How to Disable Audio When Launching Games

[Magical E.T.]

Hi. I am trying to figure out how to get Steam to automatically prevent any game it launches from making sound. I have a sensory processing thingy and noise hurts my head.

But whenever I try to search for a fix to this problem, all I find are people who already HAVE no sound and are trying to get the sound BACK. It's very annoying.

Also they usually have Windows and I'm running Ubuntu.

Anyway, can this be done? Disabling the sound manually via the volume control mixer is time-consuming and also can't be done before the game's already been running for a couple seconds. I would rather not do that.

Here's hoping. *subscribed*

[Silicon Vampire]

Get a keyboard with audio controls and a mute button.

I did this long ago as it seems programmers have trouble honoring the game volume, everything is always full blast until the menu...

and on that note, you can usually find a start up parameter that will not display anything until the menu.... a lot of tijes it's a simple as "- nointro" on the "properties page/launch options".

[MoonC A T]

Get a keyboard with a mute button. Most have them and it's so fast.

[Magical E.T.]

I have one.
I don't want to mute EVERYTHING; just the game.

Hence my question: "Can Steam Do That?"

[MoonC A T]

Originally posted by Magical E.T.:

I have a sensory processing thingy and noise hurts my head.

Originally posted by Magical E.T.:

I don't want to mute EVERYTHING; just the game.

These two statements don't add up. Why is one source of sound more bothersome than another?

[Kargor]

No, Steam doesn't affect game sounds at all.

For Proton, you can probably disable sound there -- that would kill it for all Windows games that use it.

For native Linux games, I don't think the audio system knows whether the software is a game or not. So your best option is to just mute on startup, then turn all volumes to 0 in the game. However, SOME games still use "100%" on startup, and get the volume setting from the save file...

[Magical E.T.]

Originally posted by MoonCAT:

Originally posted by Magical E.T.:

I have a sensory processing thingy and noise hurts my head.

Originally posted by Magical E.T.:

I don't want to mute EVERYTHING; just the game.

These two statements don't add up. Why is one source of sound more bothersome than another?

I don't know. Why do you have a favorite color?
I'd just rather hear classical music and my e-mail notification than, say, chiptunes or gunshots.

Originally posted by Kargor:

No, Steam doesn't affect game sounds at all.

For Proton, you can probably disable sound there -- that would kill it for all Windows games that use it.

For native Linux games, I don't think the audio system knows whether the software is a game or not. So your best option is to just mute on startup, then turn all volumes to 0 in the game. However, SOME games still use "100%" on startup, and get the volume setting from the save file...

Thank you. I'll look into the Proton thing.
(I've tried the other thing already and that works.)