I just started playing this game and it has some "stuttering" issues with the sound. The display seems to be okay but I have noticed a little delay when the sound stutters. I am playing on Win 7 64 bit and my video card is ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series.

I turned off the shadowing not knowing if that could be the problem but it didn't help. Any other ideas?

Thanks!

Have you tried adjusting the sound options: music ambient noise, speech and sound effects.
See if that helps.

Or lowering the screen resolution, that can help.

Did you install the DirectX driver that possibly came with the game , or have you made sure your DirectX drivers are up to date ?

Sometimes it helps to reduce video acceleration, if your video drivers allow the option.

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I will try them tonight. I did turn down the background music and a couple of other things but that didn't help. How do I lower the screen resolution or reduce the video acceleration? I wasn't asked to install DirectX when I downloaded the game,e so I don't know about that. How can I tell if my DirectX is up to date and fix it if it isn't?

When they showed Nina in the apartment with Max (after her bad dream) his voice keep going out and I wouldn't have know what he said without the subtitles. The "stuttering" and stopping is especially bad during action scenes or conversations. I have contacted Deep Silver, so hopefully it will be fixed. I love this series and the game looks like it will be really good if I can get it running properly.

There should be a Config tool in the game directory somewhere. Run that and set your resolution to something lower. If there isnt one you should be able to set in the in-game options.

There is a patch for Secret Files 3, though I don't know if it helps with stuttery sound.
http://www.gamershell.com/news_147723.html

If you want to try reducing video acceleration, there are pictorial instructions here
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/hardware-acceleration-windows-7

Keep in mind that not all video drivers for Windows 7 allow you to reduce video acceleration, so if you don't see the "Change Settings" option on your Troubleshoot tab, your video drivers may not support reducing video acceleration.

Have you also tried to update your audio drivers ?

I heard back from Deep Silver and they said to check my video drivers. I have DirectX 11. They then said to download this and to send them the file for further analysis.

ftp://ftp.kochmedia.com/pub/hotline/KMDiag.exe

I can't click on this in my email and when I copied and pasted it into my browser, I got so many similar choices, I didn't know which one to choose.

Interestingly enough, when I copied and pasted it here, the link became hot and I can click on it. However, my computer sent me a warning that this file is not commonly downloaded and it could hurt my computer. Why are they asking me to download this link?

How do I update my audio drivers? Do I go to the Microsoft website? If so, what am I looking for?

Thanks to all of you for trying to help me with this.

It looks like a diagnostic tool that will collect information about your system and may help pinpoint any problems. It probably dumps this info into a text file which you would then send back to them (this is a guess as I havent tried it). Did lowering the screen resolution not help you then?

mj2c,

I followed your link but my system won't allow me to change the settings

I didnt give a link. The the config program should be in the game folder. You can also change the resolution inside the game. It's in the Options.

Just to be clear. I "don't" mean change your system resolution but the resolution that the game is played in.

Sorry, I should have clarified and said I followed the video link on how to change the resolution on my computer. I also looked at the configuration setting in the game and the game defaults to "automatic" and it then gives a huge list of choices. I don't know what the "automatic" setting is so am not sure what setting to try to lower the resolution. Hope that makes sense.

As far as the game options, I have the following:

Music, Ambient Noise, Speech, Sound Effects- I turned then down half-way

Graphics

Shadow- I turned it off
Full-Screen Vide0- it is turned on
Animaated Textures-On

Sounds like you are trying to change your system resolution, this isn't what I meant. It's the setting for the game you want - the one that shows you "automatic".

Change the "automatic" to a setting like 1024x768 or something similar. "Automatic" I think just uses your monitors native resolution which tends to be the highest.