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babylonjoke

Amazing sounds samples.... but a bad sound engine

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Hello guys

I've searched everywhere and I was not able to find any thread complaining about the Arma 3 sound engine, pheraps, if there was already one I say sorry for this mistake.

After have played a bit to Arma 3 I have been really impressed by the big step forward BIS made in differents areas of the gameplay. Pheraps I got quite disappointed from the Sound Engine.

Everybody know thatas humans we have 5 senses sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch .

Unfortunaly the actual technology of the gaming allow you to use only 2 of them : sight and hearing (also touch if we consider move the mouse as an interaction with the game)

If a game leak in sound quality, the experience of the player will always be around 60 % of what could actually be.

Heraing is one of the most important sense, it allows you to orientate around the world in real life. Just imagine how much is important in a 3d space!

And this is actually the feeling I'm getting playing Arma 3. It became almost impossible orientate myself into a firefight because most of the times I feel confused, I'm unable to understand from where the fire is coming from.

The samples quality is absolutly brilliant and it's a shame be not able to play them correctly.

It's like have a Ferrari without have a license to drive cars.

What are you opinions about the actual sound engine?

Anybody from BIS can say any word about that? Will the sound engine be finally replaced by a new one? (since it's pretty much the same from A1)

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I can still perfectly navigate even in headphones (which means the important cross mix of L and R channels is missing), let alone good stereo system.

Not sure if the sound is still obscured by objects like in ArmA2 but I'm pretty sure it does.

My only issue with the sound is that BIS is clearly using pre-rendered reverberated sounds because firing the gun inside and outside produces the same sound.

JSRS for A2 is vastly superior in this sense since even without real-time reverb effects it tells indoors and outdoors apart. BIS should've taken clues from it.

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I can still perfectly navigate even in headphones (which means the important cross mix of L and R channels is missing), let alone good stereo system.

Yeah most of the times me too, but try to turn left when they shot you from right side, you will hear the sound like if it's coming from 50 M, while maybe it's coming from 5

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The sound engine is really really (really) bad in ArmA3. A gamer buddy of mine is a sound nerd and I think he is suffering a lot there, lol.

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I have situational awareness when hearing sounds in ArmA 2 CO and ArmA 3, since I use a headset (Logitech G35). But I have noticed that the current engine for A3 is lacking, and has locality issues. You can hear a firefight going on 2-3km away as if it was right next to you.

I don't think it's the sound engine that's bad per-say, just look what LJ did with JSRS in ArmA 2 CO.

+1 to get it up to scratch or beyond.

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I'm not an expert and I'm not sure what LJ did in JSRS.

I thought he made a second sample (for each sample) with reverb effect on it for inside compounds and added a sort of filter effect for distance sound, am I right or I'm wrong?

That's an hell of work that double size up the sounds!

Just imagine how much more simple would be having a proper sound engine...

I think JSRS guys would be really happy...

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Yes the ARMA's sound system cannot compete with other AA games :/

This WILL hurt BI..because players who coming first time to see "WTF is 'that' ARMA??.."..they will not be happy from sound...

Yes..JSRS probably will do his miracle again..but most-non-community people will judge the game in "Vanilla"

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Oh NOOOOOOOOES.Will this distance sound issue be A3's trademark?It throws me off when I am firing and hear richochet sounds and think I am hitting the wall I am near but instead Its the sound of the metal wall 50m away.

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By the way, I saw that Battlefield 4 teaser and the gun sounds is what I'd like to hear in ArmA3. The distant gun fire sound is awesome.

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sound engine in A3alfa is really best one!

but yet - it is an opportunity - not fun really

Bis sound engineers got a nice stereo samples and huge choice effects and filters

but(another one but) was makes wrong turn in stereo mixing from 1person stereo to 3person mono

Bis chose "both channels to one with 100%" but not really immersive "both channels to one with difference between"

this choice impact on overall impression of the sound and gunshot positioning

that's all I can say about the sound in A3

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The sound engine is really good, its just work in progress for the moment. They only exaggerated with the number of sounds per object, they weren't necessary so many, better less and fixed. I made a small mod to tweak the sounds and get closer to the real feeling, check it here: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?152031-AlphaSounds

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In the editor I set up two helicopters fighting eachother. The where flying away from me and the sound of the rotors go more and more quiet. But the sound of their guns where the same all the time. Like they were flying right over my head.

