devtrackers.gg
In version 0.8.0 we have added some additional audio settings, some which would benefit from some clarification so I thought I’d write up some information for you all.
Additional Volume Sliders
There is now a ‘Master’ slider for turning down the overall volume of the game audio.
We now have a ‘Bass Sound Effects’ slider. This was requested by the community a while ago specifically because some of the really bassy sounds were sounding a little too heavy on certain systems. This is likely due to some sound systems implementing ‘bass boost’ features that react badly with the kickass bass from our game 😆 This slider is a child of the ‘Sound Effects’ slider, so turning ‘Sound Effects’ down will also turn these bassy sounds down… this slider just lets you tweak these bassy sounds down if they’re a problem for you on your sound system.
Voice Chat
The voice chat (VOIP) can be toggled on/off via the 'Voice Chat' toggle switch.
There is a ‘Chat Volume’ slider to adjust the overall volume of VOIP. Unlike the other sliders, the default is at 50% as you may want to turn it up or down relative to the game audio. The VOIP audio does not go through the game’s audio system so therefore does not react to the ‘Master’ slider. We hope to pipe the VOIP through the game’s audio system in the future, which will allow for more connection between VOIP and game audio and add some fun features, e.g. game audio ducking when people talk, VOIP voice changing, VOIP locating to player position, VOIP lighting up players lanterns, etc.
Advanced Setting - Dynamic Range
We’ve also added our first advanced audio setting: 'Dynamic Range'. With this setting you can tailor the audio mix of the game, so that there is more or less extremes in volume. There are currently two settings Low / High(default), up to this point the mix had been at High.
Dynamic Range for audio refers to the difference in volume between loud and quiet sounds. If the dynamic range is too high, it can be difficult to hear quiet sounds because they’re really quiet. If it’s too low, loud sounds don’t have impact because they don’t feel loud compared to other sounds. Audio is very relative!
In Dauntless here
Changing the dynamic range to ‘Low’, results in the graph looking more like this
To further illustrate, here’s what the difference between High and Low looks like on an audio signal.
As you can see, the quieter parts of the sound are now louder, but the louder parts are quieter. The average remains the same.
The benefit to high dynamic range is that loud sounds are punchy and have bigger impact. The downside is that if you’re not in a good listening environment or have the volume turned down low (e.g. it’s night time and you have neighbors!), you’re not going to hear the more subtle sounds. Switching to Low dynamic range will allow you to hear more of what’s going on around you and will ultimately create a more restrained and controlled mix, but at the expense of awesomeness.
Why did we implement this now? Players having more control over the game is always good and we generally expect console players to use speakers rather than headphones. With speakers you have to battle over the other sounds in your house and may be more tempted to turn the volume down.
Let us know what you think!
External link →