Solution for the sound problem in Odin Sphere

[mannylee]

Hi guys, this is my first post on pcsx2 forum! Since I'm from Taiwan, please forgive my poor english before your reading BTW, thanks a MILLION to pcsx2 group, you guys really rock!!!

Recently I've found a way to solve the sound un-synch problem in Odin Sphere, the steps are:

1. Use pcsx2 0.9.2 instead of 0.9.4
2. Apply zeroSPU2 0.4.4 (from pcsx2 0.9.4) on pcsx2 0.9.2
3. don't use ZeroGS KOSMOS 0.9.7 or else there would have some dialogue boxes disappear

I don't know why this work, but the game just works fine on my computer
(E6750, 2G RAM, 8800gts). What I do not know is, how's the compatibility of pcsx2 0.9.2 with Odin Sphere? If there were already problems with Odin Sphere in pcsx2 0.9.2, then my solution might seem not to be a good idea

If this did work, then ......... Enjoy one of the best 2-D action rpg !!!!

[Surkow]

I'll try it out today.

Edit: I tried a number of different plugin combinations but I wasn't able to get rid of the sync problem.

[Surkow]

Can someone explain to me what causes the problems with the sound? Since I see in some topics that people with faster pc's don't have issues.

[rtajgen]

Originally Posted by mannylee

... What I do not know is, how's the compatibility of pcsx2 0.9.2 with Odin Sphere? If there were already problems with Odin Sphere in pcsx2 0.9.2, then my solution might seem not to be a good idea

In 0.9.2, the game doesn't seem to be able to read the memory card, so you'll have to rely exclusively on saved states unless you intend to play the whole thing in one sitting without saving .

Originally Posted by Surkow

Can someone explain to me what causes the problems with the sound? Since I see in some topics that people with faster pc's don't have issues.

Something to do with the timing for certain scenes - it seems in 0.9.4 the sound (for this title at least) seems to be synced at a slightly slower speed than the FPS limit (60fps vs. 64fps has been suggested) meaning that on long cutscenes where the sound is timed (ie, play sound x after 30 frames, play sound y after 32 frames), the longer the scene, the more the sound goes out of sync. This doesn't happen during gameplay, since the sound effects are triggered by specific events and aren't on a timer - apart from the music, and the music being out of sync isn't really noticeable.

[Surkow]

Originally Posted by rtajgen

[...]

Something to do with the timing for certain scenes - it seems in 0.9.4 the sound (for this title at least) seems to be synced at a slightly slower speed than the FPS limit (60fps vs. 64fps has been suggested) meaning that on long cutscenes where the sound is timed (ie, play sound x after 30 frames, play sound y after 32 frames), the longer the scene, the more the sound goes out of sync. This doesn't happen during gameplay, since the sound effects are triggered by specific events and aren't on a timer - apart from the music, and the music being out of sync isn't really noticeable.

What surprises me is that devs said the "ZeroSPU2" plugin no longer should have robotic sounds...but it behaves exactly like the old version with Odin Sphere. The only plugin that does not give me robotic sounds is the "GiGaHeRz SPU2 Driver" plugin. This problem has issues with syncing the sound (you also hear echos instead of the sound stopping). I played with the config settings of the plugin and the sound was synced better when I made the buffer smaller. What plugins do you use yourself?

[rtajgen]

Originally Posted by Surkow

What surprises me is that devs said the "ZeroSPU2" plugin no longer should have robotic sounds...but it behaves exactly like the old version with Odin Sphere. The only plugin that does not give me robotic sounds is the "GiGaHeRz SPU2 Driver" plugin. This problem has issues with syncing the sound (you also hear echos instead of the sound stopping). I played with the config settings of the plugin and the sound was synced better when I made the buffer smaller. What plugins do you use yourself?

Actually, I use ZeroSPU2 0.4.4 for sound, with only Time Scaling enabled. This sounds the best for me and gives me higher speeds than GiGaHeRz, and it works just as well in 0.9.2 as it does in 0.9.4. Keep in mind, though, that I'm running the VM version on XP, on a fairly high-end PC with a lot of processor, RAM and graphics grunt to back it up - so what seems to run well for me most likely is going to run somewhat (or a lot) slower for most other people. Incidentally, the "Real Time mode" option in ZeroSPU2 sounds like it might help with the problem, except whenever I enable this I get no sound at all

[Surkow]

Enabling the "Real Time Mode" doesn't matter when I'm playing Odin Sphere. I can remember videos from some of the beta testers/devs that Odin Sphere was running perfectly with correct graphics and synced sound. Can anyone comment on that?

[rtajgen]

Originally Posted by Surkow

Enabling the "Real Time Mode" doesn't matter when I'm playing Odin Sphere. I can remember videos from some of the beta testers/devs that Odin Sphere was running perfectly with correct graphics and synced sound. Can anyone comment on that?

Yes, as mentioned by the OP, it runs perfectly with correct graphics and synced sound on 0.9.2. (using the ZeroSPU2 0.4.4 plugin and ZeroGS 0.9.6 or later for graphics). The sound sync issue only seems to have appeared in 0.9.4. However, (as mentioned elsewhere in this thread) the problem with 0.9.2 is that for some reason Odin Sphere doesn't seem to be able to read the memory card.

So your choices are: a) play it in 0.9.2 with synced sounds and rely entirely on saved states, or b) play it in 0.9.4 with out-of-sync sound in cutscenes, but be able to save to the memory card.

Also, I think the video/sound capture from PCSX2 is synced properly when it gets converted into a video, even if it isn't synced while you're actually playing it, so those videos may be somewhat deceptive

[Surkow]

About the video capture stuff...that is possible. But I actually tested it both with 0.9.2 (which I mentioned before) and 0.9.4. First I thought it was a speed issue but later trying it on a pc with a 4800+ AMD processor (I have an Opteron 148 myself) the sound still wasn't synced. Sad to hear about the memory card issues of 0.9.2 (since that looked like a real solution). Perhaps it's up to the developers to comment on the reason for this to happen.