The Journeyman Project: Pegasus Prime Sound Distortion (GOG)

[RyanFialcowitz]

I bought The Journeyman Project: Pegasus Prime on Good Old Games awhile ago and have had an issue with the sound being very crackly/distorted. Good Old Games support couldn't find a solution and the developers of the game don't offer tech support to my knowledge. They do however claim this is a Windows (I'm using Windows 7- had the same issue with Windows XP in VirtualBox.) related issue with ScummVM and suggested the fix listed in the F.A.Q..

The fix hasn't worked for me and others and I'm hoping that posting here will spread awareness of this issue and lead to a fix. Thanks.

[eriktorbjorn]

(I don't run ScummVM under Windows myself, and I haven't had the time to try this game, so chalk this reply up to general curiosity.)

I noticed in the GOG forum thread that at least for one user it only happens during fullscreen cutscenes, not during the rest of the game. Is that the case for you as well? I'm wondering because that would probably rule out problems with the SDL library and the hardware, for better or worse putting it squarely in ScummVM's lap.

Possible such problems would include, but not be limited to, bugs in the audio/video decoding, the audio being loud enough to cause clipping, or maybe the game (for whatever reason) is running slow enough that it runs out of audio to play and has to wait for the decoding to catch up.

Of course, some of these problems should have been noticeable to all users, though it depends on how bad the distortion is.

[RyanFialcowitz]

(I don't run ScummVM under Windows myself, and I haven't had the time to try this game, so chalk this reply up to general curiosity.)

I noticed in the GOG forum thread that at least for one user it only happens during fullscreen cutscenes, not during the rest of the game. Is that the case for you as well? I'm wondering because that would probably rule out problems with the SDL library and the hardware, for better or worse putting it squarely in ScummVM's lap.

Possible such problems would include, but not be limited to, bugs in the audio/video decoding, the audio being loud enough to cause clipping, or maybe the game (for whatever reason) is running slow enough that it runs out of audio to play and has to wait for the decoding to catch up.

Of course, some of these problems should have been noticeable to all users, though it depends on how bad the distortion is.

Thank you for your response! Honestly, I've only tested the videos so far- but the distortion or whatever you want to call it just ruins the immersion. Is there anything that can be done on ScummVM's end to help with this?

I tried adding the game to ScummVM directly but it couldn't recognize the data files. Might this help and if so is there a way to do this?

[eriktorbjorn]

Thank you for your response! Honestly, I've only tested the videos so far- but the distortion or whatever you want to call it just ruins the immersion. Is there anything that can be done on ScummVM's end to help with this?

I tried adding the game to ScummVM directly but it couldn't recognize the data files. Might this help and if so is there a way to do this?

I'm not really in any position to say, since I know so little about the game and its game engine. Someone would have to figure out what causes the distortions, for one thing. (Which was why I wrote about how it might help to know if the distortions happen all the time or only in certain cases.) I saw there was a promising new post in the GOG forum, so hopefully someone who knows more about it is on the case.

Unfortunately, using ScummVM isn't an option at the moment. The official version of ScummVM currently only supports the original Macintosh release of the game, not the recent re-release. The re-release does use a modified version of ScummVM, and all the additional source code was included on the DVD I bought (probably in the GOG version as well), but I'm guessing there is some refactoring and cleanup necessary if ScummVM is to support both versions of the game.

[digitall]

eriktorbjorn: The recent commit history to scummvm/engine/pegasus has a few fixes for volume committed by clone2727:
https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/comm ... 8494d65582

It would be best to ask him about this and see if he can replicate, or maybe just open a bug?

[clone2727]

I'll respond in full when I get home, but to avoid any confusion...

It would be best to ask him about this and see if he can replicate, or maybe just open a bug?

Do not file a bug report. The DVD version is not supported in ScummVM currently.

[clone2727]

I bought The Journeyman Project: Pegasus Prime on Good Old Games awhile ago and have had an issue with the sound being very crackly/distorted. Good Old Games support couldn't find a solution and the developers of the game don't offer tech support to my knowledge. They do however claim this is a Windows (I'm using Windows 7- had the same issue with Windows XP in VirtualBox.) related issue with ScummVM and suggested the fix listed in the F.A.Q..

If the issue only happens during the intro (not say, once you wake up in the apartment), then it could possibly just be the Theora code being slow. The developers do offer support, but not through this channel. Please use the GOG forums, they are being monitored (by at least one of us). I am aware some users are having the problem, though I'm not sure exactly what the issue is.

