*My* connection problems/log-in problems *solved*

[HappyFunBall]

To make a long story short, all my connection problems were caused by the Creative Labs X-Fi Extreme Music card I have, specifically the drivers for it.

If I enable the card (and thus drivers), all my problems return. Disable it, and they are gone!

I'm using my motherboard's on-board sound now without problems (nforce 3).

So if you want to test this, go to:
Start->Control Panel->System->Hardware Tab->Device Manager->Sound, video and game controllers

Find you creative card, right click on it and select Disable. Reboot (I had too), and try the game again and see if you have any connection problems.

Good Luck.

(see my other post for more information on the problems I was having)

[Sarus]

DING DING DING DING...We have a Winner.

Same thing for me Happy its the ******** soundcard. I have the same one as you.



Cmon Razer get that soundcard out.

[HappyFunBall]

Bummed about the card not working, I just tried the latest beta drivers for the X-Fi. Nope, Nada, Nil. Didn't solve a thing. I'm back to on-board audio.

[Sarus]

The sad thing the sound is great. I'm just suprised that it screws with everything else so badly. all my other games are fine on it.

[mage]

I have a newer creative card as well and have been having log in problems for over a month now. I discovered that I could log in once after server maintenance, once after a fresh install of the game and very rarely at other times. Porting times were atrocious when I did get in.

However after disabling my sound card I can play the game just like I always could since last Halloween and previous to that time. I sure hope Tulga fixes this conflict issue since creative sound cards are amongst the most popular nowadays. Nothing like not being able to log in and play to discourage newer players who might want to try the game with the trial.

[mage]

Nice way to be constructive Kumu. Creative cards and drivers work with every other MMORPG out there that I have played. They used to work with Horizons last Halloween and before that time. Most people really don't have a choice about their sound card- they get what comes with their machine. You know the old saying, if you can't say something nice....

[mage]

Also, it is something to do with an interaction with Tulga's code. I can always get in and play with a fresh install or after a server maintenance. After that...well only disabling the sound card allows me to play.

[AA0]

Creative has a very long history of horrible, uncompatible drivers and hardware. They also have the same history of refusing to change their bugged up code to fix them.

There are other options for sound cards, but Creative has been the monster company from long long ago, they push most of the others out of main visibility. So if you want another card you have to be less lazy than normal and actually look for them, but they are significantly cheaper, have clearer sound, and far less bugs.

[mage]

What I have been trying to point out is that there is some sort of interaction between the sound driver code and the code that Tulga uses. This is a conflict of some sort that doesn't occur in any other MMORPG I have tried using the same card and driver (EQ II, WoW, Auto Assault, City of Heroes/ Villains and Dark and Light to name a few).

I am able to log in without issues after a server maintenance or after a fresh install. However after one log in session in each of these cases I am unable to log in again without disabling my sound card. The evidence seems to be pretty clear that there is something happening on Tulga's end that is causing these problems.

Now I want to see Horizons continue to grow since I have been a subscriber who has paid since launch. Regardless of whether you like or hate Creative cards the simple fact is that they are the most common cards out there. And most people do not choose their sound card or even know how to replace it if they wanted to do so.

What this means is that if Tulga can resolve the issue either with an internal fix or through working with Creative they will increase the number of trial players who can actually play and perhaps convert to paying subscribers. I have been supplying Tulga with all of my debug logs for multiple dates over the last month hoping that it will help them diagnose and fix the problem.

[Svayvti]

I don't really know enough about the coding in drivers and Horizons to know who's fault it is and neither do any of you I'd quite safe in assuming. I don't really care either.

What every person who uninstall's the game because of problems and many of those who stay are going to assume is that its Tulga's fault either way. I highly doubt Tulga wants to turn away everyone who uses a creative labs sound card as that would be an awful lot of customers they can't afford to reject.

Hating Creative Labs helps nothing. Furthermore whining about the problem and not doing anything to be helpful will only make the person complaining look bad. Can we move on now?

[AA0]

The blight client is using a new sound engine, quite possible it will fix it, whenever it gets live.

[Sarus]

Reyem told me in a PM that there may be a fix for it next week. maybe with the sound engine you are talking about.

