Footsteps too silent

[Prevtzer]

Hello,

now that we have more ambient noises and overall loudness seems increased you can barely hear any footsteps. I think it would be a good idea to make footsteps louder, the way it was in the previous version. Owning a good sound card and headphones should be more beneficial than it is now.

What do others think?

[Nate.]

I think you deserve not to hear anything anymore with your haxx soundcard.

But yes, I agree with you.

What bugged me the most was, that the (infantry-)weapon-volume seems to be decreased compared to the other version.

[K4on]

Footsteps too silent

on which surfaces have you noticed that?

[Daniel]

I have noticed same, I was ARF on Ramiel defending a cache in a small house (1st floor, stairs outside leading to the cache), guy came in right in front of me couldn't hear any walking sound of him...

[007.SirBond]

The new sounds are amazing, but I too also have a hard time hearing footsteps of other soldiers, if the engines on vehicles could be quieter, the current design would be perfect.

[Prevtzer]

on which surfaces have you noticed that?

On all surfaces that are currently in open beta.

On Saaremaa, where there's a bunch of trees you can always see people before you hear them, and that's often at less than 30m.

[CR8Z]

I think that some sounds just take priority over others. Last night, we lost all sounds except for some armor firing. Helos, guns, vehicles, everything went silent until the firing stopped. It was strange.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[Pmosis]

I have mixed feelings. I think footsteps SHOULD be hard to hear. Especially if there is gunfire or an engine running. In real life soliders do not have super hearing that would let them hear someone walking from 30 M away.

[a3dboy1]

Not hearing footsteps screws the l33t lone wolf players of this community...And I think this is good. In reality footsteps aren't enemy detector neither they should be in PR.

Not hearing footsteps from 30m increases player's situation awareness. Leave as it is now.

Finally, PR is getting more intuitive and fun comparing to what it was previously (same patterns to play the map over and over).

[Prevtzer]

AFAIK nobody was complaining about footstep sounds in previous version so there's no real reason to make them so silent suddenly.

Listening to things is part of situational awareness.

No idea why it would be more fun now, doesn't make sense to me.

[a3dboy1]

AFAIK nobody was complaining about footstep sounds in previous version so there's no real reason to make them so silent suddenly.

Listening to things is part of situational awareness.

No idea why it would be more fun now, doesn't make sense to me.

Gunfire, vehicle engines, explosions, radio chat - hearing these things is situational awareness. But when you camp behind the corner and hear footsteps during battle chaos - it is plain ridiculous, IMO.

Additionally, not every sound card can be tweaked that way so footsteps are possible to hear. So it is unfair advantage of one group of players over others who can't setup their sound settings that way.

[Prevtzer]

Gunfire, vehicle engines, explosions, radio chat - hearing these things is situational awareness. But when you camp behind the corner and hear footsteps during battle chaos - it is plain ridiculous, IMO.

Additionally, not every sound card can be tweaked that way so footsteps are possible to hear. So it is unfair advantage of one group of players over others who can't setup their sound settings that way.

That's the thing, now you need to camp behind a corner to hear any footsteps at all, before you could hear them while normal radio chatter etc.

And having a good soundcard isn't an unfair advantage because everybody can get one (plus they're not that expensive). That's like saying having more than 10 FPS is an unfair advantage because somebody has a shitty computer.

[Spook]

Ye I bought my XFI soundcard mainly for PR. Right now footsteps are really too low, compared to 0.98. Regarding situational awareness, PR was always about 80% audio and 20% visual contacts. I really want to be able to hear my enemy before I see him. Be it his gun, the vehicle he drives in or his legs telling me where he is heading to.

[-=anders=-]

What bugged me the most was, that the (infantry-)weapon-volume seems to be decreased compared to the other version.

I haven't changed the distance sounds of people's footsteps, actually I made both the sound louder and increased the distance of it. I hear it very well. In fact I've heard more (especially from the team) that the footsteps are too loud compared to 0.98. So I'm abit confused. Thats why Ill leave it as it is.

I think that some sounds just take priority over others. Last night, we lost all sounds except for some armor firing. Helos, guns, vehicles, everything went silent until the firing stopped. It was strange.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

That's the engine limitation for 64 sound samples at once. In ultra it wouldn't happen cause that supports 128 samples at the same time. But most of the users dont use Ultra mode, because its also very buggy as hell.

