Audio popping issue

[TaleraRistain]

I've just gotten off a 10 day ban so I couldn't give this info before, but I tested my account on my husband's machine. He has a Ryzen 7 1700X and isn't having the issue. But I think we had some with later gen Ryzens who were.

[Elliah-Seraheart]

You complaining about people every few pages is essentially doing the same thing you are complaining about. As far as I am concerned the more people in here posting something about the issue, the better.

Hypocrisy aside - that's easy to say AFTER my original post got deleted cause it - low and behold - dared call the community out and (oh no) used the f word and close familiars. Guessing my post got deleted as retribution for getting the post deleted that flat out threw ableism my way. If you are reading this - you.. yes YOU. I AM autistic. Do with that what you will. I dont care.

Anyway - here's the original post with relevant links. Again.
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Original Post (more or less)

It has something to do with the camera positioning, and if there's any obstructions between the source of a sound and the listening position.

See video. And yeah, I got this off of Reddit. credit to PraggyD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLQW...&ab_channel=DP

That is my video/reddit post. It's completely outdated information. This was made on the day of Endwalker Release (02.12.2021). Stop rotating around the CPU issue, everyone. The problem has already been troubleshot and identified. It's crystal clear what the actual problem is, where it comes from and what needs to be done. It's not a hardware issue, and not an issue of FX Series Bulldozer architecture CPUs being too bad to play the game and process the audio.

People just arent reading the thread - and the relevant posts get buried immediately by posts stating the same thing for the 500th time. Stop posting the same low quality information over and over. You are actively making it harder for both players and square to see relevant posts. Read. The. Thread.

Here's a summary of the relevant posts I'm refering to. This is not the chronological order of posts, but in an order that helps you get a good idea of what the issue is, what has been done and what the final verdict is.
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Former software developer discusses first concerns about what could be the problem and what needs to be done. Explains why FX Series AMD CPUs are more vulnerable than other architectures, and proposes an audio buffer
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5771335
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Reassurance of said developer, that this is not an issue with the FX Series Bulldozer architecture being too weak a CPU to keep up with FF14 and it's audio, calling into question that this is indeed a hardware issue.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...428&viewfull=1
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Someone found evidence that the audio channels never stop playing audio, and are not properly separated. This becomes important further down the list. Popping is also observed in the visual audio equalizer.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5775054
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Enlightening Article explaining how lossless, uncompressed and spatial audio work. All the side effects from that type of audio are discussed in the article, and appear to be exactly what is happening in FF14. Further video proof with reproducable audio issues.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5778604
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Benchmark tests that proof that system is perfectly capable of running FF14 and real time audio. More video evidence including a 3 minute video that reproduces audio issue in controlled environment and shows CPU and GPU data alongside it.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5777850
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Software developer analyses above video, mentions CPU bottleneck but ultimately thinks it's alarming that my CPU is being contrained any time the audio issues pop up. Suggests audio issues are the CAUSE of additional CPU strain experienced by people since 6.0, rather than audio issues being the effect of increased CPU strain.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5777948
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Software developer asks for stress testing to put a heavy load on the CPU. Since folding proteins is a really high stress test for CPUs, and just like spatial audio does a ton of floating point calculations - this is the agreed upon method.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5778061
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Stress test is delivered. It is very clear that the audio issues are NOT caused by CPU strain. It further shows that it's the other way around, if anything.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5778151
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Software developer draws his final verdict. There are too many audio emitters. There are also a lot of emitters being treated as spatial, although they have no reason to. The audio channels are not properly separated. The audio never stops playing, and is instead sending continuous stop calls - generating even more emitters. The volume of calls will continue to grow until the audio driver begins dropping requests, resulting in audio stutter. The fact that the audio is now lossless, uncompressed, spatial audio plays heavily into this and makes this issue 10x worse.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5778799
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If you are looking for a summary of things that may or may not help alleviate the audio issues somewhat - I've compiled everything found in this thread, and everything I found online here. This is certainly not a fix, but may help a bit.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5777769

[Mekhana]

Square should just take the big L and take back audio the way it used to be. Down the line with long-term testing, they can bring it back.

