Audio popping issue

[HeavenlyBrush]

I don't count soken saying "please report any sound issue to the forums" as acknowledgment of our issues. I went to his twitter yesterday specifically to see for myself and that's the only thing i could find there. I think it's fair to say that we have been exceedingly patient in regards to this. It's been a full month since the issue first started and while they fixed the sound disappearing completely, the camera position related stuttering is still there. I don't think it's unreasonable for us to expect these issues resolved in a timely manner, all of us here are paying customers and deserve at the very least a timeline or some sort of explanation of what is going on.

You say we should be more compassionate to the dev team, but what about them being compassionate to us? Keeping us in the dark is what is causing most of the frustration here, not the issues themselves. If they can't speak for legal reason they should say so, if they can't speak because they don't know when it will be fixed they should say so. I want a clear answer so i can stop stressing out about this. Are we being strung along hoping for a fix? I wouldn't make this argument myself but if someone else did i wouldn't be able to blame them...

[GorthRedsteel]

I don't count soken saying "please report any sound issue to the forums" as acknowledgment of our issues. I went to his twitter yesterday specifically to see for myself and that's the only thing i could find there. I think it's fair to say that we have been exceedingly patient in regards to this. It's been a full month since the issue first started and while they fixed the sound disappearing completely, the camera position related stuttering is still there. I don't think it's unreasonable for us to expect these issues resolved in a timely manner, all of us here are paying customers and deserve at the very least a timeline or some sort of explanation of what is going on.

You say we should be more compassionate to the dev team, but what about them being compassionate to us? Keeping us in the dark is what is causing most of the frustration here, not the issues themselves. If they can't speak for legal reason they should say so, if they can't speak because they don't know when it will be fixed they should say so. I want a clear answer so i can stop stressing out about this. Are we being strung along hoping for a fix? I wouldn't make this argument myself but if someone else did i wouldn't be able to blame them...

I'm fairly new to the game, but from what I have seen so far XIV community needs to grow some balls. If the company releases a damaged product, you should not feel any shame with voicing your disappointment and DEMAND for it to be resolved. No matter how "good" they had been in the past. Present counts as much, and we suffered thanks to either their incompetence - or perhaps for worse - greed. Soon, it's going to be a full month without a proper action from them. That's not how you treat people that cherish your game.

[Kwikwilyaqa]

I wonder how many posts can we make before it gets fixed. We have reached over 700 of them in less than a month, and there is no way it's gonna get resolved at 4th of jan.

700 in this post alone. There's reddit, several other posts here... everywhere people are complaining about this. Can't believe someone, somewhere, thought it was a good idea to change the sound system to accommodate a paid piece of junkware (that somehow "fixes" the issue) in a paid game with subscription service (and paid dlc's, and an "optional item & services" shop). Activision/EA will hunt this visionary man...

BTW, I saw people commenting both sides about the damn thing: it either fixes the issues or causes more issues (have lower quality than the normal in-game system) with sounds in the game.

[Grimno]

Thought this was interesting.
Was doing the Steps of Faith trial in my roulette and was doing some tests.

My CPU is a AMD FX 8320
With no spatial pack on, total computer CPU usage was at 58% and there was non-stop audio choppyness
With the trial spatial pack on, CPU usage was at 50% and there was no choppyness
I know a lot of folks have less choppyness with the spatial pack, so I'm not going "Oh wow guys the audio pack fixes it!" cause it doesn't and audio sounds like underwater garbage...
But it was curious to see the game taking that much more CPU when there was no audio pack added.

Which is weird because, in Shadowbringers I know CPU usage is still the same when I monitored it during hunt trains back when i thought my CPU was dying, but discovered the game Foxhole that I play is so poorly optimized it turns any PC into an oven, and it was triggering my CPU's emergency shut-off due to overheating but only during the massive battles that create haze of war. Only game that runs that hot. Nothing else

[Au-ro]

I ran the benchmark for standard laptop and I scored 7436. No audio popping.

[DejikoChocolla]

Well, this worked for me.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...nd_distortion/

The guy indicated that the device box was "completely blank", so I checked and it was, which is... odd. Idk why, but this problem started today for me, after cleaning my PC. It might have something to do with hardware detection (connecting headsets after a complete system restart, full power unplug and all)
Hope this help to someone.

[crovius]

Unfortunately for me, mine already had default as the output/input in that settings window. I did try flipping it to Realtek like in your picture, but when I tabbed into the game again, the sound was completely gone.

I switched it back to the default it was originally on and the sound returned. The stuttering still does happen randomly and I am able to confirm it is definitely based on camera position/angle as to whether it will do it or not.

[Zholi]

Since the release of the expansion, I've been dealing with an issue where I would lose all audio for around 5 seconds occasionally when I switched jobs, called a mount, or opened the map. Before the release of the expansion, I would sometimes have a delay changing jobs or for the graphics for my mount displaying, but this was purely cosmetic and did not cause any audio issues. I had assumed this was an issue on SE's end for the longest time, but since I was losing audio, it occurred to me that it might actually have been on my end all along. I have since solved the issue. While it used to occur once every 1-2 hours, I have since played 12 hours without it occurring once.

The game has always been installed on my SSD, however, the My Documents folder has been located on an HDD. When doing the above-mentioned activities, it appears FFXIV accesses its respective folder in My Documents, and the delay was caused by the slow drive. It is strange to me that a delay in accessing these files would cause the audio to drop entirely. I moved My Documents to my SSD, and the issue has never recurred.

Another issue I've seen since the expansion is that sometimes FFXIV will drop connection with my controller for a split second, during which the audio stutters. It seems the new audio engine is very fragile and prone to dropping out for the slightest reasons. For the record, I've tried multiple USB ports and none of my other USB devices ever have issues, nor have I had an issue with the controller outside of FFXIV after 6.0.

In addition to all of this, I've been having the normal audio popping as well, made worse since 6.01. Nothing I try on my end has any effect on it. I'm using an Intel Core i7 920.

[ArcheusWren]

Well, this worked for me.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...nd_distortion/

The guy indicated that the device box was "completely blank", so I checked and it was, which is... odd. Idk why, but this problem started today for me, after cleaning my PC. It might have something to do with hardware detection (connecting headsets after a complete system restart, full power unplug and all)
Hope this help to someone.

Gave this a try myself, it made no difference sadly.

[Ifrinne]

I gave DX9 a spin and the sound stuttering was gone however! The sound completely cuts out when my fps drop below 20 or so and the game becomes even worse to play.