Plans for a new/updated SOUND ENGINE in ARMA3??

[Psychomorph 1]

Sound is very weak in ArmA3, does not match the visual element of it, not at all. It's like putting 10 year old broken tires on a new shiny car, looks good, but offers a bumpy drive.

[the_demongod 31]

It's mediocre at best, you don't really think about it. Then you play with JSRS or similar and realize how much of a complete letdown the vanilla sound is. It's definitely my #1 issue I'd like fixed.

[dav 22]

I would rather that the radio commands and responses sounded realistic with real radio distortion and believable pre recorded voices. At the moment the audio is way too clean and doesn't sound like actual spec ops or military communication.

[froggyluv 2136]

Primary concern is the positional audio as that really effects actual gameplay. Having to turn around 360 degrees to "catch the angle" of incoming really kinda breaks immersion and harms lives..

[ATTACKM0DE 10]

the 5.1 issues is completely unacceptable. The entire center channel is 'dropped' so when you're looking in the direction of someone firing at you, you can't even hear the gun shot or it's horribly muted.

How this hasn't been fixed since alpha is beyond me, especially seeing as 5.1 worked fine in Arma 2.

This is really noticeable when exiting and moving away from a chopper powering down.

[enex 11]

I just figured it out that is probably not audio engineers undoing but simply time constrains of

programming team.It seems like they have their hands full constantly.Which makes me wonder

what do sound employes working on?

[taumargin 13]

I'd love to see an improvement on the sound engine side. I'd like to see more localized sound effects too, like random air condition units and heat expansion when in a metal hanger for example. Roller shutters, Strip lighting...Room tone, filtering/ crossfading external ambience sfx on entree to a building, an alternate footsteps set for movingup/down hill, scraping your sleeve/webbing on a wall. But would it be at a performance cost?. I can only dream :D

[enex 11]

One of the more latest changelogs

-Added: Sound occlude and obstruct parameters for vehicles

[Beastly-Skids 10]

Add me as another who really thinks the audio engine needs to be updated. Being shot at in CQB and not knowing where it has come from by an audible clue seems broken. I can hear the shots but have little idea where the sound is generated.

During the campaign, having to turn your head sideways to hear conversations because the center channel is missing seems broken also.

I have, in other games, been accused of aimbotting because I use sound to signal where my enemy is. I have invested in good audio gear at my end, wish BIS could do the same at their end. Sound is breaking immersion for me frequently.

[Greenfist 1863]

Being shot at in CQB and not knowing where it has come from by an audible clue seems broken. I can hear the shots but have little idea where the sound is generated.

This is my biggest problem with the sound system too.

I actually measured the stereo effect some time ago and found that any loud noise like a gunshot is played with almost exact same volume on both speakers up to 20m. Beyond that the sound direction becomes much easier to determine on stereo headphones. Some louder noises may be omnidirectional even further than that.

I know in real life the volume difference would probably be as small too but I think they should exaggerate it a bit in a game. Or do I just need a better sound gear/ears?

[zeep 3]

I'd love to see an improvement on the sound engine side. I'd like to see more localized sound effects too, like random air condition units and heat expansion when in a metal hanger for example. Roller shutters, Strip lighting...Room tone, filtering/ crossfading external ambience sfx on entree to a building, an alternate footsteps set for movingup/down hill, scraping your sleeve/webbing on a wall. But would it be at a performance cost?. I can only dream :D

That wouldn't be much of a performance cost. It will cost only sound channels but any sound dev could manage that very easy. As far as different room/outside effects are concerned, there's heaps of fx that are low cpu that developers can use. It just takes actual sounds, time and effort.

The many existing sound mods have to use scripts to trigger their sounds, that is more cpu intensive.

I doubt BIS will improve it. Arma3 is just a product for DLC and content now.

[zimms 22]

[...]I doubt BIS will improve it. Arma3 is just a product for DLC and content now.

That's absolutely not true. If you read the 20014/15 roadmap you would know, that both the marksmen and helicopters DLCs will include interesting engine updates. And I guess the expansion won't fall short either.

[big_t 1]

At very very least, one of the sound mods (s.o.s / j.s.r.s) should be hard implemented in to the current game. And also the average consumer should not have to rely on mods to make the sound decent, it should be in vanilla.

The current sound pallet is extremely dry and it really takes away from gameplay. I recently started playing on a server that allows for sos/jsrs and it's just a world of difference, it's feel like a legit battle zone now.

The reloading direction and volume, still...still after how long from the alpha has not been addressed, is it really that hard to fix?

Whomever is in charge of sound design needs to let go and accept the cold hard truth that sound sucks in current arma 3 and needs to be looked at and dealt with.

Hire one of the sound mod makers.

T

Edited May 22, 2014 by Big_T

[zeep 3]

At very very least, one of the sound mods (s.o.s / j.s.r.s) should be hard implemented in to the current game. And also the average consumer should not have to rely on mods to make the sound decent, it should be in vanilla.

The current sound pallet is extremely dry and it really takes away from gameplay. I recently started playing on a server that allows for sos/jsrs and it's just a world of difference, it's feel like a legit battle zone now.

The reloading direction and volume, still...still after how long from the alpha has not been addressed, is it really that hard to fix?

Whomever is in charge of sound design needs to let go and accept the cold hard truth that sound sucks in current arma 3 and needs to be looked at and dealt with.

Hire one of the sound mod makers.

T

It's the engine that's lacking. It's not about the sounds but what the engine can do with them once they are processed.

Once the engine is up to date, all the existing soundmod makers would benefit greatly and they wouldn't have to use excessive scripting / code for triggering sounds, freeing up valuable cpu.

