Audio popping issue

Im very suprised they have not sorted this out yet as for many people it makes the game unplayable its in my opinion a bigger issue then the Q's

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Originally Posted by Jinx_Devereux

Bump! I'm still having this Audio issue too :(
Was hoping Hotfix would address it, I've sent a ticket to SE to raise the issue since it really does diminish a lot of the game experience for me

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SE released a statement regarding the issue and said they are trying to identify each issue currently as it seems like it's not just one thing. And asked for our pateience as they work through the list and that the are planning to release the fix with patch 6.01 in 2 weeks time because it requires client side patching. Would have like to see a hotfix or something but seems highly unlikely given what SE have already said about it. Wouldn't get any hopes up, just have to wait another 2 weeks for (hopefully) a proper fix.

Here is the link to the official statement from SE if you want to see it for yourself. Second bullet point on the page https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...d6d790145bcf41

Perhaps it's a little selfish of me to even HOPE that the issue might get resolved with the next patch (21st) and yet be disappointed with having to wait 2 weeks to even play the game. Is there no other way for us to contact the devs directly, to try and suggest it might be related to the CPU line we all have in here? I'm a when it comes to coding so it's hard for me to imagine how possible it is to add some form of a "legacy mode" for audio implementation - in similar way to dx9 support. I truly believe we should be more vocal about this, even if the problem is on our end, with the outdated hardware. Let me know what you think lads.

<--- the only thing I have been able to do in this expansion so far, is to use my fantasia. ;^)
I'm really excited to play as my new manly bunny chad but if I have to wait at least 2 weeks - then the hype in me will out QQ

So SE just responded to the ticket I opened the other day reporting this issue.
Doesn't seem very promising, but I'll try following theses steps, then I'll come back to tell the results.

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Thank you for contacting the Square Enix support center.

The issue you are describing is most associated with interference with the game data. Most of the time, it results from certain security/privacy changes on Internet Explorer. Other times, it occurs when an application running in the background causes interference, such as anti-virus software, firewalls, media players, web browsers, communications software, etc.

Please make sure all background applications (including anti-virus programs such as Norton, Kaspersky, Windows Defender, etc.) have been disabled and/or closed to minimize game interference before attempting to log in.

Ensure that the latest version of Internet Explorer is installed on your PC (even if you don’t use Internet Explorer). Please do not use Microsoft Edge for these steps, as that is a different Internet platform.
Once Internet Explorer is up-to-date, please open the Internet Explorer browser’s “Internet Options” by clicking on the “Tools” option (or type Alt+X), then click on the “Internet options” setting. Please adjust the following settings:

- Under the General tab, please delete ALL browsing history by clicking on the “Delete…” button, then selecting all of the options and clicking “Delete” again.
- Under the Security tab, please move the slider to the lowest possible setting, or no higher than “Medium.”
- Under the Privacy tab, look for the Settings section and click on “Advanced,” then Accept First-party Cookies and Third-party Cookies, then check the box that says, “Always allow session cookies” and click OK.
- Under the Advanced tab, look for the Settings section and scroll towards the bottom of the list and check on the setting under Security for “Allow software to run or install even if the signature is invalid.”
- Under the same section, make sure that all ‘Use TLS’ options (EXCEPT SSL 3.0) are checked. [Use SSL 3.0 should be unchecked]

Hit “Apply” then “OK” to save the changes.
Please RESTART your PC now.

Once your PC has been restarted, Right-Click the FFXIV launcher icon once more and select “Run as Administrator.” This option can also be set permanently by Right-Clicking on the FFXIV launcher icon, selecting Properties, then under the Compatibility tab, check the box that says “Run this program as an administrator” and clicking OK.

If the suggestions provided above do not resolve the issue, there may be a communication error.

Check the following Port Ranges on your router/modem to ensure that the following Port Ranges have been opened/forwarded/triggered:
▼TCP
54992 through 54994,
55006 through 55007,
55021 through 55040

*You may learn how to do this by visiting http://www.portforward.com/
Find your specific router's brand and model number from the 'List of Routers' and you will be provided a step-by-step guide on how to access these port settings.
Otherwise, your ISP may forward these ports for you.*

If you have properly configured your router, and you are still experiencing these issues, our next suggestion is to bypass the router, and connect your computer directly to your modem. Please ensure that you power down both the modem and the computer for at least five minutes before attempting to connect to FINAL FANTASY XIV.

