Audio popping issue

Ah thank you, I mean, my erm... my friend says thanks :)

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Originally Posted by Larirawiel

The problem is, this tool may violate the terms of service if you enable some features of it. :) So i would not recommend it if the user does not know what he/she do. :)



Cheers

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It is not, in any way, changing the game. It is upgrading the existing WINE bottle (from years ago - Intel Mac era) with the latest versions. Allow me to quote their post (which you can find if you scrolled down on the link provided):

“Today, we're announcing our new initiative - a standalone Final Fantasy XIV app for the Mac. This app will contain everything necessary to get you back in Eorzea as quickly as possible - from a custom build of DXVK to reduce stutter and the latest version of MoltenVK with optimisations for Apple M1. No CrossOver needed.

Since we are now in charge of shipping the Wine runtime, this also paves the way for even more optimisations in the future.“

I hope this fixes your issues as it did mine and allows all of us Apple Silicon players to enjoy the game.

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Originally Posted by Fiel_Tana

The problems came back again today even with the switching the audio format to 96Khz, so I'm looking for other alternatives.

Hypothetically speaking and umm... asking purely for educational purposes... for a friend... Which features should *not* be enabled, if someone were to try XIVMac for a playable game but does not want to break rules?

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Just install the app and the app alone :)

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Originally Posted by Scathan

It is not, in any way, changing the game. It is upgrading the existing WINE bottle (from years ago - Intel Mac era) with the latest versions. Allow me to quote their post (which you can find if you scrolled down on the link provided):

“Today, we're announcing our new initiative - a standalone Final Fantasy XIV app for the Mac. This app will contain everything necessary to get you back in Eorzea as quickly as possible - from a custom build of DXVK to reduce stutter and the latest version of MoltenVK with optimisations for Apple M1. No CrossOver needed.

Since we are now in charge of shipping the Wine runtime, this also paves the way for even more optimisations in the future.“

I hope this fixes your issues as it did mine and allows all of us Apple Silicon players to enjoy the game.

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If it would be an upgraded WINE or DXVK thing alone then it would be not a problem. But they have also support for ACT, Dalamund plugin and the famous XIV Launcher. This tools clearly violate the terms of service.


Cheers

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Originally Posted by Larirawiel

If it would be an upgraded WINE or DXVK thing alone then it would be not a problem. But they have also support for ACT, Dalamund plugin and the famous XIV Launcher. This tools clearly violate the terms of service.


Cheers

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Don’t install those, then. It isn’t even in the app itself. You talk like as if you have tried it when in fact you obviously haven’t. You will need separate installs for all those other tools as it only supports them, it doesn’t install them.

I am just greatful someone finally addressed us macOS users because Square Enix has completely neglected us.

Has anyone else noticed that FFXIV is really heavy on their GPU? My CPU is fine, however FFXIV seems to eat up 97-100% of my GPU and no other games (heavier ones) do this to my PC. This is all so weird, I have not had any issues until EW. After EW I did not have audio problems - some other minor performance issues. But since 6.08 it's gotten pretty bad with my audio.
I have an Intel i5-4460 and GeForce GTX 750 Ti - maybe not the most high end hardware but it has never had this problem before. I tried playing around with audio settings, turned off all unnecessary things, hell, even turned all graphic settings all the way down. Nothing helps, this is isolated to audio alone. I'm very curious what the hell this patch did.

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Originally Posted by veeika

Has anyone else noticed that FFXIV is really heavy on their GPU? My CPU is fine, however FFXIV seems to eat up 97-100% of my GPU and no other games (heavier ones) do this to my PC. This is all so weird, I have not had any issues until EW. After EW I did not have audio problems - some other minor performance issues. But since 6.08 it's gotten pretty bad with my audio.
I have an Intel i5-4460 and GeForce GTX 750 Ti - maybe not the most high end hardware but it has never had this problem before. I tried playing around with audio settings, turned off all unnecessary things, hell, even turned all graphic settings all the way down. Nothing helps, this is isolated to audio alone. I'm very curious what the hell this patch did.

