Why does HL2 sound suck?

[Foebane]

I don't mean the sound effects, I mean the "engine" that plays them? Why is it so jerky? I hear people complaining about stuttering sound caused by Steam updates, too.

The thing is, I like to make audio CDs of game sound effects. Basically, I record the best audio sequences from games and put them in game order on a CD to create "battles" CDs. Don't think me odd, I just like to listen to such things. They tend to be better when there's more dialogue, too.

The way I record them is to use a software sound recorder like Goldwave, recording alongside the game as it plays. I had problems with all games in the past with SB cards causing stuttering, but since I got an nForce mobo with SoundStorm it's been a revelation. Also, I can understand that running two intensive applications that use sound at the same time could also cause stuttering, but I've had no problems with GFX demos and Doom 3 at all.

But HL2 has probably the worst sound playback of all games around... that I know of anyway. You may not notice the little repetitions due to memory caching and all that, but it really shows up when you want to capture realistic battle sounds, and the only way I can record such a scene properly is to preload it.

Anyway, enough of my rant. Just want to know why HL2 has an inferior sound engine to Doom 3.

 

[Sid Burn]

Hmm... I dont get any stuttering in HL2 concerning sounds. odd.

 

[subtlesnake]

I thought HL2's engine was running some sort of custom DSP system. Doom 3 doesn't have anything like that.

 

[NJspeed]

HL2's sound rocks! I don't think many people will agree with you about it sucking. I play in 5.1 and it's awesome! I've also got every music song burned on a cd.

 

[Foebane]

HL2's sound rocks! I don't think many people will agree with you about it sucking. I play in 5.1 and it's awesome! I've also got every music song burned on a cd.

NJspeed, I too LOVE the sound effects, music, dialogue - when it plays smoothly. That's all I'm saying, that I've got a stuttering problem, especially at the start of new maps. That's all.

 

[NJspeed]

You haven't heard? The sound stuttering is actually being caused by your graphics card. I had the same thing when I was using the Radeon Omega Drivers for my graphics card, but then I reinstalled windows and I used the regular ATI Catalyst driver. Now theres no stuttering. Do a search you should find tons of info about it.

Also find out how to increase your PCs virtual memory. This helped me when I originally had the problem.

 

[HadouKen24]

The engine doesn't suck. It's one of the best I've heard, actually. Except for the stuttering, it's extremely immersive. Distant gunshots sound like distant gunshots. You hear more or less reverb or echo depending on whether your in a big room, or a small room, or outside right by cliffs, or out in an open field, etc. It's all very subtle, but the overall effect is really excellent.

 

[pr0nking]

Try resetting your steam for updates? I dunno. My sound stuttered a bit then I got updates and it works fine. Try asking at steampowered.com sorry

 

[WhiteZero]

Everything is smooth for me.

 

[NJspeed]

I love the echo effects. On 5.1 whenever I'm in a closed in area, it really echoes like I'm there. At first I wasn't sure if it was right.. I was never used to it with regular stereo.. but now I realize it's designed to make you feel like your in the room. In fact all sounds echo depending on the room size, it's crazy. If someone talks in front of me, I hear their voice come from in front, then an echo from the rear, just like you would in real life, it's crazy.

5.1 is awesome.

 

[sharp]

I don't mean the sound effects, I mean the "engine" that plays them? Why is it so jerky? I hear people complaining about stuttering sound caused by Steam updates, too.

The thing is, I like to make audio CDs of game sound effects. Basically, I record the best audio sequences from games and put them in game order on a CD to create "battles" CDs. Don't think me odd, I just like to listen to such things. They tend to be better when there's more dialogue, too.

The way I record them is to use a software sound recorder like Goldwave, recording alongside the game as it plays. I had problems with all games in the past with SB cards causing stuttering, but since I got an nForce mobo with SoundStorm it's been a revelation. Also, I can understand that running two intensive applications that use sound at the same time could also cause stuttering, but I've had no problems with GFX demos and Doom 3 at all.

