Audio popping issue

[Kaedaemicis]

I'm sorry to hear that! It's been driving me craaazy until I tried the 0% ambient sound and mine seemed to work. Hope it gets resolved soon cause it's HIGHLY annoying.

[minopoki]

At least it has been heard of and it will be addressed. You are very much skeptical, and I do understand, but you are very much underestimating Square... You are free to take a break if its really bothering you and come back later

I don't see things to be very promising either.
All we had was just another comment that gives more importance to our system specs than to the game engine itself.
It really seems they haven't still understood the problem and aren't giving much importance to it, whether or not it's because of more urgent matters related to server overload.
The reality is we got no real perspective to an early fix, or of a response to the legacy sound option request.

I think I've done my part. I've already submitted my system specs via 2 different channels, been very active here in the forums discussing the problem in attempt of a solution, even wrote a thread in Japanese, and now I got kinda tired, not to say disappointed.

It's hard to leave a game that's been part of my life for 2 years, and that I was so excited to follow the story, not to mention the frustration of having spent so much money in a expansion that was VERY expensive in my country and not be able to play it. And, besides everything, the perspective of exploring the expansion as new together with the player community is already lost.

I can't tell if SE is neglecting us or if they really don't have the time/resources to look into this, but at this point, it doesn't matter anymore to me.
I really believe we'll be, patch after patch starting 6.05 on Jan 4th, hoping to see it was fixed just to see it was not, until someday, months from now, when we'll either finally have a miracle fix, or a note telling us they finally realized they can't do anything about this.

I'll be very happy if you're right and I'm really underestimating SquareEnix, but I'm kind of resigned.
Although, it's personally sad to me, I'll just leave this matter be, play other things, focus on other things in life, and if I hear this was fixed, I might return to the game.

[TojiSuzuhara]

I appreciate we finally get another response, albeit a tonedeaf one. We've already tried everything and the kitchen sink to fix this ourselves in terms of troubleshooting. What's even a little more disrespectful is basically the assumption that our computers can't handle it, when realistically if that were the case, this new "spatial audio" bs should have been in the Benchmark where had I at least noticed it then i would assume it was indeed a hardware issue. My only recommendation to people is to file a bug report both on here and in game because even though we got a response, i would not consider it as "it's being looked into" and they need to see mass reports of this to actually consider it something worth fixing.

[Timidity]

I don't see things to be very promising either.
All we had was just another comment that gives more importance to our system specs than to the game engine itself.
It really seems they haven't still understood the problem and aren't giving much importance to it, whether or not it's because of more urgent matters related to server overload.
The reality is we got no real perspective to an early fix, or of a response to the legacy sound option request.

I think I've done my part. I've already submitted my system specs via 2 different channels, been very active here in the forums discussing the problem in attempt of a solution, even wrote a thread in Japanese, and now I got kinda tired, not to say disappointed.

It's hard to leave a game that's been part of my life for 2 years, and that I was so excited to follow the story, not to mention the frustration of having spent so much money in a expansion that was VERY expensive in my country and not be able to play it. And, besides everything, the perspective of exploring the expansion as new together with the player community is already lost.

I can't tell if SE is neglecting us or if they really don't have the time/resources to look into this, but at this point, it doesn't matter anymore to me.
I really believe we'll be, patch after patch starting 6.05 on Jan 4th, hoping to see it was fixed just to see it was not, until someday, months from now, when we'll either finally have a miracle fix, or a note telling us they finally realized they can't do anything about this.

I'll be very happy if you're right and I'm really underestimating SquareEnix, but I'm kind of resigned.
Although, it's personally sad to me, I'll just leave this matter be, play other things, focus on other things in life, and if I hear this was fixed, I might return to the game.

As far as I'm aware as I've stated in one of the posts before, all the issues that have been a part of the game in the past have been resolved in time orderly manner, I sincerely doubt you will have to wait for so long as you've said. I understand the frustration but do not give in

[Elliah-Seraheart]

Hello, everyone.

Thank you very much for your feedback concerning audio issues you’ve been experiencing.

We understand that these issues have persisted for players after Patch 6.01. In order for us to get a better understanding of the cases that have yet to be resolved, we’d like to ask for those affected to try the following:

• Because resource requirements and other factors gradually increase with each update, reducing CPU performance load may improve the situation.
  
