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"DICE" Sound Design/Engineers are failing.

C

Cmerrill

You don't need to be empathetic towards me.
It's time someone called them out on their lackluster efforts.

They take a sound and they make it loud/compress it, and everyone praises them for "amazing sound" design

I'm so sick of not having proper sound localization and missing sound effects in their games. As someone who has an Audio Engineering degree and worked in the field, it boils my blood to have these issues.

- Where the hell are the walking/running sounds in Battlefield 1?

- Why is the localization of all sound effects wrong or absent?

- Why do I hear bullets whizzing by or hitting me, but not an LMG or Assault rifle firing 2 feet away from me? They prioritize the bullet sounds over the gun sounds.

These are game breaking issues to me and really take me out of the experience.

Anyone else notice this stuff?

Edit: I'm on PS4
 
J

Jonnax

Member
Perhaps it's more that the audience expect certain sounds for actions.
For example the silencer sound that is prevalent in media which doesn't sound like a real one.

And since it is an entertainment product, it could just be that whatever mix they're using for sounds "better".
 
P

| Praxis |

Banned
abS4oo3.jpg
 
C

Cmerrill

You don't need to be empathetic towards me.
strafer said:
Alien Isolation and Creative Assembly is better than the Battlefield team to be honest.
Click to expand...

Alien Isolation had some of the best audio design and implementation I have ever experienced in a game. It totally immeressed me because of it.
 
V

valkillmore

Member
Are you all playing with headphones on? To me it's absolutely the best way to appreciate sound design in games unless you have a surround sound system, which I do not.
 
T

The Boat

Member
Battlefront has some of the best audio I've heard in a videogame, but I don't have any high quality or surround sound system, so I might be missing something.
 
C

Chaozfly

Neo Member
- Where the hell are the walking/running sounds in Battlefield 1?
Click to expand...

I was able to react to running enemies because of their running sounds on multiple occations (I'm crouching, they're running, in a building).

- Why do I hear bullets whizzing by or hitting me, but not an LMG or Assault rifle firing 2 feet away from me? They prioritize the bullet sounds over the gun sounds.
Click to expand...
I guess this is a gameplay before realism decision. The information that someone is trying to kill you (as a sound cue) is more important than if someone is firing his gun besides you.

But yeah, the sound location could be better.
 
D

DocSeuss

Member
SuicidalSteve said:
Doesn't sweetjustice.audio do dice's battlefield sound design?
Click to expand...

They worked on Doom? Man, that game, my game of the year, actually felt kinda weak on the sound front.

I really like the nice, rough cracking sounds of Battlefield games. They've been great since Bad Company 2.
 
J

josecitoxnyo

Member
All the BF games have good sound samples, movie like sounding, but they're far from being realistic and useful for gameplay, by useful i mean positioning.

It's easy to say they're fantastic cause they're movie like sounding samples, most people will find them awesome just because of that.
 
BigTnaples

BigTnaples

Todd Howard's Secret GAF Account
BF games consistently have the best sound in the industry.


This thread feels like the twilight zone.
 
5

5taquitos

Member
People are mistaking part of the OP's point. Dice makes amazing sound effects, but their positional audio is fucking wack in BF1.
 
C

Cmerrill

You don't need to be empathetic towards me.
5taquitos said:
People are mistaking part of the OP's point. Dice makes amazing sound effects, but their positional audio is fucking wack in BF1.
Click to expand...

This,

The sound effects are great, their positioning in the audio mix is consistently wrong or not even present.
 
T

Teknopathetic

Member
"Technically, music is part of "sound design.""

No, it is not. When talking about sound design (as a job/skill), it is referring to the design, creation, mixing, etc. of sound effects. If you were to accept a job at DICE as a Sound Designer, they would not be hiring you to compose music. Now, placing music in the game and mixing it with all of the other sound would be something you'd do, but the quality of the music in Battlefield 1 or Battlefront has nothing to do with sound design.
 