If you continue to receive these same errors when you are connected directly to the modem, then the problem lies with your ISP. We would recommend contacting your provider and advising them that one or more of the ports previously provided to you are being blocked or filtered, and that you do need access on these ports.

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Okay, so I tried the Internet Explorer steps described above, and it didn't do a thing for me.

I'm having trouble doing the port forwarding thing, might look it up later, but it really doesn't seem to make sense. By the response they gave, SE seems to be treating this like it was individual problems on players computers, while it's clearly not.

By the way, I received the same identical response twice, but signed by two different employees, which attests that they are only providing generical responses.

I suggest anyone suffering from this issue to open a ticket on SE Support Center though the link below, describe the problem on details, link YouTube videos showing what's happening, tell them it's a problem that has been reported many times on the Forums and on Reddit, that is affecting a lot of players since 6.0 release, in hope that they'll take this matter more seriously.

Final Fantasy XIV Support Center (use the Bug Report option):
https://support.eu.square-enix.com/c...383&la=2&fty=2

Just opened a ticket! hope they take this matter more seriously as you said.

https://i.imgur.com/6dajbal.png

It didn't fix it for me. Just checked. I did however have a 42 line queue this morning but then again its still a little early.

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Originally Posted by TojiSuzuhara

i tried this and although i only got a few hours of playtime cause of maintenance, i went through a few dungeons, did some fates, tested on a dummy and it seemed to rid the audio bug almost entirely. only time it ever creeped up was during loading screens into super congested areas (sharlayan, limsa, etc) only downside is audio will be low still but its way more manageable than loud and staticky. hoping this holds out til the fix

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Volume Settings: MV-100,BGM-10,SE-10,Voice-10,SS-10,AS-10,Perfomance-10.
Player effects volume: all 60
Equalizer: Standard

These sound settings are making it somewhat tolerable. Still bad though.

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Originally Posted by Tessmarin

Volume Settings: MV-100,BGM-10,SE-10,Voice-10,SS-10,AS-10,Perfomance-10.
Player effects volume: all 60
Equalizer: Standard

These sound settings are making it somewhat tolerable. Still bad though.

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It's amazing how we try the fixes and at first it seems things got better, but as you keep playing, it soon goes back to being unbearable.
That's exactly what that suggestion and many others made for me.
Maybe slight improvement, but the next day, it's terrible again.

Yep, sound still screwed.

My sub is up in a couple days and I'm seriously considering cancelling it for the first time in 7 years until they fix whatever they broke.

Still choppy audio

it feels like it got worse.

I don't think this Hotfix addressed anything audio related, did it?

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Originally Posted by AsheNabuddis

I don't think this Hotfix addressed anything audio related, did it?

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Nope. I'm pretty sure it was just focused on putting extra power into the servers to up the number of people that could log in. We're pretty SOL for having clear sound.

Okay this is ridiculous, uptill now I was getting this only in combat and not even in dungeons/trials, now its gone to all cutscenes and every now and then in open world.
Literally doing Praetorium as I write this and its happening in every cutscene.
Never had this happen before in Shadowbringers.
At first I thought my PC is bad and thats the reason, but its happening in freaking Praetorium of all places so thats obviously not the case.

As I said in a earlier post, I opened a ticket on SE Support Center a few days ago, and they answered me by email today, although the website says they don't answer most of the tickets individually.

I took this opportunity to reply to them with an appeal for them to fix this bug in a hotfix as soon as possible instead of us having to wait until Patch 6.01 two weeks from now.
I linked to them close to 40 threads on Lodestone and Reddit of players reporting and discussing this issue (including this one), hoping that they'll see the seriousness of the situation.

Again, I suggest that everyone suffering from this issue, that has still not opened a ticket on SE Support Center, do this through the link below:
https://support.eu.square-enix.com/c...383&la=2&fty=2
As you will give them your PC specs, it should help them figuring out what might the causes of problem, and it also shall bring to their attention that there is great number of players in need of this fix.