That's absolutely not true. If you read the 20014/15 roadmap you would know, that both the marksmen and helicopters DLCs will include interesting engine updates. And I guess the expansion won't fall short either.

I've read it. It didn't state sound-engine per se, so i'm not expecting anything.

Personally, i don't care about more content.

[stilton 0]

Honestly, i don't have major noticable 'problems' with the current sound system...

I feel like (no offence BIS) the system isn't (doesn't feel) all that different from Arma2/OA.

The benefit being - it worked there, it works now? -- maybe i've just gotten used to it over the years -- If I'm being shot at... I'm pretty confident i can wiggle my head about and use the gunfire to locate his position 'roughly' .

If we're talking about just one person though... The problem comes in when there's lots of gunfire, it's a lot harder to pick the direction -- But then i imagine a battle would be confusing? I can't speak from experience.

I haven't noticed the centre speaker being quieter.

When things are directly infront of me, they are loudest, when things are behind me.. they are quiet and come out my back speakers... If they are on the side, they come out the side speakers :) I've not noticed any real glaring 'errors' when it comes to positional audio of effects...

I've also never noticed the 'reload bug' though ... I'm not denying it, maybe i'm not paying attention :)

I'm not trying to argue with anyone, just giving me experience with my setup -- I am all for an upgrade though!

It doesn't seem broken to me, it seems 'fine' -- but it's still not exactly 'vibrant'.

If they were taking sound 'suggestions' mine would be:

- Increase the sound of your own gear/footsteps in all stances a little... Decrease the heavy breathing a lot. We get it.. he's tired : But ...Its loud, it gets old fast. You can be running for 10-15 minutes with nothing but serious mouth breathing...

- Add more ambient sounds.

- Give direct chat some love...

[Leg 10]

Yeah the sound system is simple to say the least. It can probably be revamped eventually, but for now it's fine. If it were "impressively good" then it'd make the immersion of this game much better. I never noticed the difference between changing the audio settings and the default Arma sounds are usually lacking without some kind of sound mod. In this case, they were good, but they get old after a while and clearly aren't that astounding.

[enex 11]

The other day I get BF3 from origin for free and I was rolling in tank and it's sound made you feel like

you really are under tons heavy hull rolling around.And then I compared with arma 3 and I said to

myself, well quality of this vehicles here really can't compare with arma, but boy the sound makes

you feel so good!

Arma 3 is lacking in terms of sound.

[zimms 22]

Report In: Jan Dusek - Audio Lead

Unfortunately this is more about the past than the future.

More features and improvements - such as an advanced fatigue sound system - are being worked on. Plus, we've recently expanded our Audio team with two new sound designers, which is definitely going to help raise the bar further.

[Sterlingarcherz101 15]

Sometimes I just get the feeling the sound designers on arma are just doing a Job. They have no real love for it. The A10 wipeout canon is boring. It should strike fear into units on the ground or relief if you are the one calling in cas. Same goes for a lot of the other vehicle and weapons sounds.

Look at pearls a10 mod. That is the cats pajamas. That sound is terrifying.

[enex 11]

Credit where is due:

radio protocols (the total count of radio protocol samples for all actors combined reaches a hundred thousand)

Quality of audio samples

smoother vehicle engine sounds.

advanced fatigue sound system (what is advanced regarding that?)

However it says little about audio engine improvements.Maybe because it requires programmers to create new functions

and not audio engineers?

improved attenuation curve,new filtering chains (I have no idea what are filtering chains?)

[mamasan8 11]

Vehicle engine sounds? I can't even hear the sound of the pickup or the other ones.

[Tonci87 163]

Yes, the Arma 3 radio protocols and the soundtrack are really more than splendid.

[Brisse 78]

Vehicle engine sounds? I can't even hear the sound of the pickup or the other ones.

They are very low frequency. Maybe your speakers or headphones does not reproduce them properly? I certainly have no problem hearing them.

[tpM 478]

"And, with regards to military equipment, it’s twice as important. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to do many recording sessions on shooting ranges, army bases, and airports, which meant we could get most of the samples in Arma 3 by ourselves."

We heard (read) similiar before the release of Arrowhead. See: https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Ask_Bohemia_about_A2OA_-_Answers#Sound_samples_.2F_sound_params

The question is: what happened to these sounds, because they are obviously not in the game. Also, before A3's release there was a "report-in" about recording the sounds of a GM6 Lynx here in Hungary, but for some reason those sounds also went to the bin (or who knows where?).

[miketim 20]

Yes tpM I agree with what you are saying here. How could they have done all this nice recording of these sounds that we even saw on video, and it seems like they now trashed it or something?

Even if they had some difficulties, which I can understand, some of the ridiculous echo levels on the sounds are just inexcusable, seriously they had more than enough time to fix some of these things. The MX sound ends up being a big mix of crap on full auto, along with the F2000 (irl name, the AAF rifle) (I think its mk something in game), the sounds for it are so full of echo, its really pretty annoying. I think that Arma 2/OA/CO had better sounds, even if they were lower quality they didn't sound particularity bad or really take you out of the immersion, I really cant fire the AAF rifle for that long until my ears get annoyed.

At least your nice ACSE mod will fix these problems I hope, if BI doesn't make an effort at least their is a light at the end of the tunnel.

PS/TL:dr:

I do respect BI studios for giving us arma 3 all that stuff etc and we can cry about its problems all day long, but the sound particulary really was just not up to par, especially the echo is unacceptable.

Edited June 4, 2014 by MikeTim
Removed the title didnt remember how it looked on these forums