AUDIO! Make it right this time!

[Leopardi 0]

My ears bleed when I hear that same boom. And it's not just lack of variety. There is no distance (air absorbtion etc.) or echoing taken into account at all, it's just the same boring soundfile being triggered, thats how advanced the sound engine is. Of course there are near perfect sounds too, like tank engines, the PKT, the jet sounds or the helicopter cockpit sounds. I wouldn't change them.

But when you look at the overall audio experience for the average grunt crawling on the battlefield, it is just downright poor. My personal review for the overall audio experience excluding some vehicles is pure garbage, 3/10. In my opinion, audio is one of the biggest factors that make playing enjoyable in a large scale milsim game such as ArmA. Overlooking it is just bad business. I don't feel like "being there" with arma II default audio.

Take example from Tripwire, they have spent more time on the audio department of RO2 alone than the whole development of RO1.

Edited May 20, 2011 by Leopardi

[dmarkwick 261]

You have to admit the default audio in ArmA II is pure garbage.

Actually, I don't :)

To be honest, the audio aspect doesn't bother me too much. As long as it works OK enough for *someone* to make great sound mods, it's good. BIS should concentrate on the technology and let the game become what it's capable of via great user content :)

That said, great sound by default would be great :D

[maddogx 13]

Agreed on the game needing better sounds, but I wouldn't say Arma2's audio is "pure garbage". Typical kiddie hyperbole...

[EDcase 87]

What bothers me about ARMA sound engine is the loss of directional when close to an audio source.

If you are next to someone firing or a vehicle engine running the sound loses direction and comes from everywhere. The sound should spread around but not completely. You can always tell where a sound is coming from...

[hund 0]

While I don't have any grpes with the sound side personally, I remember reading negative comments about the sounds in several reviews throughout arma 1 and 2. The reviewers think the sounds are a weak point of the series, so it might indeed be a good idea to put more shine into them this time, if only to get those blabbering bastards off yer backs (excluding dear Mr. Lahti, of course - having a giant fanboi in a major gaming publication is always desirable).

I do think that the sound system is pretty good though, if not the sounds themselves. You can always tell a noob on the servers when the first shot rings out. Everyone immediately turns to face the sound source while the noobs do a very dramatic impression of windmilling about trying to figure out where they should be looking. Good times.

Edited May 20, 2011 by Hund

[Leopardi 0]

Agreed on the game needing better sounds, but I wouldn't say Arma2's audio is "pure garbage". Typical kiddie hyperbole...

It is pure garbage. I dont know what game you have been playing if you dont think this way. Just listen to that ugly *boom* sound on every frigging HE explosion. Or the A-10 30mm cannon that sounds like a nail-gun??! There's no fun in shooting with the tank either, when the sound effect is always the same unrealistic *zoomf*. If you think ArmA 2 cannon sounds are realistic, this is how a tank cannon sounds in real life:

[maddogx 13]

It is pure garbage. I dont know what game you have been playing if you dont think this way. Just listen to that ugly *boom* sound on every frigging HE explosion. Or the A-10 30mm cannon that sounds like a nail-gun??! There's no fun in shooting with the tank either, when the sound effect is always the same unrealistic *zoomf*. If you think ArmA 2 cannon sounds are realistic, this is how a tank cannon sounds in real life:

You are, of course, entitled to your opinion...

[Leopardi 0]

You are, of course, entitled to your opinion...

Reviewers agree with me. Reality agrees with me. Just your opinion agrees with you.

[maddogx 13]

Reviewers agree with me. Reality agrees with me. Just your opinion agrees with you.

Keep on trollin'....

[hund 0]

You are, of course, entitled to your opinion...

Sometimes, you boys make me so proud!

Reviewers agree with me. Reality agrees with me. Just your opinion agrees with you.

Sometimes not so much...

Edited May 20, 2011 by Hund

[Leopardi 0]

Keep on trollin'....

If anyone's a troll it's if you think ArmA II sounds are somehow realistic and good. Audio is a major weakpoint of the game, and you keep saying against any improvements. I can't think of any reason why would you not want improved audio for ArmA 3. I know I won't be buying the game if audio is going to be like arma 2.

[maddogx 13]

If anyone's a troll it's if you think ArmA II sounds are somehow realistic and good. Audio is a major weakpoint of the game, and you keep saying against any improvements. I can't think of any reason why would you not want improved audio for ArmA 3. I know I won't be buying the game if audio is going to be like arma 2.

Dude, read my first reply. Properly this time.

I actually said I agree with you that the game needs better sounds. I simply disagreed with your characterisation of the stock Arma2 sounds as "pure garbage". That's not trolling, that's simple disagreement. (Okay, maybe I trolled you a little, but whatever... :D)

Edited May 20, 2011 by MadDogX

[Tonmeister 14]

my 2 cents, the current sound engine is much more sophisticated than what was implemented in arma. bis can always improve the sound engine, but i don't think its something to really complain about.

eb

[custard~SPARTA~ 10]

The directional sound in Arma ArmaII is a massive dissapointment to me, GRAW (Don't hate me) was so much better. When I played PvP in GRAW I could pick up the direction of a single footfall almost like in real life with Arma I just can't.

[Maddmatt 1]

While I don't condone the pathetic childish attitude shown by the OP, more realistic sound effects would be great. While I think the OA sounds are good overall, they can be too 'dull' compared to when you see footage of the real thing. Also, there is a lack of variation with explosions.

If there's as much improvement with the sounds as with the graphics I've seen in those screenshots, I wont be disappointed.

