Baldur's Gate 3

Audio Issues (PC)

If you are not hearing any sound after the Larian logo is displayed at the start of the game, it may be because your game is set to only running on one core. If you run your game on all cores and should eliminate this issue. To do this, Right-click an empty area on the taskbar and select Task Manager. Select the Details tab on the left and then right click the game exe. Select the Set affinity option from the menu and enable all cores and click OK. 

If you are using a program such as Process Lasso to adjust the core affinity for games, such as having games and system processes run on different cores for example, try disabling it to restore the default (all cores). There has been a reported conflict with Process Lasso's 'core engine' being on, even with the settings for the game restored to default.

If you are not using headphones, make sure Spatial Audio is turned off. This includes Dolby Atmos/Access, DTS Unbound, Windows Sonic, THX, or similar (where applicable). This can be done in your computer's Sound Settings.
It can also be helpful to ensure that any audio enhancements are turned off. You can do this in your Playback Device properties in the Sound control panel settings.
Make sure your speakers are configured correctly. This can be done by right-clicking your Playback Device in the "Playback" tab of the Sound control panel settings. Note: this option may not be available for all sound Playback Devices.
When using a Bluetooth headset, avoid using its microphone in applications such as Discord or Skype.

If you are using headphones, try reconnecting the headset and turning off any 3D audio options. 

Try verifying local files: in the Steam library, right click on the game and select Properties, switch to the Local Files tab and then click on the 'Verify Integrity of Game Files...' button. If you are using the GOG version, in the Galaxy client, select the game, then the settings icon at the top right, beside the Play button and under Manage Installation, select 'Verify / Repair'.

Try changing the audio volumes in the game options, as well as the speaker configuration.

If you are hearing no audio, could the game be muted? Try right clicking the task tray volume icon and open the volume mixer.

Right click the task tray volume icon, select Sounds and switch to the Playback tab, to double check sound is being output to the speakers/headphones you are using. This can be reset after installing new video drivers, for example.

Try starting a new game to test for sound in character creation, and if that works try the first couple of dialogues with Us and Lae'zel.

If possible, try changing the default audio output in Windows such as toggling between the front audio jacks vs rear, for example. If you are using speakers, try testing with headphones, or vice versa.

Check the configuration of the speakers / headphones. Having 2.1 devices configured as 5.1, for example, can cause voiced lines not to be audible. To do this, right click the speaker icon in the taskbar and select 'Playback devices'. In the Playback tab, right click the 'Default Device' (the one with a green checkmark) and select 'Configure Speakers'. Make sure the 'Audio channels' configuration matches your speaker/headphone setup; press the 'Test' button to hear sound effects played on each speaker, while the corresponding speaker in the 'Speaker Setup' window is highlighted. You can also click directly on the speakers in the picture to hear the test sound effect on that speaker only.

Try changing the Windows sound quality settings (right click the volume icon in the task bar, select Sounds, in the Playback tab right click the default device and select Properties, then switch to the Advanced tab, etc).

Try turning on spatial sound in Windows 10. If it is already enabled you could try disabling it, to see if that makes a difference. As discussed here

Are you shutting down all non-essential programs before launching the game? Things like anti-virus, firewalls, overlays from graphics tweaking or monitoring programs, as well as chat programs, have all been known to cause issues.

With D:OS EE, there were a couple of reports that had sound problems with the Razer Synapse program running in the background. One with Razer Kraken headphones had it cut out completely after a few minutes, while another with a Razer keyboard and mouse was getting sound stuttering. If using either of those devices, try removing them or switching them out and see if that helps. 

Try right clicking the bg3.exe or bg3_dx11.exe executable (in the '..\SteamApps\common\Baldurs Gate 3\bin' folder, or similarly for the GOG install folder), select Properties, switch to the Compatibility tab and check off the 'Override high DPI scaling behavior' option (set it to Application), run as administrator and disable fullscreen optimization, and maybe set a Win 7 or 8 compatibility mode. In Windows 7, check off the option to 'Disable display scaling on high DPI settings', disable desktop composition and run as administrator.

Try doing a clean boot and then test the game. Click Start, or hit WinKey-R, type in msconfig and hit enter; in the General tab, click Selective Startup, uncheck Load startup items (if required) and leave Load system services and Use original boot configuration options checked. Next, click on the Services tab, check the box to Hide all Microsoft services, then click the Disable All button (maybe make a note of which are currently enabled/disabled), then click OK and reboot the computer. Run msconfig again to switch back to the normal boot configuration.

Try creating a new Windows administrator user account, switch to that account and try starting the game from there, directly from the executable to test.

Check for updated drivers and Windows updates in general. Just reinstalling the audio drivers can help.

If that doesn't help, please contact Support with a dxdiag report. Press WinKey-R, type in dxdiag and hit enter, then when it finishes loading click on the 'Save All Information...' button and save the report somewhere handy to then attach to your email to support. 

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