No sound output in GemRB

Stuffu

Hi

It's me, the (probably) only living soul in the RetroPie community that uses GemRB.

GemRB was recently updated with a lot of fixes (https://gemrb.org/2021/06/18/gemrb-0-9-0-released.html) , for instance SDL2 support by default and a lot of other stuff, and I decided to update. Everything is according to plan but I got no sound.

I had this issue since earlier versions as well (didn't bother to deal with it when I had to set up RetroPie from scratch again) but now when I was about to dive into Icewind Dale, I really miss the sound.

I've read https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Sound-Issues/ but that didn't help.

Current Sound Settings (just using HDMI as output):

Audio Card - Default (don't have HDMI as an option)
Audio Device - HDMI
OMX Player - HDMI

I think the issue is in gemrb.sh but I don't know what to put here. For each instance of a game there is one row with:

AudioDriver = openalI guess this is pretty easy for anyone that knows what to put here, but I don't... Appreciate the help!

Edit: I also noticed this, but not sure how to get that into gemrb.sh

*Notes to packagers:

Python 3 support has been added.

SDL2 is now the default backend and anyone still on SDL1 is encouraged to switch.

If you are packaging from git sources, not the archive, either run make fetch-demo-data first or manually include the files. These are (currently two) bigger assets kept in a separate repository.*

Pi Model or other hardware: Pi 4
Power Supply used: original
RetroPie Version Used 4.7.15
Built From: Pre made SD Image on RetroPie website
USB Devices connected: mouse, keyboard, ssd controller (nespi)
Controller used: sn30 pro
Verbose log (if relevant): Don't seem to be a verbose options for gemrb
Emulator: GemRB

mitu

@stuffu said in No sound output in GemRB:

Verbose log (if relevant): Don't seem to be a verbose options for gemrb

I think germrb still logs something, even without having a verbose logging option. Can you try to get and post the contents of /dev/shm/runcommand.log ? Use pastebin.com if the log file is large.

Stuffu

@mitu Sorry for pointing out a misspelling, but maybe GERMRBwould be its proper name considering the pain it causes :D

It does log a lot, but it seems runcommand.log has a size limit? Not everything is in there. I couldn't find anything odd either: https://pastebin.com/bfsZ1A2y

To have easy access to it, here is also gemrb.sh if that can explain something. https://pastebin.com/VCNseGPg

mitu

@stuffu I don't see any obvious errors in the log related to audio/sound - only some search path related issues, which might be normal.
If the sound is working in the system/emulators, but only GemRB exhibits this issue, it's most likely related to the new version. I don't have a Pi at hand to test, but I could try to build again the new version and see if any hints show up.

EDIT: is the sound working if you use the current binary release of GemRB (v0.8.6) ?

Stuffu

@mitu yes, I experienced the same issue with the pre built binary, 0.86.

Stuffu

@mitu hi, first of all, it’s no rush. Just checking if you had the possibility to test making a build to see if anything odd shows up?

mitu

@stuffu I haven't forgot about this, I briefly tested with the current binary and looked at the logs, but haven't made any progress. Haven't given up on this yet, I'll post some details when I find something and probably test with the latest release afterwards.

mitu

So I ran a few tests using first the current binary in RetroPie (version 0.8.6) and noticed that the sounds are working in the menus.

I tested with the BG2 demo disc, since I don't have any other supported games and the demo is small enough. Playing the game though has some issues, which I think they've been solved recently so I'll try running the demo with 0.9.0 and see how it works.

Does the sound works for you in menus ?

mitu

I've re-ran the BG2 demo with the 0.9.0 release and this time is started correctly - sound is working fine. Are you sure you're don't have the in-game volume all the way down ?

For the upgrade itself, the new version broke GLES compatibility so there's no GPU acceleration using SDL2's GLES renderer and it's likely the situation is the same for older Pi models. The PI4 can use the OpenGL renderer, the older models cannot. I can test the software rendering to see how it fares, but otherwise the version bump is not looking to be compatible with the Pi.

Stuffu

@mitu thanks for testing! I don’t have sound in the menus and sound in game is on, checked again and the settings are fine. Also ran bg2 to use the same game you have.

Using a Pi4 should be fine then, even considering the latest changes then? I haven’t continued past the menus in 0.9.0 since I don’t have sound and it’s pretty boring without it. But I can do some performance tests as well. If it doesn’t work, we can skip troubleshooting the sound… :)

Edit: Checking the issue you linked, it seems it’s supposed to be fixed in 0.9.1.

mitu

@stuffu said in No sound output in GemRB:

Edit: Checking the issue you linked, it seems it’s supposed to be fixed in 0.9.1.

The issue is still open and there's no 0.9.1 version, so I'm not sure what you mean. It's marked as (tentatively) to be fixed in the next version, but that's probably just so that the issue is not lost on the way.

Stuffu

@mitu I’ll just keep my fingers crossed for a fix in the next release then. But the sound is weird, it seems its something with my setup but can’t figure out what. Then again, it’s not the whole world. I’ll will just try to forget about it and go do something else. Thanks for looking into it though!

Stuffu

@mitu Updated today with latest RetroPie Setup and OS update, and the sound is back. Not sure what changed but something was adressed in audio recently.

Maybe it just affected me but if there's someone else with similar problems, it might be good to know.