But HL2 has probably the worst sound playback of all games around... that I know of anyway. You may not notice the little repetitions due to memory caching and all that, but it really shows up when you want to capture realistic battle sounds, and the only way I can record such a scene properly is to preload it.

Anyway, enough of my rant. Just want to know why HL2 has an inferior sound engine to Doom 3.

What? Does your soundcard suck so much?

 

[Foebane]

Thank you all for your helpful advice, and I will investigate the possibility of ironing out my HL2 sound problems for the future, but it's too late for the SFX CDs I created. Well, they sound very good anyway as they are, even if they do stutter every now and then.

Oh well, pothing's nerfect.

Thanx again.

 

[Foebane]

What? Does your soundcard suck so much?

Sharp, I don't have a soundcard. The sound circuitry is built into the motherboard itself. It's a NVidia nForce2 chip with SoundStorm. Didn't you read my original post?

 

[Varsity]

These console commands should help:

sv_preload 1
cl_preload 1
mat_forcemanagedtextureintohardware 1

 

[Hectic Glenn]

If you want 'stutterless' sounds, then extract the source sounds from the .gcf with GCF scape and play them in WMP or Winamp or something, where they wont stutter at all. And you can make your 'sound battles'

 

[NJspeed]

You should be able to buy a new soundcard and disable the built in one. I'm sure theres a way. I've seen the card I have now going for 30 or 40 bucks in Best Buy, and I think its a great card.

 

[Kazin]

I suggest playing at what Half-Life 2 suggest running at. I found putting them at thouse levels removes all studdering within the game and its sound.

 

[Ahnteis]

The sound stutters because your computer can't keep up with everything going on. Turn your settings down and it won't stutter.

Yes, I KNOW you think your computer CAN run it at the level you have it currently. It's obvious it can't however BECAUSE YOUR SOUND STUTTERS.

 

[pr0nking]

The sound stutters because your computer can't keep up with everything going on. Turn your settings down and it won't stutter.

Yes, I KNOW you think your computer CAN run it at the level you have it currently. It's obvious it can't however BECAUSE YOUR SOUND STUTTERS.

Quoted for pwntness

 

[akula]

there is a problem with the sound. It should be higher priority so that the audio never stutters

 

[Ultimape]

*DYK* you soundcard isn't going to make the sounds stuttering any better or worse. Because the sound isn't rendered on the card, but pre-card on the processor.

The stuttering is a lag that happens when the sound is being loaded and processed. The same thing happens if you "spawn" something into the map that isn't loaded yet. Stutter AWAY!.

The patches aliviated many of the causes of this problem, but they might still be prevalent on a crappy computer, or one with weird specs.

 

[PvtRyan]

Just record a demo, play it and record a movie of it and there you have it, perfect 30 fps sound, no matter how much porn you're currently downloading, or heavy processes you're running. I honestly don't see the problem here.

 

[Sharrd]

I hear RAM is pretty cheap these days. *hinthint*

 

[Sid Burn]

HL2's sound rocks! I don't think many people will agree with you about it sucking. I play in 5.1 and it's awesome! I've also got every music song burned on a cd.

Nah I agree with you. HL2 sounds good on large speakers and surround sounds. I wish I can experience that also...

 

[Ashandaar]

Ok guys i hear you... So you can play Half-life 2 with 5.1 surround settings without problems?

Can you then tell me something about your setup? I've:

asus A7N8X-x as motherboard
Athlon 2800xp and 1024Mo RAM
geforce fx 5700 ultra (128Mb) as graphic card
sound blaster audigy LS as sound card
creative speakers 5.1
all latest drivers installed for all material

And the 5.1 surround is awfull. It's perfect in all other games, but in half-life 2, i'm forced to play with 2 speakers config. Creative doesn't seem to be ready to work on new drivers for the audigy LS, as the latest drivers have been out since march 10th 2004...

If someone can help me, i'll be eternaaaaly greatfull

 

[Dagobert]

The thing is, I like to make audio CDs of game sound effects. Basically, I record the best audio sequences from games and put them in game order on a CD to create "battles" CDs. Don't think me odd, I just like to listen to such things.

