Voice Chat Problem Major Quality loss during gaming

[Sir Garlin]

I'm having issues with the new chat. The old one worked fine. The new one, whenever a game is playing I can't make out my friend's voice at all. I tried two differant headsets, changing output to my TV/speakers, chatting with differant firends, and multiple sound changes, nothing is fixing it. I don't think its a sound setting because it's not only my ability to hear but also the ability of the other person to hear me. So it's not just input, its also output hearing the low quality. I had ZERO issues with the old chat and have no other sound issues but this.

Obviously the new chat does something the old one didn't do to create this. I need help if someone else has a solution. I asked Steam and got diverted to the forums, where I recieved no help.... What is the point of help tickets? There is was virtually no troubleshooting questions or interest besides sending me articles that didn't fix it. Am I missing something (see below for interaction)? I'm willing to voice chat with a Steam rep/other person to show what the problem is. Once again its only when playing a game and my game output/chatoutput is not on the same output. I'm not conviced at all it's a "computer issue", but rather a client issue. Steam needs to recognize that.


This is how Steam responded to my "Help" Ticket# HT-7TNT-RKPM-755H:

Message from you on Dec 17 @ 7:16pm | 7 days ago

Ever since Steam went to the new voice client I've had various issues. People's voice changing, laggy stuttering voices some times, and other minor sound things.

But when I play certain games, most notably coop on Civilization 6, my steam chat with my brother is so bad I can't make out anything he is saying. If I Alt+Tab to the voice chat with the game still running in the back I can start to hear him again. Sometimes his voice will sound deep and gradually get squeakier till its normal. As soon as I Alt+Tab back to the game the quality is bad all I hear is static voice remnants of my brother's voice. I have disabling, changing sound settings, all kinds of things. Nothing is working.

Files attached: support_system_report.vdf minidumps_and_logs.zip


Message from Steam Support on Dec 18 @ 9:26am | 7 days ago

Hey there,

Thanks for taking the time to reach out to Steam Support. I'm sorry to hear that your voice communications are not working as intended.

Due to the variety of sound and hardware configurations, we are not able to provide direct support for various audio issues. Audio issues may be caused by faulty hardware (speakers, headphones), in-game audio settings, OS-level audio settings, and a number of other things that we can't identify or help solve remotely.

I recommend going to your audio input settings to ensure your configuration is correct and the correct device is being used for the computer.

This article has general troubleshooting advice for audio issues, but if you're not able to self-solve the problem we can only recommend asking for help from someone who has access to your machine to test possible fixes.

Steam Support
Franky

Message from you on Dec 18 @ 3:06pm | 7 days ago

This is not what I expected for a reply. I have already went through my settings many many times prior to contacting you. I don't have sound issues with anything else at all. I can use other chat clients and play games all day. The problem is ONLY with the new Steam chat client. The old one worked fine.

I'd like to see some actually troubleshooting to not only help me but to help Steam correct the issue with the client itself. The client needs improvement and if this how the responses are to these kinds of issues, no wonder its not being improved. I'm not trying to sound like an♥♥♥♥♥ however I reach out for help with a long time issue and get this back as a reply without even an attempt at making further inquiry to determine whether or not its even client issue. Put yourself in my frustrated shoes. If the issue was with other software, other than with the steam chat client, I'd agree with you. The problem is somehow embedded with the way the chat functions and so you guys should be interested in what causes this experience for players to either correct it or establish a solutions to others.

Message from Steam Support on Dec 20 @ 9:09am | 5 days ago
Hello,

I'm sorry to hear that you're still experiencing this issue with Steam Voice Chat.

Here is our article with all of the related troubleshooting and configuration steps:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2598-RTZB-6114

If you are still experiencing it after following those steps, please create a report in the official Steam Chat Discussions with a brief description, the steps that can be taken to reproduce it, as well as any other information that seems relevant.

You may also need to work with a local PC specialist in your area to help troubleshoot and isolate the underlying issue.

If you have an unrelated issue please reply here and I'll be happy to help.

