Audio (looped music) performance issue, random skips/stuttering sound

Our game runs quite well on WP8 phone (Lumia 820) with 30-40 fps, but the background music sometimes skips/stutters (no other sounds are being played at the same moment). Asset is MP3, imported as 2D sound, played via AudioSource with no additional effects. It is imported as MPEG, we have tried to change bitrate from 60 to 256 kbps, Compressed in memory to Decompress on load etc., no change. We have also changed DSPBufer Size in "Project Settings/Audio" to "Best performance", doesn't help.

When creating new project with one empty GameObject and AudioSource the sound plays OK so this probably indicates some performance issue with our game (garbage collector?). But the game loop seems to run smoothly, we don't allocate anything on menu screen. Anyone with similar problems? How can we debug it?

 

Yes tried that, it stutters even in Master (XAP for store), every 10-20 seconds there is little pause (100-300 ms). In Debug and Release (with profiling) it stutters even more (every 3-5 seconds) so it's definitely performance related. I just don't get it how can be simple audiostreaming of one sound so problematic when the rest of the game seems to run smoothly (using 1024x1024 texture atlases etc.) at 30-40 fps.

 

I have the same problem: My game uses 5 audio streams, so I get your issue but 5 times worse On Windows Phone 8 (Nokia Lumia 920) it drives the CPU at 100%, burns down the battery and is not useable at all... This happens also for release build, not just debug ones. It does not matter if optimizations are on/off or if TRACE is on/off etc. pp.

@Unity: Please fix this I really need multiple audio streams for the Windows Store contest

 

Done

 

@Vilmantas: I know As I wrote above: It still happens also for a release build with optimized code => its just a little better but still the same issue! => 100% CPU, battery burns down, stuttering all the way...

 

Yes, I did this I have compiled the app as release, deployed it to the device and then run it manually without debugger => still the same. But with my bug report, Unity should be able to test it easily, because I uploaded a test project

 

Thats what we did, Master XAP installed on phone and running as standalone (not from VS, not even connected to PC). Phone (Lumia 820) is under heavy load, sound stutters, and thats just one audiosource.

 

nothing?

 

I have the same issue. Music stutters even in the main menu and fps is normal.

 

Same problem here, nobody has a solution?

 

Hum, setting music file (mp3) to stream from disk solve the problem...

 

Unfortunately, "stream from disk" does not solve my problem

 

Same problem here, stream from disk didn't solve it either. Overall the whole game stutters for no reason every couple of seconds. Nothing is loading or happening.
It runs smooth on a $50 android but not on a $400 windows phone? Disappointed.

 

This solves the problem guys... don't know why though

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/19...-phone-8-app?p=1319592&viewfull=1#post1319592

 

Master configuration does not solve the problem for me. Is there going to be any fix for this in the next update?

 

I have udated Unity to 4.2.1 and NGUI to 2.6.5b. The problem is gone. I don't know which one has solved the problem

Now I have issues with reflective shader on Lumia 520. I will let you know if I can't solve it.

 

The performance problems are still there. I have Lumia920 and I run it also as master. I changed all my oneShot samples to be mono and native wav as well. the looping music I stream directly from disk. The performance is really not in correct shape with it. If needed, I can send my project for further analysis

 

We have tried latest Unity 4.2.1f4 and the problem still persists :-/. Stuttering background music and sound on Lumia 820 master build.

The other fixes in this Unity version look good (Application.OpenURL, WWW forms), when can we expect fix for this sound performance issue? Would it help if we send you our project?

 

Any progress about this ? I am having the same issue.The game runs fine on low-end android devices but on Lumia 520 audio performance is quite bad.Also if anyone posted a ticket can you post its reference number ? I do want to track its status.

 

hi,

hit the wall and spending the pass 24hrs trying to resolve similar issues until i stumble on this thread.

It could be content specific, as i've 2 background music that play smoothly on ios+android, and guess what ?
On 520, one was playing fine and another was stuttering every 10-15secs, no matter how i change the setting to master, doppler, effects, 2D , ogg, mp3, wav , reimport etc.

So, i will leave it to the gurus and hope to hear some good news soon! thank u

Br,
Peter

 

That's great to hear someone is working on.Is there any workaround for now ? We are porting our game to the WP8 contest and stuttering sound is nothing good

 

Was this resolved in a bug fix? We have the same issue on some of our titles. Randomly music starts stuttering/sounding corrupted.This is on a Master build, and we tried every audio setting in the book.

 

Unfortunately, I have the same problem. It is a big issue, but it's good to know that someone is working to fix the stuttering! In case you need a stripped-down test project, please let me know, I would be glad to be of assistance

Stephan

 

Yeah, I have the same problem. Upon removing many of the features of the app (water, particle systems) the audio skipping is reduced to where I feel its ready for the store, BUT it stinks having to strip the app of what makes it look good.

