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X seriesX3: Terran War Pack - Missing voice audio files?(71 posts)solved(71 posts)solved
(71 posts)solved
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Posted December 17, 2015
UPDATE—Jan 23, 2018: Issue Corrected
• Mac: Working for Mac as of tested version: x3_terran_war_pack_en_3_4_17054.pkg (Jan 20, 2018)
• Linux: Working for Linux as of tested version: gog_x3_terran_war_pack_2.4.0.7.sh (Jan 23, 2018)

UPDATE—Dec 08, 2018: Linux Issue Remains for Non-English Installations
• Linux: Only the English Linux installation is confirmed fixed for gog_x3_terran_war_pack_2.4.0.7.sh (Dec 08, 2018)

—Original Post Follows—

This is for X3: Terran War Pack, for both Mac and Linux, English version 2.1.0.5

Short Version: X3AP voice audio file (00144.dat) and audio index file (00044.pck) are empty/missing.

—This thread covers the issue as tested on OS X—

Package File: x3_terran_war_pack_2.1.0.5.dmg

I've played through a good bit of X3TC at this point and thought I'd give X3AP a try.

It only took a few minutes of gameplay to realize that ALL voiceovers are missing from X3AP—no "betty" (ship voice), no station announcements, and conversation videos via station comms play without audio. Some points which should have voice do start with the usual comms static noise followed by silence.

This is most easily tested (without even starting a new game) by adjusting the Voice volume from the Options > Sound menu on the title screen. Adjusting the voice volume up or down on a properly working copy should announce "Command Accepted" to help in volume adjustment (as it does in X3TC).

Digging into the files, it seems the packaged English language voice audio file for Albion Prelude, 00144.dat (X3 Terran Warpack.app/Contents/Resources/game/addon/mov/00144.dat) wasn't correctly copied into the package. It's a zero byte file—i.e. it is completely empty when it should be hundreds of MB. Additionally, the usual audio index file, 00044.pck (same directory) seems to be missing entirely.

Now, these files are present and populated for X3TC (located in game/mov as opposed to game/addon/mov) and all voiceovers work correctly for X3TC.

To verify the problem, I installed the XRM mod for X3AP (and the associated linux patch with compatible audio) which provides a populated 00144.dat and doesn't use the missing index file. As expected, all audio works fine once the file is populated.

Devs—can we get a package update containing the required audio files?

--

Edit - June 12, 2016: Updated to include confirmation of audio issues in the Linux release
Post edited December 08, 2018 by xixas
This question / problem has been solved by vaalc4rimage
Posted December 17, 2015
It seems there was a similar issue with the Steam version back in 2011:

References:
* http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=311707
* http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=311969

It looks like Egosoft provided official links to the missing files (on page 5 of the first link) until Steam could resolve the issue. Unfortunately those linked files have since been removed.
Posted December 17, 2015
So, this is a thing for GOG to solve. File a report!
Posted December 17, 2015
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Themken: So, this is a thing for GOG to solve. File a report!
Already done. I'll report back with any updates =)

In the mean time, for the sake of getting all info out there, I've heard a rumor that copying the language audio file and associated audio index in from X3TC brings back some of the sounds—so if anyone is desperate for basic audio you could give that a try. I haven't bothered, since any audio associated specifically with AP plot or new ship/sector names would be missing.
Posted December 17, 2015
Additional Note: X3AP terminal logs also report that the audio files are missing:

-- Log sample during startup --

======================================
MOV_LoadVoices(44) can't open file
======================================

-- Log sample when voice audio should be playing --

MOV_GetVoiceLength(0,13,131) Can't find voice info
Posted December 18, 2015
Could it be you simply downloaded a corrupted installer? I mean, it would be really, really werid if the whole game was missing all voice packages and no one noticed so far. Gog is supposed to spend a lot of time testing new games before release, among other things.
Posted December 18, 2015
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Avogadro6: Could it be you simply downloaded a corrupted installer? I mean, it would be really, really werid if the whole game was missing all voice packages and no one noticed so far. Gog is supposed to spend a lot of time testing new games before release, among other things.
While anything's possible, OS X releases usually (and in this case) come in compressed DMG archives which are extracted directly. There's no installer. They simply extract the *.app file (which is actually a directory tree under the hood). Odds are any corruption would break the ability to extract the archive.

Additionally, I still use the GOG Downloader, so the file's checksum should be verified at download completion (though the feature has been known to break).

