Audio Problems with HL2

Status
Not open for further replies.
I did a potpurri of settings from this thread and others that helped me out somewhat, less stuttering infact. And the added bonus of the sound got better!

Here is what i did; Created a autoexec.cfg containing the string "cl_smooth 0" in the half-life 2\hl2\cfg folder.

Edited the snd_mixahead "0.1" and set it to 0.7 (!!!) 0.4 might be more preferable, i dont know if any setting above 0.4 is really doing anything.

Edited the launch option for hl2 in steam and set it to "-heapsize 256000" (without the quotes).

Removed old ffdshow filters from sourceforge.net and installed new ones (ffdshow-20041012-sse.exe for AMD athlon prosessors) http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ffdshow/ffdshow-20041012-sse.exe?download

It seems that some codec packs can interfere with the game, so i removed all trace of codec packs, even removed Lame mp3 codec just to be sure, and becides, ffdshow has all i need.

Im only speaking for me here... this improved the game somewhat and removed the worst stuttering! I have not done any extencive testing, but i tested once and removed heapsize and the autoexec and the stuttering was back.

Im going to play some more and see if the stuttering comes back.
 
This might be useful..

I thought it might be my HDD so installed a fresh windows on a 14gb 5000RPM spare HDD. I installed mobo, gfx, audigy, modem and firewall and then HL2. And it did the exact same thing in pritty much the exact same places.

This ought to mean that it's not related to any kind of codec conflictions coz I didn't install any additional ones. Also means it has little to do with windows settings or upgrades...
 
Guess what? ...i am hav.....ing the same prob.....lem as everyone else ;( but i tend to look on the brightside of life and it is a joy to see everyone one else experiencing my woes because let me tell ya if these problems were exclusive to me i don't know what i would have done.
To be honest the performance in Hl2 was no surprise to me because i was always very very sensitive to the way CS:Source coughed and spluttered for the first 30 secs of each new level and my worst fear was that Hl2 would suffer from the same problem and not only did it suffer but it took it to a whole new level of annoyance. In the end though i am glad that there is light at the end of the tunnel and eventually this problem will be sorted and i will wait till then before i become gordon freeman one more time and i can't bloody wait but it saddens me that the whole Cs:Source/HL2 first experience has been soured and that will never be rectified no matter what happens but at least the only way is up from here.

P.S. i am almost 100 percent certain some of the solutions on this forum have fixed at least 33 percent of my stuttering (Heapsize being the most effective)
 
I May Have Solved The Problem...

I went to the Miles Sound System website and downloaded the Miles System Tools. And it seems to of solved my problems with the sound skipping and the constant distorted clicking noises.

http://www.radgametools.com/mssdown.htm#Miles

Tell me if it works for you guys...
 
Again, I don't think this is a "sound" problem, but rather the stuttering sound is a symptom of the root cause.

I played last night with -nosound 1 added as an option (so no sounds AT ALL during game) and it was still locking up/stuttering in certain parts of the game.

It *could* be something with the loading of the sounds from the archive files, but I don't think it's specifically that.
 
hmmm

i used to have this prob in cs:s, then upgraded from 512 to 1 gig of ram

problem went away

still not there in cs:s but now i get hiccups in hl2
 
Strange that Valve hadn't experienced this in the extended testing period they had. I had some minor pops and wheezes at startup; thought they were intentional (Max Headroom sort of thing). Get some occasionally in the game but it's not bad enough to make me stop playing. I did have a system hang a little after the overrun station, where the fixed mg is. Last thing I knew I was getting sucked up by one of those things on the ceiling.
 
TheAngryBrain said:
I went to the Miles Sound System website and downloaded the Miles System Tools. And it seems to of solved my problems with the sound skipping and the constant distorted clicking noises.

http://www.radgametools.com/mssdown.htm#Miles

Tell me if it works for you guys...
Click to expand...


I am work so I cant try this. I need someone to give this a whirl!!! We need somthing that works for everyone!! please let us know if it works.
 
my solution

To those monitoring this thread, go to the main Steam & HL Support forum and you can read what I had to do to finally get rid of the game and sound studdering so that I could play.
 
danceej said:
Im not bitter at all, just unhappy a bug of this SIZE slipped the quality assurance tests.
Click to expand...


