Sound stops after entering a match ~80% of the time

[shepmaster]

Howdy all. I am running nexuiz 2.5 on Gentoo Linux. My computer is hooked to a audio receiver via SPDIF / optical audio. Because of this, to get surround audio, I believe I need to use the A52 ALSA plugin to encode audio before being sent to the receiver.

Here is the relevant section of my /etc/asound.conf:

Code: Select all

pcm.a52encode {
        type a52
        format S16_LE
        channels 6
        rate 48000
        bitrate 448
}

When I start Nexuiz, I get the following in the log:

Code: Select all

$ nexuiz -sndpcm 'a52encode'
...
S_Startup: initializing sound output format: 48000Hz, 16 bit, 6 channels...
SndSys_Init: using the ALSA module
SndSys_Init: PCM device is "a52encode"
Sound format: 48000Hz, 6 channels, 16 bits per sample
S_SetChannelLayout: using ALSA speaker layout for 3D sound

I have set the audio options to 5.1, and I can hear the menu music playing. However, about 80% of the time, as soon as I enter a game (specifically a self-hosted multiplayer game with just me), all the sound goes away.

The other part of the time, when the sound does work, it seems as if it is lagging behind (by as much as a second). When I fire a gun or pick up a shield fragment, it is quite noticeable.

So, I guess I have 3 questions:

1/ How can I specify the ALSA device in the preferences, instead of on the command line each time?
2/ How can I fix the sound cutting out most of the time?
3/ How can I improve the performance of my sound?

Thanks!

[Mizu Kitsune]

try running nexuiz_sdl