Freelancer has been plagued with sound problems since the beginning. One of the reasons why is because there were many different sound engineers involved in the making of the game and they all made their audio compositions differently. Of course, there are some major external problems that attribute to this master of disaster and here is a quick guide on how to deal with them.


1) Codec Packs (and why they may be bad for your Freelancer experience)

An important note for people experiencing sound problems in the game and especially those that result in crashes. If you have a codec pack installed (like K-Lite Codec Pack(s) , Nimo Codec Pack , or the ACE Codec Pack(s) ) then you need to make sure that there are no problems with the pack before you use it.

Now many of you will not experience any major problems, other than some sounds not working, but you will really notice the problem if 3D Sound is disabled. ACE Codec Pack in particular has a problem that can cause the game to crash in some cases.

So make sure to do some research on codec packs before you install them . You can find all kinds of reviews just by searching Google. If out of a good chunk of reviews/comments more than a few of them mention problems then you should reconsider choosing that package.


2) Fraunhoffer MP3 Codec (and why you need it)

As previously posted by Mad Dog and re-posted by ElectricBrain, it is very important that you have this codec installed and selected as the #1 priority codec if you want to hear all the sounds in the game . Normally this codec comes with windows and is updated through Microsoft's Codec releases for Windows Media Player, but it is often either currupted or replaced by codec packs (see above).Important!! Codec packs will often replace the Fraunhoffer Codec with a hacked version that will not work properly with Freelancer!

So if you want to continue using your favorite codec pack and it happens to do this you need to follow the instructions given in this thread to restore the Fraunhoffer MP3 Codec to working order.


3) Disabling 3D Sound (and how it benefits you)

Another tip that is often promoted by Chips is to disable 3D Sound , in most cases you will never need this feature and there are many positive benefits of having it off, some of which are: less stuttering, fixes several sound problems, eliminates some crashes, and overall improves the performance of the game . This also helps to fix the sound for those of you who use headphones (Glock36 ). You can find the option in game under Options->Audio or you can install the Freelancer QuickFix Patch which does this for you (among other things).


4) Freelancer QuickFix Patch (and how it helps)

This new game patch offers several things that help with audio problems , one being that it turns off the 3D Sound option which is known to fix many problems. The other major component in the patch that affects sound is the Freelancer S.D.K. which is known to clear up stuttering and in at least one case allowed a user to re-enable full sound acceleration in windows. It also clears up many sound errors in the original game. You can download this game patch from the project page over on the =EOA= website or from the download section on Lancer's Reactor.


Hope this helps!

Edited by - Louva-Deus on 5/23/2006 1:08:37 PM