I think this goes back as far as to when the full-screen cross-platform startup was introduced.
If you have a Hexen-style startup (including the original game), the startup music begins shortly after the game starts firing up. However, as soon as the first notch sound plays, the music falls silent.
So, what you get is ~1 second of the music, followed by the notch, and then loading-complete sound and sometimes the music kicks back in for a fraction of a second before going to the title picture.
I've tried with different music formats, but it happened with everything that I tried.
Going back to an old version of the exe with the little Windowed startup, the music played for the entire time that the startup screen was being shown.
I said it happens with the original game, but it's easier to notice with big projects that take longer to load because the startup lasts longer.
[Edit: to be clear, I meant the original game under GZDoom. The original DOS exe plays the music and notch sounds properly.]
Hexen Startup Music Interrupted by Notch Sound
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Re: Hexen Startup Music Interrupted by Notch Sound
Due to a discussion in a related thread, I posted a video of how this bug manifests. Note, the video was recorded with VkDoom (because that was the discussion in that thread) but the problem manifests in exactly the same way with GZDoom (I have tested both). I could record a separate GZDoom video, but it would be no different.
viewtopic.php?p=1257368#p1257368
Copying the relevant bits of that post to here...
The modem-like bleepy sound right at the start is actually the music (it sounds better when the whole thing plays - its a sort of scanning sound from Cyberpunk 2077). It should play for most of the video. However, it only plays for a moment and then the notch sounds take over. Even when they fall silent, due to the game loading, the music should play, but doesn't. The music file is much longer than the litte burst that you hear in the video.
The sound from the video:
The music should play throughout the loading, from when it starts until the end notch sound plays. It used to do this with the old (windowed) starup but both GZDoom and VkDoom behaves as shown above.
FWiW, the final "end notch" is done using the SNDINFO entry "misc/startupdone". This is actually a Strife feature, but it plays in all game startups once the loading is finished (even Doom, without a specific Startup being defined). It should be irrelevant to the problem.
Edit: For what it's worth, here's the same startup in an old version of GZDoom with the little windowed startup. I couldn't capture the visuals, so what you see in the video is just a placeholder graphic, but the sounds demonstrate the music playing right through.
The "music" starts (almost simultaneously with the notches), you get a quick burst of notch sounds, the notches stop (because the game is loading slowly) but the music continues. Then you get the end notch, the music staops and the titlemap sound starts. In other words, the timing is much the same as the previous video but, importantly, this one plays the "music" throughout the loading process.
viewtopic.php?p=1257368#p1257368
Copying the relevant bits of that post to here...
The modem-like bleepy sound right at the start is actually the music (it sounds better when the whole thing plays - its a sort of scanning sound from Cyberpunk 2077). It should play for most of the video. However, it only plays for a moment and then the notch sounds take over. Even when they fall silent, due to the game loading, the music should play, but doesn't. The music file is much longer than the litte burst that you hear in the video.
The sound from the video:
The music should play throughout the loading, from when it starts until the end notch sound plays. It used to do this with the old (windowed) starup but both GZDoom and VkDoom behaves as shown above.
FWiW, the final "end notch" is done using the SNDINFO entry "misc/startupdone". This is actually a Strife feature, but it plays in all game startups once the loading is finished (even Doom, without a specific Startup being defined). It should be irrelevant to the problem.
Edit: For what it's worth, here's the same startup in an old version of GZDoom with the little windowed startup. I couldn't capture the visuals, so what you see in the video is just a placeholder graphic, but the sounds demonstrate the music playing right through.
The "music" starts (almost simultaneously with the notches), you get a quick burst of notch sounds, the notches stop (because the game is loading slowly) but the music continues. Then you get the end notch, the music staops and the titlemap sound starts. In other words, the timing is much the same as the previous video but, importantly, this one plays the "music" throughout the loading process.
Re: Hexen Startup Music Interrupted by Notch Sound
I don't know if this has been specifically addressed, but I happened to notice that with the Git build from 19th September, startup music is playing for me both in my mod and in default Hexen.
As Graf noted elsewhere: "ZDoom's startup code is quite messy and it may well be that something went wrong when the startup code was refactored." So, if it wasn't deliberately addressed, it may have started working by accident. However, like I said, it does seem to be working with recent builds.
As Graf noted elsewhere: "ZDoom's startup code is quite messy and it may well be that something went wrong when the startup code was refactored." So, if it wasn't deliberately addressed, it may have started working by accident. However, like I said, it does seem to be working with recent builds.
Re: Hexen Startup Music Interrupted by Notch Sound
It actually was deliberately addressed at some point. I can't remember if it was Boondorl or Phinet who sent the patch (I think it was Boondorl) but it was merged pretty quick after, I think it was just changing the order of one of the lines in the startup code.
Re: Hexen Startup Music Interrupted by Notch Sound
Cool. Good to know. Thanks (and thanks to Boondorl or Phinet of course).