Doesn't anybody realize? We are the quality assurance phase.:stare:

Its tough, but I'm going to stop playing and start bitching until they fix this - I can play but don't see why, as a loyal paying customer I should have a sub-standard experience when my system is way above the min spec.

I'm flabbergasted as to how this has even occcured - a ****ing five year development cycle and the sound is broken ?

Slightly irrelevant, but I recommend reading this article

http://www.somethingawful.com/
 
why didnt you just post it here? your post says nothing this one doesn't.

and people will benefit from this thread as they wont just instantly make a new thread of their own like you have!

a mod should delete / merge your thread dude!
 
ElAguila said:
To those monitoring this thread, go to the main Steam & HL Support forum and you can read what I had to do to finally get rid of the game and sound studdering so that I could play.
Click to expand...

Um, yeah, it's basically exactly what I said I did a few posts back. It helped, but wasn't a 100% fix for me.
 
Problem is, the steam forums are experiencing heavy traffic and a lot of us can't access them. Could you post your solution here?

Thanks.

I, too, have been having this sound stutters, and I've tried every fix that has been suggested without any luck. I've tried both my Audigy Gamer and my onboard AC 97 card without any luck.
 
Did anyone else just get a "validating half life 2 files" thing over steam?

Weird.
 
this is what I posted

I finally got mine working. This is what I did so hopefully it will help others. In the config.cfg I set the following settings:
snd_mixahead "0.4"
sv_forcepreload "1"
cl_forcepreload "1"

I created an autoexec.cfg and put this line in it:
cl_smooth "0"

I went to the launch options for HL2 and put this in:
-heapsize 384000

Next I went to my video card settings in the windows control panel. I changed all of the 3d settings to not be application preference and then set the aa and af to 2x. Since I have an ati card I also changed the Texture and Mipmap Detail Level settings to the second mark which is performance.

In the game settings I changed the audio to medium and the video from trilinear to bilinear. After doing all of this I get no stutter from the sound or the gameplay. I have been in several battles with things going and it works. The graphics are still good. I hope this helps someone else.
 
Same problem here. I was looking at the console and it says something about "initializing renderer". and "could not load userconfig.config.ini the file is read only." maybe this has something to do with it.
 
Guys.. don't over-react and start butchering the game's graphics. I had the same stuttering in the beginning, but it's long gone now.

The single most important thing you can do after installing a large game is defrag your hard drive. I recommend PerfectDisk because it's the only defragger that can account for XP's layout.ini which defines startup files that should be placed together. If you use another defragger, XP will re-arrange the files as soon as you finish defragging, and mess everything up again.

In the console, use the command cl_smooth 0. The default is 1. This should help alleviate any stutter.

Don't start turning down graphic settings, because that is NOT the answer here. My system is nowhere near top of the line, and I run with MAX settings, 4xAA, 4xAF+trilinear, and get a steady 40-100fps.

My setup:

AthlonXP @ 2.1Ghz (400mhz fsb)
512mb ddr ram @ 400mhz
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe 2.0 mobo (nForce2 400-based)
Radeon 9500 (dx9)
regular ata-100 hard drives
XP SP2

To the guy with the nForce2 mobo who is using a Live! 5.1 instead... are you on crack? That's like having a Ferrari parked in your garage and driving a moped instead. The SoundStorm is one of the best consumer-grade sound solutions available on the market. Your Live! is wasting resources and bandwidth to provide inferior sound.
 
yes i've got the same problem as everyone else, and yes my rig is top notch...i just wanted to tell the ppl who have stoppped playing the game that the stuttering actually lessens the more u go into the game....after tweaking it only really stutters around the save points but if i go back into the start of the game - the bit where u first get a gun - it starts stuttering like mad...so memory leak there - i don;t know...

what i do know is that in retrospect i don't like how valve only allowed this game to be reviewed on their pc in seattle....did they already know of this problem - did vivendi? This game problem is too intrinsic for them to claim innoncence -

d
 
Yeah right. 8)
Defragmenting will solve all the problems here.
Nobody has ever tried this one...

