Are you one of a "small number"

[RogueAngel]

I liked Valve's posting about the stutter problem:

We're also investigating a solution for the sound skipping problems a small number of users are running into.

I was wondering how many people are being affected by it since it is a "small number" and I am one of them. This is not a knock against Valve and I love this game a whole lot but I for one bought a new system (an AMD 64 3700+ with an ATI 9800 256MB card) so I thought it should be fast enough..... anyways appease my curriosity.

 

[Yombi]

i have no problems at all, no slowness, no sound stutter.

 

[MiccyNarc]

Yes, I have the problem.

 

[WhyteWolfe]

I hade it on one of my machines, with 512MB of RAM. Placed another, in there (1GIG) and changed the launch settings to the following:

-heapsize 512000 +cl_smooth 0 +sv_forcepreload 1 +cl_forcepreload 1 +snd_mixahead 0.4 -snd_async_fullyasync 1 -console

I think it's incredible that the machine, that was having the skipping sound, had this, in it:

System: 2.8 P4 // 512MB Ram // 9500 Radeon Pro
Game: 800x600 // Medium Texture // No AA // Tri-Linear // everything else set to highest

It wasn't anywhere close to the beef-i-est of machines out there, but, honestly, MOST people don't have a machine at this capability. So, I think it's absolutely silly to say that "a small number" was/is affected.

I put 1 gig (a bit faster ram, too), a 9600 XT, and that command, above, and I can now run at this SILKY SMOOTH:

Game: 1024x768 // Highest Settings // 2x AA // 2x Anistrophic

...and I no longer have the sound issue. It was simply a ram thing, for me. I'm just glad they are working on it, becuase it was REALLY irritating to me, as I'm sure it is, for so many others.

Something like that shouldn't impact the hl2 experience.

 

[CEREAL KILLER]

for me, it wasnt sound skipping but stuttering when the game loaded new textures. i had to reduce my textures down to medium and add -heapsize 512000 to the launch settings.

my specs are amd 2400+, 1 gig of pc 2100 ram, and a ati 9800xt all at stock speeds

 

[RogueAngel]

-heapsize 512000 +cl_smooth 0 +sv_forcepreload 1 +cl_forcepreload 1 +snd_mixahead 0.4 -snd_async_fullyasync 1 -console

Thanks WhyteWolfe,
I'll try this since I have 1GB of ram.

 

[MajorPayne]

I have NOT had the stuttering problems that many people reported, and I have 2 VERY different rigs.

My main rig is:WinXP Pro, AMD Athlon 64 FX53 (NOT OC'd), with 2GB 400MHZ DDR RAM, Radeon 9600XT, 2 120GB SATA HDD in RAID 0, using the onboard soundcard originally, and now (thankfully) back to using a SB Augidy Gamer2.

My second rig (used primarily for controlling our TV) is: WinXP Pro, P42.8 (OC'd to 3.4 smoothly), 512MB 333MHZ DDR RAM, Abit MOBO (cannot remember which), an All-In Wonder 9600 Pro (I think), a 120MB IDE HDD, and using the onboard soundcard.

I put HL2 on the second computer just to see what VERY different hardware would do, and to see if I would get the stuttering problem (I did not). I DO get longer load times, but that may be do to a LOT less RAM, and a IDE HDD, not in RAID.

Hopefully VALVe will get this fixed soon for others, but for me, it has not been a problem. I DO wonder if part of the problem is caused by other software running at the same time as HL2.... Has anyone tried running it in clean boot mode (disable ALL startup items in MSCONFIG, and reboot). I know that some other software running might cause this kind of problem, but not having the problem, I cannot really troubleshoot.
btw: I leave all of my startup programs (including scanner manager, print manager, firewall, antivirus, etc.) running on both machines, and do not get a problem. The only thing I DO kill is Desktop sidebar, which sometimes causes video skip in certain games/video playback.

 

[Computer5k]

I have no problems on my comp.

p4 1.8ghz
768mb pc800 RAM
Geforce fx 5500

No, i don't know what my sound card is

 

[f|uke]

I do get the feeling that a lot of people who say they dont have the stuttering issue just dont realize it; they think its supposed to happen constantly for it to be considered a problem.

The game defintly pauses for a brief moment when loading things mid-section. Sometimes textures, sometimes audio. When it pauses, the sound loops. It does this just a few times in each section. It isnt enough to effect gameplay, but it does effect immersion.

 

[ratm9200]

When ever the game autosaves i get a little stutter. On the bright side, i know when the game has autosaved

 

[f|uke]

When ever the game autosaves i get a little stutter. On the bright side, i know when the game has autosaved

It does this at the begining of each section, right after the "loading" dialog. This isnt really the stuttering problem people are refering to, but it would be nice if they autosaved before the engine started moving again.

