Audio Problems with HL2

[El Gringo]

Stutter

Im having same problem too, but due to this i have played around much more on the starting scences of the game, if it wasnt for this bug i dont think i would have spent 20 mins yesturday just playing in the playground early in the game. I have never done this in a game before but the way the swings interact with each other is astounding, also the seesaw was great fun; piling things up on one end and then jumping off the ledge higher up, then going to the roundabout and playing on that. If it wasnt for this bug i would have just walked straight passed all of this

But not playing the game seriously due to the bug so cant wait for the patch.

Edit: Oh yeah forgot to say that im running
Athalon XP 1900
256 mg DDR
Rad 9600 pro

and get this when its not stuttering it plays really well with all the details up full, never expected that!

 

[Royal]

READ THIS, READ THIS, READ THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been searching for solution for the last two days. I have tried everything that can be found on forums. But nothing, I always had graphic and sound problems. I spent around 13 hours finding the solution.....And then I found a post, someone is suggesting to reinstall graphic drivers and then use that tool on the end, that completely removes any uninstalled things.

So i uninstalled my Omega drivers and used Driver Cleaner Omega Edition. I also used ATI uninstaller, just for fun.

Then I installed my Omega drivers once AGAIN

I also disabled TRUE FORM under driver settings.

When I entered the game, the resoults were GREAT!!!! If the game was not playable before, it is NOW 100%. I don't know, how this solution could help for me. I have no IDEA!!!! But it works OK now. There are still some minior glitches, but so small, that i can play NORMALY. And believe me, that i wasn't able to play before, because i was so angry on the stutterings. Just for example: when U are teleported around on the beginning of the game, everything runs smoothly now....And in the game, everything is OK. First time something is blown, no problems. Except when I enter every new room - after that "LOADING" thing, I have some stutterings....but after that, VICTORY!!!!

Trust me on this 1, just TRY (i don't know if it will help you, but just try....why not..hehehe). But don't forget to use that Tool for cleaning up the uninstalled things.......

I also used that heap thing, but don't know if it is helping in any way...

P.S. - sorry for my english :bounce:

Radeon 9800 pro
AMD 3000+
1GB RAM
Asus A7N8X
Windows XP, SP2
Omega drivers 2.5.90
Nvidia Unified Driver 5.10

 

[NeuralClone]

I'm also experiencing this. I've noticed that it does it a lot more in really open areas (such as "Highway 17") but it still happens in every other level. The open scenes of the game and the chapters with the hovercraft seem to be the worst so far.

I have noticed this problem in Half-Life: Source, Counter-Strike: Source, and even Codename Gordon. I don't have this problem with any other games that I play. I can run Unreal Tournament 2004 in 1280x960x32, get 60 fps, and not have to worry about stuttering.

I've continued playing through the game despite this huge annoyance because it is so frelling good but it would be nice if this problem could be eliminated. When the problem isn't occurring (very rare) I get very smooth and very fast gameplay in 1280x960. Unfortunately, the problem seems to happen every 10 seconds or so. I have lost count of how many times I've had to reload due to being unable to react in combat because of this problem.

Anyway, my system specs are:

AMD Athlon XP 1700
512 MB DDR RAM
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB (Catalyst 4.11)
Sound Blaster Live!
Windows XP SP2

 

[tdarkjedik]

I have been searching for solution for the last two days. I have tried everything that can be found on forums. But nothing, I always had graphic and sound problems. I spent around 13 hours finding the solution.....And then I found a post, someone is suggesting to reinstall graphic drivers and then use that tool on the end, that completely removes any uninstalled things.

So i uninstalled my Omega drivers and used Driver Cleaner Omega Edition. I also used ATI uninstaller, just for fun.

Then I installed my Omega drivers once AGAIN

I also disabled TRUE FORM under driver settings.

When I entered the game, the resoults were GREAT!!!! If the game was not playable before, it is NOW 100%.

Can anybody confirm that??? I hope it so badly!!

Shit, I'm at work and can't test it right now! I hate my life.

 

[Captain_Morgan]

Same problem

I also have this same audio problem, I cant believe it !!!! .

My system =

P4 3.4 running at 3.8
1Gb DDR2
120Gb SATA
Asus EAX800XT Radeon
Gigabyte 915 Mbord
Onboard sound (bettter than my crap audigy 2 sat in the garage gathering dust)

I love the game, but dont wat to play any more until it is fixed!