[redwulfen]

There is a work around that can be used, create 2 hardware profiles in the windows control panel, one for Horizons which disables the creative labs sound card and one for other games that enables it. This is semi technical and I realize not everyone will be able to figure it out. If anyone would like a step by step guide to doing this and setting up your boot process so that it is fairly simple to switch between the two profiles I would be happy to make a guide to do so. Anyone interested can reach me at [email protected].

[HappyFunBall]

What I have been trying to point out is that there is some sort of interaction between the sound driver code and the code that Tulga uses. This is a conflict of some sort that doesn't occur in any other MMORPG I have tried using the same card and driver (EQ II, WoW, Auto Assault, City of Heroes/ Villains and Dark and Light to name a few).

I totally hear you and agree to what you are saying.

People here seem very quick to bash Creative Labs, and blame them for the problem.

Maybe they do have buggy drivers, I'm not arguing agaist that. Seems like almost everyone does these days.. video cards, router firmware, etc.

My problem is the same as Mage said. My X-Fi works with EVERY SINGLE GAME I HAVE, multiplayer and single player. It not only works, but sounds incredible. New games, old games, sound/music apps, video/mpg/divx/avi players, EVERYTHING.

Thus, I'd have to point the problem in the direction of Horizons. Every other piece of software was able to get the cards to work, flawed drivers or now. Why not Horizons?

I would still very much like to hear an official word on the compatibility problem with the X-FI (and/or Audigy 2, etc) and Horizons.

Funny, when I told Horizons tech support about the problem and "work around" being that I have to now use on-board sound to play their game, they said "I'm glad the problem has been solved, and we are closing the tech support case".

WTF? NOTHING was SOLVED. I have to use different sound hardware just to play ONE game on my PC. That's not a solution to the main X-Fi compatibility problem!!!!

[Arcadius]

so the main reason for the huge lag spikes and my CPU's processing power being maxed while trying to play is because of some conflicting coding with my Audigy 2 sound card?... wow thats a new one to me... is there any kind of supposed fix coming out on any bodies part?

[Noxuathl]

Edited by Rover

Now Tulga, FIX the issue with Creative sound cards. If they're working with all others games (which they ARE), some far more complex than this crappy engine then the problem is YOURS and you are losing players over it.

Don't bother responding, Kumu, I'm not interested.

[HappyFunBall]

Hehe..

Anyway, I was talking to Horizons tech support (which has been on-going for the past 2-3 weeks), and they told me they are working on a fix to the X-Fi (and possibly Audigy 2) problem. So basically, they admitted they knew about it, not in so many words.

What *really* steams me is that when I created my initial tech support request, I sent them the dxdiag txt that clearly listed the X-Fi being part of my system. But, tech support never got clued in to that, if they even looked at my system setup.

It finally took a few users on these boards to identify that the problem was being "caused" by the sound card. I should rephrase this and say, the problem was being caused by the Horizons client not functioning with the most popular sound card on the market today. BAM!

Creative Labs tried to help me, but their attempts were in vain, as it's *not* their problem.

While I have to say that the Horizons tech support was very friendly and helpful, they were far from knowledgable on the problem and could not identify it. I had to tell THEM what the problem was.

One other major gripe (doesn't belong in this forum, possibly), is the Horizons client software. I mean, seriously. What's up with that? Who's writing this code? Do you know any other games, multiplayer or not, that "draw" the graphics so slowly that you can see each object get rendered? And no, it's not my machine. I have a very fast system.

When I log in, or recall somewhere, most everything except for the GUI is invisible, then it takes multiple seconds for EACH "layer" of graphics to render. The terrain, the terrain objects, the players, my player, monsters, etc, etc.

If the game is downloading this data before displaying it.. my question is, why? How often does the terrain actually change? Almost never I'm guessing. What makes up the 2.84 gigs in my Horizons directory then? (that's my Horizons dir now, with only a small portion dedicated to player customizations and such)

As a Principal Software Engineer, I'm really dissapointed with their client software. That's all they could do in 2+ years AFTER release, + X years in development??? I've seen/tested alpha multiplayer games more polished than this (and years ago, on OLD technology).

Sad.

[Noxuathl]

Well said, HappyFunBall and here, here.

[Sarus]

Reyem said the fix for the X-fi soundcards should be going in tommorrow so try your cards after maintenance. I'll have to wait until i get home from work.

[Dravatar]

I play Horizons with a Audigy sound card (and have for almost a year) and have no problems. I do not have the X-fi, however.