...unbelievable. XD
 
with all respect Sticktron, you dont know what you're talking about. You are suggesting the stuttering goes away further into the game, which isn't true.

You are also suggesting cl_smooth 0 will work, well it doesn't.

You are also suggesting that every single one of the thousands of people haven't thinked to defreg their machine... well, you're wrong.

You post doesn't help. Please don't bother posting information suggesting how you think it may be fixed without reading the whole of this thread.

You just look like a moron. Oh and one last thing, some people have had the problem go away with turning the graphics setting down, so who the hell are you to tell people not to do it?

This was your first post, and i hope your last.
 
bump..

TO VALVE - PLEASE COULD YOU SAY SOMETHING TO THE PEOPLE THAT JUST MADE YOU MILLIONAIRES?
 
I've just emailed Gabe at Valve about this and pointed him to this thread.
 
All those tips do help a bit and my computer has never booted so fast before cause of the defragmenting :) But i stop playing now till there is a patch. The game is to beautifull to play it with any stuttering.
 
Pippinator said:
bump..

TO VALVE - PLEASE COULD YOU SAY SOMETHING TO THE PEOPLE THAT JUST MADE YOU MILLIONAIRES?
Click to expand...


Rick Ellis Rick Ellis is offline
Valve Software
Senior Engineering Lead

This person posted in this thread more than once. I think this means that they are aware of the problem.
 
turner_brown said:
Rick Ellis Rick Ellis is offline
Valve Software
Senior Engineering Lead

This person posted in this thread more than once. I think this means that they are aware of the problem.
Click to expand...

Yeah, he posted... about 36 hours ago.
 
Beanhacker said:
Doesn't anybody realize? We are the quality assurance phase.:stare:

Its tough, but I'm going to stop playing and start bitching until they fix this - I can play but don't see why, as a loyal paying customer I should have a sub-standard experience when my system is way above the min spec.

I'm flabbergasted as to how this has even occcured - a ****ing five year development cycle and the sound is broken ?

Slightly irrelevant, but I recommend reading this article

http://www.somethingawful.com/
Click to expand...


No edit facility so, for the record my system is this, and the things I've tried are:

WinXP pro SP2
P4 3.0G
Intel 875pbz
1 gig ram
120G seagate barracuda SATA gamedrive
ATI Radeon 9600pro
EMU 1820M, M-audio Delta44, Terratec PCI128 (£10 POS but works on every other game I own) Soundcards


snd_mixahead 0.xxxx
cl_forcepreload "1"
sv_forcepreload "1"
cl_smooth "0"
buggering about with video settings
buggering about with DX sound settings
kicking crap out of my keyboard
 
Ok. I've been playing the game for a few minutes to try to get a feel for this problem, and basically what I've noticed is that it appears to be much more than just a sound issue. The sound skipping is simply the most noticeable aspect of it. What I find is that during each skip or pause, the entire game engine seems to be affected. that is, the animations etc. If you happen to be looking around with the mouse during one of the skips, it hangs up too. So, the sound skipping may just be a symptom of a larger problem. I've also noticed that even when there are no sounds (other than some unchanging ambient background noise) the skips occur periodically. The next logical thing would be to disable sound entirely and see if the skipping continues. I'd be willing to bet that it does.
 
The next logical thing would be to disable sound entirely and see if the skipping continues. I'd be willing to bet that it does.
Click to expand...
No offence, but do people even read the previous pages before posting?

I'm not trying to provoke an argument but you're not first to say something that has already been said, and it is frustrating to constantly check back and find that no improvements have been made and it's just some person re-hashing something.

We know it's not just a sound issue and we know disabling the sound doesn't resolve the issue.

So can people please read the whole thread or at least a couple of pages back before posting the same thing yet again.
 
Wthrman:

Yes, it's not a sound issue. The sound acting up is a symptom of whatever the real problem is.

Adding -nosound 1 to the command line still has the game locking up/stuttering/freezing.
 
HI,

Yep Wthrman13 you're right.
I've noticed the same.

Also noticed that now and again sounds just disappear.
Eg. the toxic waste alarm sound just was gone all of a sudden.

Guess it would help if they would let us unpack the sounds to our local disk, instead of having the game unpack sounds during gameplay.

