Audio popping issue

[AsheNabuddis]

Thank you for taking the time to put this twitter link in here. It certainly does calm some of my concerns considering it is aware by at least SOME people in Squeenix. I believe we will see a fix to it some time, but I hope it comes soon rather than later. Playing the game without any combat sounds is a heavy blow to it's quality.

[LobsterFusion]

https://twitter.com/SOKENsquareenix/...20178749845504

i took it upon myself to tweet at soken late last night since i saw he was promoting the new spatial audio thing and he did respond! looks like they are definitely aware of it and working on fixing it. hope this helps in some way to know theyre at least acknowledge it.

Thanks for posting this and sharing with us.

[Crimson1128]

I've had a similar issue myself, *near* constant audio popping/lagging, with two notable exceptions; the audio seems to temporarily play as normal while either playing a footstep sfx or an ambient housing sfx (fireplace crackling, water fountain flowing, etc)

it's honestly the strangest thing, as i've never had issues like this before endwalker. stranger still is the fact that when i relocated my ffxiv install from my ssd to my hdd in an attempt to find a solution, it... actually somewhat worked, now only occuring occasionally, usually during combat... but downside is the far greater load times, and of course, the fact that although it's better, the issue still persists.

Edit: I've also seen a few other threads with similar issues, one of which suggested that a common cause may be systems using Realtek audio. Given that my desktop does as well, seems like that might be the culprit, as my laptop- while i despise trying to play ffxiv on such a small screen- has not had any audio issues whatsoever compared to my desktop.

[Sanjoo]

Its not Realtek that is onboard audio and can be disabled, I have mine disabled and still have issues, it has something to do with the DX11 sound files, it needs to be patched client side, seems to get worse the busier the servers are.

[TaleraRistain]

Its not Realtek that is onboard audio and can be disabled, I have mine disabled and still have issues, it has something to do with the DX11 sound files, it needs to be patched client side, seems to get worse the busier the servers are.

But going back to DX9 doesn't fix it for everyone. That can't be the whole solution.

[AsheNabuddis]

Bumping so people can see the twitter link easier.

[GorthRedsteel]

I understnad it's not easy to predict but when do you think we can expect a fix to this? I'm rather new to the game so I can only compare it to other MMOs and their dev teams on how quickly such huge issues get resolved. I'd love to play the game but in the current state it's unpleasant at best.

[AsheNabuddis]

Considering the amount of people reporting this issue (not the majority, but an acceptable size group) AND the fact that the audio director responded to a tweet in regards to this issue saying "We are aware and are working on it" (or something to that tune), I believe we CAN expect a solution to it.

The WHEN is the problem. The tweet also said that they intend to solve it before the actual release (in 2 days), but given the miriad, more pressing other issues, I don't hold much hope. After that, it's anyone's guess, but keeping an eye on the news is a good way to get some feedback regarding these types of issues. At least, in that regard (communication with players), Squeenix does well.

[AluneTempest]

same problem here, its impossible to play with sound with this problem going on, i dont wanna play MSQ without hear the BGM's and VA.

[Elliah-Seraheart]

I've got a theory.

Can ya'll list:
1. What driver + version you are using (Control Panel -> Hardware&Sound -> Sound -> Device Properties -> General -> Properties -> Driver)
2. Type of Device Stereo/Quadraphonic/5.1/7.1 Sound -> Configure -> Test out and set it correctly.
3. Scope of issues experiences
4. GPU (since NVidia 1080 and 1070 seem to have trouble with atmos)

I've found a post from a year ago that tricks FF14 into outputting surround sound to stereo headphones.
Apparently, when FF14 starts up it checks whether your audio device is stereo, 5.1 or 7.1. Depending on that, it decides to output surround or stereo. The post in question tricked FF14 by manually assigning their stereo device to 5.1 or 7.2, then starting FF14, then switching it back to stereo.

As an aside, these very people used to experience the exact same issues of popping/stuttering audio, or missing audio altogether. This is the exact same thing we are experiencing now. For them, it happened when they used MSI Nahimic, Sonic or other third party surround software that didnt play nice with FF14.

I also know that FF14 doesnt actually use the windows audio driver, but comes with its own driver.

All of this leads me to believe, that with the Introduction of Endwalker and crucially, Spatial Audio, we are now having issues with FF14 falsely detecting our audio capabilities. Whenever audio is "cutting out", it's trying to feed us surround sounds our drivers/devices cannot actually output (similar to test feature in Sound/Configure). Hence why we then hear messed up audio interfering/overlayed on the stereo audio. This also makes sense with the obstruction theory - since audio that is obstructed is surely modified in some way by surround/spatial. I'm not yet sure how DX9 / DX11 play into this - since I don't understand how rendering and tessellation works - but I believe the way things are rendered may make a difference, since the audio needs to know where things are in relation to the listener and what the environment looks like, to know what it has to do with the spatial/surround data.

Edit: Using Square Enix's Immersive Spatial Audio fixed everything for me. This just leads me to believe that I'm onto something with my theory.
Though it is a paid service, there's a 25 day trial. I hate how it sounds- but using the trial allows you to actually play Endwalker and gives you 25 days to wait for the audio fix.

If you are reading this and I'm right... Pls hire me Square. I work in Software Testing and always wanted to work in gaming. Willing to relocate and/or learn japanese. I'm serious.