 

[NeuralClone]

Can anybody confirm that??? I hope it so badly!!

Shit, I'm at work and can't test it right now! I hate my life.

I'll try it out in the morning and get back to you.

Although, I have never had good luck with Driver Cleaner. It always destroys Creative Mixer and my sound drivers when it's cleaning my VIDEO drivers (and yes I have checked the options).

 

[wasted]

READ THIS, READ THIS, READ THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been searching for solution for the last two days. I have tried everything that can be found on forums. But nothing, I always had graphic and sound problems. I spent around 13 hours finding the solution.....And then I found a post, someone is suggesting to reinstall graphic drivers and then use that tool on the end, that completely removes any uninstalled things.

So i uninstalled my Omega drivers and used Driver Cleaner Omega Edition. I also used ATI uninstaller, just for fun.

Then I installed my Omega drivers once AGAIN

I also disabled TRUE FORM under driver settings.

When I entered the game, the resoults were GREAT!!!! If the game was not playable before, it is NOW 100%. I don't know, how this solution could help for me. I have no IDEA!!!! But it works OK now. There are still some minior glitches, but so small, that i can play NORMALY. And believe me, that i wasn't able to play before, because i was so angry on the stutterings. Just for example: when U are teleported around on the beginning of the game, everything runs smoothly now....And in the game, everything is OK. First time something is blown, no problems. Except when I enter every new room - after that "LOADING" thing, I have some stutterings....but after that, VICTORY!!!!

Trust me on this 1, just TRY. But don't forget to use that Tool for cleaning up the uninstalled things.......

I also used that heap thing, but don't know if it is helping in any way...

P.S. - sorry for my english :bounce:

Radeon 9800 pro
AMD 3000+
1GB RAM
Asus A7N8X
Windows XP, SP2
Omega drivers 2.5.90
Nvidia Unified Driver 5.10

some people installed HL2 on a FRESH windows, with only the latest drivers and the game installed.

So I kinda doubt that this is fixed with new drivers. Also I don't see how you can say that a) the game is playable 100%, but b) has still some minor glitches.

I won't try all this "solutions" anymore and take the hassle to edit cfgs, install stuff, unistall stuff, etc and sit through the painfully annoying loading times just to find out that it doesnt remove the root of the problem. Not until at least 10 people confirm that a "IDEA"(!!!) is _THE_ SOLUTION(!!!!).

 

[vsop]

@ the possible omega fix...

I don't think this will fix the problem for the people with Nvidia cards..

I also tried..., and tried.., did all the possible "fixes" that were mentioned in diverse forums.., but still no real fix.

This still has to come from Valve...IMHO

 

[groovy]

i was playing it on onboard sound, and headphones, and setting set to headphones... i only got stutters during loading and a bit in the intro. but that's about it

 

[Hunchback]

just a note to say the - snd_async_fullyasync 1 - command seems to harm performance rather than help it...though i know every machine is responding differently

d

 

[appoooh]

Ram Drive?

If the problem's related to the loading of sounds & textures from the HDD perhaps a solution is to mount the game directory in a RAM drive?

 

[Royal]

some people installed HL2 on a FRESH windows, with only the latest drivers and the game installed.

So I kinda doubt that this is fixed with new drivers. Also I don't see how you can say that a) the game is playable 100%, but b) has still some minor glitches.

I won't try all this "solutions" anymore and take the hassle to edit cfgs, install stuff, unistall stuff, etc and sit through the painfully annoying loading times just to find out that it doesnt remove the root of the problem. Not until at least 10 people confirm that a "IDEA"(!!!) is _THE_ SOLUTION(!!!!).

I aslo have the fresh installed windows (WITH ONLY THE LATEST DRIVERS). And believe me - I KNOW MY WINDOWS....

I say game is now playabale 100% because that minior stutterings that are still present DO NOT AFFECT playing, as they did before. THEY ARE NOT NOTICABLE while playing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Except on the begging of every NEW room (after LOADING).

And If u think, that I just posted this, because I read it somewhere, you are WRONG....Totally... I was searching the solution for 13 hours, as I SAID BEFORE. So I TRIED EVERYTHIG ELSE!!!!! I DON'T KNOW, HOW IT WORKED FOR ME!!!!! I HAVE NO IDEA!!!!