Best Regards,
Anthony

[Lady Kiri]

Having this issue too. My friend can't hear me past the game I'm playing. And my game sounds are already turned down super low but they're still louder than me. No issues without the game.

[сотый 100]

)

[сотый 100]

Having this issue too. My friend can't hear me past the game I'm playing. And my game sounds are already turned down super low but they're still louder than me. No issues without the game

[CS.MONEY✵vlados-papados✵]

привет,свинья

[Sir Garlin]

Well I'm following their instructions and posting on the offical forum, so let's see if they reply and help us. From what I've seen on other post they don't reply to these, so why would they direct me to post here instead of completing my help ticket? Blow me off and not help? It looks like it to me, we'll see.

[Sir Garlin]

Well no help as I expected would happen. Quality customer service here *clap clap clap* Well Steam guess I use Skype to chat since you broke your client. Funny how ALL my other sound/voice works but your client, but it's my computer...yeah... If you ever get around to actually caring about fixing your broken client give me a buzz. I'm disgusted with this entire interaction.

[76561198798567882]

nice

[Set]

I've also been having an issue with the new chat client since the change, for me seems to only affect Civilization 6 because it's a high CPU use game. The Steam voice chat becomes choppy when it's not the window in focus, the Steam Client Bootstrapper takes up about 25% of the CPU and the game takes 75%. Though the game wants around 90% when it's in focus.

The last few months I've just alternated windows when actually talking but with the last expansion the problem has gotten worse. Personally, I'd like to see the option to use the old voice chat / friends list, as even though it had a delay, it used almost no resources in comparison.

It's likely though that I'll be upgrading my CPU before then, so for now I'm using a separate computer for voice chat. Not ideal to have 2 computers setup to play one game but it'll have to do.

Also, here are my specs, I know the CPU is on the lower end but it's a modern CPU so it's not like I'm running anything ancient.

Ryzen 3 2200G, quad core stock clock
16GB DDR4 2400Mhz RAM
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit
GT 1030, GDDR5 2GB (I have game on lowest settings, 1366 x 768, so there is no GPU bottleneck, it's all CPU)

[Set]

Well the two computer system didn't work out well either, the laptop has some audio issue.

Went back to using Windowed mode on my desktop and setting the steam processes to High in task manager, switching back to that window when I hit end turn.

[Set]

My friend and I have noticed last night and tonight that if we start the voice chat after we've already loaded in to our campaign, the voice chat seems a lot smoother than when we would start it before launching the game. Much more than anything else we've tried so far.

I have still been putting the Steam related processes on High priority as well but next time I'm going to try not changing the processes to see the difference. However, I feel changing the timing of starting the call is what is actually making the difference here.


EDIT: While still an improvement over calling first, there was still some choppiness when I didn't set Steam processes to High in the details tab.

Seems like for me at least, loading in to the game before calling and setting Steam processes to high solved the issue. Tonight we even went back to the main menu to find an auto save a few times and the call held up. So next test will be to try the call after we get to the Civ main menu instead of all the way in.

[Set]

So it seems for us this is the process.

I run my game in windowed mode (makes it easier to tab out), we both get to the main Civ 6 menu, then start voice call on Steam. Then open Task Manager, sort by CPU usage, pause update speed and set the all higher CPU usage Steam processes to High priority (I ignore the ones at the bottom), then put update speed back on normal. Then we load our campaign and chat works flawlessly as well as the game runs better.

[Sir Garlin]

Цитата допису Set:

So it seems for us this is the process.

I run my game in windowed mode (makes it easier to tab out), we both get to the main Civ 6 menu, then start voice call on Steam. Then open Task Manager, sort by CPU usage, pause update speed and set the all higher CPU usage Steam processes to High priority (I ignore the ones at the bottom), then put update speed back on normal. Then we load our campaign and chat works flawlessly as well as the game runs better.

Seems like quite the process. Glad you posted it for others trying to find a solution.

I've since built a new computer and don't have the issue right now. So whatever hardware, software, drivers etc.. that was causing the conflict isn't on my new computer. Never did figure it out since I got zero support from Valve.