Are there plans for improving the sound world?

[Leopardi 0]

Sounds are one of the biggest contributors for immersion. The vanilla sounds (especially explosions) are just a joke. All big explosions play the repetitive plain "boom." sound and you can hardly hear the gunshots on the battlefield. Or the A-10 that sounds like a nailgun... it's really pathetic now.

[Big Dawg KS 6]

Suggestion: Go out and record some of your own sounds and donate them to BIS (or ask them to hire you). Even better, you could use them (or gather some freebies from the web) to make your own sound replacement mod instead (there are also many already available).

Unfortunately sound design is typically given the least amount of attention/priority in game development, and in some games it really shows. ArmA 2 is actually pretty good in respect to sound simulation, so simply gathering new sound sources can make all the difference. Fortunately, making a sound replacement mod couldn't be any simpler in ArmA 2.

I'm not joking about the hiring part either; perhaps BI is actually looking for new sound designers (some people may be hoping at least).

Edited March 24, 2011 by Big Dawg KS

[maturin 12]

Sound mods are the answer. They are client-side and there are zero excuses not to use them.

BIS lacks the resources to go the BF BC2 route. I'd prefer if they'd just update the underlying engine and give us more latitude to create varied sounds over distance, etc.

[flattermann 12]

yeah the ACE soundmod is quite a good one, especially if you play mainly infantry. There are several others worth trying though.

Link, it works standalone without having any ACE core or w/e:

http://ace.dev-heaven.net/wagn/ACEX_SM

[rexehuk 16]

Sound mods indeed fix a lot of the games shortfalls in terms of audio range, but the major issue for me atleast is the lack of control over things like vehicle and air sound. Little things like the engineStartup sound playing over the engineHighOut sound when you start a vehicle etc, rendering the first sample pretty much useless.

There are ways around this, see the latest T80 for example from RHS, but it's quite a lot of work to play a single sound how it should be played.

[flattermann 12]

well somebody's got to record that sounds in the first place

[rexehuk 16]

well somebody's got to record that sounds in the first place

I have all the sources... just can't use them to their full potential as of yet. You may see some new sound projects coming out of me in the new few months, currently working on 3 new full aircraft sound models with scripted startup sequences... but this takes alot of time.

[Leopardi 0]

Sound mods are the answer. They are client-side and there are zero excuses not to use them.

BIS lacks the resources to go the BF BC2 route. I'd prefer if they'd just update the underlying engine and give us more latitude to create varied sounds over distance, etc.

But online it's kinda lame knowing others have default "pew pew" sounds and you hear things they dont.

Why wouldn't BIS work together with the best soundmod teams to create awesome sounds for everyone? Just some compiling and optimizing not too much of a resource hog project.

[NeMeSiS 11]

Just some compiling and optimizing not too much of a resource hog project.

But selling a bunch of sounds found on the internet and not getting sued to death is. :p

[Leopardi 0]

But selling a bunch of sounds found on the internet and not getting sued to death is. :p

None of the mods have sounds recorded by the addon makers themselves?

BIS should get some sound recording equipment and have a session with the czech army :P

[NeMeSiS 11]

None of the mods have sounds recorded by the addon makers themselves?

None of the mods sold anything.

[NoRailgunner 0]

FYI: http://pro.bistudio.com/index.php/services/audio-recording-studio/recording-equipment.html

[Leopardi 0]

FYI: http://pro.bistudio.com/index.php/services/audio-recording-studio/recording-equipment.html

So... why won't BIS have a recording session? Red Orchestra 2 team does it, Battlefield 3 team does it, Project Reality team did it.

[NeMeSiS 11]

So... why won't BIS have a recording session? Red Orchestra 2 team does it, Battlefield 3 team does it, Project Reality team did it.

Well, some of their vehicle sounds (especially choppers) are very good, however i agree with you that most weapon related sounds are lacking. I guess they cant easily afford to capture sounds of over several hundred different things.

EDIT: I use CSM2 myself.

Edited March 25, 2011 by NeMeSiS

[Mr. Charles 22]

References

The studio provided complete audio services for following projects, among others:

* Operation Flashpoint – PC game

* Operation Flashpoint – resistence – PC game

* ArmA: Armed Assault – PC game / Xbox

* ArmA: Queen's Gambit – PC game

* ArmA II – PC game

* Alpha Prime – PC game

* Mrazík – PC game

* UFO: Afterlight – PC game

* Fish Fillets II

* VBS 2 - Virtual Battlespace 2

No sh*t Sherlock:

http://pro.bistudio.com/index.php/services/audio-recording-studio/gallery.html

[ryguy 10]

Sound mods are client side, but still most servers reject them. Many servers reject ACE_SM and VOP. Doesn't even matter how many people use them.

[Leopardi 0]

No sh*t Sherlock:

http://pro.bistudio.com/index.php/services/audio-recording-studio/gallery.html

Complete audio service = tank engine noises and helicopter engine noises and the PKM. Anything else doesn't come even close to realistic and immersive.

Edited March 26, 2011 by Leopardi

[NeMeSiS 11]

http://pro.bistudio.com/index.php/services/audio-recording-studio/audio-samples.html

Is it me or does the 'military SFX' sound sample sound way better than everything we hear ingame? Quite odd if they have these nice recordins yet are unable to mix them properly into the game. Whatever they currently use as sound engine is crap anyway, the lack of HW accelaration really annoys me in such a CPU demanding game.

[Leopardi 0]

http://pro.bistudio.com/index.php/services/audio-recording-studio/audio-samples.html

Is it me or does the 'military SFX' sound sample sound way better than everything we hear ingame? Quite odd if they have these nice recordins yet are unable to mix them properly into the game. Whatever they currently use as sound engine is crap anyway, the lack of HW accelaration really annoys me in such a CPU demanding game.

They are not using those recordings except the tank roaring and PKM coax. Rest of the sounds, explosions and all are some cheap 90s sound library files taken from some archive.

[NeMeSiS 11]

They are not using those recordings except the tank roaring and PKM coax. Rest of the sounds, explosions and all are some cheap 90s sound library files taken from some archive.

But why would they do that?

[max power 21]

This game shares a few sound effects in common with The Matrix :p

[Leopardi 0]

But why would they do that?

Their care meter for audio isn't high enough?

[Defunkt 431]

Or it could just be that they know that by making the game highly moddable the game will enjoy much more sound development than they could ever afford to fund. Sound being highly subjective they're unlikely to please all listeners but a sufficient variety of sound addons can, suggest you select one that appeals to you.

[igneous01 19]

it costs alot of money to record each weapon and explosion sound. even then you have to consider how many retakes they have to do because wind blowing in the mic/ equipment not working/ safety/ loads of other factors.

its not cheap hiring a recording studio, they are expensive as any other aspect of game design.

[Leopardi 0]

it costs alot of money to record each weapon and explosion sound. even then you have to consider how many retakes they have to do because wind blowing in the mic/ equipment not working/ safety/ loads of other factors.

its not cheap hiring a recording studio, they are expensive as any other aspect of game design.

well seeing as a mod-team can do it, or another indie developer like tripwire, it can't be that bad.