What happened to sound in PvE?

Saturn · June 2016

So ever since Thieves' Guild losing sound in big PvP fight has been fairly standard (not saying I like it though).

Now, ever since Dark Brotherhood has been out this audio disappearance has been happening in dungeons and trials. I have run the Imperial City Prison today and it happened a few times. I have run Hel Rah Citadel three times and it happened every single fight for everybody in the group. And I have run veteran Sanctum Ophidia and it happened every fight for everybody.

Why? In heard the reason why it happened in PvP was to increase performance, which helped by like 5 fps. But the performance in PvE is actually worse in trials now, with 20-30 fps becoming the norm doing battles and also no sound. It's really annoying as it makes Boss sound queues for mechanics impossible to notice, for the players who use that during fights.

I hope this is something you plan to fix soon.

Nestor · June 2016

I was doing a Boss Fight in the Arena in The Gold Coast last night and several times the sound just went and dissapeared. It was odd to say the least. I honestly thought my Sound Card had failed. The sound would come back, then go away, then come back again.

This is too weird, sounds are part of the combat, I get ques from it, I know my abilities are firing because of the sound. This needs to be fixed. If it really was removed for PvP purposes, then it may be time to separate those activities from PvE because there are too many things being fixed for PvP that break PvE.

SienneYviete · June 2016

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom please could you get the devs to look at this, sound is cutting out as soon as you engage a large mob of enemies and does not return till the end of the fight, happened to all in group in HRC VMOL and VSO also happens in 4 man dungeons when there is a large trash pull or a boss fight where the bosses have a lot of audio attached to the fight. Extremely frustrating as this can cause missed audio cues.

We have no sound in pvp and haven't had any for months at least let us have sound in pve

Dromede · June 2016

SO run today, happened a lot, sometimes multiple times within a single fight.

Also, fps there was below comfort level, and things got a little choppy. Combine it with spreadable poison - that part was no fun

Tonnopesce · June 2016

ICP run yesterday, for almost half of the dungeon we where without sound. And all togheder.

Tyrion87 · June 2016

I also noticed some sound problems in PvE, e.g. the disappearance of sound during the fights or NPCs are talking quieter at the beginning of the conversation, then louder.
In PvP though, since TG release I've been experiencing the total disappearance of sound during big battles/keep sieges. But I also noticed that it improved the performance (lag) a little bit and I am not kicked out from the game (during those battles) so often as before.

ZOS_CaseyCoffman · June 2016

Hey folks,

We are looking into this now, but as always there are some specific questions you can answer here that will help us greatly with this:

- Which client were you using? 32 or 64 bit?
- PC or Mac ?
- What sounds are you losing specifically? Combat sounds? UI sounds? Music? Ambience?
- What circumstances are you in when this happens, be specific. (If you are in a dungeon, which dungeon, which boss, etc)
- When you lose sounds, are you losing them indefinitely, or do they come back after some point?
- If sounds come back, what change in circumstances happened?
- What other programs/services are you running in the background, if any? (Netflix, Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, etc)

- BONUS: If you have video footage of this (preferably without other music or voice chat programs running) those would be extra useful!

lonewolf26 · June 2016

In medium to heavy combat situations like in Sanctum fighting the troll boss that summons lots of banner men we start losing voice over and sound queues (which duck out the ambient sound). Over time ability sounds stop playing. Sometimes even the music cuts out. The more wild and varied the combat the quicker the cut-outs occur. I've had this happen with nothing more than TeamSpeak open in the background. The sounds eventually come back however when is a question. Sometimes they comeback mid combat sometimes not until after combat.

I've had this happen in open world PvE as well. It happened in the Kvach arena when 12 or more other players were in the arena when the event began.

This happens in group dungeons as well. In Veteran Fungal Grotto during several trash pulls, the Ganyme Bandu fight as well as during the final boss fight.

Client: 32-bit, PC-NA

maboleth · June 2016

My whole group in Cyrodiil lost complete sound for a brief time. So everything, from music to sound effects, 32bit PC. We were fighting at the flags when this happened.

r.jan_emailb16_ESO · June 2016

ZOS_CaseyCoffman wrote: »

Hey folks,

We are looking into this now, but as always there are some specific questions you can answer here that will help us greatly with this:

- Which client were you using? 32 or 64 bit?
- PC or Mac ?
- What sounds are you losing specifically? Combat sounds? UI sounds? Music? Ambience?
- What circumstances are you in when this happens, be specific. (If you are in a dungeon, which dungeon, which boss, etc)
- When you lose sounds, are you losing them indefinitely, or do they come back after some point?
- If sounds come back, what change in circumstances happened?
- What other programs/services are you running in the background, if any? (Netflix, Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, etc)

- BONUS: If you have video footage of this (preferably without other music or voice chat programs running) those would be extra useful!

