Question to all - what volume do you play at?

[megagoth1702 252]

Hello guys,

quick question: What is your ingame volume setting when you're playing with other people via Teamspeak or VOIP? It does not need to be exact. Just roughly guys. :)

I for my part play with arma3's volume at like 40% to be able to listen to Teamspeak well.

Edited March 17, 2015 by megagoth1702

[Sniperwolf572 758]

Before you get a bunch of answers, your poll has a logic problem, you might want to adjust it.

20%, 40%, 60% and 80% users can technically pick any of the two categories and the results for you will be skewered to a 40% range. (You are the example, you could've picked 2 categories. :p)

My volume usually sits at around 33%.

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

I have my system volume at full, 100%, and my Arma volume as high as it can go without making me go deaf. This is the ideal volume if you wish to get the ideal Audio performance.

[megagoth1702 252]

Before you get a bunch of answers, your poll has a logic problem, you might want to adjust it.

20%, 40%, 60% and 80% users can technically pick any of the two categories and the results for you will be skewered to a 40% range. (You are the example, you could've picked 2 categories. :p)

My volume usually sits at around 33%.

Thank you for the input but it's okay for my purposes. I just want to get a very rough overview of the people playing this. Teamspeak/VOIP means you have to lower your in-game volume. And I wonder at what volume people play basically.

I have my system volume at full, 100%, and my Arma volume as high as it can go without making me go deaf. This is the ideal volume if you wish to get the ideal Audio performance.

Well, how high is that ingame value? Do you use teamspeak/voip at the same time to communicate with others? How do you manage understanding them when arma3 is blasting out max volume?

[enex 11]

If I need arma 3 VON I need audio at 20%.

[oksman 37]

Like 5%, Teamspeak & ACRE/TFR makes it impossible to have it higher up!

[bullet purveyor 85]

Get your self a surround setup for game sound, use a headset for ACRE/TFAR/TS comms. You can easily adjust volume on both on the fly.= Success.

[Imperator[TFD] 444]

Well, how high is that ingame value? Do you use teamspeak/voip at the same time to communicate with others? How do you manage understanding them when arma3 is blasting out max volume?

Sometimes you don't and have to ask for the sender to repeat their transmission. Helicopters or boats are the worst for me; when I'm in either I cannot hear a single thing someone else says unless they're screaming it.

[brightcandle 114]

I usually have the game around 30% or so, but then I also boost TeamSpeak volume by a good 10Dba as well. TFAR is quite quiet and the game is kind of loud.

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

Thank you for the input but it's okay for my purposes. I just want to get a very rough overview of the people playing this. Teamspeak/VOIP means you have to lower your in-game volume. And I wonder at what volume people play basically.

Well, how high is that ingame value? Do you use teamspeak/voip at the same time to communicate with others? How do you manage understanding them when arma3 is blasting out max volume?

In terms of in game, I'll have to get you those numbers later. I just know my System volume is always full.

[doveman 7]

I use the TS volume control which drops the game volume when someone (including me) is speaking. Still have to set ArmA quite low to prevent it deafening me though. I'll check the exact settings later.

[reindly 10]

I use a headset and sometimes I can't hear anyone in the TS. I have to either go the the pause menu or lower the settings even further.

[megagoth1702 252]

Thank you so much guys! You are really giving me amazing information here! :) I need some more numbers to make sure that 20-40 range is what's the majority is using.

[DGeorge85 10]

I've settled into something between 45-50%. Some guys in my unit come in quieter than others over TFAR so I just increase their individual volume in TS to level coms. Other than that, I still have to listen really closely to pick up what people are saying when riding in certain choppers, sometimes not able to make out the transmission, but I think it's fairly realistic that way. I don't remember if the chopper sounds are quieter or louder than vanilla, but I should mention I'm using DragonFyre RC5. If it helps any, I'd probably have to lower the game effects down to the 20% range to always hear coms clearly over everything else.

[Bleemus 10]

I run effects sound level in Arma around 10% as I fly choppers a lot and can't hear TS otherwise. If I am playing infantry I bump it up a bit.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[andersson 285]

100% and then I adjust on my headphones own volume controller so it's as loud as comfortable. TS I use separate earbuds with their own volume controller connected to the motherboards soundcard (headphones on my dedicated soundcard).

This way I can easily adjust the TS volume and it's also easy to hear my friends as the earbuds don't get drowned in the ingame sounds.

[Fadi 22]

Game volumes around 20% and system volumes all the way up usually. Like other people, for TS and such

[grzegorz 33]

Sometimes experimenting. Especially at big update to your game. I have headphones without its own volume control. (Superlux HD668B)

http://imgur.com/a/RM5JK#0

Edited March 25, 2015 by grzegorz

[Grumpy Old Man 3545]

Thank you so much guys! You are really giving me amazing information here! :) I need some more numbers to make sure that 20-40 range is what's the majority is using.

