DS9 had an issue much like this except several orders of magnatide worse for people with surround sound systems/headsets it took them a few weeks to sort it out that time, i think it also reared it's ugly head on bajor also when the dominion stuff was added.
I remember i played sto without sound back during the ds9 stuff it was beyond horrible. now i just listen to music and barely notice the static pop.
hope they can find whats causing it soon tho, as it is persistent throughout most of sto and not limited to a single instance or area this time.
cryptic broke something with the sound, among other things, but before closed beta even started this poping sound was there and after a while, most sound effects would just simply stop playing. This only occurred on tribble till lor went live on holodeck. For the life of me, I dont know why they had to mess with the sound code, as far as I could tell it was working just fine. now its not.
I am sorry to hear you are having the same issue, yet at the same time glad that others have noticed this pattern.
If it were just a quiet popping I could deal with it, but it's loud, and does not seem to be effected by my volume control at all.
EDIT: Popping is NOT spelled "pooping". Stupid spell check.
Brandon just confirmed to me on Twitter that he has already seen the Thread (well at least one of the three(!) i've seen so far) and forwarded it and the video [to QA].
so lets all hope for a quick fix
the more info we can collect on this the better the chances they can nail it down, so keep on it even if you can just confirm what has already been posted.
----
a bit more info from my end:
played yesterday ROM campaign from ~ char lvl 5 - 19 several missions lots of hours (first day i could really PLAY this without lag or any RL disruptions ...yay!)
the poping was persistent through most of the campaign but there have been some zones where it did not happen at all.
there is no "trigger" to make it start or stop as far as i can tell, i can play for hours, it starts and stops on its own randomly and, at least where i took that video i could restart the client wait a minute and the popping started directly without me clicking or doing anything.
i noticed, and i don't know if this is related or another issue, that my ground weapon sounds did not play anymore in the end of my play session,
i also heard the Drozana Interior ambient sound in Drozana SPACE when i had to dock/undock a few times and later i also heard the same ambient noise in a Rom Mission Map in Space, at that point i restarted the client and the ambient and shooting sounds were back to normal again, the popping sound continued.
This tells me that the files are hooked up correctly but something else is clearly messing around.
My best guess is that they simply updated to sound system with the branch update and that something in the new version is bugged.
i've also heard in the DOFFJOBS channel when i asked around that a few other players noticed this, one player said that a friend of him who never was able to use his soundcard with STO was suddenly able to use it after the update, so they clearly updated SOMETHING that didn't make it into the patchnotes.
I am sorry to hear you are having the same issue, yet at the same time glad that others have noticed this pattern.
If it were just a quiet popping I could deal with it, but it's loud, and does not seem to be effected by my volume control at all.
It's definitely not just you.
I have the exact same problem an intermittent, perhaps every 8-10s (I haven't counted), popping sound and no amount of tweaking or turning options on or off has worked so far.
I haven't tried without headphones but I pretty much play STO with my headphones on 98% of the time.
Brandon just confirmed to me on Twitter that he has already seen the Thread (well at least one of the three(!) i've seen so far) and forwarded it and the video [to QA].
so lets all hope for a quick fix
the more info we can collect on this the better the chances they can nail it down, so keep on it even if you can just confirm what has already been posted.
THANK you. And thanks to Brandon (if he reads this post) for forwarding the info. If this issue gets fixed it will make me more motivated to go ahead and grab that LTS I have been wanting
I also agree that the more information we can share technically, the better. The devs cannot help us if we do not supply them with:
What we are experiencing
What troubleshooting steps we have taken
Video/audio of the issue where applicable (though someone already posted a great example on this thread)
System specs - it may help them track a commonality in chipset/sound card/other hardware variation that may be leading to this issue.
Same issue. Disabled Voice chat, turned all the volumes down and I still get popping. I am using BOSE speaker system, AND RAZER headphones and still get the popping.
Phones don't do this, ever and not with quality speakers. It sounds way different anyways,,, but the popping is annoying as all hell.
I do not know if it is just coincidence or if something else pushed through settings-wise, but it seems like the popping is more obnoxious today since the maintenance patch. Just following up here.
__________________________________
STO Forum member since before February 2010. STO Academy's excellent skill planner here: Link I actually avoid success entirely. It doesn't get me what I want, and the consequences for failure are slim. -- markhawman
I'm still having this bug. I'm using a pair of Corsair Vengeance 1500 Dolby 7.1 Gaming Headset. I would like to point out that I didn't have this bug before the expansion. I turned my in game sound off, but I still hear the crackling.