I also said, that I DO NOT KNOW, if the solution will work for other people. I know it worked for ME and that other guy!!!!! I just want to help people, as others helped me. OK?

 

[wasted]

ok, i volunteer to be the 6th tester of this, as soon as i read 5 people confirming that uninstalling/installing the omega driver does the trick!

 

[Royal]

hehehehehe, OK....Here are the instructions I followed:

Full Uninstall Instructions:

1. Uninstall the "ATI Display Drivers (Omega x.xx.xx)" from Windows Control Pane|Add/Remove Programs.

2. Restart the PC in SAFE MODE. (Keep pressing F8 before the Windows boot screen appears)

3. Run Driver Cleaner Omega Edition and click start to remove the remaining files and registry entries.

4. Run "Uninstall Omega Drivers Setup Files" from the Start Menu.

5. Restart and just install any driver you want.

 

[Jak]

Hi,

I only registered on this forum because of this sound issue which I have as well. After reading a hell of allot of posts on both these forums and the steam forums I am 99% sure that this issue is never going to be resolved until Valve release a patch.

I’ve seen many "possible solutions" to the problem but all that any of them actually seem to do is simply lower the strain on your hardware so that this problem is less obvious, however it is still there.

I have decided that until the patch is released I wont be playing the game, and when it is released I’m going start the whole game over as my previous experience was disappointing because of this issue.

Frankly I am very disappointed with Valve, not because of their current lack of information on what their doing (hopefully that means their all working to sort it out), but due to the fact that I have NEVER bought a game that I couldn’t actually play straight away. It gets even more irritating when you think about how much extra time they had to develop the game.

The last thing I wanted to do is point out the severity of the problem, this thread is the number 1 most replied to thread with 412 replies and 43414 views at the last count, and on the steam forums their "Audio Stuttering" thread is the most viewed non-sticky thread in the forum with 64524 views and 265 replies. How could valve possibly let a bug of this magnitude get through, its as if they never tested the game.

Anyway I’ve been going on for too long, these are my system specs in case their useful to anyone:

AMD Athlon XP 2600+
512mb DDR 2100 RAM
Asus A7N8X Deluxe MoBo (nForce)
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Creative Audigy 2

Thanks for listening,

Jak

P.S. The thread on the steam forums can be found here: http://www.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=176237&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

And if you’re trying to view the steam forums and you get "server busy" it seems to work perfectly when I browse using FireFox: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

 

[droid002]

As said earlier: "Just registered to also confirm that I have the stuttering sound problem and to post my specs."

Windows XP with SP2
AMD XP3000+, 1 GB RAM
ATI 9800 Pro 128MB, Onboard AC97

I´ve also installed the latest drivers for everything. I friend of mine have the same problem. Seems like everyone having it, more or less?

 

[Deziban]

Got the same problem.

Abit NF7-S v2.0 nForce 2
512Mb RAM, Athlon XP 2800+
ATi Radeon 9600XT 256Mb
Windows XP Pro SP2
Onboard nVidia Soundstorm

 

[stupiddrummer]

Put me down in the "registered to complain" category. After the amount of time it took to get the damn game activated, I now have to wait for Valve to get their arses in gear and sort this out. Screw it, I'm off to play Halo 2...

My specs (it's a laptop btw)
Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz
512MB DDR RAM
NVIDIA GForce4 420 Go
SoundMAX Digital Audio (onboard)

Stupiddrummer

 

[clarkf]

Im having an audio-problem as well, but its not the same as you guys.

I get about 1 to 10 minutes of gameplay, and all of the sudden the audio either drops completely out or just get really f**ked up! Unbearable!

Otherwise, HL2 runs perfectly!

 

[Jak]

Quick note as I cannot edit my original post: The thing I mentioned about using FireFox to view steam forums does infact NOT work, I did think it was pretty weird, must have just got lucky with the timing thats all.

Oh and despite my moaning about Valve messing up so much by not catching this bug I would like to say that if this problem wasnt there the game looks and is amazing and could possibly be the best game i have ever played, nice work Valve (just get it fixed, please).

Jak

 

[Moridin]

My sound problems different again...

I get sound on the valve logo but none at all in the game itself!

 

[Barido]

Experiencing the same ingame stuttering problems. Highly dissapointed!

P.S If you're having issues with steam forums, clear your cookies, worked for me. It'd explain why switching browsers worked for the other guy.