- 32 bit
- PC
- everything
- somewhere, really doesn't matter; at least I/we couldn't find a pattern so far
- they come back, sometimes when the combat slows down; but then I loose sound out of combat, so...
- TeamSpeak and maybe Google Chrome (no music playing)

HeroOfNone · June 2016

Which client were you using? 32 or 64 bit?
- PC or Mac ?
PC 32 bit

- What sounds are you losing specifically? Combat sounds? UI sounds? Music? Ambience?
All combat sound, mudic, etc.

- What circumstances are you in when this happens, be specific. (If you are in a dungeon, which dungeon, which boss, etc)
Heavy PVP fight with DC last night at Ash fort

- When you lose sounds, are you losing them indefinitely, or do they come back after some point?
They came back, notably at certain distances.

- If sounds come back, what change in circumstances happened?
Not sure, sometimes a death, other times it seemed some players died

- What other programs/services are you running in the background, if any? (Netflix, Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, etc)
Chrome with youtube (music) OBS, TeamSpeak

- BONUS: If you have video footage of this (preferably without other music or voice chat programs running) those would be extra useful!

Here is last night's broadcast (can't highlight it currently) about an hour+ in (while in PVP) you can hear the sound a go out, bit out voices and my personal music keeps going.

https://www.twitch.tv/heroofnone/v/70192619

Nifty2g · June 2016

ZOS_CaseyCoffman wrote: »

Hey folks,

We are looking into this now, but as always there are some specific questions you can answer here that will help us greatly with this:

- Which client were you using? 32 or 64 bit?
- PC or Mac ?
- What sounds are you losing specifically? Combat sounds? UI sounds? Music? Ambience?
- What circumstances are you in when this happens, be specific. (If you are in a dungeon, which dungeon, which boss, etc)
- When you lose sounds, are you losing them indefinitely, or do they come back after some point?
- If sounds come back, what change in circumstances happened?
- What other programs/services are you running in the background, if any? (Netflix, Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, etc)

- BONUS: If you have video footage of this (preferably without other music or voice chat programs running) those would be extra useful!

@ZOS_CaseyCoffman
32
PC
I lose mainly combat sound, though I can hear stuff like warhorn go off
It happens in dungeons (especially trials) when a lot of combat happens, similar to pvp, it normally comes back randomly then loses again
No programs, will happen regardless of what is open I think, though I normally have Chrome open if that counts

Paulington · June 2016

For what it's worth, the issue of losing sound does not occur on the 64-bit client for me but it occurs really often on the 32-bit client.

Dreyloch · June 2016

ZOS_CaseyCoffman wrote: »

Hey folks,

We are looking into this now, but as always there are some specific questions you can answer here that will help us greatly with this:

- Which client were you using? 32 or 64 bit?
- PC or Mac ?
- What sounds are you losing specifically? Combat sounds? UI sounds? Music? Ambience?
- What circumstances are you in when this happens, be specific. (If you are in a dungeon, which dungeon, which boss, etc)
- When you lose sounds, are you losing them indefinitely, or do they come back after some point?
- If sounds come back, what change in circumstances happened?
- What other programs/services are you running in the background, if any? (Netflix, Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, etc)

- BONUS: If you have video footage of this (preferably without other music or voice chat programs running) those would be extra useful!

-32 bit because 64 never worked right in the first place (and still doesn't)
-PC
-ALL sound goes away. (Although I don't play with game music on)
-Usually in large PvP encounters is when it happens.I'll hear all my team mates in teamspeak say.."yep, annndddd there goes the sound"
-Sound eventually comes back after the crowd subsides a little, and until now we've gotten used to it in Cyrodiil. But now it seems to be happening for longer periods and with less action happening.
-I don't run music on my PC while playing ,or any of those other programs either

Look, we shouldn't have to show you freaking video if you PLAYED YOUR GAME the way we do. This has been going on since you (and by you, I mean ZoS) introduced the 64 bit client that STILL doesn't work or isn't finished. Now it's affecting PvE too? So.... perhaps NOW it will get fixed? The audacity to post these questions when it's been a known issue for months now. But again, as soon as little Johnny has his immersion interrupted it's... all hands on deck!!! We gotta fix this for the Pve'rs!!!!! Seriously, it's become incomprehensible how much this company has no clue.

