Audio popping issue

[MoonstalkerZ]

The thing about blaming our hardware as the problem - they provided a benchmark. We ran the benchmark, it told us our computers could handle Endwalker, and we bought the game based on this information. They then rewrote the sound system, AFTER releasing the benchmark. If their ultimate solution is to say 'just get a better computer,' then their actual system requirements are different from their advertised system requirements, and this is a blatant case of false advertising.

This is why they MUST fix this issue, if only for legal reasons. It's just a question of how long it will take.

[Elliah-Seraheart]

The thing about blaming our hardware as the problem - they provided a benchmark. We ran the benchmark, it told us our computers could handle Endwalker, and we bought the game based on this information. They then rewrote the sound system, AFTER releasing the benchmark. If their ultimate solution is to say 'just get a better computer,' then their actual system requirements are different from their advertised system requirements, and this is a blatant case of false advertising.

This is why they MUST fix this issue, if only for legal reasons. It's just a question of how long it will take.

Pls read this article. It perfectly explains what is actually happening.
https://www.gsmarena.com/understandi...news-49490.php

It's pretty stupid, that we cannot play the game because some esoteric audiophile on the sound team felt like he needed to advocate for sound nobody can actually hear, and effectively strangle our drivers and CPUs to death, for "improvements" in sound that arent even audible for humans to begin with - cannot be heard on most equipment - and sounds like ass because the audio fed into it is not designed to be spatial.

ALL the complaints people have with FF14 audio, ARE side effects of the way audio is handled - and mentioned as "disadvantages" throughout this incredible article. Once you get a grasp on how this works, it's crystal clear what is happening, and that it has NOTHING to do with our hardware - and is ONLY because of the stupid effin embody thing.

Its this 100%

Let's look at the first advantage that high-resolution audio brings, which is higher bit depth. When you reduce the bit depth of the analog to digital conversion, you add more noise during the quantization process when it has to be converted back to analog. By increasing the bit depth, you naturally reduce the noise and thereby increase the dynamic range.

However, even with undithered 16-bits, you can get a dynamic range of 96dB, which is very close to maxing out the limits of human hearing (120dB), and the additional headroom offered by 24-bits (144dB) goes so far beyond it that it even exceeds the limitations of most equipment. In other words, you can't hear it.

Secondly, clever techniques like dithering can help reduce and shape the noise even in a 16-bit signal such that it would be inaudible to anything except precise equipment. The dynamic range of a dithered 16-bit signal can easily be made to go beyond 120dB by reducing and reshaping the noise in the audible range. This means for all practical purposes, 16-bit is perfectly adequate for human ears.

The other advantage high-resolution has is higher sampling rates. A 192kHz sampling rate means the audio can have a frequency response ceiling as high as 96kHz. As I already mentioned, humans can only hear as high as 20kHz, that too only those with perfect hearing at the prime of their life. Most people have even lower frequency responses than that.

For audio to have frequencies beyond the humanly audible range is like having a TV that shows light outside of the visible range. You can hear 96kHz sound almost as much as you can see X-ray. Which is to say, not at all.

Having to reproduce audio with such high frequencies can also put a strain on the equipment and drivers, which can introduce additional distortion. This distortion most definitely is in the audible range, which means you're distorting sound you can hear for the sound you can't hear.

How is it that I, someone who has never in their life even held an instrument, has never produced even a second of digital audio, and cannot write any code is able to test, troubleshoot and pinpoint the issue - yet an entire team of experts fail to foresee this problem, and has not been able to reproduce, troubleshoot or pinpoint it in 25 days. I have 0 expertise. I'm just an obsessive cunt with ADHD who does this for fun. This is not a onepunchman reference. I'm legitimately clueless - yet seemingly figured this out. Infuriating.

Edit:
Here's a video of me showcasing how to reproduce the bug - what audio channels are affected by what settings - and how the issue presents itself in cutscenes - channel by channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYGu2rv3gbg

I even pretty much proofed, that the CPU strain due to floating point calculations in older CPUs is NOT the cause of the audio distortions (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqythtdgs8g), by SEVERELY straining my CPU by folding proteins (floating point calculations).

[Dekaar]

I like that all our submitted bug reports have been moved to the duplicate bug section which states:

"Submitted bug reports that are similar to an already reported issue will be moved here. Before submitting a report, please check to see whether a similar bug has already been reported. Reports that have been moved to this category will not be investigated."

I get it but I guess some people will be raging

[MoonstalkerZ]

I like that they told us all to submit bug reports, then moved the bug reports to the 'we will not investigate' section. /s

[Sarhina]

Pls read this article. It perfectly explains what is actually happening.
https://www.gsmarena.com/understandi...news-49490.php

It's pretty stupid, that we cannot play the game because some esoteric audiophile on the sound team felt like he needed to advocate for sound nobody can actually hear, and effectively strangle our drivers and CPUs to death, for "improvements" in sound that arent even audible for humans to begin with - cannot be heard on most equipment - and sounds like ass because the audio fed into it is not designed to be spatial.

ALL the complaints people have with FF14 audio, ARE side effects of the way audio is handled - and mentioned as "disadvantages" throughout this incredible article. Once you get a grasp on how this works, it's crystal clear what is happening, and that it has NOTHING to do with our hardware - and is ONLY because of the stupid effin embody thing.

So, something of a Luddite here, but wouldn't the solution be fairly simple, remove that from the code, or is it too interwoven with everything else?

[MoonstalkerZ]

So, something of a Luddite here, but wouldn't the solution be fairly simple, remove that from the code, or is it too interwoven with everything else?

I don't think there's any way of knowing without being able to read the code. From what little I understand of programming, things can get really tangled up, and removing one seemingly unrelated thing can mess up sixteen other things.

[Ariel_Valmont]

So anyone else getting the in game response to the bug report through support desk where they politely try to blame your cpu being old and give you the same rundown of settings to adjust,
Then basically tell you to look into the forums because they might have the answer….

I mean they tell me to set the eq setting in game to normal…. Which doesn’t even exist (it’s standard I know I know). But get it right.

[Ariel_Valmont]

They also mentioned if the problem persists (which it does) that I should file another bug report, which I’m guessing will promptly be moved to duplicate bug reports….

[Muew19]

Honestly all these "your PC is outdated" comments are irritating and infuriating at best.
Game runs fine and it ran fine until the immersion thing was added to the game.
Audio was completely fine in benchmark since benchmark didn't have this audio things implemented even though its supposed to help you test out your PC for the expansion.
Remove the stupid immersion audio or add an option for players to play on legacy audio (pre-ednwalker/normal shadowbringer) option. Thats the fix for this issue that thousands of players have. Get on it Square.

[Sarhina]

Not as of yet, my CPU is 6-7 years old, which doesn't seem that old to me.
My GPU needs upgrading (whose doesn't at the moment), but is still in the minimum required range.