Fallout 3 and voices *sigh*

[Cerb]

So I got Fallout 3, and it's mostly been OK, except...nobody has voices. NPCs that don't have menus I hear voices of. All others have no voices, and I get no sound in quest notes (FI, for the 'note from dad' I had to quickly enable/disable pip-boy again and again, to read the subtitles, that the pip-boy covered up).

In Windows 7 64-bit, does anyone know a fix? I've tried:
1. Re-installing Fallout 3.
2. Re-installing WMP.
3. Setting WMP as the default player for .ogg files (bad game developers! This should not matter!).
4. Disabling onboard sound entirely (in the BIOS), so the only option is USB.
5. Disabling onboard in the Sounds control panel window.
6. Disabling all but the onboard SPDIF, and using that.
7. Actually using the onboard (P35/Realtek somethingrather) analog output.

Supposedly, all these NPCs are supposed to have voices...

 

[DaveSimmons]

Try installing to a location other than Program Files, supposedly using that location can mess up many games that expect to be able to add or update files in their own folder.

 

[Sclamoz]

I found people with similar problems and many were able to fix it by changing the sound output from 5:1 to something lower like 4:1 or 2:1 and if that fails try turning your audio hardware acceleration down in the control panel.

 

[Bman123]

I didn't have any issues with fo3 goty on pc with win 7 it ran fine

 

[Dorkenstein]

There's only like 3 voices in the entire game for NPCs anyway. Same with Oblivion, Bethesda must have saved forklifts full of cash by skimping on voice acting. Other than that though, do you have any codec packs installed?

 

[shortylickens]

There's only like 3 voices in the entire game for NPCs anyway. Same with Oblivion, Bethesda must have saved forklifts full of cash by skimping on voice acting. Other than that though, do you have any codec packs installed?

No theres like 3 guys who did generic male voices, 2 women who did generic female voices, PLUS Liam Neeson and Malcom McDowell, and I think one other famous person.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1073664/

 

[coloumb]

I found people with similar problems and many were able to fix it by changing the sound output from 5:1 to something lower like 4:1 or 2:1 and if that fails try turning your audio hardware acceleration down in the control panel.

That's pretty lame/lazy on the part of the game developers - I had to do that with a few games - change it from 4:1 to 2:1 just to get proper sound.

 

[byteman99]

Trust me you are better off not hearing the voices in that game.

 

[HunterDT]

Bethesda must have saved forklifts full of cash by skimping on voice acting.

No, they wasted forklifts full of cash by hiring big name actors like Liam Neeson, Patrick Stewart, Sean Bean, Lynda Carter, etc.

 

[Cerb]

I found people with similar problems and many were able to fix it by changing the sound output from 5:1 to something lower like 4:1 or 2:1 and if that fails try turning your audio hardware acceleration down in the control panel.

The mixer says it's 'speakers', and I haven't found anywhere to change the channel setup. Where do you do it, these days?

It did, however, act a lot like I was getting either just two front or rear channels, sometimes.

No, they wasted forklifts full of cash by hiring big name actors like Liam Neeson, Patrick Stewart, Sean Bean, Lynda Carter, etc.

:thumbsup: They clearly dropped the ball on QA and support. In my searching the 'net before I asked, it appears I've got fairly minor problems with the PC/Win version of this game. If I had paid for a new copy (this one is used, and was literally thrown to me), I'd have been pissed. New games having bugs in one thing, but a three year old popular game? I'm thinking I might skip Oblivion (unless I get handed a free copy of it, too), as my searches also kept popping up people have similar problems with it.

In the end, the hours-long (HDD-limited) 'skullptura' fix did the trick. It turns out it wasn't just voices not working right.

 

[UberNeuman]

In the end, the hours-long (HDD-limited) 'skullptura' fix did the trick. It turns out it wasn't just voices not working right.

hmmm, "skullptura" is fix for a Fallout 3 rip of that game...

Bethesda doesn't run support for rips or clones of their games....

 

[Dorkenstein]

Yup. Might have been a yarrr'ed copy.

 

[Cerb]

Yup. Might have been a yarrr'ed copy.

Not unless they went to the trouble of doing a full case, with a "DO NOT SELL BEFORE" line on the sticker that holds it shut, a glossy manual, and a pressed disc.

P.S. Out of curiosity, and since it still won't come back from alt-tabbing maybe 1/3 of the time...

Try installing to a location other than Program Files, supposedly using that location can mess up many games that expect to be able to add or update files in their own folder.

I copied the old one (I don't want to wait for that fix again!), and did a clean install into My Documents. Works like a charm.

So:
1. In a default install, the audio does not work properly, and it crashes often.
2. The patch does not check for dependencies (ordinal something could not be found--that's a great way to tell me I need live 2.0).
3. In a default install, it take's a pirate's work to make audio work properly.
4. Most problems appear to be permissions-related, even though they aren't fixed by running it as admin.
5. No application who's development started after Win2k came out should be using the Program Files directory tree, and expecting anything but a read-only file repository. As a programmer myself, the idea that that could be involved is rage-inducing. IIRC, MS was recommending such practices as far back as Win98.
6. My burner, when running ACHI, hates modern SecuROM titles, and hates this disc (CRC error during install, which other drives don't get), so I assume this is one (grrr). Mapped network optical drives FTW.

Seriously, a major studio doing this is disgusting. Even EA usually isn't this bad. The whole scenario reeks of rushing it, and not giving the people responsible for patching it the time needed to do things right. These aren't just amateur mistakes--they are newbie mistakes, which no professional software house has any excuse for making. The game is pretty fun (I wish it were broader, and more dangerous, but I do love how they worked the FPS/TPS and RPG parts together for it), but I think I'll be passing on the DLCs, and other current Bethesda games.

I didn't have any issues with fo3 goty on pc with win 7 it ran fine

I wonder if the GOTYE was an excuse to include a fixed installer, or something like that? Most hits when I search are Vista users (practically identical security/permissions setup). From what I can tell, this is an initial release copy ("DO NOT SELL BEFORE 10/28/08" on the security sticker).

 

[iztari]

After a million tries I finally managed to get Fallout 3 to work for me,
and this is how I did it.

1) Edit desktop shortcut from:
"C:\Games\Fallout 3 - Wasteland Edition\fose_loader.exe"
to:
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /C START "Fallout3" /affinity 3 /high "C:\Games\Fallout 3 - Wasteland Edition\fose_loader.exe"
(Forces the game to use only CPU 0 and CPU 1)

2) Change Compability Mode to Windows XP (ServicePack 2) on:
- Fallout3.exe
- FalloutLauncher.exe
- fose_loader.exe

3) A little registry hack:
- Start Regedit.exe
- Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
- Create a new subkey named .ogg (If you don't have one)
- Select HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ogg

- In the right-pane, perform the following:
- Double-click (default) and set its data to mp3file
- Create a new REG_SZ value named Content Type (If you don't have one)
- Double-click Content Type and set audio/x-ogg as its data
- Create a new REG_SZ value PerceivedType (If you don't have one)
- Double-click PerceivedType and set its data to audio

4) To prevent Windows Volume Mixer from being turned down I Disabled the DATA\MUSIC folder by renaming it.

 

[shortylickens]

This might very well be the best necro ever.


GOOD JOB NOOB!!!

 

[Bman123]

You sir are correct

 

[BFG10K]

I'm running Fallout 3 GOTYE on Windows 7-64 and it runs just fine.

 

[werepossum]

This might very well be the best necro ever.


GOOD JOB NOOB!!!

I'm imagining Khan throwing back his head and yelling "NECRO!"