Support NeoGAF

[Poppyseed]

After starting Monster Hunter World this morning, it was the last straw.

Boy is the syncing terrible. It LOOKS like they're speaking English dialogue, but it's so badly off so as to be unwatchable.

But then there are some games that have relatively decent voice syncing, and some that are a mixed bag in terms of syncing. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is one such mixed bag. Some voice sync is FLAWLESS in the game (when it's on it's amazing), and some is downright awful in the same game! How can it vary in one game so much?!

It's gotten to the point for me where I can't think of a single game in recent memory that had spot on voice sync with the movement of the character's mouths. I know it's not my setup. Whether it's into my LG C7 OLED or my Eizo FS2333 gaming monitor, or my Sony projector - it's all the same. The voice sync is just off.

Just such a shame, as it really takes you out of a game/moment when it looks like you're watching a bad dub.

 

[Codes 208]

I don't know if Capcom used any kind of techniques like motion capture. When you switch the language to Japanese it syncs a little better but is still a little off. (especially regarding the handler, her tone and gestures are all over the place)

But frankly I'm more off-putted by bad voices than lip-syncing limitations

 

[Noboru Wataya]

Money and time, if it’s good enough then ship it. I’m sure they have some sort of metrics that they can see that show people don’t care enough. It’s a shame, Horizon and mass effect andromeda were rough on that front, especially considering the amount of dialogue.

 

[Shifty]

Some studios will allocate budget per-scene, so the really good lip-sync tends to be full mocap. Below that you've got procedurally-generated lip-sync (analyzing the audio waveform to determine phonemes and positioning mouth accordingly) which is the mid-tier flavour, and at the bottom you have preset 'talk' animations that are designed to cover all the phonemes with the intent of looking alright with any dialogue, but never really matching up.

Sometimes these techniques are combined with manual design-time polish and tweaking. Ultimately it all comes down to time and money.

 

[Sinfamy]

Valve did an amazing job in 2004 on Half-Life 2, surprised how few games get it right.

 

[TriAceJP]

Final Fantasy XII has both great voice work and lip syncing.

Moreso than future entries in the series.

 

[Sakura]

I've noticed it in Monster Hunter World as well, but I figured that was because it was Japanese, and it was synced for English. Reading OP though I guess it is shit in English too.

 

[Raimond]

I tested MHW in Japanese and it's still way off! So I'm guessing the animators might have done the cutscenes before even hesring the voices?

 

[Skyfox]

Quantum break did an incredible job of this. Full facial syncing even while you’re controlling the character.

 

[Poppyseed]

Quantum break did an incredible job of this. Full facial syncing even while you’re controlling the character.

Still need to play this one - gives me more reason to! Thanks!

 

[Pejo]

Money and time, if it’s good enough then ship it. I’m sure they have some sort of metrics that they can see that show people don’t care enough. It’s a shame, Horizon and mass effect andromeda were rough on that front, especially considering the amount of dialogue.

Yep, I'm sure it's this. There's going to be some point where they could stall the game a little longer and perfect little things like lip syncing, but in some genres I'm sure it doesn't really equal more sales or better reviews. I could see if it's a game focused on characterization and telling a story through subtlety that only facial animation can accomplish, like Heavy Rain or L.A. Noire, but monster hunter doesn't really need it in order to accomplish what it's trying to do with the story. Hell in past games the characters just grunted and made noises and the lines were all text.

 

[Poppyseed]

Yep, I'm sure it's this. There's going to be some point where they could stall the game a little longer and perfect little things like lip syncing, but in some genres I'm sure it doesn't really equal more sales or better reviews. I could see if it's a game focused on characterization and telling a story through subtlety that only facial animation can accomplish, like Heavy Rain or L.A. Noire, but monster hunter doesn't really need it in order to accomplish what it's trying to do with the story. Hell in past games the characters just grunted and made noises and the lines were all text.

Absolutely. I couldn't care less about Monster Hunter World. For Hellblade, though, it was arguably VITAL, because there's quite a bit of exposition. Heck, it makes even LESS sense there were issues in Hellblade, because some of the voice/actor work was literally the actor in the game - like an FMV. There's no excuse for this not being synced 100% of the time.

 

[royox]

Battlefront2's campaign was SO GOOD at lip sync. Also Injustice 2 is god tier at it.

 

[batman2million]

Maybe I'm the only one who hasn't noticed it but I think it's fine for the most part.

 

[Blam]

Also Injustice 2 is god tier at it.

Yeah Injustice 2 is beyond good it's uncanny how well the lip sync is.

 

[TGO]

Uncharted?
I don't think there's ever been a time when I hadn't believed they was actually breathing and talking.
In fact with the exception of Horizon I think all Sony first party are flawless

 

[Poppyseed]

Uncharted?
I don't think there's ever been a time when I hadn't believed they was actually breathing and talking.
In fact with the exception of Horizon I think all Sony first party are flawless

Uncharted is a good one!

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

Don't play le dubs.

 

[HoodWinked]

its costly and time consuming for something that most people don't notice or doesn't bother them.

take for example horizon zero dawn it had sub par lip syncing but kept coming up as being the best looking game last year.

another thing is that monster hunter franchise has always been focused at the japanese market so maybe it will take another game till they realize that the west is also interested and they'll probably budget the game to have better syncing for the west.

dragonball fighterz also has some horrible lip syncing as well and will probably win multiple awards this year as the best looking game.

 

[llien]

Boy is the syncing terrible.

Sup?

Jokes aside, I think the push for more realism vastly increases complexity, so all but AAA titles with huge budgets struggle, perhaps.

I'm still after my PS3 backlog and didn't experience sync issues to be honest.

 

[lifa-cobex]

Time, money but mostly localisation.