Well I could certainly be wrong and it could be when I’m turning away completely from wherever it is. I become disoriented to the direction of where I dropped something after I go down multiple hallways and stairs and such. I can “point” at the sound though and as long as I keep to it the sound continues until I move the crosshair away. It could be that I’m pointed perfectly away from where it is in the game world, I’ll have to try it again next time it’s happening.
I had a situation where I dropped something on a pier, like 20-30 m away. When I walked away I started noticing the noise. Whenever I looked in the direction, it stopped. When facing 90° to the left, I heard it on my right ear.
Not sure whether direction and audio channel depend on system specs. Might as well.
I have Dolby 7.1 surround sound and i can pinpoint exactly where the sound comes form and like pegnose described, it doesn’t start until you move some distance away from it. When you have your back towards it, the noise is strongest but if you turn yourself towards it, it gets weaker until completely disappearing once you’re dead center looking towards it. At least that’s how it is in my game.
Does the game support surround? Often games just output stereo.
And I didn’t say 180° but 90°.
Well, most games are stereo but my headset Corsair Void Pro RGB USB outputs digital 7.1 and IMO, get’s the job done exceptionally well. I’ve tried playing GZ with stereo only (can toggle surround/stereo directly from headset) and stereo was utterly bad. I had hard time telling from where the sounds come from and i had no acoustical awareness around me.
I know that feeling. Surround tends to feel more complete.
But technically, the surround up-mix tends to rather mutilate precise audio location. And it is often more an impression of auditory satisfaction. The sound environment seems to be more natural coming from “all around you”. There is still only stereo information in it.
EDIT: Unless GZ actually outputs more channels. Someone know more about it? But… you headset still might pick up only stereo content and up-mix, depending on the connector and how it works in general.
PS: As we are kind of sure that this happens mostly with dropped equipment, I renamed the thread title accordingly. Also I am shamefully hiding my sulky lashing out at the game.
Surround is brilliant with this game. I can pinpoint exactly where an enemy is by sound alone. It’s fantastic. Helps out a lot when I can’t get a visual take because of being inside buildings or due to thick trees. I can hit the machines with my eyes closed with sound alone as long as they are making a sound to track.
I retested this. I dropped objects right next to the Plundra so I could use the Plundra’s map icon to know exactly where the item was. I confirm that the sound occurs when not pointed directly at the dropped item but when the dropped item is… well when the Plundra icon was halfway between compass dead center and compass far right, or far left. Either way. Pick up the item, sound goes away. Sure am curious why an item on the ground creates this weird sound bug, still can only conjecture that it is an endless reverb or echo from the original drop sound being broadcast to the distance and being caught in a loop erroneously. The only time after all a dropped item creates a sound is it the moment of initially dropping it, and the scuttling scurrying sound actually does resemble that sound if run through a glitching high ping echo effect. Used to get weird anomalies like that with Unreal Tournament back in the day since the sound engine was set up to echo sounds throughout the map, being multiplayer, but it would mess up and repeat distant sounds eternally in certain parts of the map at certain times. GZ is always running in client/server multiplayer mode even in solo player so it seems plausible to me it could be manifesting the same type of error in the audio system. shrug
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Interesting idea. At least the sound does not seem to attenuate with distance.
Platform: PC/Steam
Description: Whenever I enter the Björntunet Hotel (solo), there is a fairly loud “scuttling” noise (imagine a hyperactive tarantula running around on newspaper). It disappears in certain spots within the hotel, but often begins as soon as I spawn in to the safehouse and is mostly present until I leave. Volume is pretty steady and sounds like it’s nearby. It’s a minor bug, but quite annoying (especially through headphones)!
Steps To Reproduce: Go to the Björntunet Hotel and run around for awhile. There is clearly one tick in a locked room which I haven’t found the key for yet.
Images / Videos:
Host or Client:
Players in your game: solo. haven’t tried it in MP
Specifications:
Same issue topics merged.
