X2 The Threat: Weird Bug

[Tomonor]

This is something that I have discovered back in the days I've been playing X2 (around 2006), but never got to ask what the hell it might be. It's a sound bug alright, just wondering why does it happen.

How to reproduce it:
1. Get in the fastest ship evarrrr (Pegasus)
2. Turn Seta on
3. Well in case it matters, I've gotten this bug in Home of Light
4. So what you do is set your engines to max and SETA out of the sector, waaay beyond the border (you will see when you are beyond the intended range, because your ship will seem like it's trying to fall apart, the game literally cannot handle you at that point)
5. Set your volume to maximum (or pretty loud at least)
6. You will hear lots of weapon fire sounds (mostly A-IREs and B-IREs) going off

It is weird. I wonder if we are hearing the echoes of the OOS battles?

[jlehtone]

A sector is supposedly about 8k by 8k clicks. (If coordinates are in signed 32-bit integers and +1 means +2mm, then possible values are bit more than -4000km -- +4000km.) Integer overflow leads to MAX+1 => MIN, and MIN-1 => MAX. If you go North long enough, you will wrap from North border to the South border, still heading North (and the center). Ultima and Civilization 2D maps used similar wrap too.

Those, who have flown the wrap have mentioned stutter near the border zone. Could it be that both the stutter and the sounds are intentional?

[pjknibbs]

When you get far enough from the sector centre then all the maths mess up and all the objects in the sector suddenly appear to be right next to you--I've used this bug to locate hard-to-find objects, because when the bug happens everything in the sector gets mapped even if you haven't got close to it the proper way. I'm guessing that the sound messes up as well, so you're hearing everything that's happening in the sector even though it's a very long way away from you.

It certainly can't be anything that's happening OOS because OOS sectors are treated in an entirely different way to the sector you're actually flying in--the engine is not generating sounds for events happening there.

[Alan Phipps]

As an alternative to, or even a further example of, pjk's excellent explanation; in the later X3 games based on the same engine as X2 just as you enter a sector where there is some combat going on anywhere in it you will hear a burst of combat effects such as guns or missile launches.

I guess that if in X2 you are flying at the 'edge' of the recognised sector then it is possible that you might even be triggering repeated uncontrolled or bugged exit and entry sequences. Or it may just be that a further example of pjk's explanation still applies in the later X3 games while the game is still setting up a new sector and before the sector maths stabilises.