I recently got a Mac Pro 2019 and installed all of the blizzard games on it; only to find that none of the games (or Battle.net itself) have worked with the audio itself.
I’ve found no issues in other popular apps/games (Chrome, Spotify, LoL).
When going to the settings in WoW and looking at the hardware settings I see:
“System Default”
“NoSound Driver”
When using SCII I see only “System Default.”
After running into these issues I have:
Restarted the computer
Deleted all of the games, and did a fresh reinstall from a fresh download
Unplugged my speakers and relied purely on the audio from the computer
Tested audio from other apps mentioned above while a game is running.
I’m not really sure what the right next step is here to debug further. What should I do next?
I’m running a 2019 Mac Pro and have had no sound issues. I just set WoW to System Default. I’m using external speakers connected as analog External Headphones.
“No Sound Driver” sounds like the driver to one of your devices is not loading. The driver model on Catalina is a little stricter than it was on Mojave and some drivers that worked on older versions of MacOS need to be updated in order to work on Catalina. e.g. 32-bit drivers won’t work at all on Catalina.
Restarting coreaudiod will almost never accomplish anything other than possibly resetting the audio system (a broken driver will still be broken after resetting).
I have an audioengine D1 DAC connected via USB. I tried unplugging it and restarting this morning and still ran into this issue.
32-bit drivers won’t work at all on Catalina.
I would suspect if I’m running into this issue with a specific input, I should still see the other inputs as well; or I would run into it across all applications rather than purely Blizzard related right?
As long as you have the most recent driver for this it should work. Audioengine updated their driver for Catalina and from what I’ve heard it works fine.
I’ve figured out a “workaround” (definitely not a fix) just for games that let you select the audio output (Hearthstone and Battle.net cannot, but WoW/SCII can).
To work around this I:
Connected my bluetooth headphones to see if I can use it as a work around.
Re-trigger the list to update (e.g: re-open app, or update from low to high bit rates)
What this did was cause the list of devices to change from:
“System Default”
“NoSound Driver”
To the list of devices that I have for audio (including the bluetooth headphones).
I was then able to select the audio output I wanted to use, in this case my DAC/external speakers
After turning off the bluetooth headphones the list of available audio sources goes back to where it was before and I’m no longer able to get sound.
Milroc, with the bluetooth headphones turned off, what devices do you see in the Audio MIDI Setup app (found in /Applications/Utilities)? If your DAC is connected to one of the USB ports properly, then it should automatically be recognized by macOS’ ASIO driver. You can also set the sampling rate here as well. Since you got this for better audio, 96 KHz, 24-bit should be the preferred choice.
If the device still isn’t showing up properly in Audio MIDI Setup, then you may have a broken ASIO driver, in which case you should use the latest combo updater for Catalina to properly reinstall it (and anything else that is broken).
Here’s the combo updater for Catalina: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2052?locale=en_US
Two more questions:
Are you connecting the DAC to a hub or directly to a USB port?
Is the port you’re connecting to on the top of the machine or via the Apple I/O card? Whichever it is, swap to the other and see if it improves the situation.
I am playing WoW on a Macbook Pro. I’ve almost always (except for about 6 months) played on a Mac. My sound works as expected, 99% of the time.
Rereading your post, I’d say set your Mac to play through your speakers, then start WoW and select System Default.
You probably have done that…
When it bugs out for me (rarely), it is when I’ve changed a device after starting the game or something like that. Like, plugging in speakers or the HDMI cable after starting the game. In cases like that, I’m guessing the game keeps looking for the other device.
Here’s some of the answers to the questions you asked:
… with the bluetooth headphones turned off, what devices do you see in the Audio MIDI Setup app (found in /Applications/Utilities)?
I currently see all outputs:
Monitor (LG Ultrawide)
Audioengine D1
External Headphones (really my audio setup via aux redundant connection for testing)
Mac Pro Speakers
ZoomAudioDevice
For all applications these show. Given this and that I’m on the absolute latest OS version am I correct in assuming this isn’t the issue?
Are you connecting the DAC to a hub or directly to a USB port?
I’m using my monitor (LG Ultrawide) to channel all of my USB connections via a Thunderbolt 2 connection.
I have tried swapping the connection to use the direct USB input and even tried disconnecting the DAC completely. The only other “culprit” I can think of is my monitor’s built-in speakers; but given this is only happening on this machine; I believe it’s unlikely.
Do you have any other ideas? I’m pretty much all out at this point and quite puzzled as to why the bluetooth being connected “fixes” it.
Ideally you should be using a dedicated USB port for your DAC. Your display, if it is a Thunderbolt display, will be using reduced bandwidth mode as it is TB2.
If you select the Audioengine as your output in Audio MIDI Setup app, it should stick and WoW should then see it properly. The fact that it currently isn’t is a likely indication that your display is in fact interfering or is bandwidth starved upon loading up an app or game that utilizes the full refresh rate and resolution of your display.
Your DAC should be plug and play, so the fact it’s failing to be seen in WoW means either a display interference issue or an OS issue.
Does the issue persist in WoW in both Fullacreen and Windowed mode?
@Tiapriestess this currently remains an issue even if I completely disconnect the DAC and run off of the internal Mac Pro speakers, just for Blizzard games, fullscreen or windowed.
OK good. At least there isn’t that line mucking up your config.wtf file (the second one).
Before proceding, make a backup copy of your config.wtf file and place it on your desktop for easy access if things go south.
Once you’ve made the backup, open up your config.wtf file that is inside your _retail_ folder and nuke the SET Sound_OutputDriverName "System Default" line.
Now, find the line that contains SET hwDetect and change the value inside the quotes on that line to the opposite of what it currently is. If it is currentlyl “1”, change it to “0”. If it’s “0”, change it to “1”. What we’re looking for here is whether WoW is fudging up the hardware detection, or at least attempting to rule that out.
If everything works properly, nuking the SET Sound_OutputDriverName line coupled with forcing hardware detection should make WoW see your DAC normally again. However, if your hwDetect value was “1” already, you’ll be disabling hardware detection and you might need to specify which GPU you wish to use in the Advanced settings in the game.
Before you make the changes for troubleshooting purposes, could you link a screenshot of your current Sound preferences window? It’s a longshot, but maybe someone here will glean something from its current settings.
I’m using bluetooth headphones, and my PC has no other connected audio devices. I’ve been experiencing the exact same issue Milroc described and found the exact same workaround, but on Windows 10. If the game is open and I turn on my bluetooth headphones, there will be no game sound until I manually change the “Game Sound Output” setting. Sound from all other programs works as expected. It’s a minor but constant nuisance. (If my headphones are on before opening WoW, the sound works correctly.)
I think Tiapriestess is right that the problem is WoW not automatically detecting a change in audio output, but unfortunately the suggested changes to config.wtf did not work for me.
But I found a solution: plugging in anything into my motherboard’s audio output. Even an audio jack not connected to speakers. Now WoW will automatically change the audio output to my bluetooth headphones when I turn them on.
It seems WoW won’t switch from no sound output to bluetooth, but it will switch from any other sound output to bluetooth. As long as there’s a secondary audio output, it will switch correctly and automatically.
