Audio popping issue

[Maeklos]

A question for the more hardware savvy:

If I swap the output driver from realtek to HDMI, would the audio be handled by the GPU instead?

If that was the case, wouldn't it theoretically solve the issue if I try to output the audio through the HDMI port and let the GPU handle the audio instead of using the motherboard P2/USB ports?

That's just something that crossed my mind though, I'm not knowledgeable about these specifics.

Funnily enough, someone posted this on my Petition thread (that got moved to General Discussion):

So, interesting side note, though I don't know if it'll help anyone else or not.

I run FFXIV's audio output manually redirected onto a pure-software sound device (a "virtual audio cable"); I've done this for ages, mostly so that I can capture the audio in OBS for streaming separately from any Windows system sounds, but it also allows me to swap the audio output around (using the 'Listen' tab of the VAC's device entry to have it output onto my headphones or my normal speakers).

The other day, I accidentally blew away those settings and FFXIV was playing audio directly onto my sound device... and I started having this audio issue. When I restored my VAC settings and forced FFXIV's audio through a virtual cable again, the issues stopped.

The problem is 100% in the game engine, but it seems like maybe it's some sort of timing-dependent thing, and that pure-software solutions like the Virtual Audio Cable stuff are not subject to this particular wonkiness? I haven't dug deeply, regardless, I just know it did fix things for me. I don't know if it'll work the same for anyone else, but it can't hurt to try?

There are multiple virtual audio cable options out there; if anyone else wants to try my specific setup and see if it fixes things for them, the one I used in this case was VB-Audio's. They offer one cable free, and then additional driver packs to add more cables are paid; the freebie cable pack would, I figure, be enough for someone else to test this as well.

If anyone else does try this, I'd be curious to know what the result is. I'm assuming that the virtual cable fixed the issue in my case (because it went away when I swapped back to using the cable), but it could hypothetically be pure coincidence.

[Nightly88]

Just made a forum account to add to this.
I had no issues whatsoever since the EW release, today I downloaded the patch 6.0.1 and I have sound interference throughout the game (even in title screen/BGM in queue). Switching from DX11 to DX9 fixes the sound issue, but my hardware does not seem to like it because my game would crash with DX9 ever so often - not to mention that playing on DX9 is fairly...limited.

I have tried every other fix mentioned in this thread to no avail.
For reference (cause people claim its AMD related) here my specs:
CPU: i9-9900k @ 3.6GHz
Graphics: EVGA RTX 3070 XC3 Ultra Gaming
MBO: Asus ROG Strix Z390-E Gaming
Headset: Astro A40 TR

[minopoki]

So, in the Japanese Forums, they suggested we tried the LatencyMon software to detect latency issues for audio.
My result turned out bad, as seen in the image below.

How is everyone else's result?
To check, open LatencyMon, click the green start button, wait at least 5-10 minutes, and if it gets Green, it means it's good, black means not so good, red means bad.

If you get a green result, try then running the scan while playing FFXIV to see if results change.

[ShindoriV2]

Audio goes all funky from the menu screen and continues into the game. Only thing that fixes it is a full reinstall. But once I close the game and reopen it's back.

[Nenue]

Just wanted to add to this to make sure this issue gets the attention it needs. As with most here, I am reasonably certain this is the game. I have tried all the fixes I can find including trying the spatial audio crap. Only FF has this problem, and has since Endwalker early access. The issue is not limited to AMD either, I know a friend running an Intel that has the same problem.

[Lo4DXD]

Same stuttering audio problems for me. I've tried to fix this with changing hz and other audio settings in windows, nothing helped.

The only thing that really helped was installing immerse gamepack (https://embody.co/pages/ffxiv), which enables spatial audio. Nonetheless there is still stuttering even with it, just significantly less.
And I must say I don't really like what spatial audio does - this 360 effect. It's ok with headphones, but I like to play sometimes without them. On speakers it sounds like in an aquarium. And with headphones I'd still prefer original audio too.