They have had sound issues with every patch from a couple of seasons ago. Mind you, this isn't ANYTHING like it has been in the past. Before it was continuous obnoxious sounds.
Anyone who was here for when "of bajor" released will know what I am talking about. It has something to do with the sound mapping for simulated 7.1 headsets.
They have had sound issues with every patch from a couple of seasons ago. Mind you, this isn't ANYTHING like it has been in the past. Before it was continuous obnoxious sounds.
Anyone who was here for when "of bajor" released will know what I am talking about. It has something to do with the sound mapping for simulated 7.1 headsets.
Actually that popping is more like what I am hearing everywhere now, regardless of location.
As you stated, this has happened in releases before, and I do remember this from Of Bajor. But in this release there's no place that's safe.
That is a REALLY obnoxious sound though, and this video reflects more of how I feel than the other video. Like I said . . . someone constantly popping bubble wrap in your eardrum drives you crazy after a very short time of gaming on here now.
I know Brandon stated he forwarded the other video and this thread to QA, but I'd really love to get an official response on here as to if they really are looking into this and if it is being considered seriously. I think a lot of us would appreciate that from a customer service point of view. I'd happily open a trouble ticket, but I am one of those souls who has been perma-blocked from the PWE support system by that "infinite loop" bug when logged in.
5 pages and yet none of you figured out a viable cause for the sound error....what kind of geeks are you?
Let's review the facts:
1) Happening with USB headsets
2) Happening with Surround sound systems both 5.1 and 7.1
3) happening in various locations
4) Various sound files being played at once (ambient,fx,voice,etc.)
Anyone got the common denominator figured yet?
No....
How about now....
No...
Need a hint?.....
comes after three but before five.....
There ya go I knew you'd figure it out.
possible and probable cause is the sound codec they are using is trying to push through more sounds than possible and instead of harmlessly muting/ending a sound file it's still trying to process through 1 or more too many and that's when you get the pop.
USB headsets amplify the sound defect and that's why you can hear it more loudly. Rear speakers are designed to produce slightly more bass which is why it's amplified in rear speakers.
Old audio cards used to have the same problem when you selected the wrong settings (for those of us old enough to remember having to set that manually). now it's all done for you through a software file.
as someone else suggested different systems can ignore this, correct it, or amplify it which is why not everyone is having it and why it's worse for some and not others.
Mind you I'm not saying 100% that this is exactly what the problem is, but it accounts for all the situations and I had a similar problem but very isolated problem during the defense of new romulus mission during the huge battle with the Elachi. It couldn't keep up with all the different sounds and popped a couple of times until the battle died down.
2) Happening with Surround sound systems both 5.1 and 7.1
3) happening in various locations
4) Various sound files being played at once (ambient,fx,voice,etc.)
possible and probable cause is the sound codec they are using is trying to push through more sounds than possible and instead of harmlessly muting/ending a sound file it's still trying to process through 1 or more too many and that's when you get the pop.
USB headsets amplify the sound defect and that's why you can hear it more loudly. Rear speakers are designed to produce slightly more bass which is why it's amplified in rear speakers.
Old audio cards used to have the same problem when you selected the wrong settings (for those of us old enough to remember having to set that manually). now it's all done for you through a software file.
as someone else suggested different systems can ignore this, correct it, or amplify it which is why not everyone is having it and why it's worse for some and not others.
Mind you I'm not saying 100% that this is exactly what the problem is, but it accounts for all the situations and I had a similar problem but very isolated problem during the defense of new romulus mission during the huge battle with the Elachi. It couldn't keep up with all the different sounds and popped a couple of times until the battle died down.
I appreciate your input, and all of it is sound advice though a lot of it, mainly point #4, was touched on already in this thread.
5 pages and yet none of you figured out a viable cause for the sound error....what kind of geeks are you?
Anyone got the common denominator figured yet?
No....
How about now....
No...
Need a hint?.....
comes after three but before five.....
There ya go I knew you'd figure it out.
However I am hoping these parts are steered toward the troubleshooting techs and not the players posting here. We're gamers and customers, not IT geeks. Not all of us eat, live and breathe computers. We have an issue. We describe the issue on the forums and hope that Cryptic comes up with a solution, since it has been observed that this most likely has to do with the drivers that Cryptic's server is using for pushing sound and not a problem with our hardware specifically. So please don't make it sound like we're morons or something because we're not IT geeks. It's a game . . . not a server infrastructure that we all maintain as a staff.
is that the same popping sound you are all hearing? yes?
