Summary
I can hear other players over VON, and the voice indicator appears when I hold
push-to-talk, but no one hears me. The same microphone works in Discord, Steam
voice and CS2. Instrumenting Windows audio shows DayZ_x64.exe NEVER opens a
capture stream on ANY audio device. Per Windows' own microphone-usage log
(CapabilityAccessManager\ConsentStore), DayZ last accessed a microphone on
2025-08-23 and has not opened one since, across many sessions.

Environment
- DayZ 1.29.163709 (Steam), exe 2026/08/12
- Windows 10 Pro 22H2 (build 19045.6466)
- i5-12400F, RTX 4060 (NVIDIA driver 610.88)
- Microphone: USB headset "Storm Pro" (C-Media, VID_0D8C PID_0012), mono, 48/44.1 kHz, 16-bit

Steps to reproduce
1. Join any server (reproduced on an OFFICIAL VANILLA server, no mods).
2. Spawn in, hold push-to-talk in-game.
3. The voice indicator appears; other players hear nothing.

Key diagnostic
- While DayZ_x64.exe was running and PTT was held, I enumerated WASAPI audio
  sessions (IAudioSessionManager2) across every capture endpoint. DayZ has NO
  capture session on any of them. Its playback (render) session is normal.
- Method validated: control captures from another process via WASAPI and legacy
  waveIn appear as expected in the same monitor.
- Windows ConsentStore confirms independently: DayZ_x64.exe last microphone use
  = 2025-08-23; unchanged after every test below. Other apps (Discord, Steam,
  the Windows mic test) register normally on the same days.
- The .RPT log contains no audio/VON errors.

Ruled out (no change to the symptom)
- Official vanilla server, no mods.
- Fresh profile (profile files removed and regenerated); default keybinds.
- Verify integrity of game files; BattlEye reinstalled; no third-party DLLs in
  the game folder.
- A SECOND, completely different microphone (a webcam mic) set as default for
  Console/Multimedia/Communications — DayZ does not open it either.
- Windows: correct default device in all three roles; exclusive mode disabled
  and not allowed on the device; microphone privacy access granted; per-app
  audio device overrides reset; changed the device default format (48000 -> 44100).
- Removed 21 stale (NOT_PRESENT) capture endpoints so the headset became the
  only active capture device — no change.
- Steam Game Recording disabled; SteelSeries Sonar / NVIDIA Broadcast / NVIDIA
  Virtual Audio drivers disabled; only Windows Defender for AV.
- Network layers (an outbound proxy/VPN and a virtual-LAN adapter) fully stopped.

Notes
- The microphone worked in DayZ until 2025-08-23 on this same Windows install,
  then stopped; nothing I can find on the client side changed it.
- Appears identical to feedback ticket T172923 ("microphone not recognized by
  DayZ; DayZ is the only application with this problem").

Questions for the team
- How does the DayZ client choose and open the VON capture device?
- Is there a launch parameter or log verbosity that reports VON capture
  initialization, so I can see where it fails?

Attached: .RPT from the vanilla session.

1. Use a USB microphone that works normally in other apps (Discord / Steam voice / CS2).
2. Launch DayZ and join any server — reproduced on an OFFICIAL VANILLA server with no mods.
3. Spawn in and stay in-game (not in the menu).
4. Hold the push-to-talk key.

Expected: the client opens the microphone and transmits VON; other players hear you.

Actual: the push-to-talk voice indicator appears, but no one hears you. The client
never opens a microphone capture stream on any device — confirmed via WASAPI audio
session monitoring and Windows' ConsentStore mic-usage log (DayZ's last mic access
stays at 2025-08-23 and never updates). The same microphone works in Discord, Steam
and CS2 during the same session. A second, different microphone fails the same way.

Holding push-to-talk opens the microphone and transmits VON, so other players can hear me — the same way the microphone already works in Discord, Steam voice and CS2.