I just upgraded my computer to a new Dell Inspiron with Vista Premium installed. As an avid Atlantis user, I naturally made the move to install Atlantis. So far, all is well. It's working great. However, I have not been able to get the sound feature of Atlantis to work properly with Vista. When I say properly, this is what I mean - the sounds work, but they seriously lag behind the press of a key.
For example, when I'm typing, I can usually get Atlantis to produce the first typing click (typewriter sound) on first key press, but as soon as I start typing any faster, the typing noise disappears completely. I've disabled all sounds except the typewriter sound, and still, the sound lags way behind the actual key press.
The author or Atlantis claims that I have an incompatible sound card. However, just for grins, I went ahead and installed Atlantis on my neighbor's new Vista-based Gateway. Same result. Then I installed Atlantis on my girlfriend's Vista-based Inspiron E1505, a very popular computer. Still, the same result. Lastly, I installed Atlantis on another friend's Vista-based HP computer. Same result. So that's three different brands of computer, all very popular, and all not working correctly with Vista and Atlantis.
I'd be curious to know how many of you out there have a Vista-based machine that works perfectly with the sound feature of Atlantis. When I say perfectly, I mean, get on it, type up a document, and see if the typewriter sound keeps up with the keystrokes.
In summary, my new notebook is a Dell. My girlfriend's notebook is a Dell. My neighbor's notebook is a Gateway, and my other friend's notebook is an HP. All popular brands. Is there something that we are all doing wrong to prohibit Atlantis from working with our sound cards? If so, please enlighten me. I'm lost without my noisy Atlantis.
Atlantis sounds and Microsoft Vista not Compatible?
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Lambert John
- Posts: 23
- Joined: Sat Feb 03, 2007 7:06 pm
- Location: Dallas, Texas
This problem is not Vista-specific. Some sound card drivers do not allow playing sounds in the so called asynchronous mode through the MMSYSTEM module of Windows. This is why Atlantis is locked until Windows finishes playing a sound. This is why typed characters appear on your screen with a delay.
The next maintenance release of Atlantis (most probably its version number will be 1.6.1.6) will play sounds through DirectX. This will resolve the problem with asynchronous sound playing on those sound card types. What's more, sounds in Atlantis will be more realistic even if you never experienced sound-related problems in Atlantis. Atlantis will be able to play multiple (up to 8) sounds simultaneously. You could hear sounds of multiple keystrokes synchronously, as in real life. Also sounds of different events could be played without interrupting one each other. For example, you could hear the "End of line" or "Caps & Num Lock" warnings or the "Saving a document" sound or the "Power Type suggestion" sound while Atlantis is playing the keystroke sounds.
If you have Atlantis on your PC, you could already install the beta version of the new build of Atlantis. Just download the following ZIP file, and unpack the contained Atlantis.exe to the home folder of Atlantis (by default, to "C:\Program Files\Atlantis\"):
{This file is not available on the server anymore.
The functionality mentioned above is available in the standard version of Atlantis.}
This new build has one more new sound-related feature. The "Possible misspelling" sound is now played as you type text. When you complete typing a misspelt word (ie when you press a space character or another punctuation sign), Atlantis plays a warning sound telling you that you have just added a wrong word to your document. This new behavior will be of particular help to those who cannot take their eyes off the keyboard.
The next maintenance release of Atlantis (most probably its version number will be 1.6.1.6) will play sounds through DirectX. This will resolve the problem with asynchronous sound playing on those sound card types. What's more, sounds in Atlantis will be more realistic even if you never experienced sound-related problems in Atlantis. Atlantis will be able to play multiple (up to 8) sounds simultaneously. You could hear sounds of multiple keystrokes synchronously, as in real life. Also sounds of different events could be played without interrupting one each other. For example, you could hear the "End of line" or "Caps & Num Lock" warnings or the "Saving a document" sound or the "Power Type suggestion" sound while Atlantis is playing the keystroke sounds.
If you have Atlantis on your PC, you could already install the beta version of the new build of Atlantis. Just download the following ZIP file, and unpack the contained Atlantis.exe to the home folder of Atlantis (by default, to "C:\Program Files\Atlantis\"):
{This file is not available on the server anymore.
The functionality mentioned above is available in the standard version of Atlantis.}
This new build has one more new sound-related feature. The "Possible misspelling" sound is now played as you type text. When you complete typing a misspelt word (ie when you press a space character or another punctuation sign), Atlantis plays a warning sound telling you that you have just added a wrong word to your document. This new behavior will be of particular help to those who cannot take their eyes off the keyboard.
Last edited by admin on Sat Aug 16, 2008 9:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Lambert John
- Posts: 23
- Joined: Sat Feb 03, 2007 7:06 pm
- Location: Dallas, Texas
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Lambert John
- Posts: 23
- Joined: Sat Feb 03, 2007 7:06 pm
- Location: Dallas, Texas
Well, the posted beta update isn't working so well with the sounds and Vista. Now whenever I press one key, it's like someone is pressing 10 keys on a piano at the same time. It's really crazy. Plus, there's still a bit of a delay. But it's no big deal. I realize that this is only a beta version - some tweaks still need to be ironed out. I'll just keep on keeping on in silent mode and maybe eventually, the production version will have all the issues worked out.
As I already said, this has nothing to do with the Windows version. Sounds in Atlantis work (and worked) identically under any Windows version. The MMSYSTEM module of Windows does not allow playing sounds in asynchronous mode through some sound card drivers. This was a problem with older versions of Atlantis because they played sounds through the MMSYSTEM module of Windows. The new version of Atlantis will play sounds through DirectX. This will resolve the problem with asynchronous sound playing through those sound cards.
As I understand, you hear "too many" synchronously playing keystroke sounds when you press but not release a key. This does not sound good indeed. But there was a similar problem in older versions of Atlantis. The new build of Atlantis will include a provision for such cases: Atlantis would not allow multiple overlapping keystroke sounds until you release the pressed key.
You can try a new build with the above changes. Just download the following ZIP file, and unpack the contained Atlantis.exe to the home folder of Atlantis (by default, to "C:\Program Files\Atlantis\"):
{This file is not available on the server anymore.
The functionality mentioned above is available in the standard version of Atlantis.}
As I understand, you hear "too many" synchronously playing keystroke sounds when you press but not release a key. This does not sound good indeed. But there was a similar problem in older versions of Atlantis. The new build of Atlantis will include a provision for such cases: Atlantis would not allow multiple overlapping keystroke sounds until you release the pressed key.
You can try a new build with the above changes. Just download the following ZIP file, and unpack the contained Atlantis.exe to the home folder of Atlantis (by default, to "C:\Program Files\Atlantis\"):
{This file is not available on the server anymore.
The functionality mentioned above is available in the standard version of Atlantis.}
Last edited by admin on Sat Aug 16, 2008 9:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Lambert John
- Posts: 23
- Joined: Sat Feb 03, 2007 7:06 pm
- Location: Dallas, Texas
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Andremusic
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- Location: Sweden
- Contact:
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Lambert John
- Posts: 23
- Joined: Sat Feb 03, 2007 7:06 pm
- Location: Dallas, Texas
We are glad that the problem on your PC has gone. But we have made no sound-related changes to 1.6.1.7 in comparing to 1.6.1.6. Possibly you were using one of the earlier betas of 1.6.1.6, or maybe the configuration of your system has been changed in some way. Anyway we are glad that everything works correctly on your PC.