 

I have the same problem. If I deploy my game with the debug configuration, the audio is horribly stuttering. With master configuration it is a lot better, but still there is stuttering in the audio. I tried lowering the bitrate of the sound clips to lowest possible value (32), and even that did not remove the stuttering.

The device is Nokia Lumia 920.

I can also provide a build if needed.

 

I also have the same issue and I'm testing with a Nokia 920 and 820. I just tried all the steps without luck. Reducing the sound to 8 bit provides too much noise on the song, so it is not an option. We only have 1 song playing on the background, but the issue of skips/stuttering is still happening. Any idea of when would it be solved or any work around that works without sacrificing the sound quality? The 820 has more issues than the 920.

Thanks

 

I can hear some stuttering on Lumia 520, but it's mostly ok. Should I try also on another phone like Lumia 820? Will they perform worse than 520?

 

The 820 has better hardware and 512mb more RAM. These audio issues seem to be occurring when the device is either near it's processing limits or when it is running low on memory. You're better off getting your game working on a low-memory (512mb) device such as the 520. If you can't get it working on low-end, then exclude low end devices from the list of compatible products for your game to avoid bad reviews by those with low-end devices.

 

Lumia 820 has more RAM, but the problem may be related to other hardware like chipset etc. For example Lumia 520 seems to have better GPU but worse CPU. Different hardware means different drivers. That's why I'm asking.
http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=5322&idPhone2=4968

 

The 920 has better specs than the 520 and the 820, but still have issues with the sound and the game is very simple. As per the developer from Unity, they were working on it on October and has not been solved, or at least they never notified anyone that it was solved... It would be nice to know if they are still working on it.

 

I also had audio problems on WP8 in the past, but they went away at some point with a new Unity version. To be sure, that it wasn't something I changed in my changes or a changed setting I checked out a really old version of my project: no problem.

I took also a look at the profiler and I noted that there were a lot of performance improvement compared to earlier versions (I saw for example that SkinnedMeshRenderer performance has improved a lot). I suspect that this might have been the cause in my case. But you never know

Stephan

 

Hi,

Any news on this? I have pretty much the same symptoms as previous posters do. Game runs smoothly on lower end Android-devices, but on Lumia 620 background audio loop is some what choppy. I have tried nearly every setting with that audio clip, no help. And running master

Memory usage is around 70MB and seems that it would not be the problem. FPS is okay, only matter is the audio.

Using Unity 4.3.4.f1

 

Hello just wanted to add that I experienced similar behavior: Game was running fine on iOS and Android but when I tested it on a Nokia Lumia 920 the performance was very bad specially the background music which stuttered all the time. For background music I used two simultaneous stereo tracks of 16 bit uncompressed WAV with a length of 32 seconds and 5.5 megabytes of size.

The problem occurred both on Debug and Release builds, but was solved when I deployed using Master profile.

 

I have this same problem on the Lumia 520, with debug / release it is very bad, with master it is generally ok but the music will still stutter occasionally, especially if the fps drops to 40 or below (but the lowest it ever gets is about 30).

Tried various different options, reducing the bitrate helps but does not completely remove the problem.

 

I still have this problem with Unity 4.5.

Set the build to Master | Deploy the solution | Disconnect phone (Nokia 1520) and start the application. There is every 10, 15 seconds a hitch just before an audio clip is played.

I'm using Audio Toolkit 6.6 form the Asset Store and the audio performance are good on an iPhone 4 (Slowest IOS device that I own) or up. The high frequency sounds are pooled and each such a sound is having it's own pool. All my sounds are loaded into memory before somebody starts to play the game.

I imported WAV files. All files have the following settings:

Audio Format = Compressed (MPEG)
3D Sound = unchecked
Load Type = Compressed in memory
Compression = 63 kbps


On IOS i use the following setting:
AudioSettings.SetDSPBufferSize (256, 4);

On Windows phone this sound better (Unity Default):
AudioSettings.SetDSPBufferSize (1024, 4);

Changing the audio latency makes some difference in a more constant audio/quality while playing the sound but it won't resolve the hick-up that appears and which freezes the game for a few 100 ms and after that it plays the clip and the game resumes.

Please help because this is actual the only showstopper I have for Windows phone.


Peter.

 

I am afraid (and at least hope at the same time) this issue might be "solved" with Windows Phone 8.1. I saw somewhere among the WP 8.1 features some sys audio buffers were doubled so hopefully it will deal with it.

Can you confirm you still have WP 8.0 on your Lumia? And can anyone with WP 8.1 (even dev version) confirm whether this issue persists?

 

I have a 520 and 1520. Both are on the 8.0 version.

Peter.

 

I will compile a little demo project and post the bug number here. Please allow me a few days to create it. This month I have only the evenings and weekends for Unity. ;-)

Cheers,


Peter.