Static Noise on mouse movement when VirtualHere is active through Steam Link.

Submitted by Oyxopolis on #1

Hello VirtualHere,

I've recently (~3 weeks) started using Steam Link and soon after that purchased VirtualHere.

It functions as advertised, but it completely distorts any and all sound on any mouse movement. I'll post the contents of my DXDIAG below after explaining the issue slightly more accurately.

- I've upgraded my PC after I started using Virtual. With both motherboards, the static noise is present. I'm using on-board sound. I've gone from an i7 2600K to 6800K, a very recent series.
- The static noise only occurs if sound is actually being played on the PC. If there is no sound, there's also no noise.
- The Input for Mouse/KB/Steam Controllers occur through the Steam Link. The audio output goes through my TV.
> Keyboard is a Ducky Shine. Mouse is a Logitech G600
> Audio has static on both my headset and my logitech 2.1 system.

- Disabling (exiting) VirtualHere immediately solves the issue.

==========================================
DXDIAG (Still waiting for my GTX1080).
==========================================
------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 7/3/2016, 10:32:59
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (10.0, Build 10586) (10586.th2_release_sec.160527-1834)
Language: Dutch (Regional Setting: Dutch)
System Manufacturer: MSI
System Model: MS-7885
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6800K CPU @ 3.40GHz (12 CPUs), ~3.4GHz
Memory: 32768MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 32670MB RAM
Page File: 6762MB used, 58674MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: 12
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: 120 DPI (125 percent)
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
Miracast: Not Available
Microsoft Graphics Hybrid: Not Supported
DxDiag Version: 10.00.10586.0000 64bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
Display Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.

Submitted by Michael on Sun, 2016/07/03 - 19:50

#2

Thats weird, so im a bit confused on your setup:
* You have mouse/keyboard/steamcontroller connected to your link. (Steam controller via bluetooth)
* You then run virtualhere on the steamlink to share some device via virtualhere back to your pc?
* The sound is coming from the game thats running on your pc and the sound is redirected to your tv via the steamlink and it has static
* When you stop virtualhere on the client pc ? Then the static stops

Virtualhere is pure software so it shouldnt cause RF interference, but im wondering what device you are sharing over virtualhere, perhaps its high traffic and its very slightly interrupting the sound signal send via the steamlink streaming system (not sure how valve implements their streaming). For virtualhere everything goes over port 7575 on TCP

Submitted by Oyxopolis on Sun, 2016/07/03 - 21:25

#3

* You have mouse/keyboard/steamcontroller connected to your link. (Steam controller via bluetooth).
Correct

* You then run virtualhere on the steamlink to share some device via virtualhere back to your pc?
VirtualHere is used to share the mouse (Logitech G600) and the KB (Ducky Shine).

* The sound is coming from the game thats running on your pc and the sound is redirected to your tv via the steamlink and it has static
Any sound coming from the PC, be it alert messages, Steam Big Picture Mode or in-Game sounds, is distorted, crackles and has static.

* When you stop virtualhere on the client pc ? Then the static stops.
Correct. Though static might refer to a continuous sound, maybe crackling is more accurate.

Submitted by Oyxopolis on Sun, 2016/07/03 - 21:28

#4

Edit: To emphasize, the Mouse seems to be causing the static on movement, in combination with VirtualHere.

I'll try using a mouse that doesn't have scripting, but that will be after the weekend.

Submitted by Michael on Sun, 2016/07/03 - 21:36

#5

At the moment my guess is that the mouse is sending data very fast (on the manufacturer website it says 1000 times/sec) and the steamlink is having issues keeping up, its single core cpu is struggling, so its dropping small parts of audio because its busy transmitting the mouse signal back to the pc.

Could you try just unplugging the mouse and using only the keyboard via virtualhere and see if it fixes the issue.(I think the keyboard has very little traffic)

If that fixes it then i think the mouse refresh rate may need to come down from 1000hz theres probably a setting in the driver properties to put it down a bit (a normal mouse is 125 times sec)

Submitted by Oyxopolis on Sun, 2016/07/03 - 21:43

#6

The keyboard doesn't generate any static at all :) Even when both devices are plugged in.

I found a crappy dell mouse I still had from a year back and it seems that it doesn't affect the sound now, so I guess you're absolutely correct. Thanks for pointing me to the most likely location of the problem. Now I know what I might have to fix ;)

Submitted by Oyxopolis on Sun, 2016/07/03 - 21:47

#7

Bam! Polling speed lowered to 250, crackling fixed. Damn, thanks for the help mate :)

Submitted by Swissola on Fri, 2017/03/10 - 04:01

#9

I have a Razer Mamba 2012 and lowering the polling rate to 125 helps with the mouse lag I was experiencing, but I still get the audio distortion mentioned above with every mouse move.

Submitted by Michael on Fri, 2017/03/10 - 09:13

#10

Ok i think the steamlink cpu may be too be weak to work with sound and your mouse unfortunately..

Submitted by Swissola on Wed, 2017/05/17 - 03:32

#11

After a lot of cursing over this problem I've found a solution.

Mamba 2012 works fine in wireless mode (well mostly, apart from a few freezes, but they're mouse issues, and I digress...). Unfortunately when the mouse is plugged in there's massive amounts of static over the steam link. This is until I tried to have the mouse plugged in a wired manner AND turned off the mouse's wireless setting OFF on the bottom of the mouse. Seems like the noise was probably interference from the mouse 2.4GHz wireless transmitter along the wired connection. So... turn your wireless mouse radio off when using in a wired mode and the problem disappears!

Submitted by Michael on Wed, 2017/05/17 - 10:28

#12

Hi Swissola, thanks for the feedback! That should help if others with the same issue

Submitted by Initialised on Sun, 2021/01/17 - 23:16

#13

My fix for this is to disable Virtual Here for the Mouse (Both a Razer Atheris on 2.4GHz and Steel Series Rival were causing the crackles)

PC is i7 5930K @4.4GHz, 32GB @2666MHz, 5700XT