All the Bis game have Counter Strike sounds

[Dwarden 1125]

Wouldn't it be possible for BIS to change the way sounds are defined/loaded? I mean changed in such a way that, for example, the weapons cfg didn't need to be adjusted - instead, let the engine detect a different file inside a PBO, for example an XML definition file (sounds.xml or whatever) that countains links to and properties of sound files that are also contained in the pbo.

I'm sure this should be possible, though it would of course require some changes to the way sounds are defined. Also, the engine would need to be able to tell when a PBO doesn't contain any config data, meaning it is "benign" (i.e. it cannot cause any kind of trouble). Such PBOs could theoretically be allowed any time, right?

user/clientside/custom definable sounds would be possible to cheat again

e.g. silenced sounds would be possible make louder

e.g. it would be possible change range of hearability, loudness, lenght of the sound etc etc etc

you can already control allowed soundmod by allowed signatures

[maddogx 13]

user/clientside/custom definable sounds would be possible to cheat again

True, this would suck for PvP, for example. I completely ignored that aspect. :)

[Reuben5150 2]

:p the quality of the sounds in arma games are to low, not realistic, 0 Immersion. Why dont use Battlefield bad company, crysis 2 and other games using sounds very real and will dramatically improve the game.In a FPS sound is one of the most important things! :j:

I think positional audio is far more important than the quality, ask the question, what would you expect from a next-gen military sim, some level of realism at a minimum.

The bf3 engine is a bad example, not sure what happened there, the weapon sounds are good, but overall directional sound is very bad, on the other hand, BfBc2 had the best positional audio I've heard in a shooter but yes, those sounds we're rather Hollywood.

[Bee8190 10]

I think positional audio is far more important than the quality, ask the question, what would you expect from a next-gen military sim, some level of realism at a minimum.

The bf3 engine is a bad example, not sure what happened there, the weapon sounds are good, but overall directional sound is very bad, on the other hand, BfBc2 had the best positional audio I've heard in a shooter but yes, those sounds we're rather Hollywood.

Either way, me personaly, I would trade any graphics (damn me...but probaply even ragdoll too) candy for best possible sounds

[dm 9]

Either way, me personaly, I would trade any graphics (damn me...but probaply even ragdoll too) candy for best possible sounds

Its good that the people that do sounds are the same people that do artwork then... (NOT)

[Bee8190 10]

Its good that the people that do sounds are the same people that do artwork then... (NOT)

Yeah, cheers for the clarification but I was aware of it. What I implied there was quite simply - I would happily trade ( if it was dependednt on it) some core features/tech, if that would lead to further developement on audio from resources/time stand point. Which is not the case, as you said.

Sorry for the inconvenience ;)

[jackrabbitslim7 10]

I'm confused, I thought Arma 2 ( at least OA ) had realistic sounds based on this statement :

"Will the sounds of weapons be better? Like in Chammy Sound Mod.

Sound effects are much improved in Arrowhead. But be aware: many people compare our sound to "real" videos on the Internet or to Hollywood movies; however, in reality sound is very different. Another aspect is the phenomenon called loudness war. We prefer high fidelity over artificiality, so you may need generally louder output level than in average game in order to get similar impression. We have decided to record as many sound effects as possible for Operation Arrowhead directly on the field. Using 12 microphones in various positions relative to the sound source, we recorded all kind of sounds from reloading, firing, to bullet impacts (imagine a live BMP shooting range with sound engineers - we hope to be able to declassify some images and release some form of "Making Of" or "Developers Diary" about this part of development). In the end, sound effects are mixed and edited in order to best keep real world feeling as much as possible in every situation from the perspective of the shooter up to troops standing 100 m away. One good example is supersonic bullet crack, often considered to be bug or something wrong in the game. In reality, when you hear bullets from machine gun or rifle passing by, supersonic crack is pretty much the only thing you can hear."

From :http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Ask_Bohemia_about_A2OA_-_Answers

I've never used a firearm so I can't say if arma sounds are realistic or not I'm far from being an expert, but I'm not convinced that BF3 or any other Shooter game have more realistic sounds. Well weapons sounds in arma seems a bit weak compared to ambient sound, but other than that I find the quality quite good.

[celery 8]

I've never used a firearm so I can't say if arma sounds are realistic or not I'm far from being an expert, but I'm not convinced that BF3 or any other Shooter game have more realistic sounds.

Assumption is the mother of many things. :P

Of course, depends on what aspect of the sound you're talking about, but the samples themselves are very close to real life in the recent Battlefield titles.

[jackrabbitslim7 10]

Assumption is the mother of many things. :P

Of course, depends on what aspect of the sound you're talking about, but the samples themselves are very close to real life in the recent Battlefield titles.

Sorry, I didn't mean to say sounds weren't realistic in bf3, but just that they weren't necessarily more realistic than arma, given the fact that they both used the same method to record sounds (microphones in a shooting range or during a military exercise).

[rainbird 1]

i don't care how "realistic" sounds are, i only care about being able to accurately identify the azimuth, elevation and distance of each sounds.

this better be the focus of ArmA 3's updated sounds system....or heads will roll! And I mean it.

[maturin 12]

Yeah, not going to happen with a pair of headphones, and I hope they don't code something that you need a hundred-dollar surround sound system to appreciate. And it won't be realistic anyways. Sounds get turned 180 degrees around from bouncing all the time.

[jackrabbitslim7 10]

You can localize sound with a pair of headphones, you don't need surround.

[max power 21]

re: sound loudness.