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I actually had the opposite issue before. My GPU usage on XIV wouldn't go over 50% and my CPU usage would absolutely spike. Now, my CPU usage remains balanced (although the audio issue still persists), but in high-pressure areas like housing, the Limsa market board at peak hours, etc., my GPU usage goes up to 80-90%. One thing I'll suggest is possibly switching off Hardware Acceleration for Discord if you have that on, but otherwise I think whether it's your GPU or CPU spiking, it's a direct response to the audio issue.

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Originally Posted by miragedive

I actually had the opposite issue before. My GPU usage on XIV wouldn't go over 50% and my CPU usage would absolutely spike. Now, my CPU usage remains balanced (although the audio issue still persists), but in high-pressure areas like housing, the Limsa market board at peak hours, etc., my GPU usage goes up to 80-90%. One thing I'll suggest is possibly switching off Hardware Acceleration for Discord if you have that on, but otherwise I think whether it's your GPU or CPU spiking, it's a direct response to the audio issue.

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Thank you, I will give this a shot. However, I've had the same issue with Discord not turned on at all, or anything else on my PC. For a time I thought the game has suddenly become too heavy and tried to alleviate it by not having anything else running. Turns out it doesn't matter at all. Same situation whether I have nothing or several apps on alongside FFXIV. The GPU high usage is constant unfortunately, can't even call it "spiking". But this I can deal with as long as my audio would be fine. I am curious though if there is connection there, or if it's just a coincidence.

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Originally Posted by miragedive

I say this with all the respect in the world for you, but please bear in mind that just because you’re not dealing with an issue doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist with others. The team has already confirmed that this is an issue with how different people’s particular CPUs and PC builds interact with the sound engine and the game’s sound drivers. It’s very likely that your PC is one of the builds that were either compatible from the start or had the issue repaired in 6.08. However, this doesn’t mean that all PCs have had the issue fixed so far. Please don’t invalidate other people’s concerns based on your own experiences, as it can prevent people from realising that this is in fact an ongoing bug in the game and discourage them from filing official bug reports.

If you still have doubts about this, I should also note that my bug report about this persistent issue after 6.08 has been marked as Accepted, as well as two other similar bug reports. This is not someone’s PC overheating or someone’s settings being wrong. It’s a bug in the game that I’m sure will be addressed soon.

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No disrespect taken, however I've got the tools at hand to have measurable data and reasoning for my stance at this point in time, also a wide array of machines to test with, both directly at hand and indirectly (remote access, etc).

The issue that was at the root of the lower end cpu's suffering audio issues has been rectified entirely, the game audio engine is no longer using cpu excessively to the point that quality and performance is affected, I have reached out to friends with 8700's and Zen 3 cpu's to test in the specified location and there is no issue, either audibly or indicated in Utilisation logging.

There are other possibilities that need to be investigated at the systemic level which might be causing excess CPU usage prior to the game even being run, which would have a knock on effect to causing issues on machines no matter how new or old they are.

Usually i would request a GPU View Trace, as well as DPC/ISR latency measuring with and without diagnostic startup configurations to identify if the issue is absent when only windows services are loaded.

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Originally Posted by veeika

Has anyone else noticed that FFXIV is really heavy on their GPU? My CPU is fine, however FFXIV seems to eat up 97-100% of my GPU and no other games (heavier ones) do this to my PC. This is all so weird, I have not had any issues until EW. After EW I did not have audio problems - some other minor performance issues. But since 6.08 it's gotten pretty bad with my audio.
I have an Intel i5-4460 and GeForce GTX 750 Ti - maybe not the most high end hardware but it has never had this problem before. I tried playing around with audio settings, turned off all unnecessary things, hell, even turned all graphic settings all the way down. Nothing helps, this is isolated to audio alone. I'm very curious what the hell this patch did.

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I would avoid using HBAO+ on such a weak GPU, you need a 970 or 1060 6GB at the minimum to maintain 60fps at 1080p with all settings at max.