Dagoth_Rac · June 2016

ZOS_CaseyCoffman wrote: »

Hey folks,

We are looking into this now, but as always there are some specific questions you can answer here that will help us greatly with this:

- Which client were you using? 32 or 64 bit?
- PC or Mac ?
- What sounds are you losing specifically? Combat sounds? UI sounds? Music? Ambience?
- What circumstances are you in when this happens, be specific. (If you are in a dungeon, which dungeon, which boss, etc)
- When you lose sounds, are you losing them indefinitely, or do they come back after some point?
- If sounds come back, what change in circumstances happened?
- What other programs/services are you running in the background, if any? (Netflix, Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, etc)

- BONUS: If you have video footage of this (preferably without other music or voice chat programs running) those would be extra useful!

32-bit

PC

All sounds.

Usually dungeons. Ibomaz the Flesh Sculptor in vICP seems particularly troublesome.

Sounds come back. I am not seeing anything obvious that changes to bring sound back. Sound comes and goes during that Flesh Sculptor fight. Note that the sound seems to mostly disappear for shorter amounts of time than in PvP. In PvP, I can lose sound for minutes at a time. In PvE, it seems to disappear for maybe 20 seconds, come back for 15 seconds, disappear for 10 seconds, etc.

Usually streaming music via Rhapsody in a Firefox window in the background. But have been doing that forever. It is not something new I started doing with Dark Brotherhood.

Evergnar · June 2016

32 and 64
PC
ALL SOUNDS CUT OUT TEMPORARILY
Bugged situation: Crowded areas where combat is occurring (10+ players maybe)
Returns to normal when leaving area of crowded combat
NOTHING RUNNING IN BACKGROUND

ZOS_CaseyCoffman · June 2016

lonewolf26 wrote: »

In medium to heavy combat situations like in Sanctum fighting the troll boss that summons lots of banner men we start losing voice over and sound queues (which duck out the ambient sound). Over time ability sounds stop playing. Sometimes even the music cuts out. The more wild and varied the combat the quicker the cut-outs occur. I've had this happen with nothing more than TeamSpeak open in the background. The sounds eventually come back however when is a question. Sometimes they comeback mid combat sometimes not until after combat.

I've had this happen in open world PvE as well. It happened in the Kvach arena when 12 or more other players were in the arena when the event began.

This happens in group dungeons as well. In Veteran Fungal Grotto during several trash pulls, the Ganyme Bandu fight as well as during the final boss fight.

Client: 32-bit, PC-NA

@lonewolf26
Good info here. Thanks very much!

maboleth wrote: »

My whole group in Cyrodiil lost complete sound for a brief time. So everything, from music to sound effects, 32bit PC. We were fighting at the flags when this happened.

@maboleth
Thanks Maboleth!

r.jan_emailb16_ESO wrote: »

ZOS_CaseyCoffman wrote: »

Casey said stuff. <Snipped>

- 32 bit
- PC
- everything
- somewhere, really doesn't matter; at least I/we couldn't find a pattern so far
- they come back, sometimes when the combat slows down; but then I loose sound out of combat, so...
- TeamSpeak and maybe Google Chrome (no music playing)

r.jan_emailb16_ESO (forum isn't letting me tag you properly for some reason)
Thank you!

HeroOfNone wrote: »

Which client were you using? 32 or 64 bit?
- PC or Mac ?
PC 32 bit
- What sounds are you losing specifically? Combat sounds? UI sounds? Music? Ambience?
All combat sound, mudic, etc.
- What circumstances are you in when this happens, be specific. (If you are in a dungeon, which dungeon, which boss, etc)
Heavy PVP fight with DC last night at Ash fort
- When you lose sounds, are you losing them indefinitely, or do they come back after some point?
They came back, notably at certain distances.
- If sounds come back, what change in circumstances happened?
Not sure, sometimes a death, other times it seemed some players died
- What other programs/services are you running in the background, if any? (Netflix, Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, etc)
Chrome with youtube (music) OBS, TeamSpeak
- BONUS: If you have video footage of this (preferably without other music or voice chat programs running) those would be extra useful!

