EA, please look into this! Sound and Audio seems to be breaking on new systems.
Guys, I found the solution(s), and I think it may go a long way in explaining why some people are having sound issues that can't be resolved by just deleting caches or updating sound drivers.
The reason why I've written "solution(s)" is that I'm still unsure whether this issue is due to one or a combination of factors. At any rate, here is what happened:
1. There are scripts generated in real time when you're playing any world, represented by those little white boxes you might've seen from time to time in your game when placing apt shells or popping up randomly on lots with a message that says "SHOULD NOT APPEAR IN GAME."
They're supposed to be "flushed" in real time, but sometimes they don't. They keep replicating out of control until things start to break in the world. The solution is to use the makesim cheat using MC, then flush these scripts. I am also sensing that the Gnubb set is a troublemaker, too. It generates scripts labeled "forwarders", which can replicate to where you can have well over 3,000 of them in a world.
2. Some of the music and sounds are using different codecs, some of which are outdated or compromised on newer systems.
I have no idea how this bug is created. All I know is that I did all of this in Summer 2020, which preceded the bug:
1. Installed Island Paradise for the first time.
2. Went from hybrid disc/digital installation to all-digital (Origin)
3. Upgraded from super old GPU (Nvidia 9800GT) to new one (GT 730, then 1030GT) and CPU (not the one I have now, but to quadcore AMD FX series)
4. Used "makesim" cheat (which I've used forever but may have contributed to issue)
5. Upgraded from old monitor to new
6. Got a new hard drive
Here's some of the stuff I did to troubleshoot the issue:
1. Flushed scripts using MC
2. Deleted Gnubb Set from lot, then looked for "forwarders" in MC to flush (this seemed to be the key piece of the puzzle in terms of sound issues)
3. Installed older DirectX User Runtime Runtimes: Download DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010) from Official Microsoft Download Center
4. Installed new codec packs for Windows 10
If you've been having major sound issues that keep coming back no matter how many of the tried-and-true methods you've been told (delete cache, update drivers), maybe try the above.
