how to switch audio output on the fly ?

[somegamer112]

hello,
normally i have my sound trough my monitor
but after i start thegame and somebody wants trough speak trough skype for ark
so i input my headset in to teh audio jack so he want ahve any feedback form the sound on my monitor

but for some reason ark just keeps playing the audio(from the game) trough my monitor
instead of switching to my headset

would it be possible to fix this somehow ?

[kotawolf]

This would be nice. Wife works from home, when she is working I have to switch to headset. Would be helpful to be able to do that with out closing and re-opening the game.

[Shadows]

I don't believe you can do this while in game.

[somegamer112]

in that case i hope a developer sees this, and can make it so we can do that

[Grey]

You'd have to change the output through windows: click start, type 'sound' and open the control panel for your sound devices. Set the default output to wherever you'd like and then get on with life. If Ark does not change (because ARK), you'll have to restart ark.

You can also look in to a Plantronics RIG headset which can take up to 3 inputs (USB audio, analog jack audio and cell phone) and mix them on the fly with a hardware puck that allows you to adjust volume(s) and change mic destination.

[Blinky]

Originally posted by wiiguy - Click the cheese:

in that case i hope a developer sees this, and can make it so we can do that

Dont think so^^ That what you want isnt a smal thing^^

[somegamer112]

Originally posted by Grey:

You'd have to change the output through windows: click start, type 'sound' and open the control panel for your sound devices. Set the default output to wherever you'd like and then get on with life. If Ark does not change (because ARK), you'll have to restart ark.

You can also look in to a Plantronics RIG headset which can take up to 3 inputs (USB audio, analog jack audio and cell phone) and mix them on the fly with a hardware puck that allows you to adjust volume(s) and change mic destination.

my headjack is already by default.
so whenever my headjack is not used, it uses the monitor.
so whenever i plug my headset in i have to restart it. < that is my problem :p

a Plantronics RIG headset will just be a work around and not a solution(besides i dont like such headsets)

Originally posted by Blinky:

Originally posted by wiiguy - Click the cheese:

in that case i hope a developer sees this, and can make it so we can do that

Dont think so^^ That what you want isnt a smal thing^^

a person can hope :)

[MinimumEffort]

I'd love this to be fixed. I have to restart Ark if I change Sound output devices.

[RDForum]

I figured out an alternative solution. If you buy an audio splitter and plug both devices in then you can just turn headphones off and use monitor , or vice versa

NOTE: This method wont work with a usb headset or any wireless audio devices

[Blinky]

Originally posted by Smittah79:

It's actually a Windows thing not an ARK thing. ARK has Windows or whichever OS figure out what output you want. And the way Windows works is that you go to your "Playback Devices" and pick which output you want for default communications(skype) and which one for audio device/general purpose(ARK).
Now the thing is with ARK and other games once it has been told by the OS which output it needs to send the sound to it doesn't want to change until the executable or game has been terminated. So the game will always use that output regardless until you restart the program.

I think u are not to 100% right...
I have a few Games which let me change sound output without a restart or something...

[Flapinux]

I'm in the same boat. I have USB Speakers (Logitech Z-10) and Sennheiser 363D Headset - for every other application & game that I run, I can hot-key between them using "Soundswitch" version 3.10xx whatever just fine. I know a developer probably won't see this... but I know iTunes simply had a setting I could change to make it work where I switched it from Windows Audio session to Direct Sound if I remember right. Now that switches fine.

[Quambas]

2 years and this is still not a feature, and this type of basic feature is desperately needed. I have to turn off my speakers in windows before launching ark to get it to send to the correct channel, and while I use audio router on other games that don't have this type of setting, BattleEye seems to prevent audiorouter.exe from changing ark's sound channel.

Seriously annoying but simple QOL fix.

[crimsondrac]

It is easy to do in Windows 10. And it is an issue with Windows, not the game. Learn to google and stop necro'ing threads.

[IDrinkBongWater]

This is just poor coding - holding onto a direct hook to the hardware instead of going through a managed pool in windows. So even tho you have changed the windows layer setting to point to a different output device the game ignores this as it is still talking to the resources (sound card) directly. Doubt very much they will change this as they will have to do a major rework for something they will view as working.

[heroicidiot]

NECRO

[the viking]

Originally posted by crimsondrac:

It is easy to do in Windows 10. And it is an issue with Windows, not the game. Learn to google and stop necro'ing threads.

I love how much energy people put into negativity... googling this problem brings up this page, and a bunch of non-relevant pages.. And there's no solution in windows 10 or otherwise I'm aware of or which was posted here.. I don't have a problem with any other game/program, but this is killer in ark with the 5-10 minute load time / kill times.
I don't get what this 'necro' complaint is about issues which are still relevant. We still want the developers to fix this.. it can be fixed, it should be fixed, their code will be cleaner for having fixed it. Maybe the fix won't be until some major core update, but if we shut up and pretend nothing's wrong, they're never going to fix it.
And people who argue against progress for made up reasons are regressive. (We could theorize why it may be hard for them to fix, but why would you argue against them fixing it.. it could be quite simple)