Audio popping issue

[MoonstalkerZ]

While I would like to thank you for the comprehensive list explaining the situation, I think perhaps yelling and swearing at people who haven't read every single post in a 77 page thread who are just trying to help is counterproductive.

[Elliah-Seraheart]

While I would like to thank you for the comprehensive list explaining the situation, I think perhaps yelling and swearing at people who haven't read every single post in a 77 page thread who are just trying to help is counterproductive.

The very same people - you included - who keep spamming this thread - are the very reason there are so many, mostly irrelevant, posts. This behavior is the very reason lists like this are needed in the first place. You are actively hurting your chances of the real issue being seen in this thread with every single low quality post you are making. Do you see the problem here, when claiming that "you cant blame people for not reading the thread?"

When you sit in traffic - YOU are the traffic.

Besides, this is the technical support forum. Posts are supposed to be centered around technical support. Threads are not there for every joe to vent about his problems with the audio issues. It's not an emotional support forum, but it's essentially used as one... drowning out the actual technical support posts. I'd have to post this list every 8 hours, because it is immediately pushed back 3 pages by people too lazy and/or focused on venting, to read anything - or go through any effort of their own before posting.

Sorry for the language - but I'm incredibly upset. Both with square, and the people posting in here. The language may be unwaranted - but the frustration is certainly not. Besides, I believe there's value in using strong language to express strong opinions.

[Nommers]

The kind of information you're asking for should be provided in a bug report, as the community managers and even Soken himself have requested several times. For my part, I included a link to MiaShino's most recent post in my own follow-up bug report, and I would strongly encourage everyone else who hasn't already submitted a bug report to do the same. Not everyone has the patience or the technical know-how to investigate as thoroughly as you two did, and at this point there's probably not much more that can (or even should) be done on our end.

As for this thread, yeah the "I think it's because I have an FX cpu" and "I tried changing the audio device and it didn't work" or "I tried Immerse and it sounds bad" posts are repetitive, but people absolutely have the right to complain about the faulty product they've been sold, and I can't really think of anywhere better to do it. They're in the same boat you are and don't deserve your ire. If nothing else, the simple fact that this thread is 77 pages long and growing (EDIT: we're also about to crack 81k views - to my mind that's even more alarming) should communicate to Square the severity of the issue and how urgently a fix is needed. If Square doesn't have people conveying the most helpful information from this thread to the devs, that's on them, not us.

[Grimno]

On a side note: Does it seem like it's getting worst for anyone else?
Even with the Spatial Audio pack that was helping it a bit, I'm noticing a lot more low bass-y rumble-crackling in areas now.

Edit: In the Firmament at Ishgard, the audio does the low bass-y rumble-crackling there.
But when Fetes are going on, different music, no crackling at all.

[crovius]

I feel like it's more persistent at times until I adjust the camera angle again. Sometimes I will forget it's a thing when it doesn't occur for a couple hours, but am reminded that it's still ongoing when I go into combat and am hit with a moment of audio stuttering.

[TojiSuzuhara]

The very same people - you included - who keep spamming this thread - are the very reason there are so many, mostly irrelevant, posts. This behavior is the very reason lists like this are needed in the first place. You are actively hurting your chances of the real issue being seen in this thread with every single low quality post you are making. Do you see the problem here, when claiming that "you cant blame people for not reading the thread?"

When you sit in traffic - YOU are the traffic.

Besides, this is the technical support forum. Posts are supposed to be centered around technical support. Threads are not there for every joe to vent about his problems with the audio issues. It's not an emotional support forum, but it's essentially used as one... drowning out the actual technical support posts. I'd have to post this list every 8 hours, because it is immediately pushed back 3 pages by people too lazy and/or focused on venting, to read anything - or go through any effort of their own before posting.

Sorry for the language - but I'm incredibly upset. Both with square, and the people posting in here. The language may be unwaranted - but the frustration is certainly not. Besides, I believe there's value in using strong language to express strong opinions.

i knew someone was going to eventually snap LOL

[DendrielConcade]

So has there been any factor to differentiate from people who do and don't have this bug? I've been floating around this forum since a day or two after 6.0.1 as funnily enough, I experienced no audio issues in the pre-release from what I could remember but after it full released and then 6.0.1 dropped everything has gone to hell. I don't remember seeing anything on people mentioning the exceptions like people with objectively worse or better hardware not having issues at all, but I may have missed them if so.