The fact that we have to wait till patch when this is probably the most game ruining issue after server stuff is pretty ludicrous. Having to play through msq with these issues soured the experience a lot for me and i'm sure i'm not the only one.

Well SE is aware of the issue and actively working on it, it's obviously a major set of issues that is going to take time and require a client side patch to fix so demanding a solution is kind of pointless at this stage. Game releases have bugs, fact of life, the fact this one only effects a small portion of people makes it even harder to troubleshoot and fix. No point getting too salty about it.

To those who are complaining that this has ruined the MSQ experience for them, I ask you why did you continue to play the MSQ knowing full well you had the issue?? Why not just wait for a fix? It's sad not being able to play but I'm not going to ruin my favourite game for the sake of being impatient.

I submitted my bug report. Hopefully if we give them enough specs they'll be able to solve this faster.

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Originally Posted by OmniusOmnium

Well SE is aware of the issue and actively working on it, it's obviously a major set of issues that is going to take time and require a client side patch to fix so demanding a solution is kind of pointless at this stage. Game releases have bugs, fact of life, the fact this one only effects a small portion of people makes it even harder to troubleshoot and fix. No point getting too salty about it.

To those who are complaining that this has ruined the MSQ experience for them, I ask you why did you continue to play the MSQ knowing full well you had the issue?? Why not just wait for a fix? It's sad not being able to play but I'm not going to ruin my favourite game for the sake of being impatient.

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I'd probably be more mad about this if everyone else wasn't also behind on Endwalker cause of the queue times.
Even when the patch and the raid drops there'll be people still getting through the MSQ. It'll be fine.

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Originally Posted by OmniusOmnium

To those who are complaining that this has ruined the MSQ experience for them, I ask you why did you continue to play the MSQ knowing full well you had the issue?? Why not just wait for a fix? It's sad not being able to play but I'm not going to ruin my favourite game for the sake of being impatient.

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I've got a few reasons

- I'm trying to see if I can do non-combat stuff and just deal with it through the cutscenes and maybe a dungeon if the sound is behaving since mine is sporadic
- I'm only on vacation this week
- I've been looking forward to this story for months
- I've already had spoilers from friends who couldn't keep their mouths shut

So it's oversimplifying to try to sum up reasons as merely "impatient"

I have had limited success by adding the 3d audio pack (free trial). It now only happens at load times between zones and during short moments in fights, usually at times with extra effects audio (boss ult or similar)
I'll add my specs to help with the data
CPU: AMD FX-8350
GPU: XFX Radeon R9 290
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
OS: Windows 10 64bit (up to date)
Audio driver: Realtek HD Audio

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Originally Posted by OmniusOmnium

To those who are complaining that this has ruined the MSQ experience for them, I ask you why did you continue to play the MSQ knowing full well you had the issue?? Why not just wait for a fix? It's sad not being able to play but I'm not going to ruin my favourite game for the sake of being impatient.

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That's a bit of an unreasonable ask when waiting until the 21st would prevent us from gathering mats, getting gear ready for the raid tier, would make us pretty much have to go radio silent for a solid 3 weeks to avoid talkative friends, etc. Plus, not ever zone is as bad as the 3rd one in terms of how it handles cutscenes. There will be a few hours where I wonder why I complained so much about the minimal popping and stuttering. Though, usually right after I think that, something happens that makes me recall why this is a huge issue. A gracious friend of mine actually has been streaming dungeon music to me while I've been going through those muted (as it's worse in combat), which I appreciate.

I guess what I'm saying is we're stuck between a rock and a hard place on what will ruin the experience more. This whole expansion launch is already really tainted for me due to this. I'd rather accept my loss at this point and make do with what tools I have to prevent it from being worse.

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Originally Posted by OmniusOmnium

Well To those who are complaining that this has ruined the MSQ experience for them, I ask you why did you continue to play the MSQ knowing full well you had the issue?? Why not just wait for a fix? It's sad not being able to play but I'm not going to ruin my favourite game for the sake of being impatient.

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Bit of a loaded question to be honest.

