Audio Problems with HL2

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what is this "free" cough..cough free version u speak of?

where can it be found? ahem....
 
smoke said:
what is this "free" cough..cough free version u speak of?

where can it be found? ahem....
Click to expand...

ahem..., I don't think this question is tolerated here....
 
vsop said:
Yup, I bought the game..., sttt tttt uttttt errrrr.....

Got the "free" one...., and oooooaaaaahhh yeah what a game!
Click to expand...

This is interesting, what is the difference between the bitorrent / Warez version and the original retail version?. One works the other stutters?!. Is it the unpacked gcf sound files?. Perhaps you have uncovered something?.
 
why valve don't examine the warez game ? probably they understand how the game can go well
 
It think some people are resorting to Bittorrent / Warez versions because the cracked game versions work properly. Why struggle with your retail copy when you can play smoothly with a cracked version!. Sad but true.
 
Spicey said:
This is interesting, what is the difference between the bitorrent / Warez version and the original retail version?. One works the other stutters?!. Is it the unpacked gcf sound files?. Perhaps you have uncovered something?.
Click to expand...

I have to compare the files first then..

I hope to have time this weekend to remove the "free" version and install the "normal" version again.

The "free" one I have is the one that does not uses steam.

Problem is that I need steam back on my system for playing CS source.

I don't like having "free" versions but if this is what it takes to play the game..... I payed for it anyway.
 
if this is true - that the warez version does actually work better, more consistently than the legit versions then Valve have some serious thinking to do about their "copy protection" - we have a completely OTT system now in place, aimed at getting the money to the Devs where it is needed and deserved. All games are pirated, they are easy to find (if that is what you are into) but those of us who go and actually PAY for our games, deserve at least the same quality of gameplay experience if not BETTER than the freeloaders. So I imagine HL2 has shifted a tonne of legit copies and made a hell of a lot of money, and STEAM may well have paid off in that respect by making more people buy who may otherwised have warezed it (thinking steam would be as hard as starforce3 to crack etc) but all it seems to be doing now is causing LEGIT owners to seek out the illegal version just so they can play it, and future possible buyers will also try this avenue until the bugs are ironed out.. I call that a big mistake and at this moment Steam is backfiring on Valve, if not in the cash stakes, in future good-will towards them.
 
Somone also posted on the Steam forum saying the version he'd downloaded was working okay without the stuttering. Can this be true?
 
i sold my hl2 retail copy, and i 'll probably buy the "freedom" version of hl2.


no more money to valve
 
It'd be so ironic if the pirated version works better than the official one, as people say it seems to.

HL2's latest patch has given me the most spectacular crash I've ever seen on a PC by HL2 crashing and resetting my harddrive so it functions at 1/4 speed on loading Windows. I mean, seriously, WTF? System Restore fixes that, thankfully.

Hey, according to Valve, we don't buy the game, we buy "a license to play it" so I don't see a whole lot of problem in people using pirated versions of something for which they already own the "license to play".

Valve may disagree but they got paid already, so they know where they can get off.

If they trade their reputation for cash by releasing a game that has problems for way too many people, they can't expected a whole lot of sympathy when it backfires.
 
I tried this patch today with some little hopes, but like almost everybody else with stuttering problems, it won't work at all, it maybe even makes it worse. I have ATI 9800 Pro vga. I don't buy never any Valve games (maybe try them as unofficial version), because they can't fix these kind of bugs which even don't let you play that game. I have never played any other game with such a bug. :sniper: Valve sux hard, and I have never been so frustrated, because I waited this game so long time, even bought a new computer because of this game and only problem is that I can't play my favorite game. There is no hope to get it fixed, because Valve won't do anything. :angry:
 
doomed - uk said:
Hey, according to Valve, we don't buy the game, we buy "a license to play it" so I don't see a whole lot of problem in people using pirated versions of something for which they already own the "license to play".
Click to expand...

Actually, almost all software you "buy" is sold in this way. You don't own the program, you own a non-transferable license. By installing the prgram on your machine, you may be implicitly accepting the terms of that license.