  • Reduce the number of characters and objects displayed through System Configuration > Other Settings > Character and Object Display, or change the Graphics Settings to Standard.
• Close any applications that are running in the background.
  
• For Windows users, open the Sound Control Panel, right-click your default device in the Playback tab and open Properties, then under the Advanced tab, configure the Default Format to a lower setting.

If the previous steps do not improve the situation, we ask that you confirm the following to help determine the issue and distinguish whether it is system-related.

• Does the problem still occur after disabling the DirectX 11 Support option in the launcher settings?
  
• For gamepad users, does the problem still persist after disconnecting or changing your gamepad device?

If the steps above do not resolve your situation, we ask that you create a post in the Bug Report section using the bug report template, along with your system information and the steps taken to troubleshoot. This will assist our support team when they gather the information to share with the development team for review and investigation.

We sincerely apologize for the frustration this has caused and appreciate your understanding.

Hi. I've just send in an official bug report through the ingame feature - but I want to reinforce that these issues ARE NOT RELATED to CPU workload, FPS or heat for me. I, like many others here am using an FX8320. BUT I do not have any problems with the workload. In fact, I'm just about the only one here who's issues have been gradually getting better since 6.0.

There MAY BE increased workload to be done by the CPU in Endwalker- BUT it's not THE CAUSE of the audio issues experienced by most people here, I'm pretty sure. At least NOT THE ONLY CAUSE.

I made a video here demonstrating very clearly WHAT the issues is in 6.01, that it is ABSOLUTELY unrelated to FPS/CPU workload, and that it's VERY MUCH related to the ambient channel.
https://youtu.be/gYGu2rv3gbg?t=307

Heck, I made another video just to prove that it's NOT CPU STRAIN that is causing audio issues. If anything, it's the audio issues that are taxing the hardware. Not the other way around. And the only strain I experience is NOT on my much weaker, old FX 8320 CPU, but on my 2019, now like 800$ Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti. Though I suspect this is THE RESULT of the audio issues, not THE CAUSE. Even if it WAS the cause, it really shouldnt be on a 1070 Ti.
https://youtu.be/fX5gt0Dhwd4

Here's a demonstration done in 6.0 where it's very clear, that the original issues were very much related to camera position, and absolutely unrelated to FPS/CPU Workload.
https://youtu.be/sLQW6ShIkJY

CPU: AMD FX 8320
GPU Nvidia 1070 Ti (30.0.14.9709)
RAM: 32 GB RAM DDR3
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Pro3 V2.0
Stereo Headphones 41k Hz 16 Bit (Lowest setting!. All effects disabled - no but also happens on much lower settings on other headphones)
Realtek High Definition Audio 6.0.9132.1
Windows 10 Pro 64 bit (10.0.19042)

[MiaShino]

It took much time to find simple way of stating this.. maahhh things make so much sense in the mind yet when you attempt putting them to words everything goes fooey.

This audio stuttering issue reminds me of the type of issues experienced during HLE audio emulation on console emulators. It seems Square could be struggling to schedule audio processing requests across multiple cpu cores if any slowdown in the pipeline occurs. This results in the audio engine waiting to process new requests which as you hear causes stuttering effect. This would be especially prominent on FX cpus because of unique nature of core configuration.

Example time! On Bulldozer (FX series) cpu cores do not have dedicated floating point units opting instead to share one across two cores. They are much much of the worse at certain calculations especially ones requiring these floating point units. Vector calculations were and still are quite difficult to work with and as spatial audio requires many of these to be made..

You cannot rely on cpu utilization either. You may see something close to 40% utilization and wonder; but the cpu is not at 100% so I have additional headroom! You may in fact not. If something has stalled thus starving those cpu cores of something to process it will not be processing anything so will read as "not fully saturated". Even worse for FX because if that shared floating point unit is busy doing something then both cpu cores sharing it must also wait.

I may have the number of FP units per core cluster wrong so many apologies again. I hated working with bulldozer and do not do much difficult software development anymore (because it causes insanity..).

Square must increase the audio buffer (this may introduce slight audio delay but is highly preferable to crackling audio) or add option for number of audio channels into the sound options going forward.

For any suffering from this issue who also attempt thousands of erroneous solutions, I would not waste too much time doing this. I.. just.. cannot believe a major developer would make drastic overhaul to their sound engine without seemingly properly testing it across multiple hardware configurations. At the least they should have implemented a legacy fall back should unforeseen problems arise allowing users to temporarily roll back to working solution until problem is resolved. Then I find out they charge for the sound pack that created the issue in first place, seriously? Who does this?