More over this immerse gamepack price is pretty crazy for what it does. I'm still on it's free trial, but it will end in about 17 days. I hope this problem will be fixed by then.

About the patch - I've waited for it's release to check whether audio becomes better, but nope - things only got worse. I've checked it by temporarly disabling spatial audio.

It'd be great to be able to switch to the old audio engine (pre-endwalker) in launcher settings as a temporary fix at least.

[crovius]

The issue started with me as well during Endwalker early access and it seems to be dependent on the where the camera is facing. When I turn it around, it will stop finally and when I turn it to where it was before, then the audio stuttering starts up again.

Things were perfectly fine in 5.5 and all other patches up until now. I was hopeful that this 6.0.1 patch was going to adjust this issue, but it seems to still be lingering here and only here as other games do not do this for me.

[Grimno]

The fact people with better computers then me is having the issue has me worried that even if I were to buy a whole new PC with better hardware to just strongarm the issue essentially... I could still end up having audio issues...

Wish Square would say something about it. Like this is now far beyond a few isolated incidents. I've even begun meeting people in-game on Gilgamesh who are also having issues. Spoke out in Endwalker's final zone when waiting for a specific timed FATE to spawn, and when I spoke of it, two others spoke up about having stuttering issues.

[Vendi]

So, interesting side note, though I don't know if it'll help anyone else or not.

I run FFXIV's audio output manually redirected onto a pure-software sound device (a "virtual audio cable"); I've done this for ages, mostly so that I can capture the audio in OBS for streaming separately from any Windows system sounds, but it also allows me to swap the audio output around (using the 'Listen' tab of the VAC's device entry to have it output onto my headphones or my normal speakers).

The other day, I accidentally blew away those settings and FFXIV was playing audio directly onto my sound device... and I started having this audio issue. When I restored my VAC settings and forced FFXIV's audio through a virtual cable again, the issues stopped.

The problem is 100% in the game engine, but it seems like maybe it's some sort of timing-dependent thing, and that pure-software solutions like the Virtual Audio Cable stuff are not subject to this particular wonkiness? I haven't dug deeply, regardless, I just know it did fix things for me. I don't know if it'll work the same for anyone else, but it can't hurt to try?

There are multiple virtual audio cable options out there; if anyone else wants to try my specific setup and see if it fixes things for them, the one I used in this case was VB-Audio's. They offer one cable free, and then additional driver packs to add more cables are paid; the freebie cable pack would, I figure, be enough for someone else to test this as well.

If anyone else does try this, I'd be curious to know what the result is. I'm assuming that the virtual cable fixed the issue in my case (because it went away when I swapped back to using the cable), but it could hypothetically be pure coincidence.

So I have tested out the solution to route the audio trough the Virtual audio cable by using the mentioned VB-Audio + Voice Meter (both can be downloaded on their website, you can get one virtual audio cable for free). After installling and restarting your PC, it is important to setup voice meter (or their audio mixer variant) so your main audio output, whatever you have (A1) is routed to the virtual cable (A2).
I have been testing this solution for around 60 min now as I am writing this, it does seem to make it much better (llok update1); if it stops working I will update the post! (look update 2,3)

Note: If someone else want to try this, would be appreciated. More people would give a better overwiev.

Update 1: like someone else said, its not perfect. Every 10-15 min it still happens (less than usual) for a few seconds. Compared to it happening all the time though, it is a solid improvement, at least the game is playble. I wonder if improvements can be made to this? will see if some option tweaking can be done.

Update 2: after some time it still does deteriorate for me and goes back to the old audio stutter (in fights), sigh. It is still worth trying, cause the issue affects everyone slightly different.

Update 3: attempt at fixing failed, now it does not wanna work anymore, even though it did for a time.
Conclusion: I have no idea what the issue with the game audio is at all anymore; we need a legacy feature to restore the audio before 6.0, from the devs

[Draconus03]

been happening to me since endwalker dropped every time i go into a dungeon its almost unplayable with the sound on