Better sound design Please

[Sinhouse 10]

First of all I'd like to say that I love this game.

Unfortunately I really feel that the sound design lets it down. I seem to be able to hear tanks hundreds of metres away as if they were rolling right past my head, Is there actually any kind of 3d sound in this game? I also cant stand the Russian radio clips. Its not the clips themselves its just when and where you hear them and how they play. first of all I should only be able to hear them If I'm near a radio (not in the middle of the woods), There volume should decrease as I move further away from the source, and when it plays it should only play one clip at a time as I'm often getting 2 with a slight offset which is extremely irritating.

The sound in the game should be a good signifier of my surroundings so I can best judge how to react. If I hear the sound of a tanks engine or loud gunfire and explosions I should be able to assume that I'm near a conflict and should probably move with caution. However I seem to hear everything as if its right next to me even if its far in the distance Making my sense of sound, volume and direction next to useless.

Please introduce some kind of 3d audio where volume degrades over distance and please fix those buggy russian radio clips.

Loving the game tho guys great work on the whole :)

[Maddmatt 1]

The game does have 3D audio and sound does degrade at a distance.

Maybe you're using a 5.1 or 7.1 system and experiencing messed up sound due to a bug? That should be fixed with the 1.02 patch.

[Sinhouse 10]

In that case I apologise for my rant and feel a little silly. :o

Just installed the new patch and gonna give it a go.

Cheers for the quick response :)

[Alex72 1]

I noticed something wich i posted before. When arty and some other types of explosions go off they stick to the ear they started play out on. If an arty shell goes off to your right and you spin your head the sound sticks to the right until it disapears. Confusing.

Might be the soundcard we tested on (Audigy2) wich isnt the latest bling tbh. But should be tested by others to see if the problem is the same on other cards.

Another thing we noted wich i got confirmation on from a well known soundmodder is that small arms fire doesnt use occlusion when behind objects/houses. A gunner behind a building firing will make you think he is far away instead of just around the corner. The gun fire is only lowered in volume yet crisp like when in open instead of occluded/muffled like in ArmA1.

These issues are serious because they lower our SA greatly. If you cant get a feel for where sounds are played from you will get confused. And not in the good way, but because sounds follow your movement instead of being pinned where they play out plus have you think the enemy is far away when they instead are very close around the corner.

However i think ARMA2 is a huge step up in immersion sound wise. More variations of explosions and some weapons like rocket fire plus some more variation on MG's and it is perfect.

Alex

[Sinhouse 10]

The New Patch seems to have fixed my 3D sound issues and the game is so much better now for it. its running a lot better now to, and the ability to turn of bloom and blur is great.

Not yet reached the area where the russian radio starts playing but will post as to whether the patch fixed that bug as well.

[shadowze 1]

Nope the bug is still there in 1.02

If have tried arma2 in both xp sp3 and win 7RC

The bug is still there in both OS's

I ONLY have this problem with arma2 , every other game is fine with 5.1 except arma2

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Do you get positioning effects (other than left right) also with headset?

[diveplane 0]

sounds are fantastic in this imo, depends on your hardware good sound card x-fi with EAX hd effects.

if your using a crappy onboard or cheap sound card , expect cheap results ingame.

[Maddmatt 1]

sounds are fantastic in this imo, depends on your hardware good sound card x-fi with EAX hd effects.

if your using a crappy onboard or cheap sound card , expect cheap results ingame.

The sound engine is software based, so the results will be the same with any soundcard.

The main difference is sound quality as well as any sound card features.

[Hyp3rdyn3 10]

Battlefield Bad Company has some of the best sound in the industry, if only it were an industry standard. Sound is almost always treated with a low priority and, sadly, it really shows in ArmA2.

[Alex72 1]

Watched a video with bad company and sure it sounds cool. Hollywood but effective and immersive.

What i am happy about though is that we can do as in bad company regarding the far away sounds. ARMA2 supports near and far sounds of all sounds. Gun firing near sounds crisp and same weapon fired far away gives some sort of echo-ing-ish sound instead. Occluding the sounds over far distances. Hard to explain but i think you get the point. Some sounds are already made that way by BIS and sound awesome from far.

Soundmodders will take ARMA2's sound engine to new heights. No worries. ;)

Alex

[thebrokentree 10]

Battlefield Bad Company has some of the best sound in the industry, if only it were an industry standard. Sound is almost always treated with a low priority and, sadly, it really shows in ArmA2.

I would love to work on the sound for this game if given the chance.

