MacBook Pro 16" speaker popping/cracking when playing Cities Skylines

[michaelrochesterharbinger]

Hi all.

The 16" MacBook Pro had some issues with popping/crackling speakers when they were first introduced but this was since fixed by Apple with a software update.

However, the speakers continue to crackle and pop when playing Cities Skylines, and so far from my testing, only in Cities Skylines.

Does anyone know what might be causing the issue and how to fix it? Does this now require an update from Paradox?

Many thanks.

[iamrinus]

Hi,

Happy to read your post. I have exactly the same problem! Like you say, after apple's fix, I never had any issues with speaker popping anymore on my 16" mbp. Only when playing CS is when it occurs. Did you perhaps find a solution?

[MarkJohnson]

When does it make popping/crackling noise? If it only does it zoomed in water areas or rain, it is just the sound animations. If it does it at all times, it may be a unity support issue from apple still.

Otherwise make a video of it from you MBP for more diagnosing.

And does your MBP have the newer M1 chip?

[rockysets78]

If the issue is the base sounds in the game those can be changed. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=818641631
You have to subscribe to a sound pack and enable that in content manager as well.

[Fez Vrasta (ITA)]

I have the same issue, disabling the game sounds doesn't help at all :-(

[bsbrdv]

To all of you: This may sound perplexing or just plain silly, but is wi-fi involved in all of your systems?

[kgharbi]

How much RAM do you have? The stuttering could be because the OS has to page swap RAM to the SSD. I'm running an Intel MacBook with 16GB of RAM and when I launch CS, it uses about 12GB of that. So, run Activity Monitor while you're in CS and cmd-tab to look at the memory usage. Still, it's probably a good idea to quit other apps before running CS.

If you have a new M1 Mac, it could just be Rosetta emulation not being able to keep up with the game, but that's just a guess.

[Nilodin]

I have a 16" M1 Mac with cracking sounds. Mac has 16 GB Ram, Cities Skylines uses ~8.5 GB.

Now i am wondering:
- Is there a way to check if "Rosetta emulation not being able to keep up with the game" (quote @kgharbi)
- In this thread there are Intell users, that have these sounds too. Why do they have it?

[Intellection]

This has been an ongoing problem with all the MacBook Pro models for a while (both Intel and M1) and it occurs with lots of different apps. There are a lot of "theories" floating around about what the cause is but Apple has not provided a fix yet.

See this thread on the Apple Developer Forums for some things to try:

https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/132423