In Review Massive sound problems

[AngelusFX]

Required​

Summary​

Massive sound problems

Description​

Hi!

I only hear a stutter and crackle when I play AoW4. Sound is there, but the background noise is annoying.

Both via USB headset, no matter which of my 3! As well as via onboard sound or via my Soundblaster card.

The same error occurred under JA3, which has already been patched and now the error is gone at least there.

My system:

Ryzen 5700g + ASRock 6700 12 GB + 32 GB Ram. Win 11 Pro.

I switched from Windows 10 to Windows 11 last night and the sound is clearly better. Unfortunately, not yet perfect.

Still a crackle and pop in the sound. Via USB headset the quality is much worse than via my 2.1 Logitech system. I will continue to test and I am sure that I will be able to play reasonably at some point.

Soon I will buy the Teufel 2.1 system. That should bring much more quality. Hopefully then the story is settled.

Have the sound problems only in JA3 and in AoW4! Unfortunately, in AoW4 much more than in JA3.

The interference always occurs as soon as a sound is played. For example, when I click on a unit. The music is also unclean and sounds like hissing, crackling and popping.

Had several crashes now after the Watcher update and each time I sent a crash log. About the automatic tool for it.

Will follow their advice and then report back here. And of course to Paradox itself.

Any tips on what else I could do?

Thank you very much! =))))))))

This is the last crash report:
AOW4_Crash_2023-08-16-06-28-46_CF3C6427.tcd

Update:
I played about 4 hours last night and I had a lot of fun! Unfortunately also some crashes and just the sound problems! Thank you for this game! I love it! With the exception of the bugs! xD

Sound Problem :: Age of Wonders 4 Bug Reports

Hi! I only hear a stutter and crackle when I play AoW4. Sound is there, but the background noise is annoying. Both via USB headset, no matter which of my 3! As well as via onboard sound or via my Soundblaster card. The same error occurred under JA3, which has already been patched and now the...

steamcommunity.com

Steps to reproduce​

Playing the game. Click on a unit. As soon as sound is heard, the negative noises come.

Platform​

GoG

Game Version​

Watcher Update

Owned DLCs​

• Dragon Dawn

Optional​

Affected Feature​

Attachments​

 

[DireDave]

Hi! Thanks for reporting! I also responded to you on the steam forums; thanks for giving us the additional information!

Before I go into the sound issues; we had a look at the crashes and from what we can see, those are related to the GoG overlay somehow. Do you happen to own JA3 on GoG as well? What I recommend you try, is disabling the overlay on GoG Galaxy in Settings> Game Features > in-game features and see if things work better then. Once we have enough information, we might be able to tell GoG about the issue.

Now the sound problems are definitely unfortunate of course, but we've been having trouble reproducing it locally. We thank you for the information on your specs as it gives more context to your situation. Perhaps replacing the sound card would indeed help, but of course we still want to see what could be going on here. Do you have any other processes running besides the game while playing? Like an internet browser or Discord? It might be worth seeing if turning some of the heavier processes off would improve the sound consistency. Additionally, if you know how, it might be worth checking out the temperature of your CPU when playing. High temperatures could potentially cause these issues as well.

Hope that helps a bit; we will continue to look into it on our end as well. Let us know if any of the above had an effect or resulted in some findings.

Also I appreciate the final comment; glad you had fun with the game even with the issues!

 

[AngelusFX]

Hi!

Text attached. =)

Could not post the text here like that. For whatever reason.

Yes! I got JA3 under GOG too.
Thanks a lot!

Update:
It is not the USB. Have tested a lot now and it is still there.

I had read in a forum that it would be because of AMD. Specifically the 5700g processor. But I don't believe that, because the problems only appear with JA3 and AoW4.

So I will continue testing and next month with a new sound system. That should bring improvement.

