Apex Legends S21 - 5.1 surround sound silent directly ahead
Product: Apex Legends
Platform:Steam-PC
Please specify your platform model. PC
AMD or Nvidia Model Number AMD RX 6700 XT
Enter RAM memory size in GB 32
What is your gamertag/PSN ID/EA Account name? MkThUnderwd
Please provide your squad mates' gamertag/PSN ID/EA Account name if possible. N/A
Are you using any software with an overlay? Yes
If yes, can you list them here? Steam overlay
If you disable this software, does that have any effect? No
Which Legend were you playing (if applicable)? N/A
Which Legends were your squad mates using (if applicable)? N/A
Where did the issue occur? In a match
Which part of the map or menu were you in? If you don't remember the exact name, please describe the area or what you were trying to do in the menu. any, firing range, br, etc
What were you doing when the issue occurred? E.g. respawning a squad mate at a beacon, using an ability, a squad mate left the game. listening to in-game spacial audio in 5.1 surround mode
Did your squad mates also experience the issue? I don't know
How many matches had you played in a row before the issue occurred? N/A
When did this happen? (dd.mm.yy hh:mm) launch of Apex Legends Upheaval.
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
How severe is your issue? Major impacts to gameplay
What happens when the bug occurs? fine-point sound sources directly in front of player do not make sound in 5.1 surround mode. they DO when the apex output mode is changed to stereo. Only Apex seems to have this issue.
What should be happening instead? spacial audio should be consistent even if sound is in front of player
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? 1) If on Debian Linux, use PulseAudio or Pipewire + Pipewire-Pulse + Wireplumber audio server in 5.1 surround mode. 2) Play Apex Legends season 21 in Steam. Use 'Proton Hotfix' if on Linux. 3) Make sure sounds device setting in Apex is in default or 5.1 surround sound mode. 4) Go to the firing range and use a Wattson Pylon or similar sound play entity and place it down. 5) Stand far enough away so that it can be heard but not overwhelm all speakers. 6) turn player camera left and right across the pylon 45 to 90 degrees. 7) audio should NOT be silent when looking directly at the sound source, but was.
This issue was experienced on Linux, but I bet it happens on Windows too. It's hard to notice at first since it just makes the sound seem weird. An Apex Predator sprinting right at you directly in front will be SILENT. Please fix.
Please see this post:
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/4350#issuecomment-2109047592
I uploaded video captures on youtube, but ...
- I forgot Youtube downsamples to stereo so watching those videos are pointless. ☹️
- I didn't check the last of the original three videos and the audio is silent because I did not restart OBS after stopping pipewire and starting pulseaudio to test it. Pulseaudio sounded the same as Pipewire anyway.
I put the first two original videos on dropbox. Play on 5.1 surround sound of course.
UPDATE: I copied over and played the Wattson+Pipewire recording on Windows 10 and it sounds normal. Playing the same video on Linux shows the silent center channel. There is something wrong with center speaker output on Linux and all the audio controls seem to be fine. I'll have to try older kernels or versions of snd_hda_intel to see if it goes away and check with the maintainer. The cause isn't Apex or Proton.
CONCLUSION: I needed to enable override for the 7.1 side channel in hda-jack-retask to 'not connected'. Everything worked as expected after that. I must have messed with the settings and disabled the override a little while ago. It causes the channels to be scrambled a bit when it is not overridden to be 'not connected'.
