Arma 3 sound popping when 1st person in vehicles

[honger 114]

I just thought I would post this before I commit sudoku since it is a very bothersome issue I've been experiencing for a past couple of months and so far I haven't found any solution that would fix it - damn sound cracking/popping/artefacts that happen when you move, sometimes it can be heard in environmental sounds (walking through bushes on Enoch is a good example), sometimes it's caused by flying-by jets or tracked vehicles. These videos sum up the issue pretty well:

 

 

What I have tried so far:

• I have tried speakers (harman/kardon 2.1), two different headphones (Audiotechnica M40X, Logitech G PRO X) through two different DACs (U-Phoria UM2, G PRO X) and through the jack ports in my motherboard (B450 Tomahawk) and my case (BeQuiet something)
• I tried reinstalling the game, deleting files manually and verifying them through Steam, installing soundmods and uninstalling all of them
• Tried running my audio through Voicemeeter, changing the buffer from smallest to highest, changing quality to 44.1, 48, bigger and smaller, basically every possible value
• Tried changing ingame audio values and keeping higher volume in my system/on DACs
• Tried tinfoiling cables, moving them far away and anything to exclude any interferences
• Tried plugging PC to a different power source with different cables, even unplugged any peripherial stuff that could cause power instability
• Tried the USB headset solution for game crash due to helicopter audio (so installed newest .NET, vcredist, directx)

N O T H I N G   H E L P E D.

 

I have a PC running with AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Gigabyte's GTX 1660S Gaming OC, 16GBs RAM 3000MHz. I have A3 on a HDD but it wasn't an issue back in 2019. Tried playing with it on SSD, guess what - didn't help. I'm not OCing anything, all my hardware seems to be 100% functional basing on visuals and parameters in HWINFO, HD Disk Sentinel, Ryzen Master and other stuff.

 

I remember that I haven't had this issue back when there was an audio setting in-game where we were able to set number of audio sources - but with one of recent updates it was gone and now I'm stuck with this popping audio BS. I'm desperately looking for help because I don't want to quit this game just because its audio engine cannot be looked into and fixed once for all by BI.

[EO 11274]

Sorry to hear about your troubles, sounds like a right pain in the ass. (excuse the pun)

Can't help, but can confirm those environmental sound issues still persist on Livonia.

There are still small sectors of the map that have those cracking and popping anomalies, more noticeable when moving around Eden with the camera, less noticeable, but still there, in-game.  

Those sound issues were reported way back when Contact was first released, clearly they still haven't got to the bottom of it, and doubtful it will be fixed now.

Good luck trying to find a solution buddy.    

[Harzach 2517]

4 hours ago, honger said:

I remember that I haven't had this issue back when there was an audio setting in-game where we were able to set number of audio sources - but with one of recent updates it was gone and now I'm stuck with this popping audio BS.

 

So, the slider was removed back around 2.04 (May 27, 2021), but it was literally non-functional since maybe 2015. Update 2.04 did include several added and fixed audio features, and I know I've experienced some "popping" lately as well, so it sure seems like something was broken in or around that update. Like you, I have tried every permutation of sound settings/equipment/etc. to no avail.

[honger 114]

Small update to my issue

 

Today I reinstalled Windows (reverted it to the day 1 state without deleting personal files and apps), so I assume all drivers and anything system-related got purged or at least Windows does not read it anymore.

 

Now when driving tanks or other vehicles on Altis and Altis-vegetation-populated maps I do not get the popping sound, or at least it is not as loud as it was before. On Livonia it stopped happening when driving, sometimes can be heard when walking on different ground types (switching from road ground type to forest ground type), and almost always happens when I teleport between the "biomes" (out of 20 tries, two teleports did not cause the pop or weren't louder than environmental sound). Still no clue what is the issue but now it's more bearable. I'm not gonna install new drivers, right now I am on whatever Windows requires in its newest version + files coming with Arma 3. If it gets worse, I'll do a revert with deletion of everything on PC.