Audio popping issue

[MiaShino]

snip

This is a post most fascinating as it demonstrates clear video evidence of how to replicate some of this issue. Easy replication is incredibly helpful when diagnosing issues however, I have major problem with title of video and implication of post.

Within the first video I chose to watch you can see clear spike in CPU workload while there is decrease in GPU utilization indicating a definite CPU bottleneck here. I have utilized my fantastic mspaint skills to circle relevant bits of stuffs.
https://i.ibb.co/Mf4hNjV/p1.png - before Ambient is muted (GPU 66%, CPU 49%, FPS 132)
https://ibb.co/chxjNrw - after Ambient is muted (GPU 62%, CPU 72%, FPS 123)

During this moment your GPU was momentarily bottlenecked resulting in decrease of fps.

This is taken from; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX5gt0Dhwd4

Second scene in above video demonstrates both rise in GPU utilization and CPU load. Before can comment further, are you perhaps playing at uncapped frame rate or 144hz? You may have answered this in post, many apologies if I have missed it. It is far more likely that the increase in GPU usage seen here is a result of scene rendering complexity vs the inn room.

Other question one lala has is related to OBS. Are you using cpu encoding or nvenc when recording these?

I feel must reiterate point I made in previous post. You absolutely cannot rely on temperature and hardware utilization alone.

It is significantly more common especially when running at higher frame rates to encounter a GPU bottleneck far before CPU bottleneck. You are much less likely to see total saturation of your CPU for reasons varied. This is one reason why for much time Intel outperformed Ryzen during gaming workloads despite having superior core count.

Anything ranging from architectural constraints to other system bottlenecks can easily prevent the cpu from being fully saturated, yet you will experience slowdowns. Opening task manager and seeing 72% utilization accompanied by slowdowns can be alarming as you should have additional headroom when you in fact do not.

snip

Hmm, this is indeed in line with my theory. I was going to suggest overclocking to those willing. It does appear the sound engine is making far too many calls to the audio api then it should reasonably be. Easy solution for Square would be to temporarily limit the number of audio sources preferably dynamically, this would require them writing code that can detect abnormal audio latency then adjust accordingly. Plenty of open source stuffs on how to write such code in the emulator space.

snip

Mah! Am happy I have been able to help! I am most woefully out of practice but also have many smart friends to help too. Buffering audio before it reaches your ears is incredibly common. It is done everywhere yet done so you will not notice. Increasing this buffer (I am making things simple please forgive) could also be temporary solution. However there is catch as in all things. Increase buffer too far and there will be audio delays. The goal when developing sound engine is to be certain that the game loop lines up with audio presented or delays will not be noticed. The more I look into the more it seems Square would have to increase audio delay to noticeable levels. Think casting spell then hearing effect of sound after spell is cast not as effect is occurring.

Just to clarify, my previous post regarding CPUs that are older than 10 years is one of the possible causes that we have confirmed from the investigation and it is still possible to occur with other CPUs. I apologize if my message wasn't clear on that part.

Yes, because the Embody team failed to test their spatial audio engine on wide range of hardware or to properly test period. Now Square must work with third party developer back and forth to resolve the issue. This is why in software development you should avoid working with out of house developers on mainline projects. This is idea most terrible. You do not do this. It is preferable to hire these developers to work in house directly, this means you have direct line of communication with them. It is unholy nightmare to work with third parties at times and better to write the code yourself.

Now Square audio engineering team must work with code they likely did not write and cannot fix. It is painfully clear from looking into this that because of this decision there will be major delays in implementing a proper working solution.

I adore this game but seriously, game packs are a terrible terrible idea. Perhaps on small indie project but not something with the scope and size of FF14. Whoever signed off on this goofed. There is no nice way to put it.

Also, cannot seem to replicate on PS4 myself, more testing needed. That is all!

Edit; The more I look into Immerse Gaming™ the more damning evidence becomes. Product on Steam that did not meet deadline, questionable user reviews, and system requirements that simply confuse; Requirements for their HIVE software - Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Phenom X3

Hardly workhorse CPUs listed right here..