As for running the cracked version of the program when you've bought it, I can't vouch for the legality of it, but it seems as though Valve wouldn;t care so long as you actually bought a license.
 
hi this is my first post and im watching this thread for a long time.
i have the ***** audio stuttering, too and the patch did NOTHING. i have already tried nearly everything, but it didnt help.
when i start a game and open the console there is something like
"... ambience/wind1.wav was not found in your ... folder"
if i make stereo instead of 5.1 sound, there is no stuttering.

p4 3 ghz
radeon 9800 pro
5.1 soundsystem
1 gb ram
creative sb live series
newest graphic driver (catalyst 4.11)
 
Jonny_Hermit said:
There's a simple way to turn it off - disable the newly added cvar. All the patch did was add a new cvar The mat_forcetextureintohardware 1. Set it to 0 to change it back to normal. Works for me. Before, I got stuttering, but the game ran fine when it wasn't stuttering (40-60 FPS). After the patch, not only does the stuttering get worse, my overall FPS drops to around 20-30. Changing back to 0 turned it off again.
Click to expand...

Anyone think its strange that my config does not include this new command in the config. Its not there so should i add it and if should be there why is it not there?
 
rd_syringe said:
So, last night I installed the patch.

The stuttering got worse, and all the audio was now scratchy and poppy. I was very annoyed.

An hour later, I decided to run the game again. On a whim, I checked the Steam launch options--I had all those console tweaks set! I removed all of them, and reran the game. Guess what?

My stuttering problem is 95% gone, with the remaining being the occasional brief pause during an autosave or entering a large new area (I also assume the NVidia bug is affecting a few things, but I don't notice). The framerate is now much smoother. The game is completely playable now and I'm finally going to beat it.

I know it's annoying when people post "solutions" that don't work, but just to make sure anyway, check and see that you don't have any of those tweaks set. I removed them, and the patch suddenly took affect.
Click to expand...

Be more specific please, what exactly did you do? All i have in launch options is the heapsize command which is set to half my RAM. Where can i see what other commands i have in there or are you talking about the config file?
 
pLzBeNiCe said:
hi this is my first post and im watching this thread for a long time.
i have the ***** audio stuttering, too and the patch did NOTHING. i have already tried nearly everything, but it didnt help.
when i start a game and open the console there is something like
"... ambience/wind1.wav was not found in your ... folder"
if i make stereo instead of 5.1 sound, there is no stuttering.

p4 3 ghz
radeon 9800 pro
5.1 soundsystem
1 gb ram
creative sb live series
newest graphic driver (catalyst 4.11)
Click to expand...


I Change to Stereo via config file or option within hl2?
 
Flyingbig said:
Be more specific please, what exactly did you do? All i have in launch options is the heapsize command which is set to half my RAM. Where can i see what other commands i have in there or are you talking about the config file?
Click to expand...

I didn't use the config file; I only ever used Launch Options. I just used heapsize, sv_forcepreload, cl_smooth, snd_mix_ahead, etc. etc. Basically all the tweaks that have been posted. I removed them and the game suddenly worked.
 
rd_syringe said:
I didn't use the config file; I only ever used Launch Options. I just used heapsize, sv_forcepreload, cl_smooth, snd_mix_ahead, etc. etc. Basically all the tweaks that have been posted. I removed them and the game suddenly worked.
Click to expand...

Some of the stories on this forum crack me up, either this dude is the luckiest guy in the world or the stupidest, i'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say hes one lucky mofo. Out of interest buddy, how much RAM you got and whats your Virtual Memory set to? Cheers.
 
would someone do us all a HUGE favor and compile this HEAP OF CRAP THREAD into something we can all use?:cheese:
please I have no idea and Im not sifting thru all this crap anymore, please PLEASE make a page and link to it!
one that has ALL these solutions, how to implement them (ie. console? cfg file!? change my pc to mac?!) and maybe a listing of the side effects of all these settings...in a nice simple list?

THANKS! :thumbs:
 
New Bug Found!

My experience with HL2 reminds me of the good old DOS days, when I would spend hours tweaking my system to get games like Ultima 7 to run. I’ve tried every conceivable tweak (and combination of tweaks) with HL2 and here are my conclusions:

After installing HL2, and after automatic Steam updates that you may not be aware of with a broadband connection, your hard disk MUST be defragged. This may be why many complain about worse performance after the patch.

