audio pop/ stuttering issue.

[SigilFey]

The consoles audio settings sadly don't fix anything. I've tried just about every fix imaginable. This is 100% a bug introduced in one of the latest patches (not present on other consoles or unmatched versions)

I've submitted a few bug reports and the responses have ranged from "This is a known issue we are trying to fix", to generic "Thanks for bringing this to our attention!".

I'd still suggest everyone viewing this thread and experiencing the same issue submit their own bug report. We get that CDPR are busy with Cyberpunk and TW3 Switch, but I'm still really hoping this crap is fixed.

Submit those bug reports lads

I would recommend this be the course of action everyone takes.

To be realistic about the situation -- I'm not sure there's much more to be done. The issue is not universal (nor even common) across the consoles. It's most likely an indirect conflict that's happening between TW3, the specific audio hardware installed in the specific model of Playstation a user has, and the specific models of TV / speakers / audio cables used to hook it up to the display. If possible, try hooking the PS4 up to a much older TV and see if that changes anything. (Even if the problem still exists, see if it's different in any way.)

The more detailed and specific the info players are able to provide, the more quickly the support staff can exclude options and try to hone in on the cause. (Or, the more quickly people can discover their own workarounds and be able to enjoy the game. ) Given the length of time that this has been an issue, it's got to be a very obscure combination of variables that create the problem.

 

[casualrider]

Yeah I tried just about everything from audio settings to reinstalling, very unfortunate.

 

[ssHeartless]

Made an account just for this... I just bought the game on my PS4 Slim today, and it is unplayable. The sound is popping in every dialogue, and every 2 minutes. I use Hyperx 2 headset, plugged directly in the console. No other game have sound issues. Also no audio setting helps. Also i have the crackling and popping noises in this game even on my TV soundbar... too bad i can't refund on PS4

 

[casualrider]

Imagine the most immersive and story driven game you own failing to actually immerse you in the story because of some stupid, overlooked audio bug. Btw I have an original model ps4.. so if its happening to pros and slims then I highly doubt its a hardware issue. I just think there's not enough people that still play this game to warrant a hotfix. Either that or it doesn't bother most people. I couldn't even get to the bloody baron without rage quitting.
Submitted multiple tickets in the past 3 months and no response.

 

[forsale]

Yep, submitted a ticket last week, no response either. It really feels bad to have something you purchased broken out a sudden.

 

[mark5916]

Could you guys try to turn off any Audio enhancements from your TV or Monitor?

That's quite strange, because i never experienced any audio stuttering problems regardless if i played on a previous PS4 or my existing PS4 Pro.

The only problem as far as audio concerns (in my case anyway) was on The Whispering Hillock quest.

Sometimes the sound cuts off during the conversation with the Spirit.

That can be fixed by either restarting the Console (not just exiting the game) and sometimes by just doing that quest without tracking it.

 

[forsale]

This is really annoying, more than a year later and there's still a serious bug they introduced in a patch and didn't care to fix.
I'm going to send in another support ticked and check if they care to answer.

 

[Jukkies]

It's sad to see that this issue is still not fixed and sort of ignored. I hope people are gonna play the game more again, as the witcher series is now on netflix.

The more people will play, the more people may report this issue.

It's not our hardware / setup. Since my last post in april, i got a brand new tv and ps4 pro. But this issue still happens. Tried the game at my brother, which has a other tv and a launch ps4. But the popping / stuttering is still there.

It really sucks that this amazing game is left on the ps4 with this annoying bug, while telling us that it's probably our hardware / setup instead of looking into it.

 

[TheFabledGoat]

Yeah I've got no more ideas at this point... last thing I tried was buying and downloading the GotY edition in hopes that it would be absent there. I think it's maybe less prominent but it still happens and guess what? Still completely breaks your immersion...

 

[bullworth]

Bought the game recently and it's unplayable with this audio stutter during dialog! Parts of spoken dialog get swallowed and skipped. It constantly getting on my nerves to the point that i've stopped playing it on my ps4. It's not my setup either since i've checked and tried everything (i've read this thread and thought that maybe it was settings but nope)

I'm not gonna buy another cdpr game on the playstation 4/5 unless this is fixed. Pretty sad considering the show is just launched.

 

[SigilFey]

Just restating this, as the conversation keeps coming back to it.

The issue is definitely a matter of hardware / software incompatibility. If it were not configuration, then the exact same issue would occur on ALL Playstation systems. It does not. It occurs only on a relative few. I know that's still a large number of people, but it's also a tiny fraction of all players on Playstation.

In order to fix such issues:
1.) the source of the problem must be identifiable.
2.) it must be re-createable.
3.) further updates have to be planned.

As far as we know, the issue could not be identified, and thusly, not reliably re-created. I've not heard of any plans for further updates.

 

[bullworth]

Just restating this, as the conversation keeps coming back to it.

