Audio Tweaking (dev branch)

[Fushko 59]

This thread was one of the victims of the beta forum being closed. I brought it back a few days ago... no need to get excited. :)

You should also bring back the "lighting changes" thread, just saying ;)

[maddogx 13]

You should also bring back the "lighting changes" thread, just saying ;)

Already did, but moved to the wrong forum. It's here now. :cool:

[instagoat 133]

http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=14931

As an example ticket to get the thread on track. Also the issues with sounds not ranging far enough and all distant sounds being generally very electrically distorted, rather than atmospherically filtered.

[ModeZt 0]

Another big change is the accurate setting of the volume of resources (dB) and controlling the audio mix (vehicles versus weapons for example).

So how can I change the volume of vehicles in config? I've only found basic sliders. For my likeness the sounds of rocket launchers and firearms are too loud and the sound of vehicles is barely audible.

Edited October 1, 2013 by ModeZt

[zeep 3]

Recorded samples with reverb attached to them can became boring, simulating reverbation/echoing could give us bilions or so different sounds. Just one sample that can sound so much different in different environments. It is possible by scripting so for sure it is possible in the engine:

This and the video's say it all basically. Everytime in Arma3 when i fire a weapon and hear a sample with reverb added to it, it makes me sad. The reverb is always the same, not even balanced many times, and it 'sticks' to the player's ear to top it off. Fire a MG, listen how the reverb is mainly to the right, now turn around while shooting. It just comes with you. Even when people don't notice those things, it subconsciously breaks a player's feeling of immersion

[Smurf 12]

What is planned on the audio department? Isn't fair to have a game so beatiful this way, a case of butter face. :D

____________

I´m looking forward to that. Could we possibly get a look at the explosion effects and impact effects of shells at some point too? Reducing particle count and making the effects more varied and realistic, possibly changing the particle system so you can have assymetric particles that do not scale like the current particles do, ie, remain at a fixed size rather than scaling with distance to remain at their pixel width?

And while at it:

Would it be possible for you to have falling debris after large explosions? Maybe some integration with JSRS with the sound of all the kicked up debris coming back down? That'd be pretty awesome, as it's a part of explosions that games never seem to pull off. Seeing puffs of dust all over as stuff hits the dirt would be awesome.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?162988-Blastcore-A3/page18&p=2519655#post2519655

Never thought about that because it really isn't something that your hear often on other games (RO1? Scripted part on MoH2010).

.

Also, what about deafening? I don't mean ACE like but even something more gamey is better than nothing, right?

[KeyCat 131]

Would be nice to know if the range of sound issue is being looked at since IMO that is a major letdown. Not hearing the guns firing at you at ~300 m actually affects the gameplay since you are unable to use your ears to locate the enemy, all you hear is overdone air cracks. Top that with overall low (external) volumes of helicopters and vehicles and things gets even worse. In RL you would be scared s...less just by the sound of a 50+ ton tank rolling 100 m away, now they sound like a 1/32 scale model if at all.

Sorry to say it but IMO A2:OA sound scape beats A3 in any way and form!

/KC

Edited October 3, 2013 by KeyCat

[Ezcoo 47]

Would be nice to know if the range of sound issue is being looked at since IMO that is a major letdown. Not hearing the guns firing at you at ~200 m actually affects the gameplay since you are unable to use your ears to locate the enemy, all you hear is overdone air cracks. Top that with overall low (external) volumes of helicopters and vehicles and things gets even worse. In RL you would be scared s...less just by the sound of a 50+ ton tank rolling 100 m away, now they sound like a 1/32 scale model if at all.

IMO A2:OA sound scape beats A3 in any way and form!

/KC

Yes, this causes major issues in gameplay. The players automatically expect to hear the sound sources from realistic distances. Let's say there's an enemy at 250 m distance, and he's firing towards player, but the only thing that the player hears are the cracks and snaps of the bullets hitting next to him. So he probably thinks that there's sniper far away trying to hit him – if the enemy was closer, he would hear the gunshots, right? Same issue with vehicles, you'd expect to hear eg. the tanks far away, but now they have to almost run you over before you can hear them properly. For example, I've been playing Benny's Warfare in A3 recently, and there has been many times when our base has been getting nuked by enemy tanks that are almost in our base - without anyone hearing them at all. Players are confused because they think that the tanks are far away because they can't hear them, while they are almost next to them in reality.

The same issue messed up the A2 gameplay a lot too. For example, I've been playing Warfare quite a lot recently in A2 too, and have found that even in A2, you really can't hear enemies (enemy vehicles) even at close distances. For example basehunters are having easy time, because they can park their vehicles almost in the base without getting heard by enemies. You can literally park an APC 150-200 metres away from enemies without them hearing anything at all. Majority of the players doesn't expect hearing the things from unrealistically small distances, so the players who are aware of the issue have huge, unrealistic and unfair advantage.

Another issue is that the loudness / hearing distance of vehicles seems to be based on speed of vehicle – why, oh god, why? For example, when driver of the tank hits the pedal to the metal when multiple tens of tons weighing heavy tank climbs up a steep hill slowly, it should be heard damn far away instead of becoming almost silent because of the low speed. You can sneak really close to your enemies by maintaining your speed slow, that's not really realistic in my opinion.