Out of curiosity, why would it matter what setting is being used by majority?

[brightcandle 114]

Out of curiosity, why would it matter what setting is being used by majority?

Suggests something is wrong with the basic volume of the sounds in the game if almost everyone is turning it so far down. In most other games players manage sound globally, but for this one game it completely drowns out everything and you need to turn it way way down. It proves there is a problem with the sound design.

[Grumpy Old Man 3545]

Weird if that's the point, have no problems understanding anyone either with in game voice chat or 3rd party programs like TS.

It's all up to 100%, in game and in the windows sound settings, running on an external AV receiver with a 5.1 system.

Maybe it's actually loud as hell and I just don't notice anymore.

Comparing A3 with other games I need to adjust the receiver by 5-6dB+ in the volume settings, because other games seem to be more quiet than A3.

I think A3 is pretty much spot on when judging vanilla sound dynamic range.

If it's quiet, it's quiet. If there's some shooting going on it's... not really quiet to say the least.

One of the few games getting it right in terms of loudness distribution when compared to other games that got some shooting involved.

Cheers

[megagoth1702 252]

Out of curiosity, why would it matter what setting is being used by majority?

1. Make a point - the game is mixed too loud. Proper examples will follow very soon as one of my usual audio-talk videos.

2. My sound mod is currently in the process of re-mixing the whole game. This means re-balance volumes a LOT. I turn environments, character and vehicle sounds down so that gunshots and big effects stand out without fighting the limiter, which preserves the dynamic range the sound designer envisioned, instead of squashing it. This poll helps me find out by how much I can turn down the game. And it seems that a reduction of over 50% for most of the sounds is totally fine.

Suggests something is wrong with the basic volume of the sounds in the game if almost everyone is turning it so far down. In most other games players manage sound globally, but for this one game it completely drowns out everything and you need to turn it way way down. It proves there is a problem with the sound design.

Yup. :)

Weird if that's the point, have no problems understanding anyone either with in game voice chat or 3rd party programs like TS.

It's all up to 100%, in game and in the windows sound settings, running on an external AV receiver with a 5.1 system.

Maybe it's actually loud as hell and I just don't notice anymore.

Are you playing with speakers and have teamspeak on headpones?

I think A3 is pretty much spot on when judging vanilla sound dynamic range.

If it's quiet, it's quiet. If there's some shooting going on it's... not really quiet to say the least.

One of the few games getting it right in terms of loudness distribution when compared to other games that got some shooting involved.

Cheers

Not true. In quiet parts the game is not really quiet and as soon as there is something serious going on (vehicles driving, big explosions) the sounds fight the limiter . A limiter REDUCES dynamic range. Arma3 is not even kind of close to real life dynamic range (no game is, it's not possible, video coming soon). So you can not say "arma3 does a good job of representing dynamic range" because there is little to begin with.

Edit: The videos I spoke about above have been recorded.

If you care about audio at all, WATCH THIS VIDEO, even if it's 11min long! It will CLEARLY SHOW you that the vanilla game is mixed too loud and that setting proper volume levels for content make sense. Also sneaky marketing for my mod. ;)

Edited March 26, 2015 by megagoth1702

[Grumpy Old Man 3545]

1. Make a point - the game is mixed too loud. Proper examples will follow very soon as one of my usual audio-talk videos.

2. My sound mod is currently in the process of re-mixing the whole game. This means re-balance volumes a LOT. I turn environments, character and vehicle sounds down so that gunshots and big effects stand out without fighting the limiter, which preserves the dynamic range the sound designer envisioned, instead of squashing it. This poll helps me find out by how much I can turn down the game. And it seems that a reduction of over 50% for most of the sounds is totally fine.

Yup. :)

Are you playing with speakers and have teamspeak on headpones?

Seeing your point there are a few questions on my side, like

are the actual samples from vanilla distortion free?

Is it really the limiter within A3 causing that terrible distortion?

Afaik there's also some weird limiter within windows sound system that is able to squash a too loud signal, maybe that's adding to the problem.

Some slight audio rage in the spoiler:

most users probably don't know about the absolutely retarded audio stuff

that's enabled in windows by default, like create dummy channels for missing

5.1 speakers and other stuff I could rage about, not to mention those weird pseudo 3d enhancement effects

that are enabled by default when using seperate soundcards.

Which brings me to people turning down volume as low as 5% while turning the amplifier up all the way.

Makes no sense and could actually kill your speakers/headphones,

but whatever floats your boat I guess.