[MoonstalkerZ]

So has there been any factor to differentiate from people who do and don't have this bug? I've been floating around this forum since a day or two after 6.0.1 as funnily enough, I experienced no audio issues in the pre-release from what I could remember but after it full released and then 6.0.1 dropped everything has gone to hell. I don't remember seeing anything on people mentioning the exceptions like people with objectively worse or better hardware not having issues at all, but I may have missed them if so.

If you want the short answer, no, there is no common factor in who has the bug.

If you want the long answer: For a while we thought it was only people with FX CPUs, or only people with old CPUs, but we've had people with all sorts of different CPUs, and people with both old and new CPUs. It seems to be 99% people on PCs, though I've seen one person on Twitter on Playstation who claims to have the bug, as well as someone in this forum claiming that people in shout chat were saying that they were on Playstation and had it. If you wanted to check for yourself, you could go to the Bug Reports section of the forums and look through the computer specs posted there (most of them have been moved to the "Duplicate Bugs" section).

As to hardware quality, I have an objectively worse CPU than most people in the bug reports, but as far as I can tell I don't have the problem nearly as bad as many of the people in this thread. There has been at least one mention of someone with a 12 year old (I believe) CPU not having the bug while someone with a newer CPU does have the bug. There has been at least one mention of someone with a CPU from 2019 who has the bug. (This may have been the same person, I don't remember.) See this post about CPUs.

[Baekho]

Just adding onto the pile: I've also been having severe audio issues ever since EW early acces... Sometimes the game runs and sounds fine, sometimes it runs fine but the audio stutters and occasionally both the performance and sound are completely down the drain... Since installing the Spacial Audio trial the performance issues have either disappeared or just become extremely rare and while the audio stutter seems to have gotten better, it still happens rather frequently...

It's just so puzzling to me because the timing seems to be completely random. I've seen claims that it happens mostly whenever the game has to process too many sounds at once, but, most of the time Alliance Raids are completely fine for me. Then I load into a remote instance where literally no one is around and the game sounds like it's about to crash.

I think the weirdest issue I had was when I was in the Grand Company barracks... game sounded completely fine until I clicked on the message board where you can check on your squad, at which point the sound starts stuttering until I closed the menu. Thought it was just an odd coincidence so I tried it again a couple times and yeah, the cracking/stuttering would literally start and stop in unison with the menu opening and closing. While I was literally just standing there. I wasn't able to replicate it ever since I logged out and just in general it seems like the areas where I'm experiencing sound issues are completely randomized with each session... I just don't get it, how could that be a trigger for this issue?

It's so frustrating because the game ran smooth like butter prior to EW. Never dipped below 60 fps even in the busiest of fights... and now I can't even complete the story because the atmosphere is completely ruined by these sound issues. I'm kinda worried that this is a low priority issue for them since while there are a large amount of clicks on here, the vast majority of players don't seem to be having this issue... :/

Not gonna go full on doom mode just yet and am still hopefull it's gonna be fixed, but I'd be devastated if the next patch rolled around and I'd have to rush through the MSQ with these audio issues...

[Ariel_Valmont]

The very same people - you included - who keep spamming this thread - are the very reason there are so many, mostly irrelevant, posts. This behavior is the very reason lists like this are needed in the first place. You are actively hurting your chances of the real issue being seen in this thread with every single low quality post you are making. Do you see the problem here, when claiming that "you cant blame people for not reading the thread?"

When you sit in traffic - YOU are the traffic.

Besides, this is the technical support forum. Posts are supposed to be centered around technical support. Threads are not there for every joe to vent about his problems with the audio issues. It's not an emotional support forum, but it's essentially used as one... drowning out the actual technical support posts. I'd have to post this list every 8 hours, because it is immediately pushed back 3 pages by people too lazy and/or focused on venting, to read anything - or go through any effort of their own before posting.

Sorry for the language - but I'm incredibly upset. Both with square, and the people posting in here. The language may be unwaranted - but the frustration is certainly not. Besides, I believe there's value in using strong language to express strong opinions.

You complaining about people every few pages is essentially doing the same thing you are complaining about. As far as I am concerned the more people in here posting something about the issue, the better.