No sound/ compositor issues

[Quantum Breed]

Hello this is for any and all that can help I seem to be having a strange issue with this game and another like it. The game works fine when i run it but there is no sound to it. So i click the game window which gives me sound but takes the game out of the compositor giving me a small single image between my eyes. This also brings up the steam vr error box "compositor is not fullscreen" error -202 however clicking the link to make the compositor fullscreen does nothing so I reboot the vive. Then start this cycle again.

I only have this problem with Spellbound and the Brookhaven experiment and even though I am not running preferred minimum specs (only thing not VR ready is my GTX950m graphics card) most vr games run fine with no issue.

I have done everything i can think of to remedy this problem including changing the VR audio settings to go to my vive usb and mirror to the vive HDMI, as well as the reverse yet neither work. If anyone has any suggestions or help i would be very grateful.

System specs
OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Home
Version 10.0.14393 Build 14393
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation

System Manufacturer ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
System Model X550VX
System Type x64-based PC
System SKU ASUS-NotebookSKU
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz, 2592 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. X550VX.204, 2/1/2016
SMBIOS Version 3.0
Embedded Controller Version 255.255
BIOS Mode UEFI
BaseBoard Manufacturer ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
BaseBoard Model Not Available
BaseBoard Name Base Board
Platform Role Mobile
Secure Boot State On
PCR7 Configuration Elevation Required to View
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "10.0.14393.206"

Time Zone Eastern Standard Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 24.0 GB
Total Physical Memory 23.9 GB
Available Physical Memory 16.1 GB
Total Virtual Memory 27.4 GB
Available Virtual Memory 15.3 GB
Page File Space 3.50 GB

Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Virtualization Enabled in Firmware Yes
Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection Yes

[Slayemin]

I've had similar issues in the past. I'm assuming you're plugging headphones into the headphone jack in the back of the Vive?

Here's a few things we can do to isolate this problem:

1) Do you hear *anything* when your headphones are plugged into the Vive? Play a youtube video and see if you get audio output. If you don't hear anything, switch your audio playback device in SteamVR (Settings -> Audio -> Playback Device) until you hear audio.

2) Does switching headphones work? I have found this to be a solution, even though I know my current headphones work perfectly in other audio output jacks.

3) Are you using a Vive Pre (which I am)? This version of hardware has a known hardware flaw where the audio jack doesn't do audio output to all forms of headpones after a long period of time.

4) Have you tried wiggling the audio jack to see if you get sound?

5) Without changing hardware configurations or SteamVR settings, are you able to get sound in other VR games?

6) If you plug speakers into your computer and make sure that SteamVR playback device is set to those speakers, do you get audio in Spellbound?

[Quantum Breed]

As i am helpful for this. none of it works. the headphones i have workfine with every other game i play in VR, using the audio port on the back of the Vive. For what ever reason the game launches perfectly starts correctly in VR and i can interect with the world but no sound. But if i hit the windows key then click on the display window itself i get audio through the vive but the screen is stuck in the center of the headset as one window and the compositor will not load when the link is clicked in the error box. At current the game is playable if i don't want sound but completely unplayable if i attempt to get sound.

[Slayemin]

If you're willing, I could send you a test project which only plays sound in VR and we can see if its an engine problem, hardware problem, or game problem.

[Quantum Breed]

If this can halp make a game that i think looks like fun better I would be very willing to help with that. Thank you.

[Slayemin]

Yeah, I want to troubleshoot your sound issue to figure out whether it is a problem with the game, the game engine, your hardware, or your settings. I'll create a blank VR project which plays a sound on loop and then upload it to dropbox for you. We can start isolating from there :) I'll have a link for you by friday evening.

[Quantum Breed]

Thank you I look forward to helping out with this.

[Slayemin]

Okay, I have created a VR sound test project here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o5br68oc62lq9ea/VRSoundTest.zip?dl=0

I have tested this with my own headphones plugged into the Vive Pre and I have verified that I have working audio. This is the same engine version as the current version of spellbound and the sound has the exact same settings. The music plays for about 2 minutes, so you can try various SteamVR audio settings until you find one which lets you hear music.

Let me know if this does or doesn't work for you.

I also created a few extra keyboard commands for you to use for troubleshooting :)

[Quantum Breed]

Thank you. I've downloaded it and will mess around with it likely tomorrow evening as my setup is in the middle of a living space. Once I have tried it out i'll post here with what i found.

[Quantum Breed]

I have done some testing. First off I set the VIve to mirror audio to my main computer speakers for referance. The first launch of the test was successful and showed the game screen on both my vive and my main laptop display. However I also ran into the issue of no audio this time from the Vive or from the computer speakers themselves. Clicking on the game window breaks the compositor with endless compositor is not full screen loop but gives me audio through both my configured devices (I.E the headphones plugged into the vive and the built in speakers for computer)

However I've now run into the problem as of writing this that after several restarts of the test application it no longer brings up a clickable window. The game window flashes for about a second and disappears then the game is shown in the vive with no sound through any of my devices. Clicking and hitting the windows key no longer works in breaking the link between the compositor and the game and no audio is able to be heard at all.

Going to restart my laptop and see if i can fix this new secondary problem that way as this has not been an issue as of yet.

[Quantum Breed]

Okay that second problem is fixed on my end. It was a setting i had changed for my taskbar.


I would also like to note that when I am able to get the sound to play clicking anywhere but on the soundtest screen or icon in the tray also causes the music to stop. It is almost like the game is in the background at all times and due to some sort of setting the audio cuts off when the game is not the front most application. This would lead to the no audio problem on my end as the compositor is the thing that is front most (at least i'm assuming, as i have not actual knowledge of Unreal or programming in general. But i'm hazarding a guess, hopefully an educated guess.) This would also explain why when i click somewhere then on the system tray icon for the game the sound plays through the devices I have it set to play through

Also of note is that the commands that you specified on the wall in the game do not work to start with. However upon clicking on the game again the mouse becomes bound to the screen (allowing for mouse movement) and the bound keys also work allowing me to change the audio type enter/exit vr and quit.

[Quantum Breed]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=858659521

[Quantum Breed]

This first image is a screen capture of both displays. Notice the audio mixer not showing any sound playing. This happens when the game starts (compositor running properly) and anything else is selected such as steam or the audio mixer thus breaking the compositor.

[Quantum Breed]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=858662555

[Quantum Breed]

This last image shows the audio mixer after the badge in the taskbar has been clicked. I took the liberty of circling the main system audio where the small bar appears as well as where the executible is itself in the mixer. This shows on all the audio devices and plays through them as well. May have to zoom into the image to see the sound level indicator bar as it didn't go very high.

[Quantum Breed]

With this I have run out of ideas and things to try. Al of my drivers are up to date and working appropriately nothing seems to be wrong with my displays. Except for the fact that my laptop will not go back to Direct mode (that is if it even can). Direct mode aside as i stated the game runs as if it is in the background with sudio being muted and keyboard control being disabled. Once the game window has been clicked, or system tray icon, the sound and music plays and the keyboard controls work appropriately.

I understand that some games do not work in anything but direct mode, while others do not support it. I have looked for many hours to find what i could on how to re-enable direct mode on my vive however none of the suggestions or tricks I found work. This may be because I am running on a Nvidia Geforce GTX 950M and on a laptop to boot.

I do hope that this information is helpful to the development of your game and hope that there is some sort of fix that can allow me to play your game properly. (this will also help with another VR game with the same problem) If You need anymore information Please do not hesitate to ask as I will help in any way that I can. Thank you very much for your respinse and allowing me to help.