Enough rant, heh.

Having a 1:1 sound reproduction (in terms of dynamic range) would be nice to have, but terrible to play with,

putting aside that you'd need one hell of a system to reproduce 150-160dB at gun shot typical frequencies,

while having next to no noise floor to mask stuff like ambient sounds, breathing etc.

A pretty tough task considering most consumer amplifiers have a noise floor around ~ -90 to -100dB.

I don't know the exact number, but using 24bit audio files would allow around 140dB theoretical headroom,

while a practical application with electronics would limit this to roughly 120dB.

If there are firefights going on you would be forced to actually yell into the microphone to be heard.

Putting this aside no one wants to get deaf when playing a video game.

A good example (and probably a nice test) would be blu - ray movies.

Some of them have way too much dynamic range to be an enjoyable listening experience,

nothing wrong with getting your walls to shake when there's a F14 Tomcat fly-by taking place.

Turn the volume up until a regular dialogue is as loud as if it would take place in the room where you're watching the movie.

Then without altering the volume switch to a scene where louder stuff like plane crashes or tank driving happens,

you're probably turning down the volume because it's too damn loud when compared to the dialogue.

Pretty hard to find a balance here so cudos for what you're trying to do.

I'm playing with speakers only, no headphones used.

Really curious where you're heading with this (and your sound mod which I am following now),

since I have next to no clue how the gain staging within the A3 sound engine works

and if it's even possible to stay within safe boundaries of the A3 audio file formats bit depth,

but I guess even a total (wisely used) dynamic range of 20dB would be more than most folks would be able to cope with (from a playability point of view).

/*

Edit: Forgot to add:

Your rebalanced volume mod sounds way snappier and you're on the right track especially when increasing audible range.

Thumbs up for that.

*/

Cheers and keep up the good work!

Edited March 26, 2015 by Grumpy Old Man

[megagoth1702 252]

1. are the actual samples from vanilla distortion free?

2. and if it's even possible to stay within safe boundaries of the A3 audio file formats bit depth,

but I guess even a total (wisely used) dynamic range of 20dB would be more than most folks would be able to cope with (from a playability point of view).

Cheers and keep up the good work!

Thanks for the kind words.

1. Vanilla tank & vehicle engine samples are distortion free as far as I can tell. The recently introduced gun shots are distorted. Distortion for vehicles happens because in the config it says "play engine file X with 300% volume" but the limiter already kicks in at 100% which basically means the engine is busy fighting itself all the time instead of really just flattening the occasional peaks.

2. Of course it's possible. arma3 uses WSS audio files which is pretty much WAV. 16bit 44.1 khz WAV means 96dB of dynamic range of which I will only ever really use around 30. That's plenty of dynamic range for gameplay purposes. :)

I totally get the bluray movie example, which is why I prefer to listen to movies with good headphones, then at least I can turn stuff up really loud and in some monster movies this really gives you a crazy, scary feel. It's loud, it's close and it sounds nasty and you can FOCUSS on it because you don't have to fiddle with volume. The high dynamic range in blurays seems like it's made for home cinemas, not people with decent sound systems who live in a flat where they can NOT use their sound systems to their fullest. In a perfect world everyone has their own home cinema where you can listen to movies as loud as you want. :D

Edited March 26, 2015 by megagoth1702

[almanzo 144]

Thanks for the kind words.

1. Vanilla tank & vehicle engine samples are distortion free as far as I can tell. The recently introduced gun shots are distorted. Distortion for vehicles happens because in the config it says "play engine file X with 300% volume" but the limiter already kicks in at 100% which basically means the engine is busy fighting itself all the time instead of really just flattening the occasional peaks.

2. Of course it's possible. arma3 uses WSS audio files which is pretty much WAV. 16bit 44.1 khz WAV means 96dB of dynamic range of which I will only ever really use around 30. That's plenty of dynamic range for gameplay purposes. :)

I totally get the bluray movie example, which is why I prefer to listen to movies with good headphones, then at least I can turn stuff up really loud and in some monster movies this really gives you a crazy, scary feel. It's loud, it's close and it sounds nasty and you can FOCUSS on it because you don't have to fiddle with volume. The high dynamic range in blurays seems like it's made for home cinemas, not people with decent sound systems who live in a flat where they can NOT use their sound systems to their fullest. In a perfect world everyone has their own home cinema where you can listen to movies as loud as you want. :D

I love bluerays, and I love your mod!

I have a question though, is there any way for you to make the config standalone, so that when using other sound mods like JSRS, it's possible to use your mix? I've allways been annoyed at the levels in ARMA III, and I think this is something the devs needs to be aware of.

Would you mind creating a ticket for this on the feedback tracker?