I just wanted to confirm that after the 6.08 update, I am having the constant audio stuttering as well. I am running on a Macbook Pro M1 Max with 32gb of ram and 32 GPU. I have never had this issue with any of the M1 macs before using this. The problem started the very time I updated to FF14 6.08.

I tried the different suggest processes for troubleshooting the issue and it is not my computer, nor the controller support that SQE suggested, it is the code in the update.

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Originally Posted by Darkhorse1202

I just wanted to confirm that after the 6.08 update, I am having the constant audio stuttering as well. I am running on a Macbook Pro M1 Max with 32gb of ram and 32 GPU. I have never had this issue with any of the M1 macs before using this. The problem started the very time I updated to FF14 6.08.

I tried the different suggest processes for troubleshooting the issue and it is not my computer, nor the controller support that SQE suggested, it is the code in the update.

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I am on the 14 inch M1 Pro with 16 GPU cores and 16GB RAM on macOS Monterey 12.2. Audio stuttering for me started with FFXIV Patch 6.08. Downloaded and installed the XIVonMac app https://www.xivmac.com and only that app, nothing else. Stuttering issue solved, fps increased, and even the graphics itself has improved without changing any of my settings. The game is far better optimized now for M1 Apple Silicon.

Even after the patch I still have audio stuttering and popping. I'm using Windows 11 and an Intel processor, so it's not only affecting mac and AMD processors. The issue goes away when I disable ambient sounds, so it's most likely related to that.

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Originally Posted by Puss_Kat

I would avoid using HBAO+ on such a weak GPU, you need a 970 or 1060 6GB at the minimum to maintain 60fps at 1080p with all settings at max.

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I do not have it on HBAO+, my graphic settings are generally set on medium. I do not care too much about having 60 fps, as long as it doesn't dip below 25 I'm fine. It might sound like heresy to some, but I don't care that much. That being said, I have tested my game on the lowest possible graphic settings which did get me 50+ fps and the audio issues persisted. It is not connected to this at all. This was also not an issue for me before 6.08, it's why I'm surprised all of a sudden I'm having this problem.

Piggybacking off of stuff some others have mentioned, I experimented with disabling ambient, vfx and others and it did not change anything for me.

Also popping (ha ha ha) in to confirm I'm still having this issue. The only fix that did anything was disabling gamepad features, which mostly fixed it for fairly low player environments like dungeons. Frontlines and alliance raids still sound like hell on Earth.

After installing patch 6.08, all sound problems were solved. The sound is crystal clear and harmonious. I thank the development team for their excellent work! (my FX 8320e processor)
Anyone who has not solved the problem yet does not need to worry for sure, I am sure that the new patch will help.

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Originally Posted by Chucklenuts

Also popping (ha ha ha) in to confirm I'm still having this issue. The only fix that did anything was disabling gamepad features, which mostly fixed it for fairly low player environments like dungeons. Frontlines and alliance raids still sound like hell on Earth.

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If they know, that disabling the gamepad features can fix the sound distortions then it is very likely, that they know the reason for it. Maybe they will fix it with a future patch. :)


Cheers

I really wanted to replay the MSQ on new game + but the sound popping is too bad... It's turning me off playing this game unfortunately... and my intel processor is quite new... I hope they fix this issue on the next patch, but if I have to wait 2 months for patch 6.1 it'll be really disheartening. I hope a fix for this comes sooner. I even disabled the gamepad features and it still happens!

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Originally Posted by Starshower

I really wanted to replay the MSQ on new game + but the sound popping is too bad... It's turning me off playing this game unfortunately... and my intel processor is quite new... I hope they fix this issue on the next patch, but if I have to wait 2 months for patch 6.1 it'll be really disheartening. I hope a fix for this comes sooner. I even disabled the gamepad features and it still happens!

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I wish I could you guys on x86 systems. At least for those on Macs we have a working fix now as I posted earlier.