[minopoki]

Anyway - here's the original post with relevant links. Again.

Elliah, I have a suggestion, if you're willing, maybe you could create a new thread with those informations in the opening post.
Since this thread is already polluted, that would make informations more visible and accessible, and if new info come up that you'd want to add, it would probably be more convenient to just update the post.

[Narissa]

I am having the same issue Audio is heavily stuttering in combat, its gotten worse infact, its somehow gotten even louder.. Its extremely annoying and it puts me off even wanting to do anything..

Problem is now, if I turn on DX9, the game will blackscreen every now and then and literally load forever and then just crash.. which means helllooo queue.

This sucks, its clear its coming from the game, I've tried 4 different headsets and speakers, played other games (no issues) and tested the audio on my PC.. This only started happening when I dl'd endwalker.

Edit: Its also happening on occasion, outside of combat aswell, in cities and in housing zones

I made this post on the 21/12/2021, since then, its gotten a little bit okish in some areas and alot worse in others.

I can nolonger load DX9 because each time I go into any dungeon or just tp & load into anywhere, I will be faced most of the time with an endless black loading screen that gets me nowhere, I can still hear noises and click on things but ya.. This was not an issue before endwalker. So I am now forced to stay on DX11.

The combat sound stuttering comes and goes in dungeons but is absolutely terrible in trials, so much that it almost feels like I'm lagging but I'm not, I have to take my headset off or mute the sound because the screeching in my ear is immense.

So ya, wonder how long we need to play without our sound on til this gets looked at

[Jizu]

Elliah, I have a suggestion, if you're willing, maybe you could create a new thread with those informations in the opening post.
Since this thread is already polluted, that would make informations more visible and accessible, and if new info come up that you'd want to add, it would probably be more convenient to just update the post.

I agree that this is a Tech Support Forum and we should try to keep info as consice as possible, but I also agree that people adding to this Forum with their voice is helping. It shows more and more people are either experiencing the issue or are finally annoyed enough to seek out the Forums and voice their upset. A lot of people have a high tolerance for things like this if it means not to have to 1. Register to a Forum, 2. Write a Post, 3. Make a detailed Bug Report.
I'm glad to see many first time posters in this thread.

But I also would be happy to see your posts highlighted more. Regardless of speech, wording and frustration - I get it - your posts have been very infomative and well compilated lists. A new Thread with detailed Info (that isn't just individual Bug Reports) will possibly help push things along for the probably stumped Developers.

If we can agree to try and keep general discussion here and post relevant Information there, I'd be a good thing (I hope)!
After all, it's the only place I got, personally, to read and talk with other people with the same Issue.

[Elliah-Seraheart]

Elliah, I have a suggestion, if you're willing, maybe you could create a new thread with those informations in the opening post.
Since this thread is already polluted, that would make informations more visible and accessible, and if new info come up that you'd want to add, it would probably be more convenient to just update the post.

I've seen all your incredible posts, both here and on the JP forums - and I'm glad for all the effort you put in. I compiled pretty much the exact same list I just posted in this thread, over in the thread you started over in JP, linking to google translated versions of the posts.

That said, while this is a great suggestion, I think that's not going to achieve much. At least not here on the english forums.

What we really need to do IMO, is get this straight to square themselves with as much quality information as we can. I would have liked for other people to help provide info square can really work with in this thread - for what is now almost a month. Unfortunately hardly anyone did. Either way- I think we need to get all the info we have straight to square - be it through the JP forums, or through social. That's what I believe.

I've been messaging people on different social plattforms, and also asked if anyone would be willing to do some light translation work in your JP thread, but have not gotten any responses. I believe filing a bug report over on JP would do a lot - especially given how few posts there are in the first place on JP. Unforunately I cannot file a bug report on JP. I have submitted a total of 3 bug reports on the english side of things - 2 through the ingame feature and 1 through the forums - but have gotten either no answer or the well known copy paste response that suggests the very solutions WE have come up with in this very thread. Its especially insulting when their official response to my bug report is for me to turn my listening position all the way to character, when it was me who found this in the first place - but 29 something days earlier.

