there is no sound

[BaldDuck]

after i downloaded the game i realised there was no sound. then i thought buying the soundtrack might help but it didn't. can someone help me with this problem?

[Spider]

Sorry you are having trouble. Yes, you should not need to buy the sound track to get sound working in the game. It is not connected to the problem. :(

Are you still having the trouble with sound in Webbed?

There is an important quick note in bold below.

I'm just another player but I have a few questions that may help or that may help others if anyone else runs into he same issues in the future since details may help them or the devs. I haven't recently had issues with sound for Webbed but i have not tested it on Windows recently, but i can do that later. Unless others also suddenly have the same problem then it is probably specific to your system some way. If it is an incompatibility then the goal would be to find out what might be different while trying to fix it.

There are some common questions below that may help or could help he developers/others in the future. Someone you know might also be able to better help you more quickly though. I apologize if some are obvious or already checked, but it can help to be sure as sometimes we overlook things for to long without realizing.

First the game menu and intro might be quiet and only have some bird and environment noises, so it may be good to start playing a few minutes just to be sure if you haven't yet. Also, its important to know at times after you start playing, if you stop moving or pressing buttons then any background music slowly gets quieter and stops; it might only start again for a bit when you start moving or pressing buttons again. Little tunes here and there. it has been a while since i played and this system has no free save slots to test the intro scenes, but i could verify later if needed.

So if you hear sound effects and birds and insect noises in the background and get some music when moving around sometimes then it is probably working as expected. But you haven't, double check the sound setting in game to be sure one isn't off/low. Otherwise:

1. Are you playing on Windows 10? Or if not, what OS and version? A Steamdeck or a linux version?
   
2. Are you streaming it with Steam Remote Play or a cloud gaming thing to another system or to a steam link device?
   
3. Do you hear any sound effects if you play the beginning of the game, but no music or is it indeed no sound at all? Did it ever work for a short time but then stopped working?
   
4. Can you hear any other sound from the computer? Other applications like on youtube or playing the soundtrack you bought for Webbed using steam or a music player?
   • maybe the output switched to headphones or hdmi or another device or output.
   • maybe if you connected a game controller the sound automatically switched to the tiny headphone jack. this happens to me on some of my systems and i always forget and get confused for a while, but then change in back in the computer sound settings outside the game.
   • maybe your computer sound settings audio mixer will show the noise level bouncing around on the wrong output when playing the game with the Graphics "windowed" mode setting (not fullscreen)?
5. It can be good to check the settings in the game too, in case the volume somehow started off for music or sound effect level, or is really low.
   
6. There is a way to verify Steam downloaded he game correctly. It probably is ok but you could check that. If you need the steps I can find a link later and update the comments here.
   
7. If you have any OS updates that need to be done then doing that and or restarting the system may help if there its a temporary problem.

If you hear sound effects but no music (when moving) and checked the game sound settings already, you could move some and hear music for a bit then stop moving for a while, then it fades as expected. If you go set just all music in game to off (but leave effects on) then you may notice the music when moving went away, and if it behaves like that I think it is probably working for you. Be sure to turn it up again though. :) maybe just gotta dance and move to groove (i hope!)

For general/others reference:

• Master volume: raise or lower everything, makes sure it is up some pleasant amount if you want any sounds at all. (maybe all the way if trouble shooting)
  
• SFX (sound effects): shooting laser/webs, other events.
  
• Ambiance: soothing outdoor birds and bug chirping.
  
• Music: songs when moving etc
  
• Web Music: like strumming sounds when your little leggies walk along the webbies.

I may have other questions/thoughts that are more specific but it may depend on what Operating System and version. Probably it will be too general and need to narrow down more but if you have problems with a steamdeck or specific linux version i could try to test it on my side for you and then maybe make other suggestions. Though someone from that specific linux community might be more familiar with current issues and i may not have the same hardware/configuration. I have a few ideas with Windows troubleshooting but for deeper and specific things, sound for a specific game may be out of my power user, reversing, debugging, experience areas on windows unless the issue is right in front of me to observe. but there are some simpler things above that can be tried with more specific steps.

I hope it is just a forgotten device like Playstation controller or wireless head phones or in game settings that are strangely sudden at the low setting. I'd try the above things and mention the details and then I or someone else may have some thoughts or links with a bit more details depending on how familiar you or someone you know is with checking some of the above things to confirm here. If it still has issues then even more specific details or anything unique like non english os version or computer model might help others confirm if it is working or more suggestions.