TVexperto

TVexperto

Member
Battlefront had amazing sound design, the only good thing in the game. Battlefield 1 has the worst sounddesign I have ever seen in a Dice game.
 
J

jacksepticeye

Member
Yeah BF games have always had great sound design but the positioning of those sounds has never been super accurate. I would blow it off as "cinematic war sound" but as you said sometimes things just aren't where they should be. It still SOUNDS incredible and way beyond most games but when it's life or death in game depending on what and where you hear, it's lacking.

Really makes you appreciate Overwatch's design in that regard. SO many nice audio details in that game.
 
L

Lazaro

Member
iMax said:
Also ^, The Coalition did a cracking job with Gears of War 4's audio design this year.
Click to expand...

I don't like Gears that much, but I found the research and technology behind Gears 4 reverb audio design to be interesting.

There's an article on engadget about it.

ENGADGET said:
Two years ago Microsoft Research's Nikunj Raghuvanshi and John Snyder presented a paper (PDF) titled "Parametric Wave Field Coding for Precomputed Sound Propagation." The long and short of the research is that it detailed how to create realistic reverb effects based on objects in a video game's map...
Click to expand...

engaget article: https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/25/gears-of-war-4-microsoft-research-triton/

Haven't played BF1, but I feel Bad Company 2 had some nice sound design. I remember the random conversations your NPC buddies would have in different location (Rainforest, Snowy Mountains etc.) It sounded quite immersive in those different locations.
 
G

gaugebozo

Member
To be fair, couldn't missing sounds also be something like a mistake in how the game software works calling sound functions and so on? Dice games tend to be buggy as fuck, and a software engineer would be responsible for that.
 
A

Alpende

Member
Sometimes I feel the sound localization is off. I once heard a tank clearly rolling by while a huge mountain was between me and the tank, that was weird. I can hear enemy soldiers running about and I can kind of pinpoint where they are coming from so I don't have issues with that.

I've not experienced missing sounds or something like that.
 
J

JJD

Member
The Exploder said:
Battlefield 1 (ps4) has bad audio. An enemy tank can roll right up on me and I can't even hear it.
Click to expand...

??? I can easily hear tanks rolling a few meters to where I am. Considering that I play mostly as a medic it's very useful to get out of their way as I don't have the gadgets to deal with armor.

BF1 sound design is a step down from BF4 but it's still some of the best in the industry.

I think OP is overreacting.

5taquitos said:
I don't see how not hearing a shotgun 2 feet away would be on purpose.
Click to expand...

This is crazy, I hear shotguns going all around me on Argonne Forest and other infantry focused maps.

Something is wrong here. Some people hear everything fine, other have important sounds missing.
 
T

tr1p1ex

Member
Cmerrill said:
It's time someone called them out on their lackluster efforts.

They take a sound and they make it loud/compress it, and everyone praises them for "amazing sound" design

I'm so sick of not having proper sound localization and missing sound effects in their games. As someone who has an Audio Engineering degree and worked in the field, it boils my blood to have these issues.

- Where the hell are the walking/running sounds in Battlefield 1?

- Why is the localization of all sound effects wrong or absent?

- Why do I hear bullets whizzing by or hitting me, but not an LMG or Assault rifle firing 2 feet away from me? They prioritize the bullet sounds over the gun sounds.

These are game breaking issues to me and really take me out of the experience.

Anyone else notice this stuff?

Edit: I'm on PS4
Click to expand...

I think it's buggy or possibly the cpu has to prioritize things and sometimes drops sounds.

Cause it works much of the time, but many times you are left scratching your head as why you didn't hear the enemy coming or why you didn't have any clue where the bullets were coming from.
 
S

Scotch

Member
Agreed, the sound localization feels off sometimes, even with headphones. For me Bad Company 2 was the pinnacle of DICE sound design, and went slowly backwards after that, although it's still pretty great. It's just not always consistent.
 
