Audio popping issue

[Moxie16]

I am also having this issue. I am not tech savvy. I have tried minimal things to fix it; none have worked. The sound lags, especially in combat. Sometimes it catches up but most of the time I have to mute my speakers so I don't lose my mind. I can't hear music on my mount without that stuttering, lately. Seems like a waste to buy the expansion when I cant even play it with 100% functionality.

[ValStryder]

Changed to DX9 and it resolved SOME of the problems, but now I'm getting all the instability related to DX9.

This is definitely a problem related to whatever new sound stuff is with the game, hopefully they either fix it or remove it soon.

I'm not losing any FPS at all when it happens, oddly enough. I also know my GPU is not even close to maxed out. The only -possible- thing on my end might be my CPU but that's highly unlikely as prior to the expansion there wasn't even the slightest hint of problems and other games are just fine.

[jolarini]

This is definitely due to the new sound system, and I hope we don't have to wait another 2 weeks or longer for the fix. Please continue trying to get the devs attention on this issue (pray emoji)

[Ifrinne]

I do use an old computer that when playing 14 usually runs 80% cpu and like 60% gpu but until the last day of shadowbringers i had no sound issues not even in large scale battles that had so much players that not everyone displayed and i had only 25fps. This is not in any way related to settings on the game. I wonder has anyone here tried reinstalling the game and deleting the configs of the game?

[Nommers]

I've been having occasional audio stutters when players or NPCs near me use combat skills ever since 6.0 dropped into early access. It wasn't all the time but some of the dungeons and trials in Endwalker were nearly unbearable for me. 6.01 seems to have dramatically exacerbated the issue and now it's every time a skill is used by anyone nearby, even when people are just crafting or extracting materia from their gear. It also happens to the music in zone transitions for some reason, and it's bad enough that I have to take off my headphones while the new area loads. The game is effectively unplayable for me at the moment.

I do have an FX 8350 but it seems that not all reports are from fellow old-and-busted AMD CPU users. I've tried some of the "fixes" suggested by the devs and other users but frankly as a long-suffering Bethesda fan I've wasted more than my fair share of time on wild goose chases trying to fix issues in games that are clearly on the devs' end. This only affects FFXIV, never happened before Endwalker, and was made worse by the patch. It's not on us, Squeenix.

I sincerely hope a hotfix is forthcoming, hopefully long before 6.05. Watching Square Enix ignore this issue for three weeks, only to then make it worse to the point that the game is unplayable, has been disheartening to say the least, especially when the sound and music in this expansion is otherwise so spectacular. A legacy audio system would be a fantastic temporary measure assuming it's technically possible. Fingers crossed for a Christmas miracle.

[Teiren]

I feel like just posting every day in which duties I get stuttering or don't as I randomly do them. Note this is only ever when fighting, and I got absolutely zero stuttering before 6.0.1.
Today:
Titan Hard: None at all.
Second dungeon of Endwalker: None all the way until the area immediately before second boss (the "centipedes"). Then, again at second boss but only once bombs explode and for a little bit after. Still again all throughout last area. However, none at all through the last boss.
Syrcus Tower: None until after first boss, then always can crop up in varying degrees of severity.
Alexander - The Arm of the Father: All through the first area. However, none at boss.
Smileton: All the way through with considerably varying degrees of severity. Sometimes, it seemed to really depend on where in the background I was looking at.
The Stigma Dreamscape: Present in the very first area, then only in the last area before last boss.

Another issue that I didn't realize until doing old duties for the first time since 6.0: The sound balance is messed up, let alone the bass and other players' volume. It's particularly noticeable with Ambient Sounds in Arm of the Father for the electrified water. What's funny is that my computer is very old, yet actually suffering far less than people with much newer computers, so just getting a new computer isn't really an answer. For reference, my GPU is GeForce GTX 970 and CPU is i7 920 2.67 GHz, and I'm on a hard drive. Yeah, that's how old, yet still doing a lot better than people with modern computers and had zero problems before Endwalker.

Just why. Why ruin your game for...what, a silly collaboration with Embody, the entity that pushed this utterly ruinous Spatial Audio on us? It was all perfect before. It didn't need any "improvement" to make Endwalker as good as it was. I'm just so lucky I was able to finish just before the patch.

[Grimno]

Just why. Why ruin your game for...what, a small payday from Embody, the entity that pushed this utterly ruinous Spatial Audio on us? It was all perfect before. It didn't need any "improvement" to make Endwalker as good as it was. I'm just so lucky I was able to finish just before the patch.

If I recall, the Benchmark test doesn't even use the new audio. It's still the Shadowbringers era one.
And like... it sounded so much better! Audio was more clear, sounds from sources had more distinction, and not a single crackle or pop.
I want that audio back!
It wasn't broken. It worked fine. I never, ever, EVER saw someone go "Oh man the audio just could be so much better."
Square put a hat on a hat here. Congratulations.

[Teiren]

I do remember the benchmark sounding the same as always before Endwalker, yeah.

And looking at my post again as I updated it for Smileton: While I know it's not exactly helpful to be accusatory, it's really the only thing that makes sense to me, unfortunately. And Spatial Audio just looks so pretentious, lol. Not to mention that, no offense because this isn't a strike against the game (quite the opposite), I just don't think FFXIV is advanced enough to really take advantage of it. Even people that have legitimately used it say it's either muffled or not very good.

[EvilKiwi]

Another issue that I didn't realize until doing old duties for the first time since 6.0: The sound balance is messed up, let alone the bass and other players' volume. It's particularly noticeable with Ambient Sounds in Arm of the Father for the electrified water.

Oh my god, yeah. I see it in certain dungeons and duties. And I always have sound effects around 45 percent. Ran lvl 75 dungeon and when the statutes with the first add finish their aoe lines, the sound is ovepowering everything else. It's mind boggling!!

Speaking of when I hear it the most, for some reason its with a dps like red mage or bard. I play healer for the main story, and after the hoops i went through with the audio, I can hear the stutter only a few times thankfully, but the sacrifice is that the audio quality is frankly utter shit.

Also I finally see Square responded.... with saying it's on our end again. A'ight, bet, I'll try their ''fix'' THOROUGLY this evening. Also that is not a fix, that is putting the blame on us, yet again.

[Teiren]

I'll see what that's like if I end up doing that duty in a roulette. But yeah, having done only Endwalker stuff since release, naturally, I just plain couldn't know any better beyond hearing some oddities with my job sounds and other people's volume that I quickly got used to. But now that I'm back to doing roulettes since yesterday, I can directly compare my experience before and after Endwalker of all those duties I've done a LOT before. It's...sad.
At least I have my memories, and as I always know to be true, it could always be worse. And it IS for many people. I consider myself fortunate and certainly do not take it for granted now.