Here is last night's broadcast (can't highlight it currently) about an hour+ in (while in PVP) you can hear the sound a go out, bit out voices and my personal music keeps going.

https://www.twitch.tv/heroofnone/v/70192619

@HeroOfNone
Hey, thanks HeroOfNone! Thanks for the stream as well!

Nifty2g wrote: »

ZOS_CaseyCoffman wrote: »

<I wrote some stuff, I snipped it. It happens >

@ZOS_CaseyCoffman
32
PC
I lose mainly combat sound, though I can hear stuff like warhorn go off
It happens in dungeons (especially trials) when a lot of combat happens, similar to pvp, it normally comes back randomly then loses again
No programs, will happen regardless of what is open I think, though I normally have Chrome open if that counts

@Nifty2g
Thanks Nifty2g!

Paulington wrote: »

For what it's worth, the issue of losing sound does not occur on the 64-bit client for me but it occurs really often on the 32-bit client.

@Paulington
Thank you Paulington!

Thanks all, keep the info coming if you can, this is very helpful! ^_^

lolo_01b16_ESO · June 2016

- 32 bit
- PC
- everything
- happens in most trial fights after a few seconds of fight
- it comes back when the boss or most enemies are dead
- TS3

Xylphan · June 2016

I've been having an amusing sound issue, but I have yet to identify what triggers it so I can't really report it.

At some point during play, after every battle is over there's a sound like someone getting smacked. The battle music ends, my guy is standing there, then *SMACK!*.

It just seems to start happening. This is using the 32-bit client.

Really it's minor and it doesn't really bother me. And since I can't yet identify what triggers it there's no point in reporting it.

Mix · June 2016

32 bit PC

All in-game sound would cut out, eerie silence would lasts for 20 seconds maybe.

Happened during Hel Ra and SO(normal), sound seemed to randomly cut in and out for the duration of the trials, it did to cut out during fights (trash or bosses) and not during the few times where we are out of combat. BUT as an example, one of the trash packs in SO started with sound, then it cut out, then it came back before combat was over. If this happens again to me today I will try to pay more attention to exactly when it drops/returns.

Background stuff: Teamspeak, Chrome (gmail, youtube, forums), Steam and the ESO Launcher.

cyclonus11 · June 2016

All NPCs, when I engage in dialogue, are extremely quiet to the point where I cannot even hear some of them. It's all the time, with all NPCs.

PC, NA server, 32-bit client.

cyclonus11 · June 2016

Also, why does this thread not have a Z icon when @ZOS_CaseyCoffman responded to it?

Khaos_Bane · June 2016

ZOS_CaseyCoffman wrote: »

Hey folks,

We are looking into this now, but as always there are some specific questions you can answer here that will help us greatly with this:

- Which client were you using? 32 or 64 bit?
- PC or Mac ?
- What sounds are you losing specifically? Combat sounds? UI sounds? Music? Ambience?
- What circumstances are you in when this happens, be specific. (If you are in a dungeon, which dungeon, which boss, etc)
- When you lose sounds, are you losing them indefinitely, or do they come back after some point?
- If sounds come back, what change in circumstances happened?
- What other programs/services are you running in the background, if any? (Netflix, Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, etc)

- BONUS: If you have video footage of this (preferably without other music or voice chat programs running) those would be extra useful!

- 32 Bit
- PC
- All sounds, even music.
- At this point I have only lost all sound during the arena event in DB DLC (can't remember city name). It went in and out during the fight and almost seemed it was when the frame rate went down due to the number of players. It came back on during the fight and went back out again. Once the fight was over all sound was fine.
- I don't run any other services that use sound. It was clearly in the game only certain phase or during low FR times due to # of players and spell spam

Annra · June 2016

ZOS_CaseyCoffman wrote: »

Hey folks,

We are looking into this now, but as always there are some specific questions you can answer here that will help us greatly with this:

- Which client were you using? 32 or 64 bit?

32 bit

ZOS_CaseyCoffman wrote: »

- PC or Mac ?

PC

ZOS_CaseyCoffman wrote: »

- What sounds are you losing specifically? Combat sounds? UI sounds? Music? Ambience?

All sounds.

ZOS_CaseyCoffman wrote: »

- What circumstances are you in when this happens, be specific. (If you are in a dungeon, which dungeon, which boss, etc)

PVP with more than 15 players in visual range.

ZOS_CaseyCoffman wrote: »

- When you lose sounds, are you losing them indefinitely, or do they come back after some point?
- If sounds come back, what change in circumstances happened?

