Dice sound disappeared on macOS

[Valyar]

From time to time I am running FGU on macOS Monterey 12.4 on Mac Mini M1. Noticed that dice sounds have disappeared even though I put /dicevolume to on and on 100.

[Moon Wizard]

I don't have that issue on my MacBook Pro running MacOS 10.15. (which is the OS I need to keep my MacBook on to ensure compatibility with older OS when building)

Perhaps the new MacOS 12.4 is doing more sandboxing of accessibility to the sound, and it can be configured somewhere?

Regards,
JPG

[Valyar]

I don't think there is any. macOS is quite basic and empty of features on the audio side. The only thing I control is input/output, and I tried to switch to the default mini speakers to, headset to the regular monitors I have.

Aside from that, I have no idea what else to troubleshoot or try. But audio is definitely not there.

[Laerun]

Is there any chance that you might have accidentally turned the volume settings on down or off in the FGU chat commands? I know you are in the console a bit.

[Valyar]

Is there any chance that you might have accidentally turned the volume settings on down or off in the FGU chat commands? I know you are in the console a bit.

macOS does not have control on per-application level without 3rd party program like Rogue Amoeba SoundSource or Audio Hijack and I know my way around FGU so I immediately did:
/dicevolume on
/dicevolume 100

Nothing. I also found that /dice slash command is doing the same, not sure if the issue is in the slash handler or something in the application.

[jrowsey1]

I have a 2021 14" MBP running Monterey 12.4, and the dice sounds are working for me with slash commands and drag and drop. Just adding another data point for reference.

[Valyar]

Today the dice sound is there. I have no explanation what was wrong, as nothing was done on the computer...

[Valyar]

Fun thing - dice sounds are gone again. The only thing changed in the configuration of the machine was update to 12.5.

This is very frustrating :(

[Moon Wizard]

We haven't pushed any client updates for months; so not sure why the sound would be on and off. Nothing changed on this side.

Regards,
JPG

[Valyar]

Yes, I know the client hasn't been updated and this is where the frustration is. There is something on macOS M1-based systems that cause this. My machine is quite pristine and I don't have anything that is messing with sounds and this happens. :)

[LordEntrails]

I found this webpage, maybe it will help: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-fix-audio-issues-in-macos/

[bmos]

I don't have that issue on my MacBook Pro running MacOS 10.15. (which is the OS I need to keep my MacBook on to ensure compatibility with older OS when building)It's not well known, but you can dual boot macOS versions.

[jaharmi]

It sounds like reasonable steps like changing the audio outputs in System Preferences don't work. Not sure if logging out and back in (without rebooting) or rebooting the Mac helps.

Is there any other audio produced by FGU? I don't think I even pay attention to the dice rolling sounds so I haven't noted if any other audio is even available. If so, it would be helpful to know if that audio plays or if it's just the dice sounds. If it's only dice rolling that does it, I guess we'll never know. :)

Does audio for other applications work at the same time the dice rolling audio cuts out? Can you tell if audio for Intel vs. Apple Silicon apps work or doesn't work?

To find any Intel-specific apps running on your Mac mini:

1. Launch Activity Monitor.
2. Select the "CPU" tab.
3. Sort by the "Kind" column. If the "Kind" column is not present, use View menu > Columns > Kind to enable it. It may only be available on Apple Silicon Macs; I didn't see it on an Intel Mac.
4. Try to use "Intel" and "Apple" apps to play audio and note the results.

If only "Intel" apps like FGU fail to play audio, I would suggest using the Apple Feedback Assistant app with your Apple ID to submit the issue to Apple (https://support.apple.com/guide/feedback-assistant/welcome/mac). It's not a support channel per se, but it can submit technical information that could result in future improvements. It also gives you a Feedback ID number you could share here. If others do the same, there may be more of a case for Apple to investigate/fix. Others could reference the various Feedback IDs for additional strength in numbers.

As for trying things out, a different boot arrangement might produce some results. However, with the macOS sealed system volume and everything being code signed / verified nowadays, it feels like there's less chance of some kinds of errors. Instead, I think it's more important that all the signed / verified code is working correctly.

You can use more than one version of macOS on a Mac (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208891), including an Apple Silicon Mac. This creates another boot volume on the internal/startup disk in a Mac. This might be most useful if one were trying to temporarily test something like macOS 12.4 vs. macOS 12.5.

Depending on the Startup Security Utility (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208198) settings on the Mac, you can additionally enable booting from external disks. Before the advent of Macs with the T-series security chips and Apple Silicon processors, it was more common/prevalent to boot from external disks for testing and other purposes. To use an external or removable disk now (2022 with macOS Monterey on Intel or Apple Silicon), it must be allowed the in Startup Security Utility.

Given that the boot OS is signed, sealed, and delivered, it may also be worthwhile to test and try to reproduce in a different local macOS user account. That can be created in System Preferences > Users & Groups. If audio consistently works here without failing, it's more likely there's some issue in the user data in the other user account.