The issue is definitely a matter of hardware / software incompatibility. If it were not configuration, then the exact same issue would occur on ALL Playstation systems. It does not. It occurs only on a relative few. I know that's still a large number of people, but it's also a tiny fraction of all players on Playstation.

I have zero issues with other games - and i've played (and playing) a ton of them on my ps4. Both digital and physical. This issue occurs only with Witcher 3 Goty Edition.

 

[SigilFey]

I have zero issues with other games - and i've played (and playing) a ton of them on my ps4. Both digital and physical. This issue occurs only with Witcher 3 Goty Edition.

This I know. But that has nothing to do with the issue. The code is the same on any model of PS4 (and there are a LOT of different models that have been released over time, not to mention regional differences, regional software suites, etc.) If the problem were directly related to the code, then it would have the same issue on every, single PS4. Since it doesn't, then there's a 3rd factor.

What that factor could be is as much your guess as mine. Could be, for example, how a certain version of drivers affects the way the audio on the mainboard communicates with the security software installed on only certain versions of smart-TVs. Something like that.

End result is, the answer is not known.

 

[bullworth]

This I know. But that has nothing to do with the issue. The code is the same on any model of PS4 (and there are a LOT of different models that have been released over time, not to mention regional differences, regional software suites, etc.) If the problem were directly related to the code, then it would have the same issue on every, single PS4. Since it doesn't, then there's a 3rd factor.

What that factor could be is as much your guess as mine. Could be, for example, how a certain version of drivers affects the way the audio on the mainboard communicates with the security software installed on only certain versions of smart-TVs. Something like that.

End result is, the answer is not known.

I mean.. even cheap indie games somehow manage to work properly on all ps4s. And this is the first time i hear about drivers in the game console affecting certain games.

 

[SigilFey]

I mean.. even cheap indie games somehow manage to work properly on all ps4s. And this is the first time i hear about drivers in the game console affecting certain games.

Yes, but cheap indie games are not in excess of 1 million lines of code developed by entire teams of individuals over nearly 10 years for 3 platforms simultaneously. It's precisely a game as huge as TW3 that I would expect to have this sort of odd issue -- especially with time. Some of the hardware that people are running the game on now didn't even exist when it was being developed.

Hell -- I've never been able to run the game at 60 FPS on my desktop PC. I can still run every game I own at Ultra detail smoothly, but I'll get microstutter galore unless I lock TW3 to 48 FPS. It's a very particular engine.

Drivers are used for everything. They won't be called "drivers" for consoles, I'm sure, and they're likely integrated into the OS itself, but the hardware is going to be making, interpreting, and returning calls, just like any other computerized technology. There are definitely audio "drivers" that seem to be getting confused somewhere. And/or the hardware is not communicating effectively with the audio data. And/or the audio systems on the TV or speakers are not outputting correctly. And/or it's some chip in certain systems that's not configured 100% properly, while TW3's code is the only game that's manifesting the issue.

 

[bullworth]

Yes, but cheap indie games are not in excess of 1 million lines of code developed by entire teams of individuals over nearly 10 years for 3 platforms simultaneously. It's precisely a game as huge as TW3 that I would expect to have this sort of odd issue -- especially with time. Some of the hardware that people are running the game on now didn't even exist when it was being developed.

Hell -- I've never been able to run the game at 60 FPS on my desktop PC. I can still run every game I own at Ultra detail smoothly, but I'll get microstutter galore unless I lock TW3 to 48 FPS. It's a very particular engine.

Drivers are used for everything. They won't be called "drivers" for consoles, I'm sure, and they're likely integrated into the OS itself, but the hardware is going to be making, interpreting, and returning calls, just like any other computerized technology. There are definitely audio "drivers" that seem to be getting confused somewhere. And/or the hardware is not communicating effectively with the audio data. And/or the audio systems on the TV or speakers are not outputting correctly. And/or it's some chip in certain systems that's not configured 100% properly, while TW3's code is the only game that's manifesting the issue.

I get all of this. My point is - on a console i expect the game i buy to perform well. It's complete opposite of pc gaming in a sense that i don't have any control over how the game runs. If it stutters on ps4 - it's broken. If it stutters on pc i can usually tinker with ini files (or update some drivers) and 99.9% the issue will go away. And i'm pretty sure it's unheard of in a console gaming space to have the same game perform differently on the same platform (not counting pro vs base models differences)

 

[SigilFey]

I get all of this. My point is - on a console i expect the game i buy to perform well. It's complete opposite of pc gaming in a sense that i don't have any control over how the game runs. If it stutters on ps4 - it's broken. If it stutters on pc i can usually tinker with ini files (or update some drivers) and 99.9% the issue will go away. And i'm pretty sure it's unheard of in a console gaming space to have the same game perform differently on the same platform (not counting pro vs base models differences)

But that's it -- exactly. The game does run without issue on PS4. I've personally watched it running on PS4 without any sort of audio static, or frame drops, or crazy levels of pop-in. But I've also personally watched the pop-in thing happening on PS4. Not on the one I have access to...but it was 100% happening for the member that posted about it. It's the same type of issue here.

