Everyone:
I was one of the main people working with Schtruck on doing sound testing. Schtruck kept saying for the last several updates that the sound is 'perfect now!'. I was telling him, "it's better, but still is still not quite right".
I got a new device - Samsung's Google Nexus. Almost exact same hardware (TI OMAP 4430 with PowerVR SGX540 GPU). New phone has 1.2 Ghz vs old phone's 1.0 Ghz CPU, and it has a different ROM - old is stock Motorola ROM android 2.3.4, new is (upgraded) stock Google ROM android 4.1.1.
On my old phone sound in FF7, specifically opening credits, was off. Just a bit. Had a weird issue where it would ... hickup. As if it missed a part and had to skip to the next part. Pretty subtle, mainly noticable because I knew what it SHOULD sound like. The new phone - no problem, sound was SO good.
Schtruck worked and worked the issue. He has a similar phone and was able to see the issue.
In the end, the problem was two fold. 1) sound timing/buffering, as schtuck mentioned in a previous post, and which he put an option in for in the latest version. This is what causes some phones (including mine) to totally crash. 2) reverb. When some games use reverb, this causes some issues - I didn't understand this, schtruck told me about it. He said it was a big deal though.
Schtruck rolled some things (it may have been the reverb stuff?) into the 'enhanced audio' option. He thought he had the buffering fixed ... clearly not, as all !@#$ broke loose for phones that the new buffering didn't work on.
This is a FANTASTIC example of the issues faced with emulation. Increase performance (i.e. make sound better) - BREAK compatibility. But, not compatibility for everyone, just for people whose hardware isn't adequate, or adequately configured (drivers / ROM). Again, my two devices hardware are almost exactly the same.
Poor Schtruck has been going crazy with this. Trying to make FPSE better. Trying to make it work on all devices. Trying to not make it too complicated with too many options for users. Doing all this for people that don't understand, and don't care - they just want their games to work. For the most part, I don't blame them - I mean we just want to play games generally, not play with the emulator itself. The people in the forums here are an exception - most people here care
.
Totally aside from the sound issues, he's dealing with the menu system, controller interface issues, and of course keeping the bugs out of the emulator itself.
Schtruck - keep up the good work. You're doing awesome.