I went from Xfi Fatal1ty, wich was the best card you could buy for BF2 at the time, but after WinXP it all went bananas and it wasnt the same experience with Vista and Win7.
So I bought an ASUS Essence STX wich also has EAX 2.0, but it was exactly the same experience as with the XFI, although the overall soundquality with the ASUS card is 10 times better. Especially with my Audio-Technica ATH-M50.

So why you discover silence is when something is shooting VERY fast with impacts like HE round from APC, fast shooting hydra rockets (from a Hind iex.). Its the distance impact sounds that plays with the initial "close up" sounds. I'm trying to find a workaround, but its hard when we have these very ROF rockets, HE rounds etc.
I'll find a way to make it work.

Ye I bought my XFI soundcard mainly for PR. Right now footsteps are really too low, compared to 0.98. Regarding situational awareness, PR was always about 80% audio and 20% visual contacts. I really want to be able to hear my enemy before I see him. Be it his gun, the vehicle he drives in or his legs telling me where he is heading to.

If you want to hear enemies footsteps, then wait until the fire stops. That's how it is in reality.

Get on a shooting range or military field where everyone is shooting. You have wind, people yelling, gunfire, grenade blasts etc goin off at once. And you seriously think that you should be able to hear people's footsteps in the grass closing in?


Here you can listen for yourself, that the soundvolume isnt really changed.

[Prevtzer]

I haven't changed the distance sounds of people's footsteps, actually I made both the sound louder and increased the distance of it. I hear it very well. In fact I've heard more (especially from the team) that the footsteps are too loud compared to 0.98. So I'm abit confused. Thats why Ill leave it as it is.

That's very strange because everybody says they are a lot more silent now, I didn't hear a single person say anything else.

But most of the users dont use Ultra mode, because its also very buggy as hell.

That's simply not true, ultra mode works perfectly fine.

I went from Xfi Fatal1ty, wich was the best card you could buy for BF2 at the time, but after WinXP it all went bananas and it wasnt the same experience with Vista and Win7.
So I bought an ASUS Essence STX wich also has EAX 2.0, but it was exactly the same experience as with the XFI, although the overall soundquality with the ASUS card is 10 times better. Especially with my Audio-Technica ATH-M50.

You should've heard a great downgrade in sound going from Creative X-Fi and Ultra to Hardware and High. I think you just had problems with your sound card and/ or drivers if you didn't hear that (also because you say ultra is buggy).

If you want to hear enemies footsteps, then wait until the fire stops. That's how it is in reality.

Get on a shooting range or military field where everyone is shooting. You have wind, people yelling, gunfire, grenade blasts etc goin off at once. And you seriously think that you should be able to hear people's footsteps in the grass closing in?

But that's not how it was in previous versions and it was awesome. Sound positioning and sound whoring is one of the major reasons why I love this game. You made superb changes to all the sound samples, but as far as foot steps and some vehicle volumes go, they're a huge turn off right now.

Edit: I'll make a similar video tomorrow.

[CR8Z]

Not to mention hearing protection. If you put earplugs in to save your hearing, you'll hear fewer footsteps. Otherwise, you'll go deaf.

[a3dboy1]

Sound positioning and sound whoring is one of the major reasons why I love this game.

Yeah, you are begging to bring back the feature which allows you personally to get advantage over people who don't use X-fi sound card from '08 because you don't want to fight on even terms? Really?

[DesmoLocke]

Excellent response above from Anders himself.

The only thing I've noticed with the new sounds is that it is really difficult to locate direction of enemy rifle fire. Did you change any values for this?

[Walmarx]

I also felt the footsteps were quieter on a few occasions, but I attributed it to my general state of unfamiliarity with the total soundscape of PR 1.0; I believe picking out the footstep sounds will get easier once our brains can neatly file and separate all the incoming stimuli into their proper IDs.

I have been having trouble with the bleeding/health level audio cues. I have had a few firefights that I just barely won, only to bleed out a few seconds later, unaware that I had reached critical health as I moved to manage the nearby field dressings efficiently, rather than making a bee-line to my medic. Granted, I have a strange problem with my video drivers that prevents the black-and-white effects from rendering, so I have in the past relied on the violent coughing audio cue to let me know I was near death. As it is now, I only hear the (quite excellent) intermittent pain sounds as my health ticks down, right up to the moment I pass out. I have also heard the labored breathing sounds that play after a revive, but they don't seem to play upon reaching critical health as of now.

[DesmoLocke]

^ I too have experienced this while wounded. I also don't have the black and white graphic effect.