[maddogx 13]

While I don't condone the pathetic childish attitude shown by the OP, more realistic sound effects would be great. While I think the OA sounds are good overall, they can be too 'dull' compared to when you see footage of the real thing. Also, there is a lack of variation with explosions.

If there's as much improvement with the sounds as with the graphics I've seen in those screenshots, I wont be disappointed.

Well put. :)

[hund 0]

GRAW does have a kickass sound engine, never seen (heard) anything like it before or since. But armas sound engine isn't all that bad I think. I don't have any problems discerning direction and range under most circumstances. It's not an exact science of course, nor should it be.

[dmarkwick 261]

GRAW does have a kickass sound engine, never seen (heard) anything like it before or since. But armas sound engine isn't all that bad I think. I don't have any problems discerning direction and range under most circumstances. It's not an exact science of course, nor should it be.

ArmA's sound engine is pretty good I think. As far as I've seen (although I don't play many games) it's the only sound engine that has sound occlusion built in. Sound is automatically occluded whenever the source is behind a viewblock LOD.

[Don Camillo 10]

The ultimate kick in the Soundengine would be a complete Change to

procedural sounds. Reverbs and Filters depending to the Enviroment would

enhance the Possibilities drastically. In my opinion a "must" in an open enviroment ...

The particular Sounds of Weapons and

Vehicles are less important to me, cause it's a very individual thing and always

up to enthusiastic Sounddesigners in the Comm like Chammy or TangoRomeo and

all the Others did a Great Jobs so far.

[Tonmeister 14]

The ultimate kick in the Soundengine would be a complete Change to

procedural sounds. Reverbs and Filters depending to the Enviroment would

enhance the Possibilities drastically. In my opinion a "must" in an open enviroment ...

The particular Sounds of Weapons and

Vehicles are less important to me, cause it's a very individual thing and always

up to enthusiastic Sounddesigners in the Comm like Chammy or TangoRomeo and

all the Others did a Great Jobs so far.

better still, a realtime convolution engine embedded within a 3rd order ambisonic framework with support for a full 16 channel 3d surround sound system would be great too. that would rock my tinny

eb

[rexehuk 16]

I think we do need more control over sound ingame... on the soundmods I've created atleast there are very frustrating issues and missing commands for us to use.

For one, theres no real way to get a proper jet passing over with loud bang as you enter the cone of the rear thrusters, especially at MACH1+ where you'd hear little then suddenly roar as it passes over you. On top of this simple things like engineStart sounds play over the top of engineON sounds instead of waiting for the engineStart sequence to end.

Also a feature I'd like to see is the inclusion of a command to determine the length of a sample being played, this allows us to do things such as continuous play of samples from a bank etc.

Armas sound engine is good... but lacks a few features to really make it punch its weight.

[neokika 62]

You have to admit the default audio in ArmA II is pure garbage. You could increase the immersion level of the game 10000x by taking more time in making realistic sounds other than just tank engines. When I installed CSM, it felt like a whole different game. Better sounds by default would surely help in much better reviews as well. Don't overlook the audio department this time please, BIS.

Take example from Tripwire, they have spent more time on the audio department of RO2 alone than the whole development of RO1.

Obviously, the only Pure Garbage is your post. Telling the sounds are garbage is just way to stupid, they do sound good, could be a lot better ofc, but they sound fairly well imho.

_neo_

[Leopardi 0]

Obviously, the only Pure Garbage is your post. Telling the sounds are garbage is just way to stupid, they do sound good, could be a lot better ofc, but they sound fairly well imho.

_neo_

My ears bleed when I hear that same boom. And it's not just lack of variety. There is no distance (air absorbtion etc.) or echoing taken into account at all, it's just the same boring soundfile being triggered, thats how advanced the sound engine is. Of course there are near perfect sounds too, like tank engines, the PKT, the jet sounds or the helicopter cockpit sounds. I wouldn't change them.

But when you look at the overall audio experience for the average grunt crawling on the battlefield, it is just downright poor. My personal review for the overall audio experience excluding some vehicles is pure garbage, 3/10. In my opinion, audio is one of the biggest factors that make playing enjoyable in a large scale milsim game such as ArmA. Overlooking it is just bad business. I don't feel like "being there" with arma II default audio.

Edited May 20, 2011 by Leopardi

[tpM 478]

I think all the soundengine needs is echo/reverbation handling and the possibility to config multiple sounds depending on distance, so we could have proper distant pops instead of just the same sound effect muffled down. But even if these improvements wont make into Arma 3, some better samples could raise immersion to a much higher level. I'm wondering what happened with these.

[neokika 62]

My ears bleed when I hear that same boom. And it's not just lack of variety. There is no distance (air absorbtion etc.) or echoing taken into account at all, it's just the same boring soundfile being triggered, thats how advanced the sound engine is. Of course there are near perfect sounds too, like tank engines, the PKT, the jet sounds or the helicopter cockpit sounds. I wouldn't change them.

But when you look at the overall audio experience for the average grunt crawling on the battlefield, it is just downright poor. My personal review for the overall audio experience excluding some vehicles is pure garbage, 3/10. In my opinion, audio is one of the biggest factors that make playing enjoyable in a large scale milsim game such as ArmA. Overlooking it is just bad business. I don't feel like "being there" with arma II default audio.

Hi again Leopardi,

Yes, I know exactly what you mean mate, there could be more variations for each sound, and maybe make the explosions and weapon sounds more powerful and varied.

I'm also pretty sure that BI knows that they can do much better, and probably they will.

I was just :eek: at your "Pure Garbage" comment...:D

Cheers,

_neo_