Music bug or a an issue on my end?

[Sergius_Maximus]

Music bug or a an issue on my end?

Hello fellow witchers!

I hope everyone is well and is in good spirits. I am at my wits end here so here i am seeking assistance on forums. I rarely post stuff on internet, but i like my Witcher 3 too much and this issue is driving me insane. So basically i have in-game music problems. Music stops playing randomly in open world, during conversations, cut-scenes, wrong music playing in wrong places etc. I had no idea how important music was until this issue occurred, it ruined the whole game for me!

I have 2 versions of the game on GOG: Witcher 3 with all dlc's and Witcher 3 GOTY, both versions have patch 1.31 (A) installed. I've tried restarting the game, reloading, repairing both games via GOG "verify/repair" feature several times, I've tried deleting and reinstalling both games several times, but the problem persists. This is my, i dunno, like 10th play-through since release, and i have never experienced an issue with the game until now.

I have used 3 mods during this play-through:
1) Mane and Tail Fixes https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/...ods.com/witcher3/ajax/modfiles/?id=1679&pUp=1
2) Leveling Witcher and Relic gear UPDATED [https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2120/?
3) Infinite Carry Capacity https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/792/?

Now, i am aware that using mods can mess up my game. I've used weight manipulation mods in my past play-throughs and never had an issue. I uninstalled all mods, and repaired and reinstalled my games, but the issue still persists. Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated. I'll attach dxdiag, and a save file where the problem can be noticed.

Just in case my PC specs:
CPU: I5-3570k
RAM:16GB
GPU: EVGA 980 TI

PS:Website wont let me upload my save game.

 

[SigilFey]

Hello, Sergius_Maximus!

While this has cropped up before, what I can tell you is:

1.) There was a design decision to include "silent tracks" in the underscore while exploring. This is done intentionally to highlight the ambient sound-work in the various environments. Some people love it; some people hate it. However, it's not a bug; it's a very conscious feature. (Personally, I love it. The first time I ever saw something like this was a mod for Oblivion. I went to Pale Pass and the orchestral music faded out for ~3 minutes...and I could hear, for the first time, faint echoes of twigs snapping in the distance...the sound of crystalline snow "dusting" over the ground...the slight ruffle of a rabbit off to the left... I was utterly blown away. It made the whole area feel so cold. Been a solid fan ever since.)

2.) There are a few actual bugs that popped up, and I've seen videos of it during dialogue, in combat, etc. It's not clear how or why this happens, and it seems entirely system-dependent. I can safely say it never happens on my end. The only issue I've encountered is entering the Great Hall in Ard Skellige. The music will cut out awkwardly at that point. (But knowing the bug has been there since the 1.0 days, that means that it's a deeply, deeply buried issue and likely cannot be fixed without breaking something else.) There might be other instances of this in places, but I've never encountered / noticed them.

3.) Running the game at 60 FPS or less with Vsync on is needed to ensure the proper frame-timing. If those things are not set, you could try that and see if it has any effect. It's possible that this could be causing some of the issues above. Also, be sure your audio sample rate is set to 16-bit, 48,000 Hz, (DVD quality). Anything higher can cause issues with games, and you won't notice any loss of quality unless you're using studio-grade, mixing equipment.

Hope that helps -- post again with any results!

 

[Sergius_Maximus]

Thank you for replying SigilFey!

I haven't heard about silent tracks before. Is there a way to remove them? Like go back to certain patch perhaps? Honestly i don't mind some silence during exploration, but it really kills the game when there is no music during cut scenes. Like siege of witcher's fortress, or that party before curing Uma, among others. Its awkward to hear voices without the epic music, and for some reason they all sound like they are talking in a cave. During cut-scenes music usually plays only half the time, then it stops, and it is very noticeable (because witcher 3 music is so epic and it does amazing job at creating the atmosphere for the scene). I've played this game many times, and i've never encountered any issues what-so-ever before. I am not sure what went wrong this time, i haven't changed anything (except for using those 3 mods).

My settings are already set as per your suggestions to 60 FPS limit, V-Sync on ( i also have g-sync with 144 hz monitor), audio default format is @ 16-bit, 48 000 Hz. Unfortunately i can't recall when in game i started to notice music problems, so i tend to believe that maybe mods corrupted my game. A logical conclusion, since i never had issues before. Or it maybe a patch issue, but i've never paid attention to patch numbers when i was playing before because everything was flawless.

 

[SigilFey]

Thank you for replying SigilFey!

I haven't heard about silent tracks before. Is there a way to remove them? Like go back to certain patch perhaps? Honestly i don't mind some silence during exploration, but it really kills the game when there is no music during cut scenes. Like siege of witcher's fortress, or that party before curing Uma, among others. Its awkward to hear voices without the epic music, and for some reason they all sound like they are talking in a cave. During cut-scenes music usually plays only half the time, then it stops, and it is very noticeable (because witcher 3 music is so epic and it does amazing job at creating the atmosphere for the scene). I've played this game many times, and i've never encountered any issues what-so-ever before. I am not sure what went wrong this time, i haven't changed anything (except for using those 3 mods).

My settings are already set as per your suggestions to 60 FPS limit, V-Sync on ( i also have g-sync with 144 hz monitor), audio default format is @ 16-bit, 48 000 Hz. Unfortunately i can't recall when in game i started to notice music problems, so i tend to believe that maybe mods corrupted my game. A logical conclusion, since i never had issues before. Or it maybe a patch issue, but i've never paid attention to patch numbers when i was playing before because everything was flawless.

Unfortunately, there's no way to get around it. (You may want to keep your eyes on mods that alter audio, however. Last I looked, modders were having a very hard time editing stuff like this since the way audio worked was deeply embedded in the actual engine and could not be altered easily...if at all.) It seems you're simply among the crowd that dislikes the approach.

Sounding like they're all in a cave makes me thing you may be forcing an environmental setting through the hardware.

1.) Right-click on the little speaker icon on your Windows taskbar,

2.) select "Playback devices", and then, in turn, select the properties for each active device on that list.

3.) Take some time and go through each tab, list. Disable / zero out anything that deals with effects, equalization, or sound balance. Make sure nothing relating to "reverb" is ticked, active, or set to anything other than "zero point" (which may mean, for example, that a slider may have to be set all the way to the left in some cases or in the middle in others).

However, before all of this, disable any mods, ensure you do not have any files set to "Read only", and do a verify / repair of the game through Steam / GOG / Origin. It could just be a file that got borked.

Keep us posted!