I think that in the '80s, '90s, and early 2000s, it was mostly a reasonable expectation that console games would "just work". The hardware and the software were (literally) orders-of-magnitude less complicated. Plus, consoles were using relatively exclusive hardware, so devs knew exactly what they could and could not do on any system.

Modern consoles are pretty much a specialized version of a PC. Not in execution, perhaps, but they've become much more complex, and also...more variable. That's the killer. How many times did I ever "update" my NES? My SNES? Even my XBox 360 only needed a firmware update every 6 months or so. Nowadays, consoles update much more regularly. The hardware in them is not standard anymore. Different models of the same console version may not even have the same physical internals, depending on the region of production.

This will invariably introduce issues. Weird, annoying, sometimes untraceable issues. I have no direct knowledge of what happened here, but I would put my chips on it being a bug that could not be tracked down.

 

[bullworth]

But that's it -- exactly. The game does run without issue on PS4. I've personally watched it running on PS4 without any sort of audio static, or frame drops, or crazy levels of pop-in. But I've also personally watched the pop-in thing happening on PS4. Not on the one I have access to...but it was 100% happening for the member that posted about it. It's the same type of issue here.

I think that in the '80s, '90s, and early 2000s, it was mostly a reasonable expectation that console games would "just work". The hardware and the software were (literally) orders-of-magnitude less complicated. Plus, consoles were using relatively exclusive hardware, so devs knew exactly what they could and could not do on any system.

Modern consoles are pretty much a specialized version of a PC. Not in execution, perhaps, but they've become much more complex, and also...more variable. That's the killer. How many times did I ever "update" my NES? My SNES? Even my XBox 360 only needed a firmware update every 6 months or so. Nowadays, consoles update much more regularly. The hardware in them is not standard anymore. Different models of the same console version may not even have the same physical internals, depending on the region of production.

This will invariably introduce issues. Weird, annoying, sometimes untraceable issues. I have no direct knowledge of what happened here, but I would put my chips on it being a bug that could not be tracked down.

I think you're being a little untruthful here. Consoles (mainly ps4, excluding pro) are that they've always used to be - standardized boxes with zero (hard drive spaces aside) variability in specs. PC-like internals or not - they are the same. There isn't one game that runs perfectly on half of the install base and badly on the other. That's just simply not how this all works. And also we can see the same issue appears on both pro and base machines, so even with variability between these machines in mind, they still suffer from the same problem.

 

[SigilFey]

I think you're being a little untruthful here. Consoles (mainly ps4, excluding pro) are that they've always used to be - standardized boxes with zero (hard drive spaces aside) variability in specs. PC-like internals or not - they are the same. There isn't one game that runs perfectly on half of the install base and badly on the other. That's just simply not how this all works. And also we can see the same issue appears on both pro and base machines, so even with variability between these machines in mind, they still suffer from the same problem.

Nope, I'm being 100% truthful.

Spoiler: Anecdote

I once owned an XBox 360 that I bought while living in the US. A couple years later, I bought an XBox 360 in Dubai. Having opened the case for the old one to fix a power supply issue, I knew what the internals looked like. When I needed to replace the HDD on the Dubai model, I cracked it open and -- viola -- the whole inside was completely different. Big, green, plastic cap to help regulate airflow...a chip that had been covered in black goop (which I later learned was to stop people from being able to access soldering points to hack the system). None of the components were in the same spot. I thought I had been duped and was given some sort of rip-off system.

Contacting Microsoft about it, they confirmed that it was an official system. The XBox's built for the Arab Spring area were handled by factories in Europe and Turkey (or something like that), and the components were localized. Even though the system had exactly the same specs, the actual production was different.

This is the same for PS4s built in US vs. Europe vs. Japan, etc.

While it's definitely not common to encounter such glaring issues, it does happen. The hardware is specialized to be as compatible as possible for different regions. Most importantly, I would argue, due to voltage differences from one area of the world to the next. Hertz is still different for TVs between different nations. This means that certain tranistors (transformers?) on the actual mainboard may need to be different. And the ripple effects go from there. It's also not possible to install exactly the same OS / versions on consoles in different regions. Even if it's the same installation package, the actual installation and configuration will vary a bit. Security software and techniques will vary from region to region.

All of this can introduce issues. The more complex the game, the more likely something may go wrong at some point.

 

[forsale]

Numerous people with different tvs, monitors, different sound setups have reported the problem. As for me, I have the same issue on two different monitors, and on two different sets of headphones. I have also reinstalled the game twice, created a new save, even changed my hdd. Besides, this bug didn't exist until the last patch.
I find it a bit hard to say that the issue doesn't lie on the code and that its source couldn't be identified. It just seems the devs don't care to look into it, but I could be wrong this last part. The fact that there is no response to support tickets suggests otherwise tough.