 

[Jonny_Hermit]

If the Steam forums say they aren't working, try deleting any cookies from Steampowered.com. This often works for me, seems the computer caches the error page for some reason.

I've got exactly the same problem with sound, and I havn't played past the Station cause I really don't want to ruin an otherwise fantastic game.
Specs:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
512 mb DDR Ram
MOBILITY Radeon 9600 128mb
60 GB Harddisc
Windows XP SP1
Running the Catalyst 4.12 beta drivers
Onboard sound. I have stuttering both when I use this and when I use my Logitech USB headphones.

 

[Garwoofoo]

Same problem here. I've tried all the suggestions so far and none have made any significant difference. The problem is severe enough for me to stop playing the game pending a fix.

P4 2.6 HT
1GB DDR Ram
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra (tried 3 different driver sets)
Creative SB Live! (original model)
Windows XP SP2

 

[Sidd]

Lowering the resolution, model and texture quality has made the sound issue almost non existent.

I'm now playing @ 600*400 with medium details and low sound quality.

And that on a AMD 2600 with 512 mb Ram and a 9800 Pro... somehow I had the feeling my rig could run the game better than it had...

I didn't know about the bug... so I just played straight through with those settings...

Valve, you did a superb job, despite this bug this is one of the best games I have ever played, and I've been a gamer since Kings Quest 1

I hope you'll find the problem soon.

 

[arkanis]

Lowering the resolution, model and texture quality has made the sound issue almost non existent.

I'm now playing @ 600*400 with medium details and low sound quality.

And that on a AMD 2600 with 512 mb Ram and a 9800 Pro... somehow I had the feeling my rig could run the game better than it had...

I didn't know about the bug... so I just played straight through with those settings...

Valve, you did a superb job, despite this bug this is one of the best games I have ever played, and I've been a gamer since Kings Quest 1

I hope you'll find the problem soon.

If this "bug" did not exist, you could have played it the first time smoothly on 1024x768 with most details and sound on maximum. Kind of cheapened the experience a little. :flame:

 

[Pippinator]

DAMN IT.

Still no fix, or even a mention from Valve that they're working on it.

:flame: :flame:[B]How many days are going to pass Valve?[/B] :flame: :flame:

 

[elhispano]

Have somebody look FPS in game with 9800 pro cards ?

I have the same problem and if i decrease the graphics level FPS aren´t better.
I cant play this game with 20-28 fps in open areas and WITH lag when i shoot or i do a quickly movemment.

 

[Pippinator]

yeh its one of the bugs... live with it - it doesn't happen all the time

try turning down the water quality - worked for me.

 

[jinjur]

mmmm....i dont know pip...

my 9800 seems to run quite nicely between stutters...............and that is with all the settings racked up.

how does everyone elses 9800pro's hold up in this........

i had poorer performance in doom 3 mind you

andy n.i.

 

[Sidd]

I get a good framerate with high detail settings, but a lot more stutters, too.

 

[Rolling Wreck]

Have somebody look FPS in game with 9800 pro cards ?

I have the same problem and if i decrease the graphics level FPS aren´t better.
I cant play this game with 20-28 fps in open areas and WITH lag when i shoot or i do a quickly movemment.

Pretty similar to my situation.
Yesterday I stood close to a wall staring at it and had 180fps. When I turned around and the stuttering started again.
I reduced my settings to 800×600px and all medium or low, did the snd_mixahead tweak and defragged my HDD just another time
Now it runs with less stuttering but in outer levels I get 20-50fps.

Specs are:
AMD ATHLON XP 2200
512MB RAM
EPOX EP KHA8+ MoBo
MSI 9800Pro
IDE RAID 0 with 2 40GB Maxtors
W2k with all patches
DX 9.0c
FireFox-Browser

Hopefully this thing isn´t just to be solved by redesigning the Engine - But if, then we´ll maybe receive a properly working HL² along with the Collector´s- / Silver - edition of HL³

Cya

Wreck

 

[Bucephallus]

OK, So while I'm waiting for my Geforce 6800 GT to turn up I decided to play this on my Workstation which consists of a Quadro FX3000, Intel P4 3.4 Prescott, 4GB Ram, 15,000 RPM SCSI Hard Drives and an Audigy 2 ZS.

