Character voices / spell sounds cut off in combat.

[⌥]

Made a post that didnt go anywhere last year, and a similar thread, same thing:

"Sound effects in combat, cutting out, being cancelled by other sounds?
Character quips, battlecries, incantation dialogues, spell sounds etc, will get cut off before they finish, by other sound effects coming from the fight.
Makes for a fairly jarring audio experience in most fights.

Is this just a thing, or is it just on my end?
Is there something I can do about it? Maybe a file I can manually increase sound channels or something?"

"Character voice lines get cut off in combat?
Does anyone else have this problem? For example, during spellcasting Aloth is chanting a spell phrase that gets abruptly cut off when another sound is played (monster being hit, a character being hit, spell goes off, etc). Character phrases on command suffer the same (These ones are in for a-*THWACK*). I don't remember this bug being there when I started playing PoE last year. It's incredibly annoying."




Its still an issue for me, and I tried so hard to solve it last playthrough, but couldn't. Sound drivers are up to date, and were back then too, along with all other software and hardware drivers, I don't have a hardware soundcard, never have, all other games' audio is fine, never issues with channel limits or anything of this sort. I definitely don't have some weird setup for a pc. Standard hardware with standard software, and my pc is mid-high end.


Stuff like the priest's "Moe Ixi Ana" chant before he casts, will be reduced to "Mo..." followed by a blank delay, while other sounds are playing fine, and then the spell goes off with no problem.
But it can also go the other way, where the entire chant is heard, and then the spell either makes no sound what so ever, or is cut off abruptly just as it begins playing.
The bug isn't limited to the Priest. It also happens for Wizards and Chanters.


The audio design in this game, for spells and the chants prior to said spells - are so great, and to have them be constantly cut off like that is so terrible.
Its as if the weapon impact sounds have absolute priority over any other sound effect in combat, but it is also fairly random and effects aren't always cut off.

I should also mention that I play almost exclusively *without* Pause.. So it isn't that, and for anyone who might comment in here, if you play with pause, try playing without it, and see if it happens for you too.

I can't find very many instances of this problem on the internet - definitely no remedies, and am still hoping someone who previously had this problem and solved it, will chime in here..

[ColorsFade]

This has to be an issue with your hardware or drivers.

Standard troubleshooting steps apply. Update BIOS, update drivers, then see what happens.

[⌥]

Originally posted by ColorsFade:

This has to be an issue with your hardware or drivers.

Standard troubleshooting steps apply. Update BIOS, update drivers, then see what happens.

Thats the thing.. This issue persisted before and after those usual remedies, that was on my pc with windows 7.

Before and after updating (everything was already up to date, since I check for them fairly regularely..) - the problem persisted.

I gave up.

Now, again a few months later, brand new installation on windows 10, from scratch, freshly formatted harddrive and all, all drivers updated, and up-to-date before I even installed steam or any of my games, and the problem remains.

It sucks too, I just can't get passed how detrimental it is to the enjoyment of combat for me.
Every time it happens, shoulders slump - a mild sigh escapes, and I'm pulled right out of any immersion I had, and from that point I just continuously focus on how glitchy it sounds, and it is a persistent issue (every fight, but not every cast - just random enough to really stand out.)

I guess it just can't be solved, since for whatever reason, it just won't go away, and doesn't seem like a common issue at all.

And just for the record, by 'drivers are up to date' I mean that they literally are, and I'm not just saying that lol.

Guess I'll just hope whatever it is that isn't playing nice, is solved with any changes they make to the engine in the sequel..

[⌥]

Kind of Solved it, I guess..
Turned Voice volume to zero.
Now I can't hear them being cut off :D.

Going to miss you Durance.

[ColorsFade]

So, same hardware? But both Windows 7 and 10?

Look for the common denominators here.

[⌥]

Originally posted by ColorsFade:

So, same hardware? But both Windows 7 and 10?

Look for the common denominators here.

Yep!
Well aware of the fact that this is a seemingly 'exclusive to me, and my setup alone' type of situation.
Ty tho.

[Theo Hardmeier]

Your not alone bud...I have no clue how to fix it though.

[Kain067]

Still an issue, definitely not just with you.

[jones]

I experience times in very heated large battles where there will be no sound at all for a time. Complete silence as the action unfolds, and then eventually sound again. My PC is high end but 5 years old. Weird.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by Kain067:

Still an issue

It will remain an issue forever, since the game has reached end of life in 2017:
--> https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Version

Also, it uses Unity engine, and audio truncation issues may be caused by the bundled copy of Unity somehow failing while mixing multiple audio channels.

More common in my opinion is truncation of voice-over during conversation. Normally, restarting PoE fixes it, but not everyone is affected in the same way.