X3AP crash issue especially when voices occur

[Einheit 101]

Hello, my game is crashing very often especially when the computer wants to tell me something. I remember the game being very stable normally after 1000 patches. What could cause this?
-X3AP 3.3 german gog version
-only tubeless complex mod installed

DXDiag: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/68oszqm7 ... vmhuj&dl=0

X3Crash.log:
======================================
Crash event occurred on Thu Feb 20 15:47:52 2025
A:\Program Files (x86)\X3 Terran War Pack\X3AP.exe
The exception "Unknown exception" (0xc0000095) was caused at address 0023:00488110

Process owned by user: Miner

No story task running

Stack dump:
b8adf25e 00000000 e022f65e e3040000 3d070000 de614100 006f02a7 a823f65e ...^ .... .".^ .... =... .aA. .o.. .#.^
e022f65e 940b5800 f9ff0000 19000000 aaaa0000 00000000 b8adf25e 00000000 .".^ ..X. .... .... .... .... ...^ ....
006f02a7 00000000 2c790000 2741d65e 2841d65e b08ec81f 00001101 ffffffff .o.. .... ,y.. 'A.^ (A.^ .... .... ....
00000000 26f7a577 00000000 00000000 00000000 14000000 2841d65e 00000000 .... &..w .... .... .... .... (A.^ ....
a4fb1900 1ee25000 00001101 00000000 3de25000 31f4e7f8 14000000 2841d65e .... ..P. .... .... =.P. 1... .... (A.^
01000000 b8051101 78fb1900 596f5100 58fd1900 008a5100 0dc1a8f8 feffffff .... .... x... YoQ. X... ..Q. .... ....
08fc1900 b06a4100 e022f65e 049f3608 b0281101 00000000 5e840000 61000000 .... .jA. .".^ ..6. .(.. .... ^... a...
88095d0d 01000000 70000000 a823f65e 01000000 c01ff65e 940b5800 7c535500 ..]. .... p... .#.^ .... ...^ ..X. |SU.
01000000 01000000 7e434000 1816744a 01000000 049f3608 b0281101 01000000 .... .... ~C@. ..tJ .... ..6. .(.. ....
00000000 01000000 2f3f4000 65000000 01000000 00fe1900 b6030000 ffffffff .... .... /?@. e... .... .... .... ....
58f6f836 9cda3e77 04fc1900 00000000 002e332e 302e3000 00000000 00000000 X..6 ..>w .... .... ..3. 0.0. .... ....
00000000 0f000000 4c5c7472 75655c4c 6f616453 63724844 00000000 00000000 .... .... L\tr ue\L oadS crHD .... ....
00000000 a07dbd6c 00000000 48130b01 00000000 01000000 00000000 a2063200 .... .}.l .... H... .... .... .... ..2.
ac107f76 cfcb3f77 48fd1900 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 03000000 ...v ..?w H... .... .... .... .... ....
702a5b01 00102800 03000000 13010000 42420000 00000000 00000000 01000000 p*[. ..(. .... .... BB.. .... .... ....
4fd4e6de 0000a476 306ea276 00000000 14fd1900 3c834677 00000000 00000000 O... ...v 0n.v .... .... <.Fw .... ....
00000000 03000000 01000000 65000000 01000000 b6030000 127bed04 702a5b01 .... .... .... e... .... .... .{.. p*[.
ff3d0000 0000a00f 00102800 a05f4077 00fe1900 8f354d00 48fd1900 00000000 .=.. .... ..(. ._@w .... .5M. H... ....
00000000 00000000 00000000 65000000 01000000 00fe1900 b6030000 d86f3b20 .... .... .... e... .... .... .... .o;
f0d35400 7c547f76 5f104077 00000000 65000000 f4fd1900 ee115300 ffffffff ..T. |T.v _.@w .... e... .... ..S. ....
3f374000 901fa476 70fe1900 01000000 bc00e700 90000001 ffffffff f89e3608 ?7@. ...v p... .... .... .... .... ..6.
ffffffff 00000000 00000000 00000000 01181101 2f000000 00292708 e70f1101 .... .... .... .... .... /... .)'. ....
2a000000 18181101 00000000 0f000000 c0f40177 006f2708 00000000 00009b00 *... .... .... .... ...w .o'. .... ....
00000000 00000000 0f000000 20000000 00322e30 302e3030 31352e36 36333600 .... .... .... ... .2.0 0.00 15.6 636.
00000000 0f000000 003088ec c8018200 40fe1900 4e125300 ffffffff 4cfe1900 .... .... .0.. .... @... N.S. .... L...
41274000 02000000 901fa476 70fe1900 01000000 b08c6000 b08a6000 44fe1900 A'@. .... ...v p... .... ..`. ..`. D...
bd405200 b08a6000 00000000 44020000 08000000 60fe1900 0cfe1900 64ff1900 .@R. ..`. .... D... .... `... .... d...
68125300 00000000 74ff1900 d7444d00 02000000 f0230000 02000000 02000000 h.S. .... t... .DM. .... .#.. .... ....
02000000 003d5600 2d799b00 00000000 8cfe1900 abb0cb76 07000000 88fe1900 .... .=V. -y.. .... .... ...v .... ....
48a4e0fe b8051101 c8fe1900 596f5100 00000000 00000000 b8fe1900 646f5100 H... .... .... YoQ. .... .... .... doQ.
b8fe1900 7fd65000 2b799b00 74835200 00000000 683b5700 68191101 b8051101 .... ..P. +y.. t.R. .... h;W. h... ....
01c0a8f8 74ff1900 c3835200 00000000 22000000 00000000 04000000 442e5100 .... t... ..R. .... "... .... .... D.Q.
00004000 00000000 2d799b00 01000000 e1f0e7f8 ad2e5100 ad2e5100 00002800 ..@. .... -y.. .... .... ..Q. ..Q. ..(.
44000000 a0e29c00 288d9c00 78de9c00 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 D... .... (... x... .... .... .... ....
00000000 00000000 00000000 010c0000 01000000 00000000 00000000 01000100 .... .... .... .... .... .... .... ....
00000000 950000c0 02000000 06000000 00000000 ad2e5100 f4fe1900 10f51900 .... .... .... .... .... ..Q. .... ....
ccff1900 008a5100 35dea8f8 01000000 84ff1900 a97ba276 00002800 907ba276 .... ..Q. 5... .... .... .{.v ..(. .{.v
dcff1900 8bc2a777 00002800 e4a5e0fe 00000000 00000000 00002800 950000c0 .... ...w ..(. .... .... .... ..(. ....
4012dc76 5041c8e0 c8e05041 00000000 00000000 dcf41900 10531496 00000000 @..v PA.. ..PA .... .... .... .S.. ....
90ff1900 dcf41900 e4ff1900 c0f4a877 80114b89 00000000 ecff1900 0fc2a777 .... .... .... ...w ..K. .... .... ...w
ffffffff 22a2aa77 00000000 00000000 ad2e5100 00002800 00000000 -------- .... "..w .... .... ..Q. ..(. ....