We've been waiting for the expansion for around 10 months, it's been hyped up to all hell, it's the final chapter in a long long story, and people want to be current with the stoyr so that they can talk about it with their friends. Honestly I'm not upset that sound issues exist, it's frustrating for sure, it sort of cheapens the experience when music is such a strong part of the games personality and having it marred by sound issues is deeply frustrating when you just want to hear it at it's best, like it's meant to be heard. But all that aside I'm not going to stop the story just because the audio is popping or choppy, I'm not going to sit on my hands and wait any longer to play new content in the game that I love. If the game audio is buggy at launch that is something I can accept.

That doesn't mean I can't complain about it though, make my issue with the bugs known. I feel like my experience is cheapened, but it's certainly not lost.

Just curious... How many of you having audio issues HAVNT overclocked their FX Series CPU?

Its eerie how many of us are running an AMD FX "Bulldozer" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulldo...roarchitecture).
Any time I post my CPU anywhere online for tech support, or when I got some IRL help after my motherboard died, I get someone commenting on my "Bulldozer". Apparently this series is freakishly powerful for its time - but produces a metric gigaton of heat and is super NOT energy efficient.

In other words, I'm sure I'm far from the only one in this thread who doesnt have to turn on their heater in the winter.

Looks like we all got Asus Boards cause it allows for AM3+ to go along with a Nvidia GTX 10xx Ti. Anyway...

CPU: AMD FX-8320
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Pro R2.0

Changing to Directx 9.0 and locking the framerate to 37 improved quite a bit for me. I'm getting way less audio stuterrings except for some moments during battles. Not happening on cutscenes anymore.

But now the game runs like crap lol 37 fps locked but when i enter in crowded towns it goes down to 20fps. But hey, atleast i can play the story lol

Oh and my game crashed once with directx 9.0

I have the same issue here, Directx12, did everything and the sound is cracking a lot. Thank god is the game, and not in my end.

I'm curious, is someone who plays on SSD suffering from this issue?
I have an SSD on my PC but it was so full that I installed this game on a HD, and I've playing from the HD the past two years.
I'm considering formating the partition in which I have Linux installed on my SSD, just to use it for Final Fantasy XIV. It would sure help with loading times, but would there be any possibility of it helping with the stuttering issue too?

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Originally Posted by Elliah-Seraheart

Just curious... How many of you having audio issues HAVNT overclocked their FX Series CPU?

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As for this matter: no, I have not overclocked my CPU.
I've already posted my specs before, but here it goes again:

CPU: AMD FX-8370E Eight-Core Processor
GPU: AMD Radeon R9 280
Motherboard: ASUS M5A78L-M PLUS/USB3

Still unplayable with this audio problems

Adding my experience to this thread.

I've been having audio issues that seem to be related to Dx11, every time I boot up the game with my headset plugged in the game crashes on start up and when it doesn't and I manage to get into the title screen the audio is distorted/choppy, and I mean all audio from bgm to effects.
I'm very puzzled as when I was playing Endwalker last weekend I didn't encounter any audio problems. It just started happening this last monday.

I've noted that this happens when I have my headset plugged in, when I dont have a headset plugged into the pc the game boots up just fine. Even if I start the game without the headset plugged into the usb port and get in game, as soon as I plug the headset back in, the game just crashes.

I've tried Reinstalling my gpu and audio drivers along with FFXIV, meddled with the audio settings in windows, deactivated any audio enhancements, deactivated support for dx11 in ffxiv's client and although audio sounds alright in dx9 it lags and crashes in areas with a lot of players. I tried to play other games aside from ffxiv and they all work fine. It seems to be a specific issue with FFXIV.

At this point I'm not sure what can be done to fix this issue, and its unfortunately very frustrating having to deal with this in one of my favorite games.

im gonna ask this again, someone notice if your CPU is in high usage after this patch?
i think this overused/overheat on CPU is the cause of the problem

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Originally Posted by AluneTempest

im gonna ask this again, someone notice if your CPU is in high usage after this patch?
i think this overused/overheat on CPU is the cause of the problem

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not over 50% at all. dont think temperature is a thing

Hello everyone, I haven't had a chance to read the thread in it's entirety, but as someone who's experiencing the audio bug -ONLY- in combat I may have found a solution. By limiting my FPS with the in-game settings to 30 frames, audio popping during combat appears to have stopped. I don't know if there is a full list of things to try, but forcing ones FPS to a lower cap may help.

