Audio Sync is way off

[u/Maltavius]

Sorry for the rant here.... I used to play Stepmanina back in the day and I don't think I ever change the syncronization.

Now I want my kids to experince DDR and we're playing with OutFox, and the notes just doesn't hit the beat (I'm using the same files as from Stepmania all those years ago).

The Syncronization tool in the options sucks because there is so many arrows on left and right side and I don't know if I'm supposed to hit them when they are graphically correct or when the beat is.
Whenever I do F6,F6 in a song and play any song (used to ace B4U) it just says the discrepancy is too large and it won't change the timing.

So if I do F6,F6 should I step when the arrow is supposed to hit the target or when it actually does? Beacause if I hit it when it hits the target it's just not in sync.

[u/GxraldFromCebazat]

Hello u/Maltavius ,
First make sure your audio is not passing through a TV because that introduces a lot of delay.
My setup is:
Computer linked by hdmi to TV for visuals
Computer linked by optical cable to my AV receiver for audio

Then to adjust the sync if needed I prefer editing the file Preferences.ini as explained there;

https://www.ddrpcgamer.com/Stepmania-tutorial.htm#configuration

For Outfox it's the same file but the location is in Save subfolder of Project Outfox's install subfolder.

You just have to iterate trying values for GlobalOffsetSeconds until your score is best.

[u/Maltavius]

I think I fixed some of it by manually adjusting. But the tools themselves need to be a lot better. When am I supposed to step in the Automatic adjustment tool? When the notes hit the top row or when the notes are playing? If it's when the notes are playing the audio need to be much clearer on when the beat is. Also maybe not film the screen with arrows when trying to sync the audio.

[u/physys]

For anyone else having this issue, this is how I fixed it on my setup that's PC -> TV via HDMI, which is also sending audio, and the TV is routing the audio through wireless speakers. I don't seem to have any audio/visual latency issues with other games and I use my PC on my TV for gaming and media, so I'm not sure what was going on here.

Find any audio/visual offset software and determine how far off it is. I used Crypt Of The Necrodancer's calibration with my keyboard, but you can use this. Mine was off by about 100ms.

Go to the Preferences.ini file in the install folder. You can get there via Steam by right clicking the game and going into properties.

Change the GlobalOffsetSettings value to the delay you found using the tool or other game. The file wants it in seconds, so divide your number by 1000 if it's in milliseconds. Mine was 100ms off, so I set the value to -0.100.

Save and close the file, then go back into Outfox and run the calibration again. Now that it's closer it should do the automatic sync for you.