different sound problem: occlusion

[horus]

I was wondering if anyone else noticed a big problem with sound occlusion. Basically, when I am not facing the source of a sound, any sounds generated by that source are nearly silent.

If Alex is talking, I can only hear her if I face her. If I turn away, I can't hear her. I might be standing right next to her, mere inches away, or twenty feeet. Same result. Same for all the other people, goons, headcrabs, you name it. Environmental sounds seem to be the same thing. If the sound has a source, and I am not facing it, I can't hear it. This is really distracting. And as for the "cut scenes" being interactive, they are, but I can't turn away from the speaker, which kind of prevents me from trying to interact with the world.

I have the sound stuttering problem as well.

 

[Kornflake™]

Yeah I've noticed this and it bugs the hell out of me when I'm in a room with multiple people and keep having to swing my head around so I can hear what each person is saying, but keep missing the beginning of it!

Can't say I've noticed the problem with environmental sounds and things such as gunfire though, just speach.

 

[Sideswiped]

give us some more specs to work with. do you have 5.1 surround, 2.1, etc? what are your speaker settings under the options menu?

 

[Mountain Man]

I've not really noticed this. If anything, people's voices seem to carry unnaturally far, which is actually a good thing because you don't miss what they're saying.

 

[Varsity]

So far I've only noticed this at the very very end of the game.

 

[Alieni²]

I have had no problems...

 

[Vinnie_NL]

I noticed it too, but it didn't irritate me.

 

[jacen]

same problem here
sb live 5.1
2.0 speakers
headphones

allthough its not that heavy as horus described it, but its quite unnatural that the sound gets a little silent if u are turning your ears to the source

 

[horus]

win xp 2000 sp1
2.12 ghz AMD 64 2000
512 mem
ATI 9800 NP
onboard Realtek AC'97 Audio for VIA
logitech z-640 5.1 speakers
hardward accel is full, quality is best

 

[horus]

I have my my speakers configured to 5.1 surround. I also have
driver version 5.10.0.5740
directx 9.0b
audio controller VIA 3059
AC97 codec ALC655

I've tested the in game speaker setting and found the two speaker confiration (with 5.1 set in my windows control panel) gives me all the sounds in an appropriate manner. 7.1 and 5.1 have bad occlusion. 4 speaker setting gives me no sound. Haven't tried headphones.

Also as a note, defragging helps a bit with stuttering, and doing the other things recommended at tweakguides.com

 

[u18a12]

I've noticed the problem alot. Really annoying having to always face the person speaking. Otherwise the voice is totally gone. The voices only come out of the front and center channel speakers. My config is:

-Intel DP865PERL mb with onboard audio
-using SPDIF connection on motherboard to my Dolby Digital Receiver
- 5 speakers and 1 subwoofer
- 5.1 speaker setting in HL2 audio options

 

[Wildhound]

I have noticed this problem and it annoyed the hell out of me. It only happens with speech, nothing else.

I'm on 5.1 with an SB Audigy.

 

[SAJ]

I have a similar problem , but in my case the sound gets quiet when directly facing the source.
Moving the screen so that the source is at either edge works , but is incredibly annoying.

sb live , two speakers.