This is the EXACT same sound I was hearing. So far I've only had it happen once, which was a couple of nights ago. I honestly thought it was my speaker set, so I never really paid attention to where I was or what I was doing when it occurred. I do know I wasn't on my Romulan at the time, nor was I in any of the newer areas. IIRC, I was either on Qo'noS or Ganalda Station at the time on one of my old KDF toons.
The reason I thought it was a problem with my speaker set is because just after the warranty expired on it, I started having a problem (popping, crackling, buzzing, sound cutting in/out) with the left rear channel of my set. Thankfully, due to my speaker set being THX certified (all speakers are exactly the same and all channel outputs on the hardware produce the same sound levels), I was able to bypass this problem by running the rear channel output through the side channel input/output on my speaker set to the rear speakers and run it in a true 5.1 setup instead of the 7.1 it was designed to.
Hardware:
Creative GigaWorks S750 (7.1 running as 5.1)
Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Pro PCIe
Rear speakers are designed to produce slightly more bass which is why it's amplified in rear speakers.
This is not true for THX certified hardware. In a TXH setup, all speakers are the same, and output is equal across all channels, so if you played a single sound equally across all channels, you'd hear no difference in pitch or tone from any speaker.
Same issue. Disabled Voice chat, turned all the volumes down and I still get popping. I am using BOSE speaker system, AND RAZER headphones and still get the popping.
Phones don't do this, ever and not with quality speakers. It sounds way different anyways,,, but the popping is annoying as all hell.
Did you really brag about having (lol) BOSE. It could very well be the BOSE speaker system.
Veni Vidi Vici
Confucius says "A Panda is most dangerous when Sad".
I do not believe this is at all related specifically to surround sound. While on surround systems it seems to effect only certain channels (mainly the rear), I remembered that I once had a regular jack-style headset that was just a regular 2-speaker headset and had this issue. In fact I bought the G35's because I thought my headset as the issue. I have also assured that ALL surround in both Windows, the Logitech control panel AND even the hard switch on this headset is completely off and disabled and the only difference it makes its to make the horrible popping more tolerable to bear in order to game a while longer.
I had assumed it was the headset itself, but after testing it against my backup pair (new one, never opened) of 780s, using a old audio jack based pair of earbuds from sony. Its definitely something on STO's end.
This only occurs when I play this game, I've run a few other games with huge sound sources (notably dawn of war 2, and a few RTS things like star craft). No repeats of that popping tiill I launch STO.
In regards to captain obvious on codecs. Most people assume it is this by now, its just without confirmation from STO devs or whatever, its just speculation. No need to be all snarky about it.
People are relaying relevant information regarding whats happening and what they are doing to try and troubleshoot it.
Same issue, I 1st noticed it on Tribble, an thought, well maybe it wont migrate to Holo >.<' but sure enough it did and the only way I can fix it atm is to restart STO .
sound was working fine till they ramped up tribble for lor, then it was broken. It was reported, ignored, broken sound made its way to holodeck. the common denominator is cryptic.
I am willing to gamble that a lot more than just us are having this issue, although not everyone even realizes it.
I hooked up a speaker system to my computer. The sounds seemed fine, but on a whim I turned the volume up loud. The popping was there as well, However the popping was so quiet on these speakers it was barely noticeable. These were regular speakers hooked straight into jacks. No USB was involved in this test. The speakers were, of course, low quality speakers (they were Creative Labs 7.1 speakers given to me a long time ago), which is why they stay collecting dust in my closet, but I had to try something different.
Also, for those of us having these issues (and I only ask that because people not having the popping issue will not be having this issue) . . . are you guys also losing sounds as you play throughout your session? I have noticed that regardless of my sound settings that - in addition to the popping - I also start losing sounds that stay gone as I play. Usually it starts with footsteps, then effects sounds, etc. Last night I tested with ambient sound turned on and eventually ALL sounds disappeared gradually until i was left with nothing but ambient sound and . . . you guessed it . . . Casper the Ghost popping bubble wrap in my eardrums.
Cryptic - PLEASE tell us you are at least looking into this. This issue is top of my list - okay second on my list - the first being server stability . . .
Comments
I remember i played sto without sound back during the ds9 stuff it was beyond horrible. now i just listen to music and barely notice the static pop.
hope they can find whats causing it soon tho, as it is persistent throughout most of sto and not limited to a single instance or area this time.
I am sorry to hear you are having the same issue, yet at the same time glad that others have noticed this pattern.
If it were just a quiet popping I could deal with it, but it's loud, and does not seem to be effected by my volume control at all.
