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.

[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

[TheMeido]

Don't know if it's related, but in the Old Sharlayan innroom. Ever since patch 6.01 my FPS started to lower dramatically from capped 99/100 to near down 20 fps for odd reasons, acting almost like some weird memory leak if you stay in there too long and start messing around with the "try-on" function with the glamour dresser. My audio would also start to "pop" and "slow-down" during this. Think it's possibly related?

[AurelGuthrie]

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 work; if it stops working I will update the post!

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

I'm currently trying this and it seems to be *mostly* working. Instead of having the crackling/popping audio issue most of the time during dungeon runs, now it happens for a couple seconds every 10 mintues or so. From a major issue to minor inconvenience. Still, that it doesn't 100% fix it makes me think there's multiple things causing this issue, and using the virtual audio device fixes one of them. Thanks to Packetdancer for sharing this solution! I will update if it stops working.

[paga]

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!

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.

Does not work for me but my issue is not as bad as others, I only get some slight cracking every so often and not at all during combat, so for me its not unplayable but you still notice it. But thanks! 6.0 ran perfectly for me, I really hope they fix it soon.

[minopoki]

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 work; if it stops working I will update the post!

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

I tried the mentioned softwares, and it didn't work at all for me, but maybe I'm setting it up wrong...
I have VoiceMeteer set as my standard audio device. Should I change FFXIV audio device to something else?
Inside the VoiceMeteer app, i set my speakers as A1, tried both VB-Audio Input or nothing to A2, didn't make a difference.
Also, there are WDM and MME options for each device, and I don't know the difference. Tried changing them, and no difference.
Also, should I change something to audio input in the software?

EDIT: btw, something I had already tried a few days ago using the VB audio cables (I didn't have VoiceMeteer installed), was transmitting the game audio through a Google Meet reunion to my cell phone.
I set FFXIV audio output to VB cable input, then I set Chrome audio input to VB cable output, joined a Google Meet reunion, then joined the same reunion as another user in my phone, so I could hear game audio from it, and it would still stutter from my phone.

[GorthRedsteel]

I tried the mentioned softwares, and it didn't work at all for me, but maybe I'm setting it up wrong...
I have VoiceMeteer set as my standard audio device. Should I change FFXIV audio device to something else?
Inside the VoiceMeteer app, i set my speakers as A1, tried both VB-Audio Input or nothing to A2, didn't make a difference.
Also, there are WDM and MME options for each device, and I don't know the difference. Tried changing them, and no difference.
Also, should I change something to audio input in the software?

Don't get your hopes up and don't waste the time. How many different MIRACLE solutions people have posted already? Not a single of them work. We either upgrade our hardware. or SE stops being lazy and fixes the bug. We may wait for the 6.05, but let's be honest - it's still gonna be broken by then. Maybe in 6 months they finally release a statement that the game doesn't support PCs with older chipsets. Unlucky us. Save your pennies, and play other games in the meantime.

[paga]

Don't get your hopes up and don't waste the time. How many different MIRACLE solutions people have posted already? Not a single of them work. We either upgrade our hardware. or SE stops being lazy and fixes the bug. We may wait for the 6.05, but let's be honest - it's still gonna be broken by then. Maybe in 6 months they finally release a statement that the game doesn't support PCs with older chipsets. Unlucky us. Save your pennies, and play other games in the meantime.

I have a Ryzen 7 5600 and have audio issues so def. not only on old hardware.

[minopoki]

Don't get your hopes up and don't waste the time. How many different MIRACLE solutions people have posted already? Not a single of them work. We either upgrade our hardware. or SE stops being lazy and fixes the bug. We may wait for the 6.05, but let's be honest - it's still gonna be broken by then. Maybe in 6 months they finally release a statement that the game doesn't support PCs with older chipsets. Unlucky us. Save your pennies, and play other games in the meantime.

Once my current sub expires, I'm unsubbing the game until it someday works again. Not sure if I will wanna get back if that takes too long, though.
Right now I was just hoping we could bring SE's attention to this, but it really doesn't seem they care much about this.

[Maeklos]

Once my current sub expires, I'm unsubbing the game until it someday works again. Not sure if I will wanna get back if that takes too long, though.
Right now I was just hoping we could bring SE's attention to this, but it really doesn't seem they care much about this.

This is, to me, the really sad part. I've seen posts on other topics today, but nothing on any of the sound issues. Not even a "we're looking into this" post. My "cynical gamer sense" tells me there's two possibilities: there's a hotfix coming like, really friggin' soon; OR they just want to ignore this issue because they have no idea what's causing it and hope that by ignoring it then it'll go away.

EDIT: Ask and they shall appear! Thanks for at least letting us know the problem's been heard, Sicycre. ♥