[Einheit 101]

Could this be related with EAX? I disabled EAX and now i have not encountered a crash in the last few hours...?

[Alan Phipps]

EAX hasn't worked with Windows since Win XP with DirectShow and DirectX 9.

From the X3 Common Problems Sticky thread:

"Surroundsound and EAX Issues.

X-games use DirectSound and EAX sound standards as recommended during the XP OS era. Unfortunately that sound standard is no longer supported directly in Vista or later OSs. Those with the newer OSs and older soundcards or even with modern onboard sound chipsets may find that using surroundsound 5.1/7.1 speaker layouts does not give a good output, typically with most sound appearing through the centre speaker only. In such cases experimenting with digital outputs or reverting to quadraphonic/4.0/4.1 speaker layout in the sound control panel (only for playing an X-game) may provide acceptable sound quality in-game. There are surroundsound and EAX emulation softwares available to overcome these issues (ALchemy for Creative and 3D SoundBack/Nahimic 2 for RealTek) but some users have reported game stability and performance issues when using these applications."

[Einheit 101]

I don't use nahimic or anything else. I am surprised that X3ap crashes fully on its own with just that setting enabled. The only thing I have installed is the software for my KLIM Mantis headphones to unlock all functionality.

[Einheit 101]

i just had another crash with EAX disabled. It happened when i used my Plasma burst generator on a Yokohama frigate.

[Alan Phipps]

Hi again. From your DxDiag:

Your Nvidia graphics driver can be updated and then after doing that I would disable the Nvidia sound device and its accompanying sound driver if you don't use them. (Go to Control Panel, Device Manager, Sound/Audio Devices and right-click on a device in the listing for a disable/enable pop-up.)

Your C-Media sound driver is 10 years old and is not WHQL approved for use with Win 11; I would use your up to date Realtek sound device and driver and unplug or disable the C-Media device and driver.

I don't see any of the known X3-unfriendy codecs in your DirectShow Filters list, so that's one thing not to worry about.

Your Windows Error Reporting is indeed showing many X3AP AppCrashes but is not being really helpful about indicating what might be causing them.

Good luck.

[Einheit 101]

Thanks for the response. The Nvidia sound device is used to transfer sound to my TV with HDMI, the Realtek device is basically unused and the C-Media device is my USB Headset. I need to look if newer drivers exist for this thing...

[Alan Phipps]

Right but just unplug the USB headset (which disables its driver) and use another sound device for a while and see if it still crashes, ie a temporary test to eliminate the elderly C-Media device and driver as causing the issue. You can do the same test with the other sound devices and drivers, again just temporarily as eliminations.

[Einheit 101]

I just optimized performance of the sound engine by changing pitch variance in tSound.txt to zero for most weapon impact sounds which is a very old issue that never got fixed in X3 and that seems to at least reduce the crashing. Before that i literally could force a crash by shooting 8x Plasma Burst Generators at a target and then pressing the turret on /off hotkey. The game crashes as soon as the computer wants to say "ready" while the shots impact the enemy, possibly overloading the sound engine. I did not have a SINGLE crash since that tweak. I need more testing, and i plan to remove the voice sound from the hotkey script if i still get a crash tonight. And maybe add MARS compatibility while i am on that hotkey script anyway....
Also, performance is now a lot better in combat. Hilarious that these ancient and obvious bugs never got acknowledged in 100 patches...