The sound comes back as soon as the number of players decreases.

ZOS_CaseyCoffman wrote: »

- What other programs/services are you running in the background, if any? (Netflix, Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, etc)

None.

altemriel · June 2016

yes, and now I got not only the squeaking sound randomly, like an un-tuned radio dial, but yesterday in Gold Coast I was getting various unpleasant sounds, suddenly another types of squeaks and they were not only few times a minute, but this time they were persistent, I had to reload UI to get rid of it.

It was pretty anoying.

Please do something with it ZOS!!! @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_KaiSchober

pema · June 2016

We had the same last night during our raid of MAW EU server.
At points, always with a lot of mobs, the sound would partly or completely dissapear.
It woudn;t always happen when we encountered a big group.

Jesh · June 2016

@ZOS_CaseyCoffman
- Client? 32
- PC
- What sounds are you losing specifically? Combat sounds + Music + Ambience
- What circumstances are you in when this happens, be specific. Wrothgar WB Mad Urk which I fought twice last night and each time the sound went out at intense parts of the fight (my group was 7 people).
- When you lose sounds, are you losing them indefinitely, or do they come back after some point? They come back, maybe after a minute or two (can't recall exactly).
- If sounds come back, what change in circumstances happened? Fight got less intense. Didn't come back exactly when the fight ended, but the sound clearly went out when there was a lot of activity (player and NPC activity, with lots Mad Urk's mobs).
- What other programs/services are you running in the background, if any? None.

Wycks · June 2016

@ZOS_CaseyCoffman
- Client? 64
- PC

I only lose sound on 64 bit.
I only get weird static and random sounds and squeaks (voices, random ability sounds , random pve sounds, etc) randomly on 64 bit.
When I loose sound its not just me, when sound is lost in PVP, my entire group (usually 3-6 people) ALL lose sound at the same time.

I also crash a lot on 64 bit so combines with sound issues it a pos, how can the code be so bad that it takes months to even get the sounds right?

Pyr0xyrecuprotite · June 2016

cyclonus11 wrote: »

All NPCs, when I engage in dialogue, are extremely quiet to the point where I cannot even hear some of them. It's all the time, with all NPCs.
PC, NA server, 32-bit client.

This is probably not the same issue as the original posting sound issue (combat sounds disappear in PvP and dungeons/trials), but yes, I am also experiencing issues with NPC voiceover dialogue being extremely quiet, or nonexistent (especially Argonians). However, it is inconsistent for me; some NPCs are muted, and others sound fine.
PC, NA, 32-bit.

Vaoh · June 2016

Whoa whoa TIME OUT EVERYONE!

You are all using much more powerful and better optimized PCs to play ESO. As a console user, how will this affect Trials and Group Dungeons (or even walking in Stormhaven)?

Since Thieves Guild, performace has been much worse in these instances. Maw of Lorkhaj is unbelievably more difficult thanks to the FPS staying extremely low (probably ~10FPS).

With PC performance dropping in Dark Brotherhood like this, surely you won't release it to consoles... PS4/Xbox One will not be able to handle it!

Please, make sure it is ready for console ZOS. Don't just push it out and mess up the entire game if it causes performance to tank!

Docmandu · June 2016

ZOS_CaseyCoffman wrote: »

Hey folks,

We are looking into this now, but as always there are some specific questions you can answer here that will help us greatly with this:

- Which client were you using? 32 or 64 bit?
- PC or Mac ?
- What sounds are you losing specifically? Combat sounds? UI sounds? Music? Ambience?
- What circumstances are you in when this happens, be specific. (If you are in a dungeon, which dungeon, which boss, etc)
- When you lose sounds, are you losing them indefinitely, or do they come back after some point?
- If sounds come back, what change in circumstances happened?
- What other programs/services are you running in the background, if any? (Netflix, Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, etc)

- BONUS: If you have video footage of this (preferably without other music or voice chat programs running) those would be extra useful!

Are you kidding me?! People been having sound issues since TG.. I would have thought you guys would already have a CLUE as to what is causing it... ever heard of a debugger?!

Anyway easy to reproduce.. step into Cyrodiil, go to a place where more than 5 people are fighting.. bingo no more sound.. 32 bit, 64 bit, doesn't matter... sound will come back when action settles down again... 32 bit client just has sound drop out, 64 bit client comes with extra comical random sounds.

All this has been said many times before the last 3 months.. and I'd hope the QA team has filed similar reports.