The fix hasn't worked for me and others and I'm hoping that posting here will spread awareness of this issue and lead to a fix. Thanks.

Please don't cross-post any issues. Especially since the code is not in ScummVM currently.

eriktorbjorn: The recent commit history to scummvm/engine/pegasus has a few fixes for volume committed by clone2727:
https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/comm ... 8494d65582

Making wild guesses isn't helping anyone.

[RyanFialcowitz]

If the issue only happens during the intro (not say, once you wake up in the apartment), then it could possibly just be the Theora code being slow. The developers do offer support, but not through this channel. Please use the GOG forums, they are being monitored (by at least one of us). I am aware some users are having the problem, though I'm not sure exactly what the issue is.

The other user on Good Old Games with this issue said the issue was restricted to the movies- I have no reason to doubt this. At present I don't have the game installed to confirm. As for Presto Studios offering technical support I meant I do not know of an official forum or tech support site.

Please don't cross-post any issues. Especially since the code is not in ScummVM currently.

Apologies, my thinking was that since the game uses ScummVM someone here might be able to help. I shall confine my inquiries to other channels in the future.

[clone2727]

If the issue only happens during the intro (not say, once you wake up in the apartment), then it could possibly just be the Theora code being slow. The developers do offer support, but not through this channel. Please use the GOG forums, they are being monitored (by at least one of us). I am aware some users are having the problem, though I'm not sure exactly what the issue is.

The other user on Good Old Games with this issue said the issue was restricted to the movies- I have no reason to doubt this. At present I don't have the game installed to confirm. As for Presto Studios offering technical support I meant I do not know of an official forum or tech support site.

Posting on the GOG site is fine. The entire game is made of movies, so saying it's restricted to that is not much

Please don't cross-post any issues. Especially since the code is not in ScummVM currently.

Apologies, my thinking was that since the game uses ScummVM someone here might be able to help. I shall confine my inquiries to other channels in the future.

The inquiries do reach me, but since they're specific to a release separate from ScummVM, they should go that way instead. If it's posted in multiple places, it's easier to mix up issues and people.

[RyanFialcowitz]

The entire game is made of movies, so saying it's restricted to that is not much

Hence my intense desire not to have audio problems. Thanks again- hopefully together you folks can sort this out.

[clone2727]

The entire game is made of movies, so saying it's restricted to that is not much

Hence my intense desire not to have audio problems. Thanks again- hopefully together you folks can sort this out.

Well, my point is this: Does it work past the initial introduction? If it doesn't, the issue is really with SDL or your driver, unfortunately.

[RyanFialcowitz]

Well, my point is this: Does it work past the initial introduction? If it doesn't, the issue is really with SDL or your driver, unfortunately.

I just installed it and played around a bit in the apartment at the beginning of the game.

Interestingly, the smaller videos that play in the user interface don't seem to suffer from the crackling sound as the intro video! All other audio seems fine. Even so it would be nice to get some kind of solution as that crackling just sets my nerves on edge. I should also note that I've never had a problem like this with ScummVM before.

My system:
3.6 GHz AMD Phenom II X4 975
8 GB of R.A.M.
NVIDIA GTX 460
Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! Pro
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit

[clone2727]

Interestingly, the smaller videos that play in the user interface don't seem to suffer from the crackling sound as the intro video! All other audio seems fine. Even so it would be nice to get some kind of solution as that crackling just sets my nerves on edge. I should also note that I've never had a problem like this with ScummVM before.

Yeah, it's the Theora code then. You can work around this by copying the "PP Data" folder to your hard drive in a directory along with the main EXE. Then, rename all the ".ogg" files (easy to prefix then with an underscore or something). The code will use the QuickTime videos instead and it should work for you.

[RyanFialcowitz]

Yeah, it's the Theora code then. You can work around this by copying the "PP Data" folder to your hard drive in a directory along with the main EXE. Then, rename all the ".ogg" files (easy to prefix then with an underscore or something). The code will use the QuickTime videos instead and it should work for you.

The PP Data folder is already in the same folder as the game's executable and when I renamed the ogg files the game gave me an error about not being able to find the intro video.

Hopefully you can clarify what I did wrong. Thanks.

[clone2727]

Is "BigMovie.movie" missing from "Opening_Closing"?