Bug #1517

Proximity Voice Causes Client Stuttering and Audio Distortion

Status:	Open
Priority:	High
Added by:	mad.mask on August 17, '26
Assigned to:	Unassigned
Due date:
Reported for:	Forefront - v4.1.1 Auto

Steps to Reproduce

1. Have players join
2. Blast music over microphone
3. Observe that enemy proximity seems more affected when players are in range
4. Observe that enemy proximity is less affected when players are in your squad or team
5. Notice that the more voices active at once, the more likely it is to happen
6. Create a scenario with a lobby full of screaming kids plus a blasted non-stop stream of music at full volume
7. Determine if the issue is related to the microphone or if it is injected

Explanation

Severe client stuttering appears to be associated with proximity voice when another player is continuously transmitting audio, especially music or constant background noise.
When approaching certain players who are continuously transmitting over voice chat, I can experience sudden frame-time spikes/stuttering, choppy or distorted game/voice audio, jumpy player movement, and degraded prediction/hit registration. The problem appears distance dependent as it begins or becomes much worse when near the transmitting player and improves after moving away.
I have also seen the same transmitting player appear to affect more than one nearby player, which makes this seem related to how that participant's proximity voice is being processed rather than simply my local network connection.
Muting the transmitting player does not appear stop the performance problem.
I checked the game logs because the behavior appears specifically tied to proximity voice. Forefront 4.1.1 uses separate Vivox Squad and Proximity voice channels. The logs also show that a locally muted Vivox participant can still go through OnParticipantAdded processing, after which Forefront reapplies the saved mute state.
I do not know the exact root cause. A possible area to investigate is participant lifecycle processing around proximity voice and the game's Vivox to Wwise voice path, especially for a participant who is transmitting continuously.

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