Regardless; Good luck everyone, and let's keep posting what we can and hope for a better solution from the Devs to arrive sooner rather than later.

same problem here. I'm going to try out one of the ideas people have written here, and I'll come back if I can find something useful.

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Originally Posted by Elliah-Seraheart

Just curious... How many of you having audio issues HAVNT overclocked their FX Series CPU?

Its eerie how many of us are running an AMD FX "Bulldozer" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulldo...roarchitecture).
Any time I post my CPU anywhere online for tech support, or when I got some IRL help after my motherboard died, I get someone commenting on my "Bulldozer". Apparently this series is freakishly powerful for its time - but produces a metric gigaton of heat and is super NOT energy efficient.

In other words, I'm sure I'm far from the only one in this thread who doesnt have to turn on their heater in the winter.

Looks like we all got Asus Boards cause it allows for AM3+ to go along with a Nvidia GTX 10xx Ti. Anyway...

CPU: AMD FX-8320
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Pro R2.0

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CPU: AMD FX-8350 Eight-Core Processor
GPU: AMD Radeon R9 270x
Motherboard: MSI 990FXA-GD65

I thought it was just my room, but yeah no heat in the winter, room temp will go from 76 degrees F to 83-86 degrees if I don't throttle the CPU.

Which is how I found this issue is drastically affected by CPU throttling. You can change "Maximum processor state" in power options, and 70-80% usually doesn't slow anything down too noticeably but stops the fans from roaring and literally shaking my desk as the thing heats the room.

More details on that setting in my bug report: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5737641

(Also, no Asus or Nvidia, and still having the issue.)

Adding to this, I seem to have finally fixed it!

Go to control panel, hardware and sound, power options, and set your power plan to "Balanced" if it's set on "save power"

No audio issues at all afterwards! I'm playing on DX9, so I don't know if it'll work for DX11, but please try and see if it works.

Please be aware that the issue relating to combat noise/effects being 'muted' or flat also occurs on PS5 & this has only occurred since Patch 6.0 release. All attempts to achieve previous sound levels via PS5 itself & in game settings have failed.
It would appear that it is the game that is at fault & not our equipment & devs please need to investigate/resolve as the current sounds are absolutely awful.

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Originally Posted by Toanon

Adding to this, I seem to have finally fixed it!

Go to control panel, hardware and sound, power options, and set your power plan to "Balanced" if it's set on "save power"

No audio issues at all afterwards! I'm playing on DX9, so I don't know if it'll work for DX11, but please try and see if it works.

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My power setting was already at performance, so this may not be the fix you think it is. Heres hoping im wrong and you can solder on

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Originally Posted by AeroXaia

CPU: AMD FX-8350 Eight-Core Processor
GPU: AMD Radeon R9 270x
Motherboard: MSI 990FXA-GD65

I thought it was just my room, but yeah no heat in the winter, room temp will go from 76 degrees F to 83-86 degrees if I don't throttle the CPU.

Which is how I found this issue is drastically affected by CPU throttling. You can change "Maximum processor state" in power options, and 70-80% usually doesn't slow anything down too noticeably but stops the fans from roaring and literally shaking my desk as the thing heats the room.

More details on that setting in my bug report: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5737641

(Also, no Asus or Nvidia, and still having the issue.)

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Afaik the only throttling going on (if you don't underclock your CPU) is when your CPU gets too hot. But that wouldnt JUST affect audio. It would also result in low fps - and obvious delay with input etc.
My CPU doesnt get hot when playing FF14 - and the audio stuttering is absolutely not related to downthrottling of CPU when too hot. I also know that it's not related to the CPU not being able to draw enough Volts.

I overclocked my CPU some 2 years ago, and made sure to have really good cooling - because i knew how much heat it would produce. I specifically bought a new power supply that is able to supply the overclock sufficiently, and then some.

Another day, another day not being able to play the game that requires a monthly sub. Feels GREAT. Maybe by then, we will be able to hear something from their end. Just gotta stay... positive, lads. :)