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Originally Posted by Starshower

I really wanted to replay the MSQ on new game + but the sound popping is too bad... It's turning me off playing this game unfortunately... and my intel processor is quite new... I hope they fix this issue on the next patch, but if I have to wait 2 months for patch 6.1 it'll be really disheartening. I hope a fix for this comes sooner. I even disabled the gamepad features and it still happens!

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did you post your system information, the issue is fixed barring some Computer specific configuration(app/driver compatibility) concerns.

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Originally Posted by Puss_Kat

did you post your system information, the issue is fixed barring some Computer specific configuration(app/driver compatibility) concerns.

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It is not fixed, too many people with either Macs or Intel/AMD rigs are having issues, some just started having them with 6.08. So no, it is not fixed.

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Originally Posted by Scathan

It is not fixed, too many people with either Macs or Intel/AMD rigs are having issues, some just started having them with 6.08. So no, it is not fixed.

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They need still your computer configuration. :)

And they know that the problem is not fixed entirely. Because they mentioned the game controller configuration and that the players have to disable it when the problem is still there. Maybe it is another problem, which they discovered and were not able to fix so fast.




Cheers

I know there’s a new update to Immerse Gamepack. Has anyone downloaded it and seen any difference at all? I haven’t had a chance to test it myself yet.

Hey guys,

This is a really strange work around, but I found that if my computer is already playing some form of audio (video on youtube) when I launch FF14, I do not have the audio popping issues. Tested it both ways and have been able to reproduce it multiple times both with popping and without. Don't know why it is working for me, it is just working...

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Originally Posted by Fiel_Tana

Might have found a fix for some Mac users on this thread! Seems to have worked for me. (Edited to add: Using a 2020 M1 Macbook pro, Big Sur 11.6)

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...to-Mac-players

"Work around:
After a lot of fiddling I discovered a mitigation:
1) Launch "Audio MIDI Setup" (You can find it via Spotlight with Command Space and type Audio MIDI)
2) Select your output device on the left pane
3) Change the audio format for the device *if possible* (EG, this is not possible with HDMI sound out). I've had the following results:
- 44.1khz (default on most devices) - Produces horrendous static/popping in game
- 48khz - Sounds better, but still scratchy
- 88.2khz - Sounds fine at first, but eventually breaks down into static again. (within 30 minutes in my testing)
- 96khz - So far this holds up

Note: You must exit and re-launch the game for the changed setting to affect it."

Switching to 96Khz has worked for me but didn't work for someone else so ymmv, but it's worth a shot.

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Thanks. This did "fix" the issue for me. Unfortunately my Logitech G933 headset only supports 48K wirelessly. I had to hard wire it to the 3.5mm sound port on my dock. I had been running flawlessly on my 2021 MacBook Pro on Monterey (did not want to back it down to Big Sur, and have been happy with the play level) until that last 6.08 patch, then the sound went nuts.

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Originally Posted by Darkhorse1202

Hey guys,

This is a really strange work around, but I found that if my computer is already playing some form of audio (video on youtube) when I launch FF14, I do not have the audio popping issues. Tested it both ways and have been able to reproduce it multiple times both with popping and without. Don't know why it is working for me, it is just working...

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I plan on trying this out tomorrow. Could you please give more info?
1. Does the audio need to actually be audible? (Can I set volume to 1, for example?)
2. Does the audio need to keep playing in the bg?

So what do you do if you're on a PS5? It's not just PC users who are affected by the issue.
In game audio is fine but combat audio has been awful since Endwalker, was released & no patch release since has improved this, the 'screech' from Sage actions is horrible.
There are no settings as such on a PS5 that can be reported.
Why oh why can they just not revert audio in game to pre-Endwalker whilst they properly test any 'improvements'.

I don't know how to post system information but I hope this is what is needed


I'm on Windows 11, the processor is an Intel Core i5 8400, GPU is an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980, 16 GB of DDR4 memory, motherboard is Asus Prime Z370-P.


Today I was playing and the issue wasn't present, but it came back randomly. I really hope this gets fixed before 6.1. For now I'm playing without ambient sounds, which isn't ideal...

