[Solved] Anyone found a proper fix for the Muffle sound "explosion"?

[traison]

This is a thing that's been in Skyrim since LE or earlier. Could be mod related though so far I have found little evidence of that. Surprisingly googling it doesn't turn up much, other than a lone reddit post where someone was asking about a loud sound and the proposed solution was "turn down your volume". Got to love the internet sometimes.

 

Anyhow, the issue is the Muffle spell's sound effect, or to be more specific, the "ambient sound" of MuffleFXShader. The sound descriptor in question is MAGPowerRacialDragonskinFire20. After using Muffle for a few times (or perhaps once is enough) and loading a game, the game will play that sound regardless of whether you have the muffle spell currently active or not. Problem is, it will play it at 10 times the volume of anything else in the game, basically blasting it loud enough for anyone within a city block's range to know you're playing Skyrim. An interesting detail that may be worth mentioning is that the visual effects of MuffleFXShader are not applied, it's only the sound thats the issue here.

 

The workaround is simply to remove the "ambient sound" from MuffleFXShader, as this stops the sound "explosion" upon loading a game. But that obviously also removes the sound when actually casting Muffle on yourself, making it a bit boring. Perhaps more worryingly however is that this doesn't go away over time. Its not like a stuck effect with a timer outlasting the spell. If for example one instance of the MuffleFXShader is left in the save game every time you cast Muffle, my next question would be, how many times do you have to cast it before it kills your save? I've had this issue long enough to answer that question myself I suppose, it won't, at least not within a typical sneaky-ninja playthrough. Still, as a perfectionist, I can't help but to think about the potential bloat there.

 

So the question is, has anyone found a proper solution for this?

 

It is in theory possible that it is caused by Audio Overhaul. This is a mod I've had for ages, pre-LE perhaps even (and no I don't have the LE or pre-LE version installed on SSE, don't worry). It changes the MAGPowerRacialDragonskinFire20 sound descriptor and is thus the only suspect here. I have however tried reversing these changes, as I know changing the audio file of MuffleFXShader does change the sound played in the "explosion". It does however not fix the issue. So that pretty much only leaves the option of whatever the issue is, it's baked into my save, meaning my save is bricked. That's why I'm asking here first, before I tear this thing apart only to find that its Todd Howards fault all along.

Edited September 21, 2022 by traison

[traison]

I modified the MuffleFXShader a bit and noticed that the visual effects do in fact get applied, but just for a split second. Far too fast to be seen unless the load fade-in time is set to 0.

 

Solution: Do not remove the membrane effect from MuffleFXShader. If you want to get rid of the blue glow it adds to your character, find another way.