Spring-Loaded
Member
LMG in Kane and Lynch 2 sounded good. The sound design deserved a better game!
But what about all those overheating turret sequences!?!? /s
I agree with you big time though. In terms of stopping power I will hand it to Rockstar. GTA V guns, while lacking in many ways, knock anyone on their ass in a single shot, and they will often die shortly after from bleeding out. I've never shot anyone or been shot, luckily, but I know that being on the wrong end of the barrel isn't pleasant and I think that the one-shot-drops reflect that pretty well.
well, no one really want to have their gun malfunction or over heating in a game, do we ?
Stopping power will never happen : it's limited by simple game design and balance rules.
Same goes for range and ballistic. See for example R6 Siege, average kill range is 7 meters. How do you add ballistic and stopping power in 7 meters of range ? You have to bend the reallity to make all gun usefull and fun but also balanced within 7 meters.
So you have to add shit rules...
Same goes for CoD. By the average lenght of the engagements, IRL, everybody would rock automatic shotguns because they don't spread nearly as much as they do in video games (they do in vg for obvious balancing issues) because if you want to fight in crowded, close quarter street, you don't need an M4 to shoot at 300 yards. You need a massive AA12 to clear rooms or street corner with the faster and biggest bullet you can get.
I shoot pretty often.
I think the main problem is that because the sounds gunfire produces relies so much on the environment and atmosphere it would be almost impossible to replicate perfectly without some kind of engine that emulates the way sound friction works in real time, echoes and all, which seems nearly impossible.
All gunfire in games sound like they're recorded in a shooting range where the acoustics are purposely set up to nullify the sound as much as possible, and I think that's kind of the best that can be done.
well consoles devs have to hold back a lot of neat resources to fit the performance budgets. Its sad but true, the little things like gun sounds have devs cutting corners just so they can run games at a measly 30 fps.
Other platforms suffer because of this also, namely PC.
The video I posted a page back shows KZ:Shadowfall has that engine in place. The gun sounds are a little muted however (though I don't really know what guns in 2370 sound like). I think a lot of developers lower gun sounds so that you can hear other game audio cues.I think the main problem is that because the sounds gunfire produces relies so much on the environment and atmosphere it would be almost impossible to replicate perfectly without some kind of engine that emulates the way sound friction works in real time, echoes and all, which seems nearly impossible.
The Order 1886 had some amazing sounding weaponry.
The video I posted a page back shows KZ:Shadowfall has that engine in place. The gun sounds are a little muted however (though I don't really know what guns in 2370 sound like). I think a lot of developers lower gun sounds so that you can hear other game audio cues.
Advanced warfare has generally strange soundesign, mostly through that weird clicking sound. Hard to describe, but you often hear it when there's an explosion near to you. It's like the bass is turned all the way down. It was unique, I give them thatCall of Duty Advanced Warfare has some hilariously shitty sounding guns.
This didn't even cross my mind, I'm impressed with how those sound. They have a lot more umph behind them.
Battlefield 3/4 with War Tapes does this better than any other game. The first time you fire off a shotty in BF4 War Tapes hooked up to a quality sound system, you'll be in love. Shits got KICK
Tangentially related to the discussion, something that really really bugs me is when the game engine cannot trigger gunfire for automatic weapons at a consistent rate. So you have little groups of two or three slightly closer together than others.
It's like the audio version of stuttering FPS. God.
Sounds like the FMOD timing problem. See this blog entry here after the wwise section:
http://brettapitz.com/2013/07/30/guns-for-games-pt-2/
I dunno if they've gotten around to fixing this in later versions.
What's so good about War Tapes? I gather it just normalises all sound effects/voice/and environment to the same level.
I spent two years in the army and honestly the most glaring problem is sound volume - people don't realise how noisy real weapons are, in a fire fight you hear nothing but the ear deafening sound of the weapons. I mean the sound is obviously mixed as such in games to make it comprehensible but in real life it really does dominate everything.
BF series since BC have had I would say the best sounding guns but again it should really dominate more, and cancel out most other sounds.
Let's not even talk about grenades, when throwing these bad boys we had to have double ear protection, in an open field a grenade exploding is ear deafening from 500 meters away, you can even feel the chock wave.