I would like to once again report that it is still happening for me after Patch 6.08.
I am Valerie Vesper, on Balmung; previously I created a bug report thread for this problem, but that was before Patch 6.08.
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
GPU: Powercolor Red Devil Radeon RX 6900XT
Headphones: Sennheiser GSP670, though tested and reproduced with $20 Sony earbuds as well.
The popping occurs in all areas, but is especially bad if there are constant sound effects playing, such as the long whooshes and fabric-like sound effects of the Argos mount while in flight.
Turning Ambient Sounds off silences the popping and glitching, just as before.


I would also like to add that the audio glitching does NOT occur on my laptop, which has an Intel Core i7 10875H and a GTX 2080 Super Max Q.

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Originally Posted by Livilda

I would like to once again report that it is still happening for me after Patch 6.08.
I am Valerie Vesper, on Balmung; previously I created a bug report thread for this problem, but that was before Patch 6.08.
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
GPU: Powercolor Red Devil Radeon RX 6900XT
Headphones: Sennheiser GSP670, though tested and reproduced with $20 Sony earbuds as well.
The popping occurs in all areas, but is especially bad if there are constant sound effects playing, such as the long whooshes and fabric-like sound effects of the Argos mount while in flight.
Turning Ambient Sounds off silences the popping and glitching, just as before.


I would also like to add that the audio glitching does NOT occur on my laptop, which has an Intel Core i7 10875H and a GTX 2080 Super Max Q.

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Please post an official bug report to make sure devs see this! I’m worried that the issue isn’t being taken seriously because there aren’t many official bug reports about it.

The only Ryzen users getting the issue now have a system configuration issue present, its been narrowed down to either the system memory not being configured to run at its intended performance profile (jdec ddr4 is slooooooooow) or constant pcie bus errors with Gen 4 combinations and usb headsets.

On 9/10 ryzen setups tested, this issue doesn't exist, the one that did had a cpu swap and riser replacement and the issue was resolved.

consistent correctable PCIE errors on the AMD platform are intricately connected to USB and Audio device issues on Ryzen processors.

i end up find the setting culprit of stuttering even after 6.08, is the audio of player effect, i got both party and PCs at max, then i put them both off then my game is back like it used to, so hope it may help for some people too

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Originally Posted by Puss_Kat

The only Ryzen users getting the issue now have a system configuration issue present, its been narrowed down to either the system memory not being configured to run at its intended performance profile (jdec ddr4 is slooooooooow) or constant pcie bus errors with Gen 4 combinations and usb headsets.

On 9/10 ryzen setups tested, this issue doesn't exist, the one that did had a cpu swap and riser replacement and the issue was resolved.

consistent correctable PCIE errors on the AMD platform are intricately connected to USB and Audio device issues on Ryzen processors.

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The problem with this is, I built this machine in late 2020, just after the launch of the Radeon RX 6000 series. I never had this problem for the entire year prior playing FFXIV until Endwalker released. If it were either of these issues were the cause, they would have been present before Endwalker.
Second problem: My RAM is running at its intended DOCP, and my headset is connected over bluetooth, not USB.

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Originally Posted by Livilda

My RAM is running at its intended DOCP, and my headset is connected over bluetooth, not USB.

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DOCP is a different term for XMP (Intel has a copyright on the name XMP) and XMP is memory overclocking, sorry. :)

The other problem is, AMD has serious issues with USB in their platform. That is the reason why it is very important to install the newest BIOS avaiable for the motherboard. There are many USB fixes/mitigations in the current AGESA version.

And they also have issues with PCIe 4.x. There are also BIOS versions which fix/mitigate those issues but it is not a 100% thing. Switch to PCIE 3 and maybe the issues will go away. And no, it has not an impact on the performance.


Cheers

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Originally Posted by Larirawiel

And they also have issues with PCIe 4.x. There are also BIOS versions which fix/mitigate those issues but it is not a 100% thing. Switch to PCIE 3 and maybe the issues will go away. And no, it has not an impact on the performance.

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Updated BIOS, chipset, audio, GPU, and bluetooth drivers, and set my GPU's PCIE slot to Gen 3. I'm still getting tons of clicks and pops.