EDIT: Popping is NOT spelled "pooping". Stupid spell check.
https://twitter.com/Z3R0B4NG/status/337983966361554945
Brandon just confirmed to me on Twitter that he has already seen the Thread (well at least one of the three(!) i've seen so far) and forwarded it and the video [to QA].
so lets all hope for a quick fix
the more info we can collect on this the better the chances they can nail it down, so keep on it even if you can just confirm what has already been posted.
----
a bit more info from my end:
played yesterday ROM campaign from ~ char lvl 5 - 19 several missions lots of hours (first day i could really PLAY this without lag or any RL disruptions ...yay!)
the poping was persistent through most of the campaign but there have been some zones where it did not happen at all.
there is no "trigger" to make it start or stop as far as i can tell, i can play for hours, it starts and stops on its own randomly and, at least where i took that video i could restart the client wait a minute and the popping started directly without me clicking or doing anything.
i noticed, and i don't know if this is related or another issue, that my ground weapon sounds did not play anymore in the end of my play session,
i also heard the Drozana Interior ambient sound in Drozana SPACE when i had to dock/undock a few times and later i also heard the same ambient noise in a Rom Mission Map in Space, at that point i restarted the client and the ambient and shooting sounds were back to normal again, the popping sound continued.
This tells me that the files are hooked up correctly but something else is clearly messing around.
My best guess is that they simply updated to sound system with the branch update and that something in the new version is bugged.
i've also heard in the DOFFJOBS channel when i asked around that a few other players noticed this, one player said that a friend of him who never was able to use his soundcard with STO was suddenly able to use it after the update, so they clearly updated SOMETHING that didn't make it into the patchnotes.
It's definitely not just you.
I have the exact same problem an intermittent, perhaps every 8-10s (I haven't counted), popping sound and no amount of tweaking or turning options on or off has worked so far.
I haven't tried without headphones but I pretty much play STO with my headphones on 98% of the time.
I'm glad to hear bran has passed this on.
THANK you. And thanks to Brandon (if he reads this post) for forwarding the info. If this issue gets fixed it will make me more motivated to go ahead and grab that LTS I have been wanting
I also agree that the more information we can share technically, the better. The devs cannot help us if we do not supply them with:
Phones don't do this, ever and not with quality speakers. It sounds way different anyways,,, but the popping is annoying as all hell.
When you want to break the mold
BETA Tips and Tricks
Never saw Pants in beta?
STO Forum member since before February 2010.
STO Academy's excellent skill planner here: Link
I actually avoid success entirely. It doesn't get me what I want, and the consequences for failure are slim. -- markhawman
its not my headset, as this only occurs during STO.
Its also something that likes to vanish at random.
Not sure what to do about it. I can find next to nothing on troubleshooting.
Anyone who was here for when "of bajor" released will know what I am talking about. It has something to do with the sound mapping for simulated 7.1 headsets.
Here is a video of the event...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mipMlVg8o5U
=/\= 106th Fleet =/\=
Website | Fleet Charter | Mission Statement | Forums | Join | F.A.Q.
Original Handle: the_orig_jean_luc_picard
Actually that popping is more like what I am hearing everywhere now, regardless of location.
As you stated, this has happened in releases before, and I do remember this from Of Bajor. But in this release there's no place that's safe.
That is a REALLY obnoxious sound though, and this video reflects more of how I feel than the other video. Like I said . . . someone constantly popping bubble wrap in your eardrum drives you crazy after a very short time of gaming on here now.
I know Brandon stated he forwarded the other video and this thread to QA, but I'd really love to get an official response on here as to if they really are looking into this and if it is being considered seriously. I think a lot of us would appreciate that from a customer service point of view. I'd happily open a trouble ticket, but I am one of those souls who has been perma-blocked from the PWE support system by that "infinite loop" bug when logged in.
Let's review the facts:
1) Happening with USB headsets
2) Happening with Surround sound systems both 5.1 and 7.1
3) happening in various locations
4) Various sound files being played at once (ambient,fx,voice,etc.)
Anyone got the common denominator figured yet?
No....
How about now....
No...
Need a hint?.....
comes after three but before five.....
There ya go I knew you'd figure it out.
possible and probable cause is the sound codec they are using is trying to push through more sounds than possible and instead of harmlessly muting/ending a sound file it's still trying to process through 1 or more too many and that's when you get the pop.
USB headsets amplify the sound defect and that's why you can hear it more loudly. Rear speakers are designed to produce slightly more bass which is why it's amplified in rear speakers.
