No Sound Effects

[Sannin]

I honestly think this is an issue with the realtek driver. I'm curious if everyone else was using that for their default sound device.

I plugged in my headset via USB instead of fiber cable and changed my default playback device to the headset. Ever since then I haven't had any issues.

Would bet money it's a compatibility issue with realtek drivers and it'll be a thing until they get an update, or something.

Can confirm that there is something to this. I have been having the no sound fx issue, but I do not have the degredated BGM issue. Tried the DX9 workaround, and though it resolved the sound issue, the instability and crashes made it a moot point. Tried changing the Logitec pro EQ setting and that didn't change anything for me. Then switched to headphone driver and the issue persisted (headphone driver is also on my Realtek driver set though, but is the difference between optical and and aux outputs). Then I tried something crazy to give Kanzer's theory a shot...and it worked: I don't recommend my method here though, however, hopefully greater minds than I can identify something from this and pin down a better workaround: essentially I went into Windows sound settings > App Volume and Device Preferences and forced FFXIV to output to one of the third party sound drivers from one of my additional monitors and that fixed it. However...to get it to actually play through my main speakers or headphones, I have to use OBS, add that sound driver as an output source and set that source to Monitor and Output. It's a terrible workaround, but it works, and it gives a little credence to what Kanzer is saying...at least on my system...and hopefully more savvy minds than I can identify a simpler way of applying these methods.