[Spider]

Also, as a short update - there could be another cause for no sound that depends on what computer and sound card you have. (There may be an issue with the intel graphics/sound driver behavior on Windows and game maker games like Webbed, especially when sound is sent over hdmi/video cables).

As a quick test, try starting the game, then go to the Settings in game and the Graphics tab and disable the "Full Screen" option so that the next time the game is started it will be a window. Then exit the game completely. Then get your audio setup the way you need it in the OS so other games/youtube is playing on audio on the device you plan to hear webbed on. Then start webbed again and see if you can hear sounds if you load your game and start to move around.

The important part is that webbed game audio can not change to a new device while it is running. If you have it playing audio over computer speakers and then plug in headphone and try to switch it to headphones it might not work. Other applications may switch but webbed will not when this type of issue occurs. If you start webbed on headphones and then unplug them then it also may not switch to speakers. It depends on the type of headphones and situation. If could be worse with intel graphics behavior, because when the game switches the monitor to full screen mode when its tarts it my change resolution and the intel graphics behavior might switch on then off the audio associated with an hdmi tv or similar. At that point the audio device may have temporarily gone away and because webbed has problems switching audio devices this can lead to broken audio. That is also why testing without full screen is worth trying.

If that does not help then the details from the other comment may help clarify possible problems or help the developers or others determine if your issue could be similar or possible to reproduce.

[Chuck]

Originally posted by Spider:

As a quick test, try starting the game, then go to the Settings in game and the Graphics tab and disable the "Full Screen" option so that the next time the game is started it will be a window. Then exit the game completely. Then get your audio setup the way you need it in the OS so other games/youtube is playing on audio on the device you plan to hear webbed on. Then start webbed again and see if you can hear sounds if you load your game and start to move around.

I have windows 10 and I tried this, the moment open webbed the youtube audio stops (whilist the video keeps playing) and the game stays silent still.

[Chuck]

update: good news it's not webbed's issue, bad news it's steam's issue

[Spider]

Hi Chuck! I'm not sure how but I missed the notification on the reply for this, but I've been very busy so it may have just been me missing it.

Thank you for following up!

Originally posted by Chuck:

Originally posted by Spider:

As a quick test, try starting the game, then go to the Settings in game and the Graphics tab and disable the "Full Screen" option so that the next time the game is started it will be a window. Then exit the game completely. Then get your audio setup the way you need it in the OS so other games/youtube is playing on audio on the device you plan to hear webbed on. Then start webbed again and see if you can hear sounds if you load your game and start to move around.

I have windows 10 and I tried this, the moment open webbed the youtube audio stops (whilist the video keeps playing) and the game stays silent still.

With just the above initial comment I wondered if Windows 10 is swapping sources/outputs around for some reason and if that can be seen in things like volume mixer or some equivalent sound settings before the problem happens and then seeing how it changes after the problem happens. (I'm not sure if it could be a "feature" or a bug, or a bug in a feature.) But it could also be something like Webbed/steam is taking over an audio device in a way that breaks other applications using it. (The linux world has fun with sharing audio devices as well.) I'm starting to remember the low level windows sound subsystem debugging tool bits I was looking at when the original poster here brought this up last year, or when the original person brought something similar up about the Intel Graphics card and HDMI TV. (just looking to see if some of that could help expose the type of problem)

Originally posted by Chuck:

update: good news it's not webbed's issue, bad news it's steam's issue

nooo~ I'm guessing it's happening for other games for you as well? Or you found a specific bug/discussion about this being specific to steam?

I say this without the full context of the new details you've found - but the other thought on that is to test by launching Webbed without having ever started the steam client

• (by starting it from it's desktop shortcut if you created one, (edit: actually, I'm not sure if on Windows the game launches via steam.exe when using desktop shortcut, I think it does, I'll check later, so this method of launching without steam may not work as it'll call on steam, probably depending on what the shortcut has in it. So try the one below instead if trying this type of test.)
  
• or by finding the game by using the right-click option for properties on the game in the Steam Library and then finding the "Browse Local Files" or similar in the game specific settings (then closing out the steam client).
  
• (Not all games can launch without steam client, tough.)

