Recording in-game audio is problematic

I’ve been trying to record audio from Half-Life for a video project, but Audacity is being very difficult with this. Now, I have a sound blaster 24 bit Live card, and I am recording from What U Hear, but for some reason, it refuses to normally record the in-game audio. Now, if I stop, switch to a different recording source, then switch back to What U Hear, it almost works. It starts picking up menu sounds, but I have to go through that AGAIN to get the actual ingame sounds. This is nearly unworkable for me.

I am using Audacity 2.0.5, the .exe version. Windows XP Service Pack 3.

This is nearly unworkable for me.

Forget the game for a minute. Can you record YouTube video sound?

Koz

Yea, why?

That means the basic self-recording system is working and very probably the game is establishing special pathways. Is there provision for surround in the game? That won’t go through the regular soundcard, or won’t go through the regular way.

Can you tell if the game is messing with the Windows Control Panels?

That does mean Audacity is acting normally. Audacity is a complete slave to the computer it’s running on. Is there a gamer forum you can post to?

Koz

I can’t tell if it’s messing with the control panel or not, so I’m gonna guess not.

There’s no obvious clues about the audio pathways Half-Life uses.

I don’t really know if there’s someone to ask about this. I’ll take a look around, I guess.

Do you use a microphone in half-life? (I’ve never played the game)
If you do, then the game may well be trying to select the microphone as the sound card input, which will conflict with you attempting to set “What U Hear” as the input.