The stuttering patch helps significantly on my system, but there is still stuttering when new sounds load. Stuttering cause by autosaving is reduced, but not eliminated, so I recommend setting your autosave files to read-only to eliminate this problem. This patch is really targeted for ATI users, and the nVidia patch is still being worked on… So when you complain about the patch in these forums, please state which camp you belong to.

NEW BUG – I have discovered that the patch creates a new bug that results in frame rate drops of up to 30 fps. I have found only 2 solutions to this… Disable the new tweak (mat_forcemanagedtextureintohardware 0) or drop the texture detail down to medium.

To see this bug for yourself, follow these steps:
Turn on the frame rate counter (cl_showfps 2) and start a new game. Follow your fellow passengers into the train station until they stop and begin talking about Dr. Breen. Stand behind them, looking down the chain-link fence, record your frame rate (I get 59fps), and save the game. Load a different level from a previous save. Now reload the last save point, and notice the reduced fps (I get 33fps). Reload the last save point again, and your frame rate has returned to normal.

SOUND CACHE – Type snd_memasync in the console to see the currently cached sounds. Check it before and after a hiccup occurs and you’ll see that new sounds have loaded. This seems to confirm what others have said about the stuttering, at least in part, being caused by the sound system. You’ll notice that only 16MB is allocated for the sound cache, which is ridiculously low… and I haven’t found any way to increase it. I would wager that increasing it to 64MB, along with the current patch, would eliminate 99% of the stuttering… at least for me. Valve, if you’re reading this, please provide a cvar to set the sound data cache.

Misc tweaks that I’ve tried:

-heapsize – Doubling the default heap of 64MB is a good idea, but I’ve tried settings up to 700MB without any improvements… in fact, settings above 512MB can actually degrade performance by forcing your computer to use the virtual memory swap file. I would recommend ¼ of your system memory (-heapsize 262144 with 1GB ram).

cl_forcepreload and sv_forcepreload set to 1 with no noticeable improvement. Nevertheless, preloading is never a bad idea, especially with the increased heapsize.

cl_smooth – useless. Set to default.

snd_mixahead - useless. Set to default (0.1).

mat_trilinear set to 1 – No improvement.

Vsync – It should be enabled (mat_vsync 1) - For those of you who say that you don’t need no stink’n vsync… go into the train station at the beginning of the game… Look straight up at the ceiling windows, remove your hand from the mouse, and use your strafe keys to slide from side to side. The visual tearing is very pronounced, at least on a CRT monitor.

fps_max – It defaults to 300, which seemed overkill. Setting it below your monitor’s vertical refresh rate will noticeably degrade performance. To my surprise, leaving it at 300 does not significantly increase CPU load, and the gameplay seems smoother… so leave it alone.

AGP Aperture – I’ve tried 64/128/256MB with no noticeable difference. 128MB seems like a good choice.

WinXP Virtual Memory – I’ve tried None/256/512/1500MB with no improvement. Some recommend a permanent swap file of 1.5x your physical memory… this is absurd, especially for systems with 1GB or more of ram. Remember, the more data being swapped to your hard disk, the worse your performance… and there are some poorly designed games that allocate as much memory as Windows will give them, and you can imagine the result. I have my swapfile set to 512MB and have never run into any problems.

Below are my system specs and game settings:
P4 3.3GHz, Asus P4C800-D, 1GB Corsair 3500C2, ATI x800XT-PE w/256MB & Cat 4.12b, Audigy 2 Platinum, dual Western Digital 120GB/8MB drives in RAID 0 config, WinXP Pro w/SP2.
1280x1024 @ 100Hz, 4xAA, 8xAF, Maximum Model, Texture, Shader & Shadow Detail. Reflect World, Vsync Enabled.
 
ya ya, but I, we all, whoever! needs a nice html page with a list of all the tweaks and how or where to use them?!

thanks!
 
When i load up CS:S now there is tons of static sound and poping. Ive never had this kind of problemw ith any other game. Valve needs to learn how to code audio stuff.
 
They officially acknowledged it, and more than likely, there are code monkeys cracking away at it this very moment. Half-Life 2 is their second child...more experience in producing one, and also the foreknowledge to take very good care of it.