Read my replies above to know what it is and how to get rid of it.
//Mod
Hey,
The information you shared is very helpful, but a video would be greatly appreciated if you could share one with us.
Feel free to post it here if you can get one. 
The funny thing is (what can be seen in Aesyle’s video) when you look in the direction the dropped items lay, the rattling stops, but when you turn around it rattles. It’s like some sort of annoying ghost shaking the backpack.
I adapted to that bug to drop items into lootcrates that are still accessible (not empty).
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It could be something to do with world rendering method GZ uses. Namely, only that part is rendered what you can see (slightly wider than your field of view), while the rest (behind you) is not. It helps to reduce load on hardware and also increases game performance. But it can cause issues as well.
Last night I was wondering whether the glitching of machines into buildings is caused by the same mechanic.
It seems that the 3D structure of buildings isn’t (well) calculated when it’s out of the viewport of the player. This seems to cause the rattling. Maybe this causes machines to “glitch” into buildings as well.
I can imagine that machines approach you rather from behind and when there is no 3D structure calculated the machines can walk “into” the buildings. When you turn around and the machine gets into the viewport the building is rendered around (and sometimes through) the machines.
Maybe both things can be counteracted by having the game calculated the 3D structures and the movement of machines at least inside a certain radius like 400m (which is their visibility range anyway)?
Platform: PC
Description: I keep experiencing this strange sound glitch where it sounds like I am being chased by something every now and then. It sounds like a tick to me. I don’t hear any other noises besides the tick though. Two places I have repeatedly heard it is at the safe house Boo Bruk AB and the worst I have experienced it is at Harmmanas Farm and a few other places. The funniest thing is I only hear it coming from behind me and soon as I turn to face the sound… It’s gone. It is slightly annoying but mostly because it gives me a spook every time I hear it. I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced this bug? I’ve looked around a bit and haven’t seen anything quite like mine so sorry if there is already a thread about this.
Steps To Reproduce: Head to the Boo Bruk AB and go towards the big door on the first floor and you should hear something like a tick running up behind you. Or head over to Harmmanas Farm and walk around the silos.
Images / Videos: I do not know how to screen record or anything like that. I could get a video on my phone though I suppose.
Host or Client: Single Player
Specifications: Unkown
I also have a few other questions. Has anyone had this problem of enemies repeatedly returning right outside a safe house? Specifically the Angeras Church? Because I have had waves and waves of enemies coming to the church after taking out some of the ones near it. And some of them came back already wounded?
My last question is I have one of the safehouse icons constantly stuck on my compass and I’m not tracking any of the icons. Its been like this for a while. Help???
I get this too, I have assumed it’s stalking gnome ticks. 
Same issue topics merged.
//Mod
If you look my video above in this topic (Sound bug: The rattling of dropped items - #32 by Aesyle), is the sound same in your game as well? If it is, then i assumed correctly what kind of issue you’re having.
If you create a racket, machines in hearing distance will come to investigate. That is not a bug.
This is feature of the game, where:
All enemies are persistently simulated in the world, and roam the landscape with intent and purpose. When you manage to destroy a specific enemy component, be it armor, weapons or sensory equipment, the damage is permanent. Enemies will bear those scars until you face them again, whether that is minutes, hours, or weeks later.
Source: Generation Zero | Open-World Action Game
That is known bug and it happens when you play MP.
Fix:
Funny, I had this in my Guerilla playthrough although I never played with someone else in this playthrough. And it didn’t vanish when I traveled to the safehouse. But since I don’t have this savegame anymore it didn’t matter to me 
When Fast Travel to the safehouse, you need to move around a bit, so that the icon moves on your compass and gets unstuck.
On rare occasions, this (safehouse icon stuck on compass) can happen in solo game as well. It has happened in my game where, i switch chars around, without moving within safehouse and game puts me into different safehouse upon switching to another char. The last safehouse i was in, can get it’s icon stuck.
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