Sounds with high loudness appear to have more impact, I guess, at low volumes. In increasing the loudness, you decrease the fidelity of the sound. I'm not a sound engineer so I don't know the specifics, but the waveform of a sound with high loudness looks like a wall of high amplitudes, where one without the loudness cranked would have a wide range of amplitudes. BI recommends, with its default sounds, you use high volumes to get the same impact of sounds with high loudness, while preserving the sound fidelity.

There is of course, no accounting for your audience's ability to hear the sounds, though. Perhaps gamers who spend a lot of time listening to very high loudness, very high volume music and games through headphones or earbuds may lack the capacity to get the most out of very high range sound effects.

[maturin 12]

You can localize sound with a pair of headphones, you don't need surround.

Yeah, but the word choice 'azimuth, elevation and distance' suggests something entirely too precise.

[Choki 10]

Yeah, but the word choice 'azimuth, elevation and distance' suggests something entirely too precise.

that is really hard to make

[2nd ranger 282]

Dunno about anyone else but I'm very pleased with the turret weapon sounds from the

.

[dale0404 5]

I can dig that ranger!

[feralcircus 2]

:p the quality of the sounds in arma games are to low, not realistic, 0 Immersion. Why dont use Battlefield bad company, crysis 2 and other games using sounds very real and will dramatically improve the game.In a FPS sound is one of the most important things! :j:

That's the problem when making a simulation, what people think is realistic isn't usually the case.

Take a Formular 1 racing sim for example, do they make it with all the high fraquency screaming engine sound that you hear on TV for 1st person view.

Or do they simulate what you'd really hear with ear plugs, balaclava & helmet removing most of the high frequency leaving the muffled lower tones.

What exactly does an M16 sound like pushed against your shoulder an inch away from your face resonating through your entire bone structure?

Personally i would prefer realistic :-)

To sim or not to sim?

[hellfire257 3]

Realism and "nice" sounds are not mutually exclusive. You can have a mixture of the two.

I do like the sound from that video though!

[Booster 1]

Dunno about anyone else but I'm very pleased with the turret weapon sounds from the

.

I would say the sound effects were perfect, the visuals were perfect too. Definitely going to bring in tons of new players.

[tremanarch 6]

Realism or Realsim?

I like what I heard so far. Great work, I know its hard!

[megagoth1702 252]

What's with the camera man? He zooms back and forth during each burst.

It's just ONE burst, just ONE, recorded with many mics. So it's basically 1 video clip repeated over and over again but with different audio. I dont know why the camera man used zoom there but he did not do it again and again but only ONE time.

@ Topic:

Heck yes, we need improvements in this area!

Battlefield 3 shows exactly how different a gun can sound at ranges just within 150m. We don't even have the option to have separate files for FIRST and THIRD person, which is a must pretty much in order to use stereo samples which enhance audio fidelity by a LOT!!!

Being able to choose between samples for different ranges would also be awesome. Even if it's as simple as playing 2 samples at the same time but one of the samples reaches out to 1.5km while the other one just goes for 50m and slowly fades out.

We created script-based systems for this purpose but because it's script it lagged a LOT with more than 20 units shooting at the same time.

Also SPEED OF SOUND for guns is bugged in current arma2 sound engine. If previous fire sample is NOT done playing yet (a shot with a long tail) the shot AFTER that will NOT have the speed of sound rules applied to it.

So it will be like this if you recieve fire from long distance:

snap=bullet crack, bang=gun sound.

SNAP... BANG... BANG snap BANG snap BANG snap.

Only the first shot is correct, the following ones are buggy.

We lack the ability to control the sample playback volume FROM WITHIN THE CONFIG. Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to create consistent levels for guns, pistols, grenades, vehicles etc. without this option? You have to manually open up EACH sample and change the volume WITHIN the sample istead of having all samples peak at 0dB and then just control their volume in the config file. And then you just say "aah fuck it it will do" and we end up with non-consistant volumes in the game. Makarov louder and more powerful than a brit sniper rifle? Cmon...

Gunfire in arma is FRAME RATE DEPENDANT which means you can tweak your sample to sound fine at lets say 650 rounds per minute but if your FPS go faster or slower for some reason the shots will be faster/slower and the sound will sound weird.

Man just use a binary switch "firing/not firing" and detach the gun fire from the renderer. :-/ Like all modern games do. I understand thats part of the engine but you gotta do what you gotta do... Someday.

The samples BIS provides us with are not great but oh well, that's what the modders are for. But not providing a sound engine that has windows 95 feel all over it is not helping as well. Oh, and did anyone see DOCUMENTATION on the audio engine? Most of the stuff we know has come from testing and testing and testing. There are so many parameters that are not explained.

I liked the 50cal sample from the newest video but it still lacks a bit of punch and snap/initial bang.

Sorry guys for all the ranting but I worked with sounds for arma2 for a long time and gave it up due to frustration.

Edited May 27, 2012 by megagoth1702

[tremanarch 6]

sync of audio and framerate of the Video of an Engine is an interesting aspect. It was the Problem in Enemy territory Quake Wars. Guns Firing wasnt steady, they shot like that on auto: da-da-da--da-da-dadada-da-da-da--da-da-dada-da

like they had jamming problems every 3 or 4 bullet..

Sound and Video Framerate was synced.

In ArmA it has been great so far. Didnt experience sth. like that.

What I experience is the Framerate overall, cant get it to 60 fps. It is always around 20 - 40. Feels somehow proper though in other Shooters I refuse to play below 60 fps., but still. I can change graphic to maximum and i have 14 fps, and to most low and I have maybe 40 fps...

[megagoth1702 252]

At 20 fps your SAW will shoot slower than at 40FPS, try it. Put all your settings on minimum, then on maximum. You will see.

[Choki 10]

RO2 has excellent sounds