Okay, imagine this: they open right up, admit some sort of engine problem, and say it will take at least a month. But if they opened right up, what would happen? BAD PUBLICITY.

Trust me, Vivendi is making them shut their mouths so Half-Life 2 will still sell high in these opening weeks.

Vivendi, it's all them.

Valve may be quiet, but they are not disloyal.

Take Care.
 
~Speed_Demon~ said:
They officially acknowledged it, and more than likely, there are code monkeys cracking away at it this very moment.
Click to expand...
Either that or their stuffing their faces with thanks giving turkey!
 
There is a site which focuses solely on this stutter problem, and gets pretty fresh news about it too. http://www.blep.net/hl2stutter/

Even though I don't agree with the site's admin about the texture management being the sole reason for the audio stutters (as for the patch, one new single line of command won't fix the audio problem), but more likely the stutter being caused by the bad coded and/or outdated miles sound system. Or atleast the miles is part of the problem and in conjunction with way the game loads things during gameplay, the result is sound stutter. If valve could add a "use direct sound" option in the menu or at least replace the miles system with something else, it would most likely fix this. Or something like this is my wobbly theory.

This miles issue has been brought up on the steam forums already. Try to find it on the huge thread there if u want to read more bout it.
 
antidootti said:
... Try to find it on the huge thread there if u want to read more bout it.
Click to expand...

Yes please post the URL to this thread. I would be pleased to read more about it.

cu
Gargi
 
While browsing, found some sites/forums which had some stuff about the miles sound system.. here's one link to a non-hl2 related thread at rage3d.com, titled "Card Crash? Stutter? bad performance? The first look thread". http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33664557&page=6. On the page, search for "miles" and you'll find this.

"...I also noticed something interesting. All the software that has the really bad stuttering issues uses the Miles Soundsystem engine so it could be related to that."

Just a small observation while surfing around.. Also found something bout i-war the game being stuttering and it using miles audio. Just like the IGI2 and GTA3.
 
Not sure if everyone is getting the same sound stutter problem . there seams to be more than 1 type of stutter problem.

does enemy territory have miles soundsystem. As that game also has a sound stutter for me sometimes which repeats and crashes out to send error report to microsoft
 
That is true also, but I think the majority of us stutterers have this miles affected problem. Can't be sure of course though.

As for as that ET, try searching for a file called Mss32.dll in your ET folders, since that is the miles sound system dll.
 
Yeah I downloaded ffdshow and can't get it to do anything.
Theres no user interface at all.
I think I'll just forget about it and play it with the stutters.
 
quinnd6 said:
Yeah I downloaded ffdshow and can't get it to do anything.
Theres no user interface at all.
I think I'll just forget about it and play it with the stutters.
Click to expand...

No, I won't capitulate ;)

cu
Gargi
 
Yeah, i've tried the disabling ffdshow thing. Couldn't see how it would help, and that's what it did, didn't help.
 
I don't think this is anything to do with the sound anyway. Sure the sound stutters seemingly as it's accessed but so does everything else! Use the '+showbudget' command in the console. Now play the game with this running. You will see a sharp spike whenever any kind of content (Sound, Textures, events) is loaded into RAM. no hang about in one area until everything is loaded. Still get spikes? No. Now move into another area & watch what happens when then engine starts loading shit up again!

There's something fundamentally flawed with the way the Source engine is handling data. The reason's some experience this & others don't is a mystery but it seems likely it's down to the way individual systems handle data & nothing to do with actual specs. So for example if you have a high specced machine but the configuration is not 100% efficient at moving data around then it's likely you'll suffer this problem (Indeed, People with mammoth systems are experiencing these problems). On the other hand you could have a low-end system that is extremely efficient at moving data around. On such a system, with reasonable settings in the video options, your game should run smoothly.

It could also be the case that raw power can overcome any deficiencies in your system so that you may have this problem but it's barely noticable. I would like to get someone who can run this game without problems to do so with the +showbudget tool activated. It would be interesting to see if they are getting any spikes no matter how small as data is loaded.

This idea was put forward by someone on the Steam forums & it seems to give 1 likely explanation as to what might be going on. Basically there may be just to much data being moved around in a non-efficient manor for many systems to handle smoothly.
 
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