I'm running at 1600x1200 with all the details up high but with no AA or AF and it looks amazing. The textures in this game are stunning. It's the first game that I've played that does 7.1 surround sound that works. I can pinpoint exactly where I'm being shot from.

I get absolutely no problems with my sound during game play, the only time I hear a stutter is when I pause the game to save it or briefly, just after a level loads, sound and video jerks slightly for about 1/2 a second while everything gets up to speed.

So, maybe, the more memory the better. When the new graphics card arrives it will be going into a machine with "only" 2GB of ram so it will be interesting to see if it makes any difference.

Bucephallus

 

[jmp]

Anyone with 1.5-2gigs memory could try to mount the game files to memory.. That way we could see if it's the disk access lag..

Could make the loading a bit faster too.. :naughty:

(THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE SOLLUTION AND MIGHT NOT WORK FOR YOU!)

Pretty much all of my problems went away with these "tweaks":

For those with nForce2 onboard sound and ATI card:

1. install beta audio drivers v. 4.54 <- important
2. remove all codec packs (like K-Lite and such) <- important!
3. install beta ATI drivers v. 4.12
4. make autoexec.cfg into HL2:s \cfg directory and put these lines there:

cl_forcepreload 1
sv_forcepreload 1
cl_smooth 0
snd_mixahead 0.4

(5. install Miles Sound Tools) <- not sure if this did anything

Without these done I tried to play the game but the stuttering was so bad I just couldn't, but after the tweaks it's only few secs after loading a level and rarely when someone starts to talk to you. But in combat and such no problemos..

Valve should make somekind of announce that they are aware of this problom or something..

(THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE SOLLUTION AND MIGHT NOT WORK FOR YOU!)

 

[Tommieh]

@ Bucephallus

Your 4gb of memory makes no difference..... HL2 use a very small amound of memory, please read before you post anything.....

 

[Ten Ton Hammer]

I too, have this problem and am very sad that I waited all this time to just get kicked in the crotch with this horrible performance bug.

AMD Athlon 2000xp
512megs corsair
RAdeon 9800 pro
Asus A7N8X Deluxe Mobo
WinXP home SP1

It's funny because i took the game and installed it on my brothers shitty computer.. and it runs with no hitch... at... all.

Has anyone tried reinstalling the game? I havent heard anyone on these or steam forums try it... and I'm leaning more and more to the "Activation & Unlocking" thing maybe causing the problem. Only reason why I havent tried uninstallling is because the game takes 2 freaking hours to just install the damn thing.

Anyways... might be something else to try. *sigh* where are you guys Valve?

 

[Sidd]

Has anyone tried running it in DX 8 mode? I've heard it's possible to change the DX mode in CS:S

Maybe that'll do the trick

 

[Mark-P]

how does everyone elses 9800pro's hold up in this........

My 9800 Pro (128mb) seems to be doing fine - Medium quality textures and models, 1024x768, 2xAA, Trilinear Filtering, Vsync on. Seems quite smooth enough on the big outdoor airboat levels... once the sounds have actually loaded. No complaints on the video side, it looks gorgeous. I've not really tried to see how far I can push the video performance. I originally tried 4xAA but turned it back down - perhaps the audio stuttering misled me as to just how well it was running.

Gah, Valve - commication when it matters most is something that they really need to work at. :rolling: If someone sees any more posts by them on any other forums, please let us know.


In the meantime, sweet HL-Source eases the pain. :thumbs: ( Very little stuttering there. )

 

[Bucephallus]

@ Bucephallus

Your 4gb of memory makes no difference..... HL2 use a very small amound of memory, please read before you post anything.....

So perhaps you could explain to me, as you are obviously the most noligable person here, why others are having problems and I'm not and as is there any need for your last comment?

Perhaps you should heed your own advice

Tommieh ask a nice girl to massage ShivaX....


....relaaxxx


p.s. and i read the whole damn thread

Bucephallus

 

[eviljubs]

still waiting...

yup... still waiting for some news from valve... this sucks... oh, and to the guy who asked how other 9800's are running, my friends both have 9800 pro's 128mb... running at 1024X768 w/ anistropic filtering at 2x and vertical sync, AND 6x antialiasing... at least i think that's their settings... but yah, the game runs beautifully w/ no stuttering... not for me though unfortunately... c'mon valve... help us out here... i REALLY want to play your masterpiece at full throttle