I tested most of the solutions given on this forum, but my sound still stutters.

What a shame.
Greetings.
 
Just adding myself to the long long long list of people who have this problem, tried everything...

results = bugger all

Please valve firstly admit the problem and keep us informed of he progress.....

Thanks

Athlon xp 2200
Radeon 9600 Pro
1GB ram
80 gb 7200 HD

ALL other games work fine (also been in many clans for many years first time a prob with a game i cannot fix)
 
Valve - are you awake?

Valve's attitude to this sucks.

Nothing on the news page at steam (apart from a request to vote for the game - I don't think so!).

Nothing on the support FAQ's

Forum down (overloaded with complaints on this issue - over 40,000 views last time I looked).

What is Valve playing at?
 
efilflah said:
No offence, but do people even read the previous pages before posting?

I'm not trying to provoke an argument but you're not first to say something that has already been said, and it is frustrating to constantly check back and find that no improvements have been made and it's just some person re-hashing something.

We know it's not just a sound issue and we know disabling the sound doesn't resolve the issue.

So can people please read the whole thread or at least a couple of pages back before posting the same thing yet again.
Click to expand...

Hey man, relax. I've been following this thread since it started. I'm aware of all the issues. But, maybe you're right, maybe I shouldn't have posted. I just thought that if someone from Valve maybe saw enough posts to this effect, they would realize how widespread the issue is. Also, I decided I would just explain my own individual experience with the problem, rather than just assuming it was the same as everyone else's.
 
And another to the long list of sound stuttering problems. Hello?? Valve?? Anyone home? I see that they've stopped access to their forums now... nice.

Spces :

Athlon 64 3000+ @ 2.1Ghz
Radeon 9800 PRO (4.12 Beta Catalyst)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2
512MB DDR400
Raid1 80GB SATA Array
XP Pro
 
Gobuchul said:
Valve's attitude to this sucks.

Nothing on the news page at steam (apart from a request to vote for the game - I don't think so!).

Nothing on the support FAQ's

Forum down (overloaded with complaints on this issue - over 40,000 views last time I looked).

What is Valve playing at?
Click to expand...
Maybe they're too busy trying to fix some of these problems to post anything
 
To summerise this problem for those who are new to the thread.

The exact cause of the problem is unknown but its suspected to be the source engines method of caching sound files. Now, to clear up some confusion posted above.

The source engine works in the following way. The sounds and visuals of the game are kept in sync. This is there so things like character dialogue is in keeping with character lip syncing.

This means that if one one those two aspects (sound or visuals) lags behind, the engine holds back the other. Meaning that because the engine is struggling in the sound department in this problem, it is also holding back the visual department of the game too.

So in short, it appears to be a sound issue but not in the sense that playback is the cause. Its the way the engine appears to be handling the sound files that is the problem. The stuttering playback and stuttering visuals are simply a symptom of this problem but its just easier to call it an audio problem rather than sit and type out what I just have.

Hope that helps.
 
TheAngryBrain said:
I went to the Miles Sound System website and downloaded the Miles System Tools. And it seems to of solved my problems with the sound skipping and the constant distorted clicking noises.

http://www.radgametools.com/mssdown.htm#Miles

Tell me if it works for you guys...
Click to expand...
I think you mean the Miles System tools, and I think that this might have fixed the problem a little, but I really don't feel like doing tons of testing to figure out to what degree it fixed it because it still does it a little. I just hope that Valve can get to the bottom of this.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

MFL
Fascinating look at the ongoing psychological evolution of flat hieirarchies.
Replies
2
Views
2K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
B
From Warren Spector to Arkane Studios: Half-Life 2's cancelled Ravenholm episode
Replies
2
Views
10K
Clan Wolf 2
Clan Wolf 2
B
Marc Laidlaw releases Half-Life 2: Episode Three's plot
Replies
32
Views
39K
BabyHeadCrab
BabyHeadCrab
B
The other cancelled ports of Half-Life
Replies
3
Views
7K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
B
Gabe Newell's AMA summary (January 17, 2017)
Replies
1
Views
24K
Gerzowktz
Gerzowktz
Back
Top