WoW - sound glitches after 2.2.0 patch?

[Bimmi]

Wondering if anyone else has experienced sound issues in World of Warcraft since the new patch went live? Here are just a few that I've noticed in the last week:

– sound for profession creation actions is now very inconsistent: whereas it used to be one sound effect per progress bar, it's now somewhat broken up and choppy, particularly for Smelting.

– NPC greeting audio does not always trigger.

– sound effect for skill training almost never triggers anymore.

– the ambient running sounds for the Deeprun Tram are completely gone.

– when casting consecutive rounds of spells with long casting times, the sound often won't trigger for the first cast.

– short, sharp bursts of white or pink noise will sometimes interrupt the background audio: this occurs anywhere from infrequently to very frequently, with no particular pattern evident.

I'm pretty sure these issues appeared immediately following the 2.2.0 patch. However, I'd just installed The Burning Crusade for the first time not two days before, and though I don't recall any immediate issues it does muddy the situation somewhat. Most of these audio problems tend to crop up when playing my expansion characters.

So, am I the only one having these problems? And can anyone make suggestions regarding the proper way to wipe and reinstall the game? Any insights would be appreciated.

 

[zen]

According to Blizzard, these aren't bugs, they are features!

They've reduced the sound channels from 64 to 32 for some reason, and for a lot of players the sounds has become decidedly rubbish.

I'm a shaman, and now when I drop 4 totems in a fight I usually only hear the sound of 2 dropping. It's the same with profession sounds - as you say, you only hear some now, seemingly at random.

Patch 2.2 has introduced a lot of changes and problems - 2.2.2 is apparently out this Wednesday and should fix some stuff.

 

[topgunn]

You can "fix" the problem by changing the amount of channels in the game. In your WTF folder there is a file called config.wtf. Edit this file and find the line that says SET Sound_NumChannels "32" and change it to "64". If the line doesn't exist, then add it.

I had a problem with no hearing all of the sounds I typically did. For example. I would only hear every 2nd melee attack and every 2nd spell cast. After I modified the config.wtf, I could hear everything I normally did.

Apparently the fix coming in 2.2.2 doesn't increase the number of channels but reprioritizes the sounds so that an NPC greeting is not overruled by a bird chirping in the distance.

 

[Bimmi]

I wonder why they decided to change something that seemed to be working perfectly well? It's not like the game is running much smoother post-patch... quite the opposite really.

Will I completely lose my interface layouts if I trash all the game and preference files and reinstall? I don't have any third-party add-ons but all my action bars are configured just so, and it would be something of a disaster to have to redo them all.

 

[apfhex]

Will I completely lose my interface layouts if I trash all the game and preference files and reinstall?

You'll probably have to re-activate whatever additional bars you had displayed (like the right side ones, etc.), but they should retain their items as that's stored server-side. Any addons will loose all their settings if you remove the WTF folder.

I noticed the same issues with sound and the reduction from 64 to 32 fits, I wonder why they would reduce it, performance/memory issues? I'm going to do what topgunn suggested and see if there aren't any adverse reactions.

 

[patseguin]

I'm going to try that too. I've noticed the absense of a lot of sound effects also.

 

[rbarris]

We have been hard at work polishing up a number of sound and performance issues that have been observed in WoW 2.2.0. You should see a new patch in testing on our public test realm soon that we anticipate will resolve many of the issues described above.

 

[zen]

We have been hard at work polishing up a number of sound and performance issues that have been observed in WoW 2.2.0. You should see a new patch in testing on our public test realm soon that we anticipate will resolve many of the issues described above.

Good to know you're working on it. I have to say Patch 2.2.0 did introduce some rather peculiar things!

 

[phillipjfry]

Have there been any other bugs aside from sound issues?

 

[vulture7776969]

yes

When 2.2 came out I noticed that alot of the spell graphics were white blocks instead of their regular grafx. It was later fixed in the 2.2.2 update but I still have the random sounds error/skipped FPS while it makes the sound. Almost like the cpu has a brain fart then picks back up. I am on my Powermac G5 and have all the problems on my macbook under xp everything is nice tho.

 

[Persifleur]

More annoying is the fact now I can't change the sound output source without restarting the game; before I could change it from the sound control panel. So unless I'm using Ventrilo, I can't hear the sound anyway because I can't be bothered to put on my headset.

 

[Bimmi]

New patch is live. Going to take it for a spin as soon as the realms go back up.

On a possibly-unrelated note: I did a complete reinstall of WoW and BC last night. Installed from the CDs this time rather than downloads, and made sure the install environment was as clean as possible (definitely NOT the case when I first installed BC). So far I have been rewarded with slightly higher framerates overall (much higher in Shattrath, which was borderline unplayable before) and the elimination of a few sound issues unrelated to the ones previously mentioned. Interestingly, the base install only required two patches this time, as opposed to the near-dozen needed for my first attempt.

I was also pleased to find my UI layouts completely intact, despite carrying over no files from the previous install.

 

[Bimmi]

Still no tram sounds in Deeprun. And I failed to complete the "Stones That Bind Us" quest in Blasted Lands last night, because it's bugged to hell and back.

I'm not loving this patch.