Due to the high risk of damaging your hearing in all cases any weapon was fired it was demanded that we wear ear protection if closer than 30 meters to a discharge if we got exposed to the sound being closer than that we had to go into something called "protective hearing environment" which meant you had to walk around with ear protection for a whole day looking like an idiot!
I wasn't suggesting making guns exactly as they are in real life. Because, frankly, using fully automatic weapons is the opposite of fun. But I would like some small nods or references in games in maybe cutscenes that demonstrate a little realsim.
Naked Snake's M1911A1 included the following customizations:
- A feeding ramp polished to a mirror sheen, providing a smooth area for the cartridge to slide into the chamber on, improving reliability;
- A reinforced National Match slide;[4]
- Mating of frame and slide for a precise, tight fit, with the frame itself having been iron-welded and scraped down multiple times, for maximum precision and accuracy;
- "Stepping" texture on the mainspring housing to avoid slippage during recoil, as well as a checkered front strap part for a more positive grip;
- A high-profile 3-dot type sight system. It features an enlarged front sight, giving it superior target sighting capability, helping the user to see over the suppressor;
- A ring hammer from the Colt Commander model, replacing the standard spur hammer. This eliminates "hammer bite" occasionally experienced by some shooters and decreases lock time, making the ignition system faster;
- A unique dovetail that stood in for the altogether removed grip safety mechanism, designed to simultaneously accomadate the ring hammer;
- An extended thumb safety and slide stop to allow for easier operation of both controls;
- A long-type trigger replacing the standard version, which is more comfortable for people with longer fingers. Holes have been drilled into the trigger shoe to reduce bouncing from the recoil. Trigger pull has been estimated to be around 3.5 lbs(1.6kg);
- A bevelled magazine well for easier and swifter reloading;
- A shaved down and recheckered magazine release button to lessen the chance of accidental magazine drops during a firefight;
- Cocking serrations at the front of the slide to allow the user to press-check and clear jams using the front of the slide. This is easier to do for some shooters;
- Whittled down walnut grips to create a less bulky grip when holding the CQC knife (Naked Snake performed this modification himself using his CQC knife);
- A threaded barrel made to accept a custom suppressor;
- A blued finish, with a high-polished slide and controls for a striking two-tone look.
Anyone remember Black on ps2 and Xbox? That game had great gun sounds.
I shoot pretty often.
I think the main problem is that because the sounds gunfire produces relies so much on the environment and atmosphere it would be almost impossible to replicate perfectly without some kind of engine that emulates the way sound friction works in real time, echoes and all, which seems nearly impossible.
All gunfire in games sound like they're recorded in a shooting range where the acoustics are purposely set up to nullify the sound as much as possible, and I think that's kind of the best that can be done.
Yeah sometimes the reload sound is even louder than the actual shoot sound.
I know it's a game and the gun sounds shouldn't be too loud, but atleast make the shoot sounds louder than your average sound.
Here's an example, turn up your volume and listen to this. The shoot sound will become normal but the reload sound will just be obnoxious:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SnGKm3K2C4
Ironic thing about how he talks about clean sound and easy to navigate based on it, then in Battlefield 4 everything went back to complete disorientating (but very good) noise.
Don't know about Killzone 2/3 but shadowfall has this crazy simulation
https://youtu.be/CuWWdiLlhyg
I think the only game that could probably get away with trying to emulate the real feeling of being next to a gun when it's fired is a slow paced stealth game. Like many have posted the problem with guns in real life is that the sound is too overwhelming. You'd have to have a really wide dynamic range and every other sound would be pretty much silent next to it at a tolerable volume.
With a stealth game, since you don't have guns going off all the time, you can have the dynamic range needed without the compression seen in something like COD. So I have my speakers at level where I can hear voices and other sounds at a proper volume, and then when that 1 gunshot does happen you can have it be loud as fuck, overwhelming, and disorienting like real life.
Remember that first shotgun blast in Drive?
Pretty much this. A lot of stuff recorded by handheld cameras are misleading because of the inbuilt compression (audio, not data) in consumer devices making the tail a lot louder in comparison to the crack.
The difference in volume between the crack and the reverberant tail is much more massive in real life, and doesn't translate well to media (Either the crack is so loud it's gonna distort, or the tail is absurdly soft)
The Assault rifle in Halo 3 is the definition of a gun sound that is severely lacking!