I'd prefer not to download another 9GB to test the theory, so I'll wait and see what support has to say. But if a quick fix isn't imminent I'll likely download the Linux version anyway to see if I can pull the missing audio files from there. Of course, I can't say for sure if the issue affects only the OS X version or not.

Can any Linux users verify if their copy of X3: Terran War Pack (English version) has voice audio in X3AP?
Post edited December 18, 2015 by xixas
Posted December 20, 2015
Well, still no word from GOG support, but it looks like the problem occurred in the November 20th release. From the release notes:

* We've also updated the Mac DMG file with the mod support fix and consolidated all of the supported languages into one DMG.

...and, indeed, it appears that X3TC contains all of the language packs (in a separate langs directory).

To add a potential self correction, I've been noting that I'm testing the English Version, as that's still the title of the download link from the GOG Downloader links page. But all language download links should now be pointing to the same file. Only one file is linked from the HTTP download page (the version I'm testing). That being the case, the other languages are also likely broken for AP.

On the bright side, I now have a guess as to what went wrong in the packaging process, and also at least a partial fix.

What's wrong (technical):

There's a file list with per-file checksums from the previous GOG release in the EgoSoft forums here:
http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4564686

Looking further into the purpose of each *.dat file in the addon/mov directory, it seems that the main voice audio file (00144.dat for English) is copied straight from Terran Conflict (the file checksums match), though not all of its contents are used in Albion Prelude. A second voice audio file, 00244.dat, is added to cover the extra content in AP. A copy of the audio index file, 00044.pck, is updated with references to the additional content in the second file.

Looking at the files, both for English (in addon/mov) and all of the other installed languages (in the langs/*/addon/mov directories), in every instance the main voice audio file, 001xx.dat, is a zero byte file. However, they all contain a populated secondary voice audio file, 002xx.dat. They also all contain an updated audio index file, 000xx.pck, -except- for the english language which is missing the updated index file entirely.

My best guess is that the main voice audio files for each language were either hard linked or symbolically linked to the equivalent TC files to save space, but either when the *.app package was moved between machines (via cp, rsync, etc.) or during the final compression process, the respective option to preserve links wasn't applied, thereby turning the links into empty files in the finished result.

What I can't figure out is why only the extended AP audio index file for English (addon/mov/00044.pck) is missing. If any English language testing was done, there would be no voice audio in AP without that file, so perhaps English wasn't tested on AP for this last release (?)

The Fix:

For English, the Terran Conflict version of both the main voice audio file and the audio index file (00144.dat and 00044.pck) can be safely copied or symbolically linked from the base mov directory to the addon/mov directory. This will bring back MOST of the in-game voiceovers, including "Betty" saying most ship, station, and sector names, as well as generic comms and station chatter. Unfortunately, without the missing extended audio index, some AP-specific voice content will still be missing. Not a perfect solution, but it makes vanilla AP playable—though I recommend keeping subtitles on to handle any missing audio.

For the other languages with voice audio support (German (de), French (fr), Russian (ru)), you only need to copy or link the main voice audio file (001xx.dat) from langs/*/mov to langs/*/addon/mov. Since the updated audio index files exist for these languages, you should have full AP voice audio.
Post edited December 20, 2015 by xixas
Posted December 21, 2015
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xixas: Well, still no word from GOG support, but it looks like the problem occurred in the November 20th release. From the release notes:
....

What's wrong (technical):

There's a file list with per-file checksums from the previous GOG release in the EgoSoft forums here:
http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4564686

Looking further into the purpose of each *.dat file in the addon/mov directory, it seems that the main voice audio file (00144.dat for English) is copied straight from Terran Conflict (the file checksums match), though not all of its contents are used in Albion Prelude. A second voice audio file, 00244.dat, is added to cover the extra content in AP. A copy of the audio index file, 00044.pck, is updated with references to the additional content in the second file.

Looking at the files, both for English (in addon/mov) and all of the other installed languages (in the langs/*/addon/mov directories), in every instance the main voice audio file, 001xx.dat, is a zero byte file. However, they all contain a populated secondary voice audio file, 002xx.dat. They also all contain an updated audio index file, 000xx.pck, -except- for the english language which is missing the updated index file entirely.
May be worth replying to your ticket with the above if you haven't already in case GOG hasn't found the problem yet.
Posted December 21, 2015
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Gydion: May be worth replying to your ticket with the above if you haven't already in case GOG hasn't found the problem yet.
Good call. I already linked them to this thread, but inline specifics never hurt =)
Posted January 08, 2016
Just a quick update to say the thread's not dead—just seemingly temporarily forgotten.

