing anything wrong, it's just that it's getting ahead of itself. Is there any way to throttle the game back a bit so this doesn't happen?

[bobby 55]

Yeah, I think if you do the dxdiag thing, you can try turning down the sound acceleration. I can't as I've got Windows 7, but I've an inkling that was the fix mentioned in that thread (good grief) I've yet to find.

I don't know what to do about the resolution.

[justanotherfan]

The sound cutoff thing usually is the dual processor issue. I forget how that gets fixed, but it can mean starting deusex.exe using another program.

While you have a single-core P4, it likely has hyperthreading, which is a sort of pretend-dual-core. Since it's an older machine, you can likely disable HT in BIOS (pressing delete or F2 etc. initially when the computer boots). Consider benchmarks if you normally use HT, since ISTR early implementations had considerable performance tradeoffs.

[bobby 55]

The new exe may help if you haven't tried that yet: http://kentie.net/article/dxguide/

[Skilgannon]

@justanotherfan: BIOS changes are a last resort, mainly as it's not my pc. But it's a last resort I'll keep in mind.

@bobby: I'll take a look at that alternate exe, it looks promising. Will report back either way.

EDIT: Just tried it and it works excellently. Not a single sound skip or stutter. And it's fixed my resolution problem which I've actually found out was just a HUD scaling problem. Cheers bobby.

[bobby 55]

Not a problem. It's good to know you've got it sorted.