 

[RogueAngel]

"Small number"

So far the % of people that have this problem seems to be pretty consistant - 35%. Imagine if 35% of the people on the planet suddenly fell down dead. Would the news stories that followed say a "small number" of people fell down dead? No. They's say a LARGE PERCENTAGE of the worlds population fell down dead!

Hehehe... I am really not trying to raise any trouble here. I think Valve is a special game company and HL2 is a very special game. I just love how PR works and the choice of words they use.

 

[asagan]

I was getting lots of stutter but I installed the ATI 4.12 BETA drivers and fortunately it solved my problem.

 

[Maskirovka]

i get the problem...but like many others, only when it loads a new section or a tiny bit when i quicksave...i'm sure if i did all the command line tweaking it'd work better...haven't had time to try

but i beat the game without caring that much...so that tells you how much of a bother it was/is

 

[Acert93]

So far the % of people that have this problem seems to be pretty consistant - 35%. Imagine if 35% of the people on the planet suddenly fell down dead. Would the news stories that followed say a "small number" of people fell down dead? No. They's say a LARGE PERCENTAGE of the worlds population fell down dead!

Hehehe... I am really not trying to raise any trouble here. I think Valve is a special game company and HL2 is a very special game. I just love how PR works and the choice of words they use.

Polls are very unscientific on forums... e.g. I almost skipped voting because I have no problems with HL2 at all. You will tend to find people who have a beef, problem, or opinion they wish to be heard are the most vocal. That is not to say they are not informative--obviously quite a few of you have problems, and that STINKS--but we should not draw conclusions like "35% of people have the problem" from a small poll. Just my 2 cents.

 

[marksmanHL2 :)]

Oooooh!


I clicked know then read the thread. I didnt even realised this was considered the sound stuter bug lol.


I have it... but it is only after I load a new map. It repeats the sound and the game freezes for about 5 - 10 seconds max normally less tho.....


But after that it never does it again until the next load point.




I just assumed it was part of the load process... :rolling:




The fix will be nice. :cheers:

 

[RogueAngel]

Polls are very unscientific on forums... e.g. I almost skipped voting because I have no problems with HL2 at all. You will tend to find people who have a beef, problem, or opinion they wish to be heard are the most vocal. That is not to say they are not informative--obviously quite a few of you have problems, and that STINKS--but we should not draw conclusions like "35% of people have the problem" from a small poll. Just my 2 cents.

I agree, and yet polls work for elections.... Anyway enough about the validity of this poll.

I still say the number of people who are voting and saying they are having the problem is rather large to be a "small number". Valve said "small number" in their statement and I am just wondering how "small" that number really is. Would 10% be a small number? If one million people bought this game and one-hundred-thousand had problems is that a small number? When Viagra says a "small number" of people will have side effects do they mean 10%? Or do they mean less that 1%?

I am not saying this poll is accurate but it lets you know it's not a totally uncommon problem we are talking about here. If Viagra had this many side effects it would be pulled off the market faster than Thalidomide.

 

[MajorPayne]

Polls are very unscientific on forums... e.g. I almost skipped voting because I have no problems with HL2 at all.

Good point Acert.... I too almost skipped even opening the thread because I am NOT having problems with sound skippage. I do want to add 1 thing tho... I do get some LOOPING (not skipping) of sounds when I go to manually save a game. It only lasts a second or so (and not with autosave), and I think this is may be a steam thing, since ALL of the steam downloaded games do this on my systems (Even HL1, which I did not remember doing this when I had the original VIA CD. I don't think this is the skipping problem that eveyone is talking about tho.

 

[satch919]

Yeah, I have the problem. I hate when it happens. I don't think its my system either. Good to know that there's a fix on the way.

3.0GHz P4
1GB PC3200 RAM
X800 XT PE

 

[Baal]

Good idea to finally make a poll about it.

I am, but I'm not sure how severe mine is compared to others. I think I'm on the lower end of the severence scale, because it doesn't bother me at all when playing really, and it's only when entering a large new area really, never happens when I'm fighting enemies or any other significantly important times.

 

[RogueAngel]

I hade it on one of my machines, with 512MB of RAM. Placed another, in there (1GIG) and changed the launch settings to the following:

-heapsize 512000 +cl_smooth 0 +sv_forcepreload 1 +cl_forcepreload 1 +snd_mixahead 0.4 -snd_async_fullyasync 1 -console

WhyteWolfe,
I tried this command last night and ended up playing for hours without a crash and the game didn't jerk at all for sounds. Thanks a lot! The only lag I got was when I entered a new level (which I can live with). If anyone else has this probelm I would suggest using the launch settings above (putting heapsize to half your physical ram). I'm sure these setting wouldn't hurt even when they do fix this.