Overriding sound.xml not functioning

Version: 1.1.7.0

Frequency: Consistently

Severity: Blocker

Marketplace package name: Super Hornet Precision Audio Pack

Context: Mounted through community folder.

Similar MSFS 2020 issue: NA - does not apply. Works fine in FS20.

Bug description: When attempting to load a modified version of our sound package (which mainly addresses the naming discrepancies between folder structures) the Sound.XML file does not load properly and results in a strange assortment of encoding errors at the tail end or, cuts off the XML about half way through its initialization. See screenshots.

Our sound XML has additional lines of code from the FS24 version. Roughly ~900 lines total. Upon investigating, only 468 lines are loaded into the XML by the VFS.

When removing the excess lines of code, for testing, there are a large amount of non-ascii characters that are embedded at the end of the XML.

Either results in a sound XML that is unreadable by the game, and thus renders our sound package useless (also does not load/fallback onto any default sound for the aircraft).

Repro steps: Copy the modified audio pack to the community folder, load the sim, and start the VFS projection process to view the loaded sound XML.

Attachments: Photos attached that display the errors.

Private attachments: Sending our modified version for help. NOTE: two different versions are included. One that has an XML <468 and one that is our full sound XML (which is roughly 900 lines).



I seemed to have fixed this.

The file size on the XML must be in EXACT binary bytes for it to work, in the layout.json file. Will update if something else goes sideways.

This was not an issue in FS20, seems that FS24 needs this number to be right on the money.

Just wanted to say thank you for posting your solution here, this was driving me nuts and ended up being the same issue, only with the .PCK file in my case being off by a couple of bytes!