Audio occasionally stop outputting midgame

[deanrih]

Dota 2 Audio output will occasionally stop outputting any audio mid match even though it is available and listed in the KDE Plasma Audio Applications Tab (listed as SDL Application) but no audio activity is happening (usually there's inner blue-colored bar indicating the audio activity)

and then stay quiet for the rest of the application's lifetime, while other application (Discord, Music players, browsers) still output audio as normal.

> uname -mprs

Linux 6.13.1-2-MANJARO x86_64 unknown

> pactl info

Server String: /run/user/1000/pulse/native
Library Protocol Version: 35
Server Protocol Version: 35
Is Local: yes
Client Index: 211
Tile Size: 65472
User Name: username
Host Name: aqua
Server Name: PulseAudio (on PipeWire 1.2.7)
Server Version: 15.0.0
Default Sample Specification: float32le 2ch 48000Hz
Default Channel Map: front-left,front-right
Default Sink: alsa_output.pci-0000_01_00.1.hdmi-stereo-extra1
Default Source: alsa_input.usb-R__DE_R__DE_NT-USB__7DEA06AD-00.mono-fallback
Cookie: c4b6:e502

wireplumber: 0.5.7
libwireplumber: 0.5.7

Detailed Steam System Information: https://gist.github.com/deanrih/c4026372b9aec43f1cf0e3d1482880b1

Changing Sound Device from default/current device to another device, e.g. from Default Device/G535 to TU106 (Monitor speaker)

seems to fix it, but momentarily, until it occurred again a few minutes later in-match and after that you can't really change back to previous device since no audio is coming out.

Also changing Speaker Configuration doesn't seem to do anything either.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/1af30398-6c23-44b8-831e-3d876825f4da

(The audio in the video is captured because it's a freshly launched instance, otherwise when the problem occurred, there's no audio to be captured either, as if the game itself doesn't produce any audio)

After the changing device fix is no longer feasible, you can restart Dota 2 which the audio will work again, but still the same problem, it will cease to output any audio later on.

This is somehow more likely to occur when I'm in voice chat like in Discord, but when I'm not using voice chat software the problem less likely to occur but still CAN occur based on my experience.

[icculus]

Can you add -sdlaudiodriver pulseaudio to your launch options? I want to see if this is a bug in SDL's PipeWire support.

It's okay if the system is using PipeWire's pulseaudio implementation here.

[deanrih]

Can you add -sdlaudiodriver pulseaudio to your launch options? I want to see if this is a bug in SDL's PipeWire support.

It's okay if the system is using PipeWire's pulseaudio implementation here.

I've added the launch options and tested it, it seems to help with the issue, but I'll give it another try later tonight to make sure.

[deanrih]

Can you add -sdlaudiodriver pulseaudio to your launch options? I want to see if this is a bug in SDL's PipeWire support.

It's okay if the system is using PipeWire's pulseaudio implementation here.

So far after adding the launch options I haven't experience the issue again, I can't say I'm confident it is solved completely but from my three matches I haven't lose the audio yet.