[FO3] Pip-boy Radio Stutter

[ChaChaLoco]

Making a new thread for this in which I will type out everything I have tried to fix this issue, and the effects that it had (or rather, did not have). The last thread never got any replies anyway, so no harm done. I am losing hope that I will ever fix this issue, but hopefully this will be of some help to people in fixing it for themselves. Once again, my load order will be attached, although this is a vanilla issue that isn't really affected by mods.

From what I've read around the internet, the issue is caused by Fallout 3 conflicting with sound codecs on Windows Vista/7/8 when it reads mp3 files. The sounds made by NPCs, for example the Enclave Eye-bots that play Enclave radio are ogg files, and the sounds made by static objects (jukeboxes and radios) are wav files, these two file types are not plagued with the stutter issue, and work perfectly in-game, as there is no conflict between the game and the sound codecs on Windows Vista/7/8. The sound files (for the songs, not the DJs) used in the Pip-boy, however, are mp3 files and are plagued with stutter. This stutter is not intentional, it is not part of the game. It may not be relevant, but I'm currently using a 7.1 virtual surround sound Corsair Vengeance 1500 V2 headset (which comes with the Corsair USB Headset Control Panel program), as well as the Realtek HD Audio Manager and any codecs/programs that came with vanilla Windows 7.

 

Here are some of the 'fixes' that float around on the internet, and the effects they had (or did not have) on my game:

1. The first suggestion relates to editing the Fallout.ini file. Ensure that "bEnableAudioCache=1" (without quotes) and then edit "iAudioCacheSize=2048" to "iAudioCacheSize=4096" or "iAudioCacheSize=8192", and edit "iMaxSizeForCachedSound=256" to "iMaxSizeForCachedSound=512". None of these edits fixed the issue of Pipboy radio stutter for me.
2. The second suggestion involved downloading a file which you could use to view all installed audio codecs, having done this you would then disable "LAV Splitter" and "LAV Audio Decoder" which should fix the issue. On my computer I did not actually have these codecs installed, so I had to download and install K-lite codec to get them. For me, however, this had no effect.
3. The third fix is one which I have not tried, and am reluctant to for reasons I will explain here. It involves a bit of work. Firstly one must convert all of the vanilla songs in the game from mp3 format to wav format. Then one must download a mod change the game so that the wav songs you converted play in the Pip-boy instead of the mp3. The only problem is that it won't likely be compatible (without a lot of work) with custom radio mods that change the vanilla radio stations (such as GNR Enhanced) or mods that add new radio stations (such as CONELRAD), because they will still use the mp3 files that the authors included, or will not be equipped to locate and utilise the wav conversions.
4. The fourth fix, involves downloading MADFilter 1.0.0.3, registering it, and then using the same program I referenced earlier to disable the "Fraunhofer IIS MPEG Layer-3 Codec". Unfortunately I could not get MADFilter to install, but disabling the Fraunhofer codec did not fix the issue.

If you try a fix and it doesn't work I recommend reverting what you did, in case there are any unforeseen side effects that pop up down the line. No point keeping changes you've made to fix a problem if they didn't fix the problem. If anyone has any other suggestions, or knows of any fixes that I did not include here, please let me know. I will edit in links to the things I am referring to once I figure out how to copy+paste and get links working in this forum. :/

 

Thanks,

 

~ChaChaLoco.

Edited June 22, 2015 by ChaChaLoco

[ChaChaLoco]

Alright, I finally got the radio fixed! I managed to get MADFilter installed and then I disabled the "Fraunhofer IIS MPEG Layer-3 Codec (Professional)" and it worked! The problem with MADFilter was, for some reason, I couldn't get the register.bat to work on Windows 7 64bit. Here's how you get around it and install MADFilter.

1. Download MADFilter 1.0.0.3, extract anywhere.
2. Copy MADFilter.ax and paste it into C:\Windows\SysWOW64
3. Open the Windows 'Start' menu type "cmd" (without quotes) into the search filter, right click on cmd.exe and select 'Run as administrator'.
4. Type "cd c:\Windows\SysWOW64" (without quotes) into the command prompt and hit enter. Then type "regsvr32 MADFilter.ax" (without quotes) and hit enter, it should register and install successfully.
5. Disable whichever Fraunhofer IIS MPEG Layer-3 Codec you have installed.
6. Test in-game, it should work. I have read online that this causes crashes every 15-20min, I will be testing that now to confirm whether or not this is the case.

[ChaChaLoco]

There is one minor issue, whereby the game makes a weird hiccup-type sound when changing from one radio station playing a song to another radio station playing a song. It's sort of hard to describe, it's like when a record on a record player has the needle streak fairly quickly across the record. Also it does seem that the MADFilter fix increases crash frequency, by quite a bit (I never crashed at all prior to implementing this fix). Does anyone else have any other solutions?

Edited June 22, 2015 by ChaChaLoco

[Smoothetrue]

Merci infiniment ! :)

[Smoothetrue]

Pour les français:

 

1. Télécharge ce Mod:

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/15472/?tab=2&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Ffallout3%2Fajax%2Fmodfiles%2F%3Fid%3D15472&pUp=1

 

2. tu l'ouvre, tu vas dans Fallout 3 Radio Stutter Fix, puis dans MadFilter.zip

 

3. tu copies MadFilter.ax dans le dossier "c:\Windows\SysWOW64"

 

4. dans le menu démarrer tu tape cmd, tu faits clique droit dessus puis tu le lance en administrateur

 

5. dans le cmd tu tape "cd c:\Windows\SysWOW64" tu appuis sur Entrée, ensuite tu tape dans le cmd "regsvr32 MADFilter.ax" puis tu appuis sur Entrée

 

â6. tu lances le jeu et tu t’amuse sans que la radio soit complétement buggée

 

au passage désolé si il y a des fautes :wink: