Audio randomly stops working until game is restarted

[azurejelly]

Game launch options:

LD_PRELOAD="" gamemoderun gamescope -f -W 1920 -H 1080 -w 1440 -h 1080 -r 60.0 -S stretch --force-grab-cursor --adaptive-sync --immediate-flips -- %command% -high -novid

System information:

• OS: Arch Linux x86_64 with kernel 6.12.27-1-lts
• Desktop environment: GNOME 48.1 under Wayland
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 with driver version 570.144 (open-dkms)
• Gist with Steam system information: https://gist.github.com/azurejelly/d0b1a4e0e110c8287e108db5901304db

Tried:

• Rebooting the whole system after it first happened
• Making sure the output device is correct
• Changing output device in-game after the game loses audio
• Not using gamescope
• Adding -sdlaudiodriver pipewire to launch options, doesn't change anything
• Applying the fix in #3998 in case it's (somehow) related, only helped with FPS

This started happening only a week ago or so - a few patches after the update that introduced weekly missions. Microphone still works while the issue is present.

Update: using -sdlaudiodriver pulseaudio seems to fix the issue for me.

[GoranKovac]

This issue is happening a lot here also recently started System Info

[VolRencs]

I confirm, this problem exists in both wayland version of the game and xwayland. Console output:

[SoundSystemLowLevel] Audio device starved 787 samples 
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Audio device starved 429 samples 
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Audio device starved 941 samples 
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Audio device starved 429 samples 
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Audio device starved 428 samples 
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Audio device starved 940 samples 
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Audio device starved 428 samples 
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Audio device starved 429 samples 
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Increased audio mix latency to 2 buffers
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Audio device starved 429 samples 
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Audio device starved 428 samples 
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Audio device starved 346 samples 
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Audio device starved 774 samples 
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Audio device starved 345 samples 
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Audio device starved 345 samples 
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Increased audio mix latency to 3 buffers
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Audio device starved 774 samples 
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Audio device starved 96 samples 
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Audio device starved 429 samples 
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Audio device starved 345 samples 
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Audio device starved 13 samples 
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Audio device starved 262 samples 
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Increased audio mix latency to 4 buffers
[SoundSystemLowLevel] Audio device starved 857 samples

[azurejelly]

Seeing those logs on my console as well:

[azurejelly]

Using -sdlaudiodriver pulseaudio seems to fix it for me, I was able to play 2 or 3 matches today without losing audio

[DavutHaxor]

Is this issue also similar to CS2 audio stopping working after when there's an incoming discord call?

[GoranKovac]

Yeah it gets dropped for me when discord makes some sound (message, call etc) or randomly during a call. I've managed to workaround the issue by creating virtual pipewire device and setting it as CS output and using main device output on discord and everything else. Audio did not dropped in 2 days vs 3-4 times during the match before. So the issue apparently is apps sharing same output as CS (on pipewire).

[vanitasvitae]

As a (stupid) workaround: You can change the audio output device to something else in-game and then rewire it to your headphones in for example qpwgraph. Annyoing, but at least you can finish your match.

[badr49]

just lost a game because i had no sound and restarting the game for the 4th time still didnt help in having audio more than 1 round (restarting steam also didnt help). this was so frustrating, hope valve can fix this soon (game was working fine for days, it suddenly broke when no setting/workload has changed). using pipewire, arch-linux, tkg kernel 6.16.0. In the meantime, i will try the suggestion above, i hope it works for me as well...

[ericek111]

This keeps happening again and AGAIN and AGAIN, even with barely anything happening on the screen.

PipeWire (fixed quantum -- doesn't help), Arch, Mesa+X11. In CS:GO it used to be much more rare and could be fixed by cycling the output device in settings.

EDIT: Using -sdlaudiodriver pulseaudio does """fix""" the issue. I haven't had my sound drop out on me once in the past month.

[c101vp]

I can confirm that this (or a similar) bug is still present after several months and is happening more often than ever now, sometimes cutting off audio before the game even loads. Cycling output devices does work as a workaround but, when I run out of output devices, I have to restart the game to get my audio back I haven't been able to test it extensively, but using the -sdlaudiodriver pulseaudio launch option does seem to fix the issue And I haven't been able to replicate the console output from @VolRencs and @azurejelly

[djsiropchik]

All the time just in one moment sound is gone and I need to change audio device to other and back sometimes in the game, sometimes in default settings of the system. It's annoying. Fedora 43, wayland, pipewire, Plasma 6.5