It might change some of how it starts and maybe it will be have differently for the moment (to find out through trying things if it seems specific to launching from the steam client itself). You may have already gone through this type of testing or narrowed it down though.

Another side thought/example - There are also some steam specific api library file versions (or maybe it was the vulkan layer overlay bits) that exist (which I'd read in some versions have had memory leak/issue found; but I can't remember if specific to Linux or also an issue in Windows), where moving those aside (if the game can survive without it) or downgrading to an older version (if there are no compatibility/symbol mismatches etc, avoids that leak. I'd think it would probably not just manifest as sound issues if it was the memory issue I mention, but I mean to say that we/someone were to find that it is specific to a supporting steam library that the game loads itself (regardless of the steam client being involved) then it may or may not be possible to temporarily downgrade or upgrade that library to get around that if we know it is that specific library (or how it's used) that is at fault.

Just in general, if it could be specific to some sound card drivers etc then maybe it is worth doing some of those updates if there are drivers available for your graphics card (if using sound out of HDMI) or any sound card on the motherboard etc. (If it is a combination of a hardware driver or Windows 10 and not just Steam (but related to how Steam interacts with those.)

I may poke around some more too out of curiosity (now knowing the general OS version, but if you have found any other discussions or details about it then do link it here as well as I may be able to look into that and then if it comes to say a specific library version used by the client(or bundled with each game) and affects enough Windows 10 users etc we can probably make a case for the devs to make some changes. If it's not just something Steam/Valve needs to fix in the steam client itself. (Again, I don't have the details yet so I'm just listing out general possibilities/approaches.)

I hope you are able to get it sorted out (or find a reasonable workaround) if you are still having the issue. If you have any other thoughts or get stuck on the steam specific issue side or narrowing it down some more then feel free to mention anything here with other details or links etc. If it's something Steam plans to fix or can fix then I appreciate you and others pushing to figured that out and help to get it fixed for others. I'm not sure if I can reproduce the issue or help but can try to look into it to see.

---

Just a random example that may not be what is happening here but are in a similar symptom/behavior area regarding exclusive access to an audio device or "conflicting" applications (which could be steam client itself too, by chance I supposed). I figured I'd do a quick non-exhaustive search in case something came up quickly related to steam but I've not gone and looked at steam github issue trackers etc):

• Example form 2023 (Win11)[answers.microsoft.com] with someone having trouble with (potentially) some "Razer" related software. Link is mentioned as it has some general poking/troubleshooting/thoughts, which aren't too detailed but just showing an example.

  2. Razer Synapse and GeForce Experience Overlay: Razer Synapse and GeForce Experience Overlay can sometimes interfere with audio playback. Try temporarily disabling or quitting these applications to see if this fixes the problem.

  Sort of. When I pressed the play button in the game the static sound began. When I was listening to music and the game started the static that sounded like electricity began. I sort of fixed it when I deleted razer synapse but then I messed with the thx spacial audio settings and I turn it on while in a game and spotify and game music began to play. It works now in every game besides starcraft which still makes the sound when playing music.

---

This is not advanced debugging but I just wanted to show a quick example for others if checking which output device in Windows 10 is being used and if audio activity (green bar) is happening for which application and on what output device. It also shows how Webbed will stay on the original device it was outputting audio too (either one that audio can be heard on or not), so switching to headphones or something else afterwards won't lead to it switching over which may be confusing, nor from setting changes.

I started the game outside of steam from a 'cmd' command prompt (Win+R then typing 'cmd' in the box and then moving to that Webbed folder and running it as "webbed.exe -audiodebug" to enable some basic audio output in the game. That option is mainly meant to see what audio clips are playing or not etc for debugging the game; but - in the first image at the link[imgur.com] we can see when the audio device has been manually disabled in the settings after the game started it begins to just show all white audio clips building up in the list and not going away. It may or may not help someone wondering what the game is thinking at that time while testing. Steam was running but it was not logged in, the game was not launched through steam though.

Again, I'm not sure what specific steam issue there may be, so some of these extra thoughts may not be relevant. I just went to try to load my Windows 10 system for potential testing and wanted to show an example like that. That is what I mean regarding watching the volume mixer or other settings and also shows a few settings that were set by default for the audio devices (like the exclusive access ones) which may not be related but I wanted to mention them in case there is some conflict or to help anyone with issues try to see if they can narrow down the issue or avoid any confusion due to Webbed not switching audio output devices after it has started.