FS#47868 - [pcsxr] Audio crackle/static with default audio plugin

Attached to Project: Community Packages
Opened by Chris Pinkus (toeshred) - Saturday, 23 January 2016, 09:52 GMT
Last edited by Jakob Gruber (schuay) - Friday, 29 January 2016, 10:56 GMT
Task Type Bug Report
Category Packages
Status Closed
Assigned To Jakob Gruber (schuay)
Architecture All
Severity Medium
Priority Normal
Reported Version
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 0
Private No

Details

Description:

There is a very annoying audio crackle/static noise when using the default audio plugin. Tested on 3 different machines. I installed the 32bit pcsxr from AUR (bin32-pcsxr-svn) and used the Eternal SPU plugin, and there was no more crackle noises. This confirms to me that it is the default audio plugin.


Additional info:
Happens in both 32bit and 64bit packages (using default audio plugin). But at least in a 32bit OS, we can just use another audio plugin.
Almost all 3rd party plugins for PSX emulators are 32bit, and most plugin developers will yell at you for using a 64bit emulator, saying it needlessly breaks plugins with no benefit at all.
Perhaps if this package was in multilib instead of being split between i686/x86_64, we could still use plugins we prefer when using a 64bit OS.

I've been trying to get the default audio plugin to stop with the static noises for about 2 days now, and the only solution seems to be installing 32bit pcsxr from AUR, and using a 3rd party audio plugin (Eternal SPU seems to work very well).

If the default audio plugin didn't have this horrible crackling static, I would just use the x86_64 package with no qualms.


Steps to reproduce:

1) Install pcsxr from arch repo
2) Play games
This task depends upon

Closed by  Jakob Gruber (schuay)
Friday, 29 January 2016, 10:56 GMT
Reason for closing:  Fixed
Additional comments about closing:  optdepends added in svn, thanks for testing.
Comment by Jakob Gruber (schuay) - Monday, 25 January 2016, 08:11 GMT
I'll look into moving this to multilib sometime this week. Do you perhaps have links to such discussions by 32b plugin devs?
Comment by Chris Pinkus (toeshred) - Monday, 25 January 2016, 11:03 GMT
Here are some of the things people say when asking for 64-bit plugins:
http://www.razyboard.com/system/morethread-64-bit-plugin-versions-for-linux-pete_bernert-41709-5842705-0.html
http://www.razyboard.com/system/morethread-64-bit-linux-plugin-pete_bernert-41709-5381032-0.html

Some people discussing the problem:
http://ngemu.com/threads/adding-plugins-in-ubuntu-help.161057/

I had some conversations in IRC about it (at irc.emuparadise.org), and most people say that a 64bit emulator is a downgrade because it trades plugin compatibility for almost no performance benefit. They told me to just install pcsxr:i386 package (I told them it was for Linux), but that is for debian/ubuntu distros only, while Arch has multilib. I'll see if i can find a cached transcript of that IRC channel, but so far from looking I can't find one.
Comment by Jakob Gruber (schuay) - Tuesday, 26 January 2016, 12:33 GMT
The new package is in multilib, please test.
Comment by Chris Pinkus (toeshred) - Wednesday, 27 January 2016, 03:26 GMT
Just tested the multilib package. I needed to install these seperately to get sound:

lib32-alsa-lib
lib32-alsa-plugins
lib32-libpulse

But not everyone would be using alsa/pulseaudio, and many people would probably already have these packages if they have other emulators installed.
Aside from that, everything that I tested works fine, even 3rd party plugins.
Comment by Chris Pinkus (toeshred) - Wednesday, 27 January 2016, 11:19 GMT
Tested it more on a few different machines, and it installs with no problems, and all plugins work with no problems.

One of the machines which had the x86_64 pcsxr already installed gave a few errors that plugin files in /usr/share/psemu/ existed already,
but deleting those files was all that needed to be done.

Loading...