Myself and friends are not encountering the issue yet on older hardware (i7 4790K and Amd Phenom x4).

Edit time! The PS3 cell micro architecture suffered from similar issues when attempting to make those pesky spes do anything because you had to wait for the ppe. It was unholy nightmare for many.

[Maeklos]

Square must increase the audio buffer (this may introduce slight audio delay but is highly preferable to crackling audio) or add option for number of audio channels into the sound options going forward.

Or, just reinstate the sound engine from Shadowbringers and allow that as an optional choice.

[GorthRedsteel]

It took much time to find simple way of stating this.. maahhh things make so much sense in the mind yet when you attempt putting them to words everything goes fooey.

This audio stuttering issue reminds me of the type of issues experienced during HLE audio emulation on console emulators. It seems Square could be struggling to schedule audio processing requests across multiple cpu cores if any slowdown in the pipeline occurs. This results in the audio engine waiting to process new requests which as you hear causes stuttering effect. This would be especially prominent on FX cpus because of unique nature of core configuration.

Example time! On Bulldozer (FX series) cpu cores do not have dedicated floating point units opting instead to share one across two cores. They are much much of the worse at certain calculations especially ones requiring these floating point units. Vector calculations were and still are quite difficult to work with and as spatial audio requires many of these to be made..

You cannot rely on cpu utilization either. You may see something close to 40% utilization and wonder; but the cpu is not at 100% so I have additional headroom! You may in fact not. If something has stalled thus starving those cpu cores of something to process it will not be processing anything so will read as "not fully saturated". Even worse for FX because if that shared floating point unit is busy doing something then both cpu cores sharing it must also wait.

I may have the number of FP units per core cluster wrong so many apologies again. I hated working with bulldozer and do not do much difficult software development anymore (because it causes insanity..).

Square must increase the audio buffer (this may introduce slight audio delay but is highly preferable to crackling audio) or add option for number of audio channels into the sound options going forward.

For any suffering from this issue who also attempt thousands of erroneous solutions, I would not waste too much time doing this. I.. just.. cannot believe a major developer would make drastic overhaul to their sound engine without seemingly properly testing it across multiple hardware configurations. At the least they should have implemented a legacy fall back should unforeseen problems arise allowing users to temporarily roll back to working solution until problem is resolved. Then I find out they charge for the sound pack that created the issue in first place, seriously? Who does this?

Myself and friends are not encountering the issue yet on older hardware (i7 4790K and Amd Phenom x4).

Edit time! The PS3 cell micro architecture suffered from similar issues when attempting to make those pesky spes do anything because you had to wait for the ppe. It was unholy nightmare for many.

Thanks mate for a great explanation! You actually know what you are talking about which makes it a pleasure to read. Now, if only Sicycre could get this post translated and send to the devs, then perhaps we could get a fix out before the end of Endwalker. lol

[MiaShino]

Thanks mate for a great explanation! You actually know what you are talking about which makes it a pleasure to read. Now, if only Sicycre could get this post translated and send to the devs, then perhaps we could get a fix out before the end of Endwalker. lol

Aww many thanks! The at the times crippling imposter syndrome makes me believe otherwise.. Am rusty but all the mention of FX cpus brought back horrible memories of that hot mess of architecture.

If anyone is still curious out there and experiencing problems using the newer Ryzen I have umm, unfortunate news because Ryzen suffers from own unique problem.

Anyone working with Linux or Windows schedulers may know what I am speaking of, it has to do with communicating between core clusters across that "infinity fabric". Optimally you will wish to avoid communicating between primary and secondary blocks of core clusters with there being four cores per main cluster and eight per secondary cluster. Any communication between secondary clusters can suffer from bandwidth constraints.

I should hope they were aware of these things when consulting third party to slap one new audio engine together. You should not do this, save sweeping changes for later patches. If they were somehow not, may it help!

[Maeklos]

I should hope they were aware of these things when consulting third party to slap one new audio engine together. You should not do this, save sweeping changes for later patches. If they were somehow not, may it help!

You know, if they tore apart their testing servers in order to bolster the login servers to help combat the 2002 errors, that would explain why they weren't able to do as thorough of testing on 6.01 as might have otherwise been the case. Especially since they thought that 6.01 would fix the problems introduced in 6.0, only to have them cascade tenfold.