Audio popping issue

[Nommers]

This is certainly interesting info. Can you tell us how you or your friend figured out about Endwalker using WinMM? The most relevant thing that Googling the two phrases gets me is a bunch of Japanese bug reports from 2017. If DX9 mode uses XAudio then WinMM is still not the entire cause of the issue because DX9 still had stuttering for me.

I'm also finding it hard to believe their contract with Embody would prevent them from offering the OPTION to roll back, especially since the system doesn't technically require it in the first place. I suppose it's certainly possible but that would just be awful if it's true.

EDIT: Your friend's findings on muting things is consistent with what we know about how the game mutes audio. The sounds never actually stop playing - the game's actually constantly stopping them from playing. (EDIT2: I see you removed your update on that but I hope this is still helpful information) The cause and potential remedies for the stutter have already been outlined here: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5778799 Your info is another interesting layer on top of that.