[NeuroFunker 11]

i would like to know, if anything about enviornment audio is on to do list? I remember dwarden said something about it back at alpha.

[NeuroFunker 11]

what bothers me lately, tanks not having accelerate sound. When the tank starts driving, i have a feeling, it's missing something, and that would be the acceleration sound!

I have scrablem few video of T-90 in close up. You can clearly hear, when it's accelerating, after being halt.

Watch the videos, listen carefully, then go to game and drive up T-100. It sounds just unfinished to me.

Also, i do miss that high frequency whistle from the disel engine, like on t-90.

Since the audio engine has been reworked, and vehivles have much more samples, maybe devs could be adding this on top.

Edited October 18, 2013 by NeuroFunker

[progamer 14]

Does sound in game travel at the speed of sound?

[Polygon 11]

Does sound in game travel at the speed of sound?

Yes, or approx.

[rebelvg 281]

I wish they've added a sound of wind while free falling.

[St. Jimmy 272]

I wish they've added a sound of wind while free falling.

There is little wind sound. It's not loud though.

[heruon 1]

Does sound in game travel at the speed of sound?

Yes, or approx.

Well atleast gun sounds and explosions do. I'm not so sure about vehicle sounds though. Take a look at a jet passing at some distance and notice that there's no delay for the sound, it comes directly from where the plane is.

[vegeta897 13]

I imagine that is because gun sounds and explosion sounds are a single event, as opposed to a constantly streaming sound.

[St. Jimmy 272]

Dear god now that I've played 1 minute of the campaign the 5.1/7.1 mid speaker bug is annoying me. Can't hear a dam of those conversations. Immersion bug #1 that needs to be fixed really.

[neodammerung 8]

Dear god now that I've played 1 minute of the campaign the 5.1/7.1 mid speaker bug is annoying me. Can't hear a dam of those conversations. Immersion bug #1 that needs to be fixed really.

I've done 4 missions in the campaign and having the exact same problem, hopefully there's subtitles otherwise I couldn't even play...

[Tonci87 163]

Dear god now that I've played 1 minute of the campaign the 5.1/7.1 mid speaker bug is annoying me. Can't hear a dam of those conversations. Immersion bug #1 that needs to be fixed really.

That´s what I´m saying since what, 4 Months now?

[bullet purveyor 85]

Same thing here. Playing with 5.1 speaker setup. Can barley hear conversation.

[Apo 10]

Dear god now that I've played 1 minute of the campaign the 5.1/7.1 mid speaker bug is annoying me. Can't hear a dam of those conversations. Immersion bug #1 that needs to be fixed really.

Same here too. I have to look like 3m to the right of the speaking person to get the conversation thru the left and right front speaker at a normal level, while the center speaker is only delivering the ambient noise.

[Tonci87 163]

A workaround is to set your system to Stereo

Right klick on the speaker symbol in the lower right corner->Playback devices->Select your Speakers->Configure->Stereo

This is only a workaround since all your speakers will now work in Stereo mode. Of course that will make it extremely hard to tell where the fire is coming from since all your left side speakers are now playing the same sounds and all your right side speakers are doing the same.

It simply sucks to have this bug still present after such a long time.

[maddogx 13]

Same thing here. Playing with 5.1 speaker setup. Can barley hear conversation.

Yup, same here. I find I can hear people if they are at the left edge of my screen, so I can choose to either hear the dialogue or look at the characters. ;)

Funnily enough, this only affects voice overs. All other sounds seem to be unaffected.

[Tonci87 163]

Yup, same here. I find I can hear people if they are at the left edge of my screen, so I can choose to either hear the dialogue or look at the characters. ;)

Funnily enough, this only affects voice overs. All other sounds seem to be unaffected.

No they are not. Many sounds are affected, even some guns. It is pretty audible on some weapons if you fire them full auto. The sound will rapidly "jump" from the left to right speakers and back creating a distorted sound. The center channel doesn´t seem to work at all. You can test this if you have seperate controls for all channels. Tune Front (or side as it is also called), rear and sub to zero and play a little bit, you won´t hear anything.

[pils 49]

what bothers me lately, tanks not having accelerate sound. When the tank starts driving, i have a feeling, it's missing something, and that would be the acceleration sound!

Yea .. vehicle sounds are overall pretty awful (main branch). They need to get louder and way more realistic. We need proper acceleration sounds and we need proper soundeffects when going e.g. through rough terrain. And I miss authentic sounds when driving something over with a tank or crashing/bumping against something with a vehicle.

Just a minor example ... the Hunter in real life

. :j:

I mean, come on. Soundeffects are so damn important. I'm pretty disappointed lately as I don't notice any improvements considering the sound of Arma 3.

And it's even getting worse when using the JSRS mod. Because it shows what is possible. It's made by a non-professional with limited equipment in his spare time. And it's in early Alpha state. And yet it's already majorly improving the immersion, atmosphere and fun.

I'll post some further issues which bother me about the sound as soon as I'm done with looking for real life examples ;P