NPC voice volume drop bug - possible pattern and workaround?

[AirHippo]

Got about 13h under my belt in the game at present and, it seems, I've been one of the lucky ones; despite having an older rig that's having to run the game at minimum settings, I've had no major recurring problems of instability.

One problem I have had, however, is that, seemingly for no good reason, NPC voices will suddenly become very, very quiet. They aren't actually muted entirely; if you dial the volume right up, you can still hear them quite clearly. This applies to all NPC voices, including "disembodied" voices such as radios, TVs, general background announcements. The only means to clear it is to reload a prior save, at which point all sound volumes will reset to whatever value the game should load in the fitrst place.

At any rate, I'm trying to see if there's a pattern to when it happens, and on what systems. My specs are at the bottom of this post, but so far the only pattern of occurrence, the only "trigger" I can find, is that the voice volume drops only when one opens the inventory screen (or any of the sub-screens), and then only when one directly opens it, i.e. uses the "I" key (on my setup).

So, it seems we may have a pattern. Since the game turns down ambient sounds, but not music, when players open the inventory, my best guess as to what's going on is that there's an error in the code which tells the game to turn the voice volume back to its previous level after one has exited the inventory.

I've tried opening the inventory after using the map screen (i.e. hitting M and then navigating to the inventory), and the augmentations screen, and so far it hasn't cause the same issue; it seems to happen only when I open the inventory directly.

If anyone else is experiencing this problem, and could test this theory, it would perhaps be useful. First, because it would suggest a viable workaround - simply don't open the inventory directly. Second, because it may help the Eidos boys and girls isolate the issue.

Relevant Spec:

* Core i5 3750K
* GTX 760 Twin Frozr running NVidia drivers v372.54
* Asus Xonar DGX sound card/headphone accelerator
* Win 7 x64 Home Premium
* Game patched to v524.15.

HTH!

[Rafael]

I have the same issue and some others have also stated the exact same problem. We came to the conclusion that it's not our system, but a bug in the game. I had no issues until I got around halfway through the game. The inventory theory might be why it happens, I will test as well.

We need more awareness for this.

[Canoe]

Exact same problem, - NPCs suddenly go mute and cutscenes and video feeds go to barely audible. Why this wasn't picked up in QA I don't know. Nixxes dropped the ball in so many areas it's embarrassing.

[Canoe]

@brisk also happens every time you quicksave or save..

[AirHippo]

@Broken Canoe, not noticed that on my saves. Damn, there goes the theory :(

[God, owner of the Universe]

I have this, too. Didn't find a pattern yet, other than it happens after only a few minutes (varying length) and is fixed each time I quickload.

Threads about the same problem (incl. this one):

• https://steamcommunity.com/app/337000/discussions/1/352792037330017378/
  
• https://steamcommunity.com/app/337000/discussions/1/352792037315243147/
  
• https://steamcommunity.com/app/337000/discussions/1/355043117527193546/
  
• https://steamcommunity.com/app/337000/discussions/1/343785574521640512/

[God, owner of the Universe]

Hooray!

The following is from the current patch v1.4.545.4 (2016-09-08) thread:

Originally posted by Nixxes_Official:

Originally posted by God, owner of the universe:

Nixxes, please acknowledge sound bug.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/337000/discussions/1/352792037330017378/

This bug has been reported quite a few times, but nobody knows if Nixxes is even aware of its existence.

TL;DR: All dialog sound (Jensen, NPCs, etc.) goes almost perfectly quiet (too quiet to understand).

We will forward the issue again to development just to be on the sure side.

[Canoe]

Originally posted by God, owner of the universe:

Hooray!

The following is from the current patch v1.4.545.4 (2016-09-08) thread:

Originally posted by Nixxes_Official:

We will forward the issue again to development just to be on the sure side.

Excellent.!! Hopefully a real solution might appear one day.. Nice work!

[AirHippo]

Huzzah! Well done God! Maybe I should reconsider my stance on deities ;)

ETA: And thanks for the link - now I know where to file any future bug reports.

[KOV]

Found a possible workaround !
In NVIDIA CONTROL PANEL - in Surround, PhysX audio settings choose CPU to deal with PhysX.
Works for me (but I haven't tested it properly, maybe it just randomly stopped freaking out)
BTW if graphics card is chosen to deal with PhysX - audio dies completely.

[Mani]

Originally posted by KOV:

Found a possible workaround !
In NVIDIA CONTROL PANEL - in Surround, PhysX audio settings choose CPU to deal with PhysX.
Works for me (but I haven't tested it properly, maybe it just randomly stopped freaking out)
BTW if graphics card is chosen to deal with PhysX - audio dies completely.

Thank you! Works perfectly!