Update 2:
CPU temp @60 °C. QHD resolution and Ultra Detail. No Problem for my system. =)))

AMD Ryzen 5700g 8 core
ASRock 6700 12 GB
32 GB Ram 3200
Win 11 Pro
MB ASROCK X370 Pro4
Latest bios and driver

 

[AngelusFX]

I love this game! Thank you very much! =)))))))))))))

Only the sound problems annoy me totally! xD

Can`t stop playing it!

 

[AngelusFX]

Hi! When I turn off the music in the game, I have much less sound problems! No idea if that helps you! =))))

The intro also stutters and jerks quite a bit! Then there are the sound problems. Crackling and crackling in the sound.

 

[AngelusFX]

This is exactly my problem: Crackling audio issues by PussNuggets in the Steam Forum! https://steamcommunity.com/app/1669000/discussions/0/3803906367800254133/

"Crackling audio issues
So ive been having this issue for a while now. since the second update actually.

It seems to be at its worst in regards to the music.

Its this really annoying crackling and popping sound that happens at a rather consistent pace and seems to get worse on the louder parts of music scores.

Not as bad most times once in game but in the main menu its pretty bad. Just curious if anyone else has this issue."

 

[AngelusFX]

Soon my Teufel Concept C is ready to play! I will report back! Wish me luck! =)))))))))))))))))

 

[AngelusFX]

First test:

Teufel Concept C arrived and set up! A hammer sound! Super bass! =)))))))))))))

To AoW4: The sound is much better and the interference is little to minimal. But not yet completely gone. Has already been worth it for me and I will continue to test!

But would still be happy about a patch for the sound problems! Many thanks! =))))))))))))))))

Report again when I have tested enough the devil! xD

 

[AngelusFX]

After much testing and playing I can say: The sound problems are still there, but not as bad as before the Teufel Concept C!

I can now play it and also enjoy. That was not possible so extensively before. But please take care of the sound! These problems are very annoying and the game suffers a lot.

After all, it was the right decision for me to buy the Teufel Concept C. The sound is simply light years better than the competition!

Will continue to test and report! Please also look at the other reports about sound problems! Dear Triumph Studios!

 

[AngelusFX]

With patch 1.1 Unfortunately, the sound problem has become much worse! =(

 

[DireDave]

With patch 1.1 Unfortunately, the sound problem has become much worse! =(

Much worse in what sense? More common crackles? It is rather unexpected that the update would cause more issues rather than less; seeing as the change should give the audio system more CPU time to handle the sound. So it was our hope that would help reduce it. Are the crackles for any type of sound or only when music is enabled?

Curious to see if other users experience the same; sorry about this Angelus, we will continue to look into it, but seeing as we aren't getting the issue on our test systems, we are not sure how to start working on a proper fix at the moment.

 

[AngelusFX]

With patch 1.1 Unfortunately, the sound problem has become much worse! =(

Much worse in what sense? More common crackles? It is rather unexpected that the update would cause more issues rather than less; seeing as the change should give the audio system more CPU time to handle the sound. So it was our hope that would help reduce it. Are the crackles for any type of sound or only when music is enabled?

Curious to see if other users experience the same; sorry about this Angelus, we will continue to look into it, but seeing as we aren't getting the issue on our test systems, we are not sure how to start working on a proper fix at the moment.

Thank you very much for your efforts! I'll try to record this error and show you better. The stuttering sound became more frequent and louder with the last patch. Several other players also have exactly my problem. So I am not alone.

Will test more again and keep this post updated.

Thanks a lot and best regards to the whole team!

Update:
Attached is the recording.

 

[AngelusFX]

Thank you very much for your efforts! I'll try to record this error and show you better. The stuttering sound became more frequent and louder with the last patch. Several other players also have exactly my problem. So I am not alone.

Will test more again and keep this post updated.

Thanks a lot and best regards to the whole team!

Update:
Attached is the recording.