Last reply from GOG Support was on Dec 22nd noting the issue has been passed along to the Product Team for investigation.

I pinged them again today. Hopefully I'll hear something back soon.
Posted January 11, 2016
high rated
Well, the issue is backlogged in the QA team's verification queue.

No estimated time frame, but I'll drop an update when I hear something.
Posted June 13, 2016
high rated
Got some verification that the missing audio issue may also apply to the Linux release.

Updated the thread post accordingly.
Post edited June 13, 2016 by xixas
Posted June 13, 2016
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xixas: Got some verification that the missing audio issue may also apply to the Linux release.

Updated the thread post accordingly.
Hi xixas,

your theory is correct. I can reproduce everything you've written on Linux (Mint 17.3 Cinnamon).

The interesting part is that GOG already has the missing files included in the Windows installer.

Since the issue seems to plague only the *NIX versions, I checked the Windows installer.
Both *.bin files are rar archives:

evangelos@LIFEBOOK-NH570 ~/Downloads/GOG $ file *.bin
setup_x3_terran_war_pack_2.0.0.3-1.bin: RAR archive data, v1d, flags: Archive volume, os: Win32
setup_x3_terran_war_pack_2.0.0.3-2.bin: RAR archive data, v1d, flags: Archive volume, os: Win32
So, I opened them with Gnome Archive Manager (included in Mint 17.3 Cinnamon). I extracted the addon's 00044.pck file from the first bin and copied it to game/addon/mov folder. The file type is exactly the same for all game versions.

evangelos@LIFEBOOK-NH570 ~/Downloads/GOG $ file 00044.pck
00044.pck: gzip compressed data, from NTFS filesystem (NT), last modified: Wed Feb 27 16:14:28 2013, max compression

evangelos@LIFEBOOK-NH570 ~/GOG Games/X3 Terran War Pack/game/mov $ file 00044.pck
00044.pck: gzip compressed data, from NTFS filesystem (NT), last modified: Thu Apr 23 16:24:05 2009, max compression
Then I extracted the addon's 00144.dat file form the second bin. Here things are a bit more complicated.

evangelos@LIFEBOOK-NH570 ~/Downloads/GOG $ file 00144.dat
00144.dat: Microsoft ASF
This file type is not the same in *NIX versions and it doesn't play on our systems.

evangelos@LIFEBOOK-NH570 ~/GOG Games/X3 Terran War Pack/game/mov $ file 00144.dat
00144.dat: Ogg data, Vorbis audio, mono, 44100 Hz, ~80000 bps
The solution was to convert it using VLC to OGG audio file and then copy it to game/addon/mov folder.

evangelos@LIFEBOOK-NH570 ~/GOG Games/X3 Terran War Pack/game/addon/mov $ file 00144.dat
00144.dat: Ogg data, Vorbis audio, mono, 44100 Hz, ~128000 bps, created by: Xiph.Org libVorbis I
I didn't configure the sampling bit-rate, but it doesn't matter.
Now the game runs with full English audio.

EDIT: Thank you for bringing this problem to light, and for the fix suggestion.
Excuse me once more for the multiple edits!
Post edited June 13, 2016 by vanchann
Posted June 13, 2016
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vanchann: ...Then I extracted the addon's 00144.dat file form the second bin. Here things are a bit more complicated...
Hey vanchann, I appreciate you taking the time to verify this one (it's been bugging me for a long time).

As I noted in an earlier post, it's not necessary to convert the 00144.dat file for X3AP. You can just copy/symlink the one from the matching X3TC directory. TC and AP used the same 00144.dat.

However, the 00044.pck index file for AP is different than the one from TC, and unfortunately is entirely missing. It's good to know it can be copied straight out of the Windows package, but I don't see many users wanting to download an extra ~9 GB to extract a ~100 KB audio index ;)

It's notable, however, that using any mods that update 00144.dat or 00244.dat (for English language) on Linux or Mac does require re-encoding if they don't provide a Linux audio patch (like XRM does).
Post edited June 13, 2016 by xixas
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X seriesX3: Terran War Pack - Missing voice audio files?(71 posts)solved(71 posts)solved
(71 posts)solved