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Originally Posted by miragedive

I plan on trying this out tomorrow. Could you please give more info?
1. Does the audio need to actually be audible? (Can I set volume to 1, for example?)
2. Does the audio need to keep playing in the bg?

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The audio needs to be audible, it does not matter what the volume is. Once the game starts you can turn off the video, or put it on pause.

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Originally Posted by Darkhorse1202

The audio needs to be audible, it does not matter what the volume is. Once the game starts you can turn off the video, or put it on pause.

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Thank you kindly! I’ll try it out and feed back for others as well :)

As someone suggested much earlier in the thread, I tried to half all of my audio settings - for some reason it was a huge improvement. I do hear a crack here and there but it's definitely much less. When I turn it back on to my usual settings (meaning something like vfx or performance lower, bgm and voice high while master being around 10), the crackling shows up again. So it would appear having the individual audio settings too high will cause the issues, at least in my case. No idea what it actually means since I know next to nothing about audio, but I thought writing it down might be useful to somebody.

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Originally Posted by Zhexos

Greetings,

Thanks again to everyone who submitted detailed information regarding the ongoing sound-related issue. Rest assured, the bug reports that were moved to the Duplicate Bug section have been also passed down and have been helpful in our investigation.

While it has taken some time to narrow down the conditions of the issue, we were able to reproduce it on our end.

We discovered an anomaly in the calculation process within FFXIV's game sound driver where the number of digits is not being adjusted correctly. Due to this, some CPUs with certain characteristics are unable to keep up with the calculation processes and have a high possibility of encountering the issue.

As mentioned previously, we noticed this primarily occurs on older CPU models that are around 10 years old, but have also confirmed cases on some of the latest CPU models.

We are continuing to investigate the matter and are working on a resolution to ensure that CPUs with these characteristics will be able to handle these processes correctly. Our current plans are to conduct pattern tests and release an additional fix in the next patch.

We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work towards resolving this issue.

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I'm glad to hear that they have been working on this issues, but i do have one question if it is a problems with cpu on our end why is the problem fixed when i downloaded and ran the Free trial of the Immerse Spatial Audio that was added to the game? Seems to me my cpu would still be doing the exact same thing it was doing before and the problem is with the optional software that was added in to "improve" the sound quality. I was not happy with the immerse spatial audio at all and would not want it, but why would enabling an optional item fix a problem that is supposedly originating on the players end?

I also want to add I have never had sound problems with the game at all until this last patch 6.08

Amazed to hear my PS5 must have an 'older CPU'?
Is the problem on PS5 also being investigated I wonder, in general play sound is fine but in combat scenes it has been like playing in a tin can since Endwalker released.
Please simply just revert all game audio to pre-Endwalker (which was known to be working perfectly) until the issue can be fully resolved as none of the attempted patches thusfar have achieved anything whatsoever.

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Originally Posted by Zhexos

Greetings,

Thanks again to everyone who submitted detailed information regarding the ongoing sound-related issue. Rest assured, the bug reports that were moved to the Duplicate Bug section have been also passed down and have been helpful in our investigation.

While it has taken some time to narrow down the conditions of the issue, we were able to reproduce it on our end.

We discovered an anomaly in the calculation process within FFXIV's game sound driver where the number of digits is not being adjusted correctly. Due to this, some CPUs with certain characteristics are unable to keep up with the calculation processes and have a high possibility of encountering the issue.

As mentioned previously, we noticed this primarily occurs on older CPU models that are around 10 years old, but have also confirmed cases on some of the latest CPU models.

We are continuing to investigate the matter and are working on a resolution to ensure that CPUs with these characteristics will be able to handle these processes correctly. Our current plans are to conduct pattern tests and release an additional fix in the next patch.

We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work towards resolving this issue.

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Would you please be able to tell us if by "but have also confirmed cases on some of the latest CPU models." that the upcoming fix also includes the M1 Macs that have had this issue since 6.08?
Thanks for keeping us updated <3