Try verifying your game files on Steam and making sure your audio device drivers are up to date (if you're using on-board sound then these will be on the motherboard vendor website).

Originally posted by Film11:

Try verifying your game files on Steam and making sure your audio device drivers are up to date (if you're using on-board sound then these will be on the motherboard vendor website).

Already did that before creating the thread. Strangely, it resulted in the game reinstalling the DirectX files (and probably something else), even though the process "found no issues".
My DAC doesn't need any installable drivers (if that's even a word), and again - it worked without a problem before.
Does the game start up normally for you?

Probably has something to do with the mic input which I don't have configured, but then again - I don't think there was any difference in that before either.

Originally posted by Surveyor:

Already did that before creating the thread. Strangely, it resulted in the game reinstalling the DirectX files (and probably something else), even though the process "found no issues".
My DAC doesn't need any installable drivers (if that's even a word), and again - it worked without a problem before.
Does the game start up normally for you?

It does yes, just launched it now and started a singleplayer game.

Has there been any change in configuration with your audio devices since last time you played? Looking
at another game's thread which seemed to have the same issue, (albeit on Linux) it seemed to be related to FMOD picking the wrong device and falling over: https://steamcommunity.com/app/218060/discussions/0/810938810978055856/?ctp=2#c624076027624116185.
If this is the problem then some tinkering with your audio devices and/or the SH config file may help, or perhaps reinstalling the game on Steam to try and get it to regenerate the device list properly.

You could also try deleting your settings file under: C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\Futuremark\Shattered Horizon\sh.settings

Thanks, but the only solution that seems to have worked so far is switching to my monitor's internal audio... Although there is no telling whether there is any sound in there, since I don't feel like hunting for that elusive jack port.

It could be that I had EqualizerAPO installed at the time... Surely it should get in the way, not help to solve this issue? Also, I think I stopped using it because HeSuVi wasn't working for some reason anymore... maybe there are indeed some problems with the DAC after all.

Yeah that doesn't sound like a great solution. It's not that EqualizerAPO was in the way or not, rather removing it might have changed some kind of deeper device configuration. I'm not very familiar with the software but I do use it, and the modifications do seem a bit more in depth than most. Not sure about HeSuVi though (I use Peace with EqualizerAPO).

One last shot might be to try --reset_settings as a launch option, but if deleting the settings file didn't fix it I'm guessing that probably won't work either.
Otherwise you could try enabling EqualizerAPO with the device(s) again to try and recreate whatever configuration there was when it was working, although that's just a workaround really.

Just in case the movies are the problem, you can put in your section of your config file too.

Expectedly, resetting the settings did just that. If only there was a SoundDevice line for this game too...

Well, I was thinking of making EqualizerAPO up and running again and give HeSuVi another try (after all, it did work before). Who knows, maybe that will do the trick. But that will take a while.

Thank you a lot for "play_intro false" - the movies are ALWAYS a problem. I really don't understand why we are forced to watch all that stuff every single time. It's not that we are playing for free, so they could at least make it an option to skip intro.

Shame that there are no servers now... I am going to look into hosting one.