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By the way, I saw that Battlefield 4 teaser and the gun sounds is what I'd like to hear in ArmA3. The distant gun fire sound is awesome.

Yeah man. People slag that game alot around here, but you can't argue that DICE have the some of the best sound-designers and engineers in the business.

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Yeah man. People slag that game alot around here, but you can't argue that DICE have the some of the best sound-designers and engineers in the business.

Battlefield has always had amazing sound. I remember when I got Road to Rome and my neighbor complained about what he said sounded like thunder. It was the ambient artillery on Market Garden, IIRC. Unfortunately these days Battlefield's beauty is only skin deep.

I really hope we get some tweaks to Arma 3's sound engine soon. With all the gunshots being so loud regardless of distance it makes firefights a bit of a headache when I'm using my speakers. But, hey, that's alpha.

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You have to remember that DICE doesn't use real sounds. For BF3 they used lion's roar for Abrams tank's engine for example.

It may sound cool but that's not how weapons sound. JSRS is better in this regard. But ArmA2 could only handle mono sound sources so when it comes to that 3D sound of BF it surely lacked it.

Yeah most of the times me too, but try to turn left when they shot you from right side, you will hear the sound like if it's coming from 50 M, while maybe it's coming from 5

Well yeah. Actually come to think of it you are right. It doesn't represent the distance well in ArmA3. Previous games did a better job. But I bet this will be down to some tweaking on BIS part.

Edited by metalcraze

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That's an hell of work that double size up the sounds!

with wavelab for example you can batch process..

or you insert all sounds in one channel and give it side channel fx.. technically neither is a problem..

By the way, I saw that Battlefield 4 teaser and the gun sounds is what I'd like to hear in ArmA3. The distant gun fire sound is awesome.

in BF4 a gun has distant sound when youre just 10 m away

. BF4 is a very bad example when it comes to this! BF3/4 just sounds tasty (some 300HZ notch filtering etc) but not necessarily real.

one important problem is the short delay sound effect that happens when triggering in the digital domain the same sound in a short time interval:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?152065-Repetitive-Sounds-Problem

another important thing is the cross channel mixing: l/r shouldnt be 0-100% (you hear with both ears always even when an obejct is left from you, it is not just volume thats lower but theres more to it; every humans head has a specific sound siganture.. its also different if you have hair or not etc..)

Edited by tremanarch

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Just play the helicopter showcase. You can hear firefights that are really far away from you as if they were on the next hill.

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You have to remember that DICE doesn't use real sounds.

What?

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they record real sound but they alter them with filters and effects. some more subtle some more extreme like mixing a lion roar under the engine sound etc. but its good that they made so many recordings they can get mixed in the game..

Edited by tremanarch

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Heh pretty cool that they added a lion to the tank sound. I actually hadn't heard that trivia.

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If only we could get JSRS as part of the base game, I can keep dreaming.

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jsrs only covers shooting sounds no?

I would like to have better driving engine sounds too. they seem to be cutted sometimes.

is there a engine list of variables etc how the sound engine works, or where do the guys get their info from?

I dont like the mysterical aspects of the modding scene. why not open up, get public etc only good comes from it..

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One sound I really hope they improve is the "Screeching tires on hard surface" sound. It's laughably bad.

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jsrs only covers shooting sounds no?

I would like to have better driving engine sounds too. they seem to be cutted sometimes.

is there a engine list of variables etc how the sound engine works, or where do the guys get their info from?

I dont like the mysterical aspects of the modding scene. why not open up, get public etc only good comes from it..

JSRS covers everything, well almost everything, he didn´t cover the get in/get out sounds and a few other minor things.

Go and try playing Arma 2 with JSRS or search on YT

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The soundengine actually has quite a few awesome new additions :)

Stereo samples being one of them. The main problem IMO is also a very nice addition ironically. There are now dynamic filters that can be applied indefinitely in theory.

That means, for every distance you wish, you can create filters to get the base sound filtered dynamically to create distance sounds without having to actually make them by hand for every distance.

This is quite a neat feature but in my opinion the best values haven't been found yet as it's quite new territory resulting in strange distance sounds. Additionally, there are problems with sound positioning, delays with especially bullet impacts or false triggering of e.g. the wheel screeching sound.

The samples in general are very nice and clean and you can really hear the additional sound of the sledge though there is some frequency left over at the fade out of the P07 sample and a slight variation across the handguns etc would be very nice :)

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