Did the sound file work? Thank you very much and a wonderful weekend! =)))))))))))))))))))

I love you all @ Devs! =)))))))))))))))))))))

 

[Triumph Jordi]

Hey Angelus, I passed on the recording to our Audio Production team to see if they can place the crackling. It's a very odd crackle to say the least.

One thing I see that DireDave hasn't mentioned is the potential of a mismatch in Sample Rates. The game expects/works with 48kHz (or a multiple of it) and in cases where that isn't a possibility FMOD should auto adapt. Do you have any software that controls your Audio?

 

[AngelusFX]

Hey Angelus, I passed on the recording to our Audio Production team to see if they can place the crackling. It's a very odd crackle to say the least.

One thing I see that DireDave hasn't mentioned is the potential of a mismatch in Sample Rates. The game expects/works with 48kHz (or a multiple of it) and in cases where that isn't a possibility FMOD should auto adapt. Do you have any software that controls your Audio?

Thank you very much for the answer!

I have now tested several settings and even on 48kHz there is this noise. A software that controls my audio, I have not installed. At least not that I know of.

Will continue to test and report. Try to keep this post up to date here. Maybe someone will find the error.

Tested the tool LatencyMon and it shows me everything green, so no errors and my system is able to ensure HD sound without problems.

Update:
I had once read in a forum that it would be due to AMD. Something with my CPU Ryzen 5700G and USB sound. Is there something known to you?

But even with AUX and Realtec I have these problems and only with Age of Wonders 4 and Jagged Alliance 3.

So no idea.

Age of Empires 4, Wartales, Sons of the forest, Humankind, Survival Fountain of youth, Valheim, Stellaris, Age of Wonders Planetfall, Halo Master Chief collection, Tempest rising and many more run flawlessly. With a clear and wonderful sound.

Update 07:47
New crash: AOW4_Crash_2023-08-30-05-46-36_A4844C0B.tcd

 

[AngelusFX]

Update 10:47

AOW4_Crash_2023-08-30-08-46-33_BF43A0A4.tcd

and

AOW4_Crash_2023-08-30-08-49-35_122C92CC.tcd

Another crash.

 

[AngelusFX]

Sound problems :: Age of Wonders 4 Bug Reports

I have sound artifacts: every time a sound is played there is a buzz.

steamcommunity.com

"Ursprünglich geschrieben von mewowaw:
Ursprünglich geschrieben von m13wo:
Okay, here's the update. I just installed Ryzen 5800X and all the stutter is gone. I am finally free... It feels weird even to write this, heh.

So if you happen to have a similar configuration and are suffering from this, please spread the word. AMD should at least address this issue properly.

Also, I wish good luck to Paradox perfecting this gorgeous game!
So what you're saying getting new hardware is the fix? Too bad I updated my pc only 2 month ago. Ty for the info anyway

In my case, the only fix was apparently changing the chip itself. AMD refuses to address this chip probably because these CPUs aren't that popular after all.

But as I said, there might be a myriad of other problems besides the chip itself. I had a few gaming laptops in the past that were horrible at this. It was a pain to calibrate them so that music making software can run properly without these dropouts. But it usually involved a little bit of software tinkering, getting rid of unused drivers, playing with BIOS properties a bit. I learnt no to plug in anything uncertain into my USBs over the years because of that. One sneaky driver or a piece of software can break your system's harmony without you even noticing.

By the way, have you tried measuring DPC system interrupts in LatencyMon? It might reveal something you might not know yet."

 

[AngelusFX]

Sunkenland and Total War Warhammer 3 = No problems.

Only AoW4 massive Sound Problems and JA3 a bit.

I have now tested very many of my games and only 2 games I have these problems!

Still testing further.

 

[AngelusFX]

AOW4_Crash_2023-09-02-11-46-39_F3E3BB0C.tcd

Crash after crash. I will wait for the next big patch. =(

Unplayable for me. =(

 

[AngelusFX]

AOW4_Crash_2023-09-04-13-47-40_F55A6305.tcd