Regardless, I'll make a post on the english forums. Even if I personally believe it to be void, I'll take your advice anyway.
Do YOU have any other avenues to go through, or any ideas how to proceed, besides a fresh thread here in the english forums nobody is going to read? Do you have any ideas on how to get this info to square? I'm more than willing to go through any work necessary to get this issue fixed for myself and everyone else here.

[minopoki]

I've seen all your incredible posts, both here and on the JP forums - and I'm glad for all the effort you put in. I compiled pretty much the exact same list I just posted in this thread, over in the thread you started over in JP, linking to google translated versions of the posts.

Elliah, you actually was able to collect and organize more relevant information than I could, that was really cool.
As this situation was kinda tiring me from the inside, I just took a little break and put my hopes to next patch.
There was someone on the Japanese thread (not SE staff tho) willing to discuss this matter, but I was feeling it would just become like these long conversations here in the English forums that lead to no solution, and I ended up dropping it there too.

That said, while this is a great suggestion, I think that's not going to achieve much. At least not here on the English forums.

Yes, I was just thinking more as a matter of making things more organized, and more accessible to new people. Also, we could use it as a reference for new discussions when 6.05 eventually fails to fix anything.
Of course, some people will probably ignore anything you write there, and just come posting "I tried spatial audio and it makes better", just like in this thread, but it's better than having all the info you collected lost among the 800 posts in this thread.

Do YOU have any other avenues to go through, or any ideas how to proceed, besides a fresh thread here in the English forums nobody is going to read? Do you have any ideas on how to get this info to square? I'm more than willing to go through any work necessary to get this issue fixed for myself and everyone else here.

As I was resigned to leave my hopes to SE and wait until 6.05, my idea is that once the patch is out, we make some noise in the SE pages in the social medias -- but of course, no spamming, no harassing, always politely.
I'll sure be posting on their Japanese profiles, and probably on Soken's twitter as well. I think people could go there and also post even if it is English, SE would probably auto-translate.
Also, maybe we could then starting posting all our bug reports in the Japanese forums. I could create a generic message in Japanese explaining the problem, and then people could copy-paste that together with their system information.
When the patch is out 2 days from now, if it doesn't fix the issue, we could organize all of that here in the forums.

I've been messaging people on different social plattforms, and also asked if anyone would be willing to do some light translation work in your JP thread, but have not gotten any responses.

I noticed your posts in the Japanese forums, I think the SE staff could probably understand it, if they were really reading it, but is there something specific that you wanted to be translated?
If it is much technical stuff, like discussing detailed CPU related matters, I'll probably be no much better than the auto translate, but I could try looking it.
You could also contact my discord minopoki#6195 (EDIT: there was a typo in my discord username when i first posted, the current one is the correct one)

[1043]

I am Japanese and I can't speak English.
This message is translated and posted on the translation site.
I think there is a strange sentence, but please forgive me.

I'm always checking this thread
I also know that you guys are serious about how to solve this problem.
I tried all the proposed ways to mitigate the problem in this thread
None of this solution was solved in my PC environment.
The only mitigation was to enable Immerse Spatial Audio.

It is true that Japanese users have not discussed this issue much,
Some people, like you, take this issue seriously.
Some bug reporting threads report this issue
There are many users who are suffering from this issue even in Twitter posts
I have no idea what's technical.
It is worth your gratitude and admiration that you have figured out the essence of this problem.
We strongly hope that the operation will review the resolution presented in this thread and resolve it in the next patch.

If the next patch does not resolve, I will raise this issue in a Japanese thread.
First of all, I would like to see if the january 4 patch has been resolved.

I don't know if it's transmitted well,
I just wanted to tell you that Japanese users are not indifferent to this issue.

[RenneTheCatte]

My issue with these "fixes" is this: We're paying for a product that we are now having to fix ourselves because the devs didn't?

Why? I'm not a software engineer. I play this to enjoy myself, not struggle with playing a game that I've enjoyed (mostly) since 1.0, and has worked since then with no issues UNTIL this expansion. No other game, program, streaming service, etc. is having this problem. Just FFXIV.

Please fix it.