Guild Wars 2

Hi all,

A little thing is bugging me! The in game sound sometimes seems detached from where it should be or the volume is simply wrong.

First, a little look at my rig;

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1055t ~2.8GHz

CPU Fan: Noctua NH-D14

MOBO: Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD5 (Firmware 6)

Mem: 12GB Corsair XMS3

GFX: ATI R5850 HD 2gb VaporX (Sapphire)

Monitors: 3*HannsG HH241 in Eyefinity

Audio: Logitech S500 via onboard realtek

SSD: 120GB Corsair Force GT (primary)

SSD: 128GB Kingston

HDD: Seagate 1.5TB Barracuda (secondary)

BDRW: LG BH10LS30.AUAU10

DVDRW: TSST corp SH-S223C

PSU: XFX 850W P1-850S-NLB9

Case: Antec Nine hundred (Ultimate) Gamer – well wired for air flow

Extra fan: Noctua NF-S12B

Yeah, that’s probably more info than needed but It shows my main rig well enough!

Before anyone asks, I have all the latest drivers.

So, to the problem;

As noted; the in game sound sometimes seems detached from where it should be or the volume is simply wrong.

Examples;

In game NPCs are sometimes very quite as if far away when my character is standing next to them (Edit, this does not change as I move camera around view as one could possibly think it might with surround audio!)

Weapons fire (my character or others) is sometimes very quite or seemingly not played at all.

Very rare and mainly in towns, sometimes the sound is kind of ‘hollow’. This is not because of being in an environment that would ‘naturally’ sound hollow and can happen at any time.

I have checked my audio drivers and they are the latest available as far as I can tell – as are all my other drivers.

I have configured my audio manager (Realtek HD Audio Manager) for a good level of sound for general use and tried adjusting various audio settings in GW2 – including making sure GW2 is using the realtek speakers as default. The physical speakers are logitech 5.1 and situated adequately for day to day ‘surround’ use including gaming.

I have no errors with sound in any other software – media player / centre, DVD / BluRay playback, internet video or radio or in games such as LOTRO or world of tanks. The problems only occur in GW2!

Though the sound issue is somewhat minor and more of a small irritant than a game spoiler, it would be nice if I could sort it out.

I can more or less back you up on that one. My sound is also realtek and the issue is so small it really doesnt bother me much … so far. What I have noticed is from about 3 patches ago once I log in the sound is “mute” for 2 or 3 seconds after you show up in game and can move , then it kicks in and behaves more or less like you describe .. the occasional NPC shouting in my ear and silent first shot on a mob .

considering trying software sound to see if it does the same thing as a test.

I have the same thing with Realtek ALC892 chip (been having it since launch). Next to what you describe, I also can’t hear any sound during cinematic dialogs, or rather it sounds like a very, very distant echo. I do, however, find it a game breaking bug since the game is pretty much unplayable for me this way. Fortunately, I’ve been able to use my USB headset which works a bit better (not optimal though).

Some have reported issues with 5.1 sound. Does it sound less wrong if you configure your sound settings as ordinary 2.0 stereo instead?

The random volume bug (and sounds not playing at all) may be separate issues. I’m getting those bugs on an ASUS Xonar card + headphones. Own attack sounds sometimes not playing or playing with completely random volume, voices randomly audible from huge distance, etc.

The attack sounds’ random failure is very easy to replicate with the heart task in Fireheart Rise that gives you a highly spammable grenade pack. Throw grenades fast enough and eventually the sound effects start failing, with only some explosions making noise.

teistiz.3298:

Some have reported issues with 5.1 sound. Does it sound less wrong if you configure your sound settings as ordinary 2.0 stereo instead?

In my case they are configured as ordinary stereo.

XcomCaveRat.4059:

I have the same thing with Realtek ALC892 chip (been having it since launch). Next to what you describe, I also can’t hear any sound during cinematic dialogs, or rather it sounds like a very, very distant echo. I do, however, find it a game breaking bug since the game is pretty much unplayable for me this way. Fortunately, I’ve been able to use my USB headset which works a bit better (not optimal though).

I am set to 5.1 and only the minor things I mentioned occur. I have never had a muted cinematic. How up to date are your sound drivers? Another option would be sound setting in the ingame options to fast instead of quality to see if it helps.

My drivers are the latest from RealTek (2.70, I believe). And, naturally, I’ve tried to tinker with all sound options within the game without any luck.

What’s really funny is that I’ve been out in the middle of some prairie or up on a mountain or something, and suddenly I hear an NPC say something as if they’re standing right next to me….except there’s nothing as far as I can see.

I also have issues, as a ranger, with my pet’s footsteps becoming very loud until I switch pets. This always happens right at the end of a fight, and usually I’ve switched pets in the middle of the fight.

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies.

I will not have time tonight to try any options, but will tomorrow.

The ‘bug’ is minor – just a little irritating at times. So, should none of my attempts to rectify it work I will wait for a while to see if a hot fix/ patch / update fixes the issue.

Should I find a solution myself, I will post it here.

Thanks again for the replies, support and ideas.

EDIT: I sometimes get the the disembodied voice and wondered if it was a mix up in character sound files! That is to say for example; my male human engineer is maybe to say random phrases under certain conditions but instead ‘he’ says a phrase meant for a different character type and in a female voice!