X

Xyber

Member
The sound in BF1 is great, but also very inconsistent. Sometimes I can hear footsteps perfectly, sometimes I can't hear them at all. The same goes for a lot of other sounds too, sometimes you hear them like they should be heard and sometimes it seems to bug out.
 
eot

eot

Banned
This isn't just DICE

For example I'm really baffled how CS:GO has dramatically worse positional audio than CS 1.6
 
E

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
I could be wrong, but Frostbite 3 seems to (by design) use decibel prioritisation for dynamic audio mixing, where certain sounds are reduced if not outright eliminated to favour others depending on what is the loudest, engine favored source. It leads to weird circumstances where sometimes you feel you should be able to hear something, especially if it's close, but can't due to assume other higher priority audio. Vice versa; excessively loud audio out of context (like footsteps through walls).

I'm also convinced Frostbite 3 has a big issue with CPU cues for audio which results in specific audio sometimes not playing at all. Missing reload sounds, footsteps, etc. Nearly every Frostbite 3 game since Battlefield 4 has this. I even noticed it in Inquisition.
 
C

cooldawn

Member
Yeah...the sound in Battlefield 1 is awful. Sound design seemed to be a second priority when it comes to gameplay but it's absolutely fundamental during battle to know where you are being shot from. Unfortunately it just isn't cohesive in Battlefield 1.

SOCOM: Confrontation. Best sound design ever.
 
H

HIGH DEF JEFF

Banned
Tell me if this an unpopular opinion...

I think Bad Company 2 had the best sound of any BF game. I know people don't like the blown out loud gun sounds and big stomping boot sounds when inside but when playing War Tapes in surround sound I think it sounds incredible..over the top for sure but this isn't some kind of sim game. I want it to sound like fucking WAR.
 
K

Kukawaki

Member
You're goddamn right OP.
I'm pretty sure sound is tied to the cone of vision in Frostbite and it's retarded. Been this way since BF3.
 
S

ScatheZombie

Member
Cmerrill said:
It's time someone called them out on their lackluster efforts.
Click to expand...

Compared to?

Cmerrill said:
I'm so sick of not having proper sound localization and missing sound effects in their games. As someone who has an Audio Engineering degree and worked in the field, it boils my blood to have these issues.
Click to expand...

If this were actually true, you'd already know all of these answers because you'd have a better understanding of how much gameplay affects sound design, specifically audio cue prioritization, and not the other way around.

Cmerrill said:
- Where the hell are the walking/running sounds in Battlefield 1?

- Why is the localization of all sound effects wrong or absent?
Click to expand...

I haven't had either of these issues. I also play on PS4. I can regularly locate enemies in close quarters just by audio cues - footsteps, gunfire, voice callouts, etc.

Cmerrill said:
- Why do I hear bullets whizzing by or hitting me, but not an LMG or Assault rifle firing 2 feet away from me? They prioritize the bullet sounds over the gun sounds.
Click to expand...

Of course they do, nearly all multiplayer shooters do. Do you know why, as someone who has 'worked in the field'? Because gameplay trumps your design. Always. Forever. And in gameplay it is much more important to be able to hear when you are under fire than when your buddy is shooting at the enemy.

I don't know why you can't hear local sound effects. But... that's not really a 'sound design' issue so much as a bug because those sounds are clearly in the game. I'm pretty sure it's the engine, not the sound design. The only actual sound design complaint you have is about prioritization of gameplay mechanics over reality. Well... it's a video game. That's how we make them.
 
H

hogendaz85

Member
Not trying to hijack the thread here but I was literally thinking about sound in games last night and wondering if there was a thread about some issues.

One of my huge complaints on a LOT of games is during certain scenes or in game cinematics the only sounds you hear are the character voices. Ratchet where Ratchet helps Quark from falling at the end by pulling him up and the ship you are on is turning over there's no other sounds, no atmospheric noise or sound of the ship buckling or anything. There's many more examples but I'm on mobile here!
 
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