On Android, using Chrome, the cartridges (at least those on the BBS - I haven't looked further afield yet) have constantly crackly audio, and the distinction between ticks is very audible so each tick sounds burbly or garbled, and some instruments sound particularly off in tone from what they should sound like.
I am using an Android tablet. It's low end, but I believe that to be not the main issue because I can get near perfect audio in Firefox with the same tablet (it could still be a contributing factor if Chrome isn't very efficient with delivery of audio but Firefox is).
The tablet runs Android 8.1.0; Oreo go.
I am using Chrome (version 77.0.3865.92 - I just updated it to make sure the issue happened with the latest version available to the tablet).
I can't say whether this is a general problem or limited to this device (I don't have extras to try it on).
I feel this is worth mentioning on the pico8 forum as a bug in case people are expecting everyone accessing their cartridges to be getting a near equal experience. This won't necessarily happen, and the delivery of the audio content that I'm experiencing is so bad that I wouldn't expect anyone to keep a cartridge open for more than 20 seconds.
Here is a link to a cartridge with music in if anyone wants to make a comparison on their own device (in Chrome then in Firefox) try:
The Snowman by gradualgames
Or hunt around for something more to your taste.
I doubt everyone is affected by this, because if they were there would have been a post about it already, but all I find is the occasional mention of crackly audio, with no one noting it as a bug.
I'm not expecting perfection here, and appreciate that it's playing via JavaScript on a low end machine, but when the difference in experience between what Firefox delivers and what Chrome delivers is so great, it seems worth mentioning. (Firefox has a couple of crackles at the start, then smooths out and thereafter delivers quality audio.)
Even if I suspect the problem lies mainly with Chrome for Android, I would still wonder if pico8 could tweak anything to get better playback.
Thanks for reading! And thanks @zep for pico8 which I'm enjoying greatly.
Editing in some threads which may have noted this or another issue with Chrome sound before:
Android Chrome Audio Stutter (May 2019)
It happens randomly on chrome on my windows 10 computer as well, sometimes it starts happening near the beginning sometimes it takes a few minutes. As far as I can tell, it works fine with firefox, so I'm guessing it's chrome's fault.
> I doubt everyone is affected by this
yes, it works fine in Chrome on newer/higher end devices in my experience. Specifically, it works on my Pixel 2, and I know it works on a Pixel 1 and in the past I saw it work on a Nexus 5X.
but then again I've seen it crackle sometimes on a Macbook Pro (in Chrome) so it seems a little inconsistent :p
This happens to me inconsistently on my high-end Windows 10 computer, and it happens to me inconsistently on my not-very-old Chromebook.
Always happens to me in my reasonably higher end device huawei p20. Firefox on my phone works much better with pico8.
Hi.
Same problem here with a samsung Galaxy S7 (Android 8). It's such a pity because it's the only bug that prevents me from trying to release an android version of my game. (T_T)
I tried tweaking all available variables : nothing works.
If anyone finds a workaround, please let me know.
++
alan
Same here on Samsung S8 and on my previous phone Nexus 5. Constant crackly audio with noticable "ticks". Works fine on Samsung's own browser.
Hey everybody, I have been doing a lot of research today about this, and I found something quite interesting. I am about to release my game on PC, ios, and Android, and like everybody else I found the Android version worked fine except for the audio which was stuttery, choppy, and sounded terrible. Trying it on my personal phone the audio was bad, and I was running Android 8.0 I tried it on another phone running Android 10 and the sound was perfect, no issues whatsoever! So, I believe that any Pico-8 game just should not be played on an Android device running 8.0 or lower. I haven't tested out any other versions except 8 and 10.
I hope this helps someone else out!
I have the crackling audio issue a Fairphone 3 with Chrome, Android 10 so this version alone doesn't fix all issues.
Fairphone has generally lower power than other devices, but I can run other heavier games without issues, and the issue is just with audio, so it must not be that. Also, as the other users remarked, Firefox runs audio fine.
For now I'll add a note on my itch.io page that you should try Firefox instead of Chrome. Ironic, considered I gave the exact opposite recommendation for playing the web version on PC.
EDIT: also got the issue on Vivaldi, so maybe it's related to their common root, the WebKit/Blink browser engine
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