Alright, so there’s a pretty serious problem in the game which has to do with the sound mixing/rendering or whatever the correct word for it is. It’s been in the game for a while and I tried to fix it myself having heard about broken windows updates etc. etc. etc. It’s unfixable on the user side and should be looked at by the devs.
Today, following Carter_OW’s reddit post here https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/eszf9d/sound_bugged_since_patch_141_example_here/
I made a simple audio test that anyone can recreate.
here’s a video of it - YouTube
Nothing special, just standing in stairs trying to hear a training bot’s movement through the walls, the sound weirdly cuts off, which should not be the case.
Then, I heard about the new PTR patch, read the patch notes and decided to download the PTR client just to test out the new changes. So, the PTR was downloaded in my native language (Russian) and weirdly enough, as I loaded the practice range and made the same test as before, the sounds (of the training bot passing by) were there this time around and they weren’t cut off by the walls as they normally SHOULDN’T be.
Then I decided to test the PTR with another language, this time Korean. So I downloaded the new language pack, loaded PTR and entered practice range, now playing in Korean language. I made the same test and the sounds WERE there. Then I closed the practice range and entered it again without closing the PTR client. And boom, the sounds were gone again. Then I closed the PTR client, loaded it again without changing languages (still playing in Korean) and the sounds were gone.
Here’s a video illustrating it - YouTube
So then, I decided to test the same thing on the live patch, trying to download new languages, but unfortunately it doesn’t work on live. There are no sounds (of the training bot moving) on live patch in any languages.
Here’s a video of a live patch in Korean - YouTube
TLDR: Sounds in the game are broken. You can’t hear a lot of the sounds that you should be hearing.
You can somewhat “fix” it on PTR by downloading a different language pack but it will only work on an initial launch and an initial loading of a map and will not work any further. You can not fix it on live.
I encourage everyone to run the audio tests of their own, with your friends, on different maps, with different language packs, on PTR, on live and I ask the devs to take a look at this problem. Let’s not make it fly under the devs’ radar because of the new PTR patch and let’s hope it gets fixed soon.