[dindiface 10]

The sound engine is software based, so the results will be the same with any soundcard.

The main difference is sound quality as well as any sound card features.

You seem to be right on this one.

I had the same noise/overdriven engine sounds explained by the OP on Win XP64, SB Fatal1ty Gamer edition...

Since the card is new to me I thought that it might have been an issue with the card or the drivers (even though it works in Arma 1, Americasarmy 3, DCS: Black Hawk and many others perfectly) and slapped in my old card:

an SB Live 24bit. Turning the 5.1 on gives the same problems.

I heard on the forum someone recommending turning Hardware acceleration to "standard".Well, it works and it does not.

BOTH Sound blasters lose their surround capability when you set the hardware acceleration to "standard" instead of "high" or "full", so this is a sorry a$$ solution.

I guess we will have to wait for a fix, right now the game is unplayable with surround on on both SB Live 24 and X-Fi Fatality.

FYI I have the latest directX dirvers and all other games work 100% with the cards.

[stun 5]

If the engine is software based, what is the benefit of turning on soundEnableHW in the arma profile?

[Zipper5 74]

Sound was not a low priority for BIS in ArmA II. It wouldn't have been as important as the AI or campaign, but it was still damn important. Heck, they revamped the entire sound engine for the game. Instead of 1 or 2 sounds for a vehicle like in OFP and ArmA, there's many, many more. Granted it's not perfect, but it's definitely an improvement.

[Maddmatt 1]

You seem to be right on this one.

I had the same noise/overdriven engine sounds explained by the OP on Win XP64, SB Fatal1ty Gamer edition...

Have you patched the game? I do not have those problems since 1.02. I only had them with earlier versions with surround sound.

@Stun: None. That's why it's not shown in the game menu.

[.kju 3245]

soundEnableHW has not effect in A2.

[-)rStrangelove 0]

Well, i had crackled sound when i enabled HW sound in ArmA2 and ArmA1 so something def changes. Haven't looked into fps changes.

[Mark XIII (DayZ) 18]

No doubt over time you will see all the old sound modders from OFP/A1 making their way to A2 as well as some of the newer members. Then we will have a good selection of different styles, maybe this time round we could see EVERYTHING in modules so we can pick & choose who's work we use instead of having huge mods forced upon us :)

[dindiface 10]

Have you patched the game? I do not have those problems since 1.02. I only had them with earlier versions with surround sound.

@Stun: None. That's why it's not shown in the game menu.

I have the seam version with auto patching enabled. So in other words: it is the latest ...

I still have the problem, and with 2 different cards that both work with EAX in other games with perfect sound.... that includes ARMA I, which I assume would use somewhat the same sound engine.

To be able to play I am setting the "HW acceleration" to "standard" but then end up with only stereo sound (on both cards, latest drivers).

I am not even sure what technical support to report it to as I have the Steam version -> stupid me.

[dpolwarth 10]

The sound quality is very poor. I am using a pair of Adam A5 studio monitors and I can tell from the grainy, weak sound that some kind of digital compression was used (by compression I mean number-crunching, not dynamic compression.) There are also serious sonic artifacts throughout the game. Not all of the sound is bad - the bullet snapping is quite good. But overall it lacks punch, uses weak samples, and seems to have all the life compressed out of it.

I don't know who designs the sound for you, but you really need to get another guy in. The good news is its a recession, so there will be plenty of talented people out of work right now.

[Mark XIII (DayZ) 18]

....:)

Hi BIS, I'm seeking work in the field of sound editing an I'm currently un-employed. PM me, we can work something out I'm sure :)

BTW.. ZERO sarcasm, 100% serious

Edited July 4, 2009 by Mark XIII
Job Opp

[acadiancrusader 0]

....:)

Hi BIS, I'm seeking work in the field of sound editing an I'm currently un-employed. PM me, we can work something out I'm sure :)

BTW.. ZERO sarcasm, 100% serious

i support this 100% :D

[Maddmatt 1]

....:)

Hi BIS, I'm seeking work in the field of sound editing an I'm currently un-employed. PM me, we can work something out I'm sure :)

BTW.. ZERO sarcasm, 100% serious

http://www.bistudio.com/contacts.html

You never know until you try :)

[Mark XIII (DayZ) 18]

Maddmatt

You never know until you try

You know mate, I never thought of that...THANKYOU, applying now :)

Ok, done.....(crosses fingers, applies holy water etc)

Edited July 5, 2009 by Mark XIII
I applied