Sound issues

I troubleshot a sound issue with gemini at least for 2 hours straight and this is the summary made by the AI, read and edited by me:


Subject: Persistent Audio Buffer Corruption / Static Leak - External USB DACs (Topping DX3 Pro)
Bug Report Reference Number: (Type /bug in-game and paste the number here if you have one)

Hardware / System Specs:

DAC/Amp: Topping DX3 Pro (USB Interface, XMOS-based)

Headphones: Hifiman Sundara (Planar Magnetic)

Audio Driver: Topping Professional USB Audio Device / Windows USB Audio 2.0

Windows Settings: 24-bit / 48,000 Hz (Standardized for testing)

Renderer: Tested on both DirectX 12 and Vulkan

Description of the Issue:
The game experiences a progressive degradation of audio quality that manifests as loud static, crackling, and distortion. This is most noticeable in NPC dialogue and during high-density combat, but eventually permeates the entire game audio. I do not have this issue with any other game. Audio works fine with every program until I start playing PoE2.

Crucially, this is not just a "sound glitch" within the game client. The PoE 2 engine appears to be sending corrupt data packets or a "poisoned" buffer to the USB controller. Once the static begins in PoE 2, it persists across the entire Windows OS. Even after minimizing the game, audio from Tidal, YouTube, and system sounds remains distorted with the same static until a full hardware/driver reset is performed.

Troubleshooting Steps Attempted (No Permanent Fix Found):
We have exhaustively tried the following to isolate the hardware, and the hardware is confirmed functional in all other high-load applications except PoE 2:

Sample Rate Optimization: Lowered Windows/DAC sample rate from 384kHz/192kHz down to a "safe" 48,000 Hz. Static persists.

Config File Hard-Coded Fixes:

Set reverb_enabled2=false (Setting this to false helps temporarily, but once combat starts, the buffer corruption returns).

Set channel_count=low (32 channels).

Set config file to Read-Only to prevent engine overrides.

Hardware Isolation:

Monitor Speakers: Audio is clear. (Suggests the low-bandwidth integrated driver is "dumb" enough to ignore the garbage data, whereas the high-end XMOS chip in the DAC tries to process it and crashes).

Port Swap: Moved DAC from USB 3.0 to USB 2.0 to rule out bus noise. Static was actually worse on USB 2.0 during game load.

Factory Reset: Performed a full factory reset on the Topping DX3 Pro hardware. Sound is perfect until PoE 2 is launched again.

FPS Management: Set Foreground and Background FPS caps to match (144Hz) to prevent buffer desync during Alt-Tabbing. Static still occurs during active gameplay.

Driver Conflicts: Disabled all other audio drivers (NVIDIA High Definition Audio, Realtek) to ensure no IRQ/DPC latency conflicts.

Observations for Devs:
The "Static Leak": The most concerning aspect is that PoE 2's audio engine is able to lock an external USB DAC into an error state that survives Alt-Tabbing and affects other ASIO/WASAPI Exclusive applications (like Tidal).

NPC Reverb: There seems to be a specific conflict with how the environmental reverb is calculated for voices, which triggers the initial "crackling" before it spreads to the rest of the mix.


Requested Action by AI: Please investigate how the FMOD implementation handles buffer overflows or "stale" sound instances on USB Audio 2.0 devices. High-end DAC owners are currently forced to restart their entire Windows Audio service or PC to clear the "poisoned" buffer created by the game.

Requested Action by me: Please fix the audio or tell me what to try next. Thank you.