Possible help for sound stutter

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tomo13

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Try adding snd_async_fullyasync 1 into the console.

This does seem to smooth things out a bit but you may get sync faults in when 2 characters are talking to you(they might try and talk at the same time)

This came from a Valve programmer (locash) on another forum.

It might help until a patch is released.
 
That's interesting. It would at least suggest Valve are aware of this problem. Let's hope a patch comes out soon.
 
I use this at launch options, in steam hl2 properties:

-heapsize 256000 +cl_smooth 0 +sv_forcepreload 1 +cl_forcepreload 1 +snd_mixahead 0.4 -console

I have 512mb of ram, and doesnt solve the problem but helps a lot for me and other three friends, using high textures etc. Note you should set heapsize value about the half of your ram. Also note the console command avoids the 3d background menu, it's your option but the game startup much faster.

I'm gonna try snd_async_fullyasync 1, but I think its more a memory/cache problem than a sound system problem. Let's hope Valve will solve this soon.
 
Valve definately know of the problems.Locash was online well into the early hours of launch day with "several other guys still in the office" trying to sort out innitial problems.
Gabe has been on hlfallout since launch.
my bet is a patch will be out by early next week at the lattest.
 
tomo13 said:
Valve definately know of the problems. Locash was online well into the early hours of launch day with "several other guys still in the office" trying to sort out innitial problems.
Gabe has been on hlfallout since launch.
my bet is a patch will be out by early next week at the lattest.
Click to expand...
Well at least they are aware of this. That's cool. Let's hope they can sort it out ASAP.

Fingers crossed ....... Again! Wasn't we all doing this just a few days before the launch :LOL:
 
so does -console make the game open up to the console instead of the opening level? Does it do anything else that the checkbox in the options does not?
 
Gabe posted like once...on hlfallout the whole time.
 
Its completely retarded how they made the game reload every single sound effect each time a part of a level loads. Its making the game much less enjoyable than it could be.
 
someone test this for me, my theory is that if you have -console it makes the sound stutter worse, i think that this is why half the people seem to really have this problem. because half the people have console enabled. this is just a theory and it's probably wrong so plz don't flame me, just try it out and let me know what happens.
thanks...
 
dogboy73 said:
There's an interesting fix on Half Life fallout that suggests HL2's MP3 codec could be clashing with existing MP codecs on your system
Click to expand...
How is that even possible?
 
Tried it and it doesnt work. Which is unsurprising considering the 'solution' doesnt even make sense. As far as i can see the problem is simply the way that hl2 loads sounds.
 
didn't make sense to me either but I'm willing to try anything now.

Oh, And it didn't work for me either :-(

Back to the drawing board!

As far as i can see the problem is simply the way that hl2 loads sounds.
Click to expand...
I make you right there. When i disable my soundcard completely in device manager the stuttering stops! Interestingly The chracters lip syncing is switched off as well!
 
Ive had it with this. Im not playing again till they fix this annoying shit.
 
I e-mailed Gabe earlier & he replied saying Valve are 'drilling into the underlying issues'. they are aware of the problem & are working on ways to resolve it. Let's hope it doesn't take to long. I've been speeking to Yahn Brenier at Valve & giving him info about the problem. I also sent him a video showing my game running the 'Showbudget' tool that can be loaded from the in game console. From this you can easily see how things are spiking everytime there's a new sound played/loaded.
 
Thats good to here dogboy.

Lets hope they "drill" deep enough.
 
|_HeLL_| said:
I use this at launch options, in steam hl2 properties:

-heapsize 256000 +cl_smooth 0 +sv_forcepreload 1 +cl_forcepreload 1 +snd_mixahead 0.4 -console
Click to expand...

This all but eliminated stutter from my system. Thanks for the tip!

System:
AMD 3200 (2.2 Ghz)
1 Gb memory
ATI Radeon 9800 XT Pro 256 Mb
 
What I don't get is why I don't have those sound problems while playing CS:S ? CS:S sounds nice , while HL2 is all metallic and stuttering.
 
When you all say stutter, do you mean sound only? I get video stutter with the sound stutter.

My CS : S runs well considering my mediocre 9600 pro. It will slow down at times, such as when i look at the shiny bump mapped rock on the ground in aztec, but no sound / video stuttering other than that.
 
could someone answer me? i'm desperate for an answer..i want to play hl2 so bad buy this is annoything the shit out of me.

EDIT: Also, do I put this -heapsize 256000 +cl_smooth 0 +sv_forcepreload 1 +cl_forcepreload 1 +snd_mixahead 0.4 -console into the console or add it to the launch line in the icon?
 
Vigilante said:
could someone answer me? i'm desperate for an answer..i want to play hl2 so bad buy this is annoything the shit out of me.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you and thousands and thousands of others.

Its a bug, valve are 'looking into it', all we can do is wait.
 
Shadow-warrior said:
Yeah, you and thousands and thousands of others.

Its a bug, valve are 'looking into it', all we can do is wait.
Click to expand...
Not to sound like an ass, but that wasnt my question, what i want to know is if the video stutters with the sound like it does on my pc...anyone know?
 
The problem is with both the grpahics & sound. It would appear that it's caused by HL2 accessing files as you move through each area. What I find is that if you hang about in one are the problem goes away i.e. move around so the area is loaded into RAM. Go up to every chracter so you trigger that chracters audio content. Now just stay in that area. you will probably find that the problem doesn't occur once everything has been loaded into RAM.

You can see this illustrated if you go into the game console & run '+showbudget'. This brings up HL2's analytical tool & you can see various information displayed as well as frame rates. If you have the stutter problem you will notice 'spikes' in activity everytime a new sound or graphic element is loaded into RAM. This will be accompanied by a massive drop in frame rate for about 15-20 ms. I find that moving into an area with lots of new content that has to be loaded simply crashes the game all together!

Valve are looking into this now. They think it's a video driver issue so expect some news soon(ish) & then
hopefully a patch or fix.

BTW, There's a 49 page thread on the Steam forums with people complaining of this problem;
http://www.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=176237&perpage=15&pagenumber=49
 
I get sound and video stutter also. The sound echoes horribly and bounces off of everything but EAX is disabled so that makes no sense, I had to put the subtitles on so I know what the hell's going on, Soundblaster doesn't have any new drivers for my Audigy card and the assholes at Valve had 6 years to test this shit....Thanks alot.
 
Wazz said:
Soundblaster doesn't have any new drivers for my Audigy card and the assholes at Valve had 6 years to test this shit....Thanks alot.
Click to expand...
It's nothing to do with your video card or sound card drivers. The problem is the way HL2 is handling files.

And, Yes. you would have thought that Valve could have spotted this. If so many people are experiencing the problem then how could they not? (The 'Stuttering audio' thread on the Steam forums is now up to 50 pages of people complaining of the same problem). One theory being put forward is that the Steam unlocking procedure itself could somehow be effecting how HL2 handles files when playing. I don't know anything about this myself but it would explain how Valve managed to miss it completely. I gather that they didn't have to unlock the game via Steam themselves when testing?
 
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