Morrowind Battle Music freeze

[Sulo]

Greetings to you old Morrowind dinosaurs!

 

I'm posting this in parallel to http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1472571-battle-music-toggle-freeze/

While playing Morrowind again on Win7-64, I encountered a problem which I didn't have on WinXP/2000. In approx. 50% of all cases, switching from "explore" to "battle" music results in a freeze. This can be while I'm attacked myself or other NPCs start fighting or simply a cliffracer shows up and decides to say hello.

My first thought: some kind of codec issue like Fallout 3 and the MAD-Filter thing. I tried to disable numerous codecs via the "installedcodec", "zoomplayer" & "codectweaktool", but it didn't seem to work or this isn't the solution. Reinstalled the music folder again, nothing.

Then I deleted and reinstalled my soundcard drivers (Creative X-Fi Fatality), nothing changes.
I deleted the whole "battle" folder in "music" with the result, that while fighting, the "explore" music is being played instead and also changes to another track when attacked. But then finally it crashes as well. Maybe not that fast, but it crashes also. Disabling MGE XE does nothing, only disabling the music itself via menu. So the change of music / the music itself has to be the problem.

I have MOSG3.0 as well as MGEXE .9.9. System is C2D6850 + 4G DDR3 + SB X-Fi Fatality on Win7 64. Drivers all new. I can't quite get it how this belongs together, but the only solution is turning off the music, which of course is unacceptable. It seems that somehow the "delay" while changing music is too large or somehow it is executed too fast - or I dunno. Switching from hardware to software mode makes it crash slightly less, but it's not the solution. I also noticed in critter-filled locations like the Balmora Underground mod, that the freeze often appears with the 4th switch of music (explore/battle). But I think the music is always different. I tried to leave just 1 file in the folder, no chance.

The warnings.txt file is empty. Standard player is WMP.

I found some threads on the net and even here with similar problems, but no one seems to have resolved them for good. At least no one posted it, so if someone found something then please share your wisdom!

 

Add1:

 

It's installed on a second hdd, far away from c:\

Freeze is reproducible without mods but with mge xe.

Freeze is (sigh) NOT reproducible without mods and without mge xe (disabled via launcher).

So, a first hint might point to mge xe. But how is that connected to the music system? As far as I know, it does not change any music or sounds.

 

Add2:

 

Tried to change "full acceleration" of DX - but I can't find any sliders in the menu / properties / dxdiag.

When I try to do the following: http://www.ehow.com/...-windows-7.html I simpy don't see any "acceleration" buttons or sliders. Nowhere. I know they are there in XP.

After looking it up, I learned that the Hardware acceleration for sound isn't implemented anymore. Instead one can use the Alchemy Wrapper for older games.

I installed the latest drivers via Creative's updater, so they should be good.

 

Add3:

Tried "disable Soundblaster extension" via menu, didn't work

Disabled EAX, didn't work.

Enabled Alchemy wrapper for MW - got even worse. Also with disabling DirectSound via Wrapper.

 

Maybe someone here can help? Thanks a lot!

 

EDIT: I found a solution, so I post it here, too:

 

I know, it's not the intended sequence of doing things - but for me it worked 100%.

First you have to do the steps mentioned in

 

http://jultech.wordp...l-codec-system/

So, that means installing the zoom player, unregister all codecs you are able to unregister.
Reboot.
Install the Haali Media Splitter, VS Filter and ffdshow tryouts.
Reboot.
(I didn't install the optional video codecs though)

Then you have to install the DirectShow FilterPack 5.1. I used this: http://www.downloadsource.net/v/6840/ (only the second link works!).

BUT! Run the prog first and not the batch as instructed. Start the .exe and go to the second tab (troubleshooting) and restore standard DirectX codecs.
Then I'd suggest to reboot and then start the DSFP_inst.bat. After the codecs are installed, I'd suggest rebooting again and there you go.

 

I don't know if you have to do the first step, maybe the DSFP is the only thing to do. Maybe you don't even have to restore the standard codecs, maybe you just have to install the batch file and that's it. I don't know, if you have to reboot all the time. But that is for others to find out, I just can tell you what I did and that it works. I can fight in my standard testing dungeon (Balmora Underground abandoned sewers) with the music style changing every few seconds and no freeze.

 

I hope that this is the only problem I'd had, because I only wanted to play Morrowind for an occasional hour now and then so that it would keep my gaming needs satisfied for a few months, as I don't have the time to play excessively like in my younger years. http://static.zenimax.com/forums.bethsoft.com/public/style_emoticons/default/bonk.gif

 

And I really hope that this might help another player with his favourite old game on a 64 bit system, as I obviously am not the only one with this error...

 

And now if you would excuse me, Neminda has some work for me to do.