Weirdo.

 

[CREMATOR666]

Weirdo.

Quoted for emphasis.

 

[Mountain Man]

I thought HL2's engine was running some sort of custom DSP system. Doom 3 doesn't have anything like that.

Indeed. Doom 3's sound is flat as a pancake. Half-Life 2's sounds are wonderfully textured and dynamic. For instance, listen to how different an explosion sounds depending on its proximity to you.

 

[NJspeed]

Ok guys i hear you... So you can play Half-life 2 with 5.1 surround settings without problems?

Can you then tell me something about your setup? I've:

asus A7N8X-x as motherboard
Athlon 2800xp and 1024Mo RAM
geforce fx 5700 ultra (128Mb) as graphic card
sound blaster audigy LS as sound card
creative speakers 5.1
all latest drivers installed for all material

And the 5.1 surround is awfull. It's perfect in all other games, but in half-life 2, i'm forced to play with 2 speakers config. Creative doesn't seem to be ready to work on new drivers for the audigy LS, as the latest drivers have been out since march 10th 2004...

If someone can help me, i'll be eternaaaaly greatfull

Tell me a little bit more about your setup and maybe I can help. How is your sound wired? For example on my 5.1, I have it outputted via 3 minijack to RCA splitters (one front, one rear, one center and sub via crossover) that go to my home theater receiver. It sounds awesome. I originally only had one digital output going to the receiver and it didn't sound nearly as good as doing it with 3 outputs. The wierd thing is that the digital output should have sounded better, and it didn't.

 

[CriYam]

Recording "battle sounds" while playing using onboard sound....

When the doom3 community died you people had to go somewhere I guess.

 

[Foebane]

All I can say to you Creative users is, GET A LIFE!!

Creative SUCKS! I had a mobo on my old PC that didn't communicate very well with Creative cards in particular, thus I ended up with stuttering sounds ALL THE TIME! When I inadvertantly trashed my mobo by using a program called "KillCMOS", I took the chance of getting a new nForce2 mobo, with inbuilt sound.

Ever since then, my problems have gone away entirely.

OH, but don't stop me there! It seems the Creative Curse lends itself to all manner of hardware, too!

I bought a Creative Webcam back early last year, and it performed crappily on my old PC, and not only that, but it messed up my IDE channel drivers, which manifested itself mostly when I tried to play DVDs on my PC - the performance was choppy beyond belief. As soon as I got rid of the webcam and drivers and forced Windows to reinstall the drivers I was fine again.

I thought the problem had gone for good until I bought WinDVD earlier this year - then again my DVD playback was choppy.

Why? Cos the bloody software installed CREATIVE AUDIGY drivers when I didn't tell it to!!

All I can say is, DON'T TRUST CREATIVE! THEIR DRIVERS SUCK, THEIR HARDWARE SUCKS, AND YOU'RE BETTER OFF WITH THE INBUILT SOUND ON YOUR NFORCE2 MOBO!

Heed my words.

 

[Foebane]

Hey, for all you people calling me a "weirdo" for recording HL2 sound onto CD tracks, well, what can I say? Maybe I'm eccentric! :cheers:

 

[Spugmaster]

Hey, for all you people calling me a "weirdo" for recording HL2 sound onto CD tracks, well, what can I say? Maybe I'm eccentric! :cheers:

Are you rich - cause only rich people are eccentric. Everyone else is just weird...me included. But then, I don't record "battle sound CD's" so I guess you win.

 

[eatbugs]

how the hell does copying sounds onto a cd make you eccentric??

It makes you a deranged madman.

 

[MjM]

These console commands should help:

sv_preload 1
cl_preload 1
mat_forcemanagedtextureintohardware 1

I havnt tried the first two (which i will) but the mat_forcemanagedtextureintohardware 1 is a farce.

EDIT: Ok i just tried those commands in the console, the first 2, and they dont exist. ... ?