Old audio cards used to have the same problem when you selected the wrong settings (for those of us old enough to remember having to set that manually). now it's all done for you through a software file.
as someone else suggested different systems can ignore this, correct it, or amplify it which is why not everyone is having it and why it's worse for some and not others.
Mind you I'm not saying 100% that this is exactly what the problem is, but it accounts for all the situations and I had a similar problem but very isolated problem during the defense of new romulus mission during the huge battle with the Elachi. It couldn't keep up with all the different sounds and popped a couple of times until the battle died down.
I appreciate your input, and all of it is sound advice though a lot of it, mainly point #4, was touched on already in this thread.
However I am hoping these parts are steered toward the troubleshooting techs and not the players posting here. We're gamers and customers, not IT geeks. Not all of us eat, live and breathe computers. We have an issue. We describe the issue on the forums and hope that Cryptic comes up with a solution, since it has been observed that this most likely has to do with the drivers that Cryptic's server is using for pushing sound and not a problem with our hardware specifically. So please don't make it sound like we're morons or something because we're not IT geeks. It's a game . . . not a server infrastructure that we all maintain as a staff.
This is the EXACT same sound I was hearing. So far I've only had it happen once, which was a couple of nights ago. I honestly thought it was my speaker set, so I never really paid attention to where I was or what I was doing when it occurred. I do know I wasn't on my Romulan at the time, nor was I in any of the newer areas. IIRC, I was either on Qo'noS or Ganalda Station at the time on one of my old KDF toons.
The reason I thought it was a problem with my speaker set is because just after the warranty expired on it, I started having a problem (popping, crackling, buzzing, sound cutting in/out) with the left rear channel of my set. Thankfully, due to my speaker set being THX certified (all speakers are exactly the same and all channel outputs on the hardware produce the same sound levels), I was able to bypass this problem by running the rear channel output through the side channel input/output on my speaker set to the rear speakers and run it in a true 5.1 setup instead of the 7.1 it was designed to.
Hardware:
Creative GigaWorks S750 (7.1 running as 5.1)
Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Pro PCIe
This is not true for THX certified hardware. In a TXH setup, all speakers are the same, and output is equal across all channels, so if you played a single sound equally across all channels, you'd hear no difference in pitch or tone from any speaker.
Did you really brag about having (lol) BOSE. It could very well be the BOSE speaker system.
Veni Vidi Vici
Confucius says "A Panda is most dangerous when Sad".
I do not believe this is at all related specifically to surround sound. While on surround systems it seems to effect only certain channels (mainly the rear), I remembered that I once had a regular jack-style headset that was just a regular 2-speaker headset and had this issue. In fact I bought the G35's because I thought my headset as the issue. I have also assured that ALL surround in both Windows, the Logitech control panel AND even the hard switch on this headset is completely off and disabled and the only difference it makes its to make the horrible popping more tolerable to bear in order to game a while longer.
I had assumed it was the headset itself, but after testing it against my backup pair (new one, never opened) of 780s, using a old audio jack based pair of earbuds from sony. Its definitely something on STO's end.
This only occurs when I play this game, I've run a few other games with huge sound sources (notably dawn of war 2, and a few RTS things like star craft). No repeats of that popping tiill I launch STO.
In regards to captain obvious on codecs. Most people assume it is this by now, its just without confirmation from STO devs or whatever, its just speculation. No need to be all snarky about it.
People are relaying relevant information regarding whats happening and what they are doing to try and troubleshoot it.
I hooked up a speaker system to my computer. The sounds seemed fine, but on a whim I turned the volume up loud. The popping was there as well, However the popping was so quiet on these speakers it was barely noticeable. These were regular speakers hooked straight into jacks. No USB was involved in this test. The speakers were, of course, low quality speakers (they were Creative Labs 7.1 speakers given to me a long time ago), which is why they stay collecting dust in my closet, but I had to try something different.
Also, for those of us having these issues (and I only ask that because people not having the popping issue will not be having this issue) . . . are you guys also losing sounds as you play throughout your session? I have noticed that regardless of my sound settings that - in addition to the popping - I also start losing sounds that stay gone as I play. Usually it starts with footsteps, then effects sounds, etc. Last night I tested with ambient sound turned on and eventually ALL sounds disappeared gradually until i was left with nothing but ambient sound and . . . you guessed it . . . Casper the Ghost popping bubble wrap in my eardrums.
Cryptic - PLEASE tell us you are at least looking into this. This issue is top of my list - okay second on my list - the first being server stability . . .