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Hey there, we do not filter the name 'Karen" but this may be a result of your platform's filtering service. Unfortunately, we do not have control over that.
Hey there, we do not filter the name 'Karen" but this may be a result of your platform's filtering service. Unfortunately, we do not have control over that.
Oh an actual Psyonix sound guy! Hi there. Yes I know it's a thing, but the name still rubs me the wrong way. You know just as well as I do that there is no inherent increase of dynamic range potential in the actual system, like there is with HDR video (and increasing it might actually be undesirable, given loudness wars etc). But don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I think it's a bad idea to use it. It's the end result that matters, it's just the bs name that has me shaking my fist. They could call it Active Sound Level Balancing, or Priority Mixing or whatever. Even Pseudo HDR could do, maybe.
I'm however more interested in things that improve sound localization in RL. You guys should make a proper VR port of Rocket League where I get to turn my headset and make out the direction of a sound. ;) Either way, I hope the new mixing scheme works out great and that everyone is pleased in the end.
We have had numerous discussions internally of how it's not an ideal name. Absolutely agree.
Thank you for your support on the new system! Once it's out, if you have feedback be sure to post it!
Read moreThank you for those links. I read them, and now I understand what HDR audio is. It seems like a great solution for when a game designer wants to create an atmospheric game world that can accommodate a wide range of auditory situations.
For the love of all that is holy, please don't bring HDR audio to Rocket League! Any system with a sliding dBFS range has no business being implemented in a competitive video game! As described in your links, HDR will normalize the volume of the loudest audio at any given time, destroying the relationship between the distance to a given sound and its perceived volume. Please, Mike, please reconsider the implications of this system.
No longer will a player be able to judge exactly when to dodge when they hear a car coming in for a demo from behind. No longer will a player be able to make an informed guess of how far away another car off screen is jumping for the ball from. No longer will a player be able to easily estimate the direct...
I promise you we have done nothing to mess with the sensation of proximity in an unexpected way. In fact, one aspect in this new mix different from the current live version of the game is that we went back to the attenuation curves the game previously had. Specifically because of feedback that the community didn't like our last changes.
So from that aspect, the sound of the game will be more akin to the 2015-2018 version of the game.
With regards to the HDR system being used for atmospheric games, I do see where you concluded that. That being said, it probably could be viewed as more of a case by case basis. The system frequently works best in games where you're trying to control the chaos, such as the Battlefield, Crackdown, Sunset Overdrive, etc.
Here's an ...
Read moreAre there any style guides or specifications that clearly define what the industry term “HDR Audio?”
Yes! I've posted a few in other locations in the thread. :)
If the focus is on headphone users does that mean those of use with surround systems are going to end up with a worse experience?
Not at all! It scales wonderfully to a higher fidelity system. We just built ground up rather than top-down this time.
Also mentioned in the article is the next aspect we intend to add which is dynamic range selection. With this, if you have a big surround system, you can extend the actual dynamics of the game to match a 'theater' like experience.
Make it optional, I hate changes to audio. So much so that I use the same engine sound and boost on all cars.
The last attempt at changing audio was horrific. I've never seen anyone say "Oh this is a good game, but I wish it sounded different".
Sound in games all too often falls prey to the “good enough” mindset. Especially in the multiplayer realm where most games don't sound as great as the single player experiences where the developer has more control and insight into how the game is being played.
Yes, Rocket Leauge sounded O.K. in the beginning, but we know it can be better. We want the best possible experience for the community and work extremely hard to achieve that.
As a producer, it just sounds like they are sidechaining certain sounds to ambient sounds?
In a sense, yes. However, in some other ways, it’s not quite compression. If you’re really curious you can take a look at how HDR works in the audio middleware we currently use.
HDR Examples
The audio engineer in me squirms at the name HDR. Did they increase the bit depth? Nah. Is the dynamic range higher? Nah. It's just a hip marketing name for a different type of on-the-fly mixing that has nothing to do with increasing the actual dynamic range. I'm shaking my fist at thee!
The term is actually an industry one.
Numerous games before us have employed an HDR mixing structure with great success. Most noteably would be the work done by DICE. It is these games and many others that paved the way for Rocket League. Typically this type of iteration happens before a game ships, but the HDR system was popularized after Rocket League's launch. Once HDR came out, we saw an opportunity to improve Rocket League!
The first thing I thought when I finished reading the post was "but why?" The second thing I thought was "this has the potential to go spectacularly wrong".
Of course! Any large feature has that kind of potential. We have tested this thoroughly and have done everything in our power to receive feedback and iterate. That being said, once going to a live environment with millions of games happening, you can't account for everything and we will likely find bugs. But we will fix them quickly and hopefully keep you playing with sound! Be sure to give us feedback once it goes live, I promise we will read all of it and use your input to keep making Rocket League better.
Read moreI'm having difficulty understanding what the sound team is trying to achieve here.
Sounds, as physical phenomena, are pressure waves that obey the principle of superposition. That is to say, they are simply additive; in the real world, one important sound will not somehow make other less important sounds "quieter." In general, the primary factors determining how loud we hear something are (a) its original volume and (b) its distance to us.
If our monkey brains hear an "emphasis" on a certain sound, we simply interpret that sound as being closer. If you're putting emphasis on sounds for reasons other than their being closer (i.e. because you think those sounds are "important"), we still interpret that as being closer, only now we'll also experience a disparity between what we hear and what we see on screen. Every "HDR" tweak that isn't motivated by real physics is something that pulls the acoustics further away from realism.
In Rocket League, posi...
I apologize that our post didn’t do a good job of communicating our intent. Our main focus is on making the game cleaner. Right now the audio is fairly muddy and not useful. Rocket League is a 'fishbowl'esk physics game, so we have little control over how the player utilizes it. This new mix takes advantage of priorities to help carve away space.
While it seems that HDR is less realistic (and in some ways it is) the ending effect is an attempt to achieve more realism by increasing the perceivable dynamic range of the audio in the game. This system was spearheaded by DICE in wonderful sounding games such as Battlefield: Bad Company and Battlefield 3.
Here are a few quotes and some sources that will hopefully help explain the system better.
" In HDR audio, you can assign volume values to sounds of the game's virtual world that span over a much larger dynamic range than the standard 96 dB of 16-bit output devices, much like they would in the ...
Read moreHey there, I wanted to clear up any confusion here. We do not filter either of these phrases, however, some platforms do have their own filtering services. Unfortunately, we do not have control over what they decide to filter.
https://i.redd.it/fvw8aosjb9f31.jpg
There are just 10 seconds left in a tied game. Your teammate has possession, and passes it your way from the wall. You place the shot above the backboard where your opponent can't reach it, launch your car into the air with your remaining boost and follow up the backboard shot with a perfectly placed goal. The Goal Explosion ignites as time expires. The exhilaration is nearly tangible. But meanwhile, there are hundreds of sound effects occurring inside the game that supplement all the excitement of the moment: the siren, the announcer, the crowd, and that only scratches the surface. In moments like this, it may be easy to overlook the sound of Rocket League, but these sounds are an essential part of the experience.
The audio team at Psyonix works tirelessly on the sounds within these moments so Rocket League is able to achieve maximum levels of hy...
Read more External link →Well done!
Hey guys, there was a brief disruption of PsyNet that caused login and matchmaking issues. While this only lasted a short duration, it did have a noticeable impact.
Thanks everyone for your patience.
And would new rocket passes provide you with the "funds" to get the next rocket pass? Or will we be required to pay for every rocket pass moving forward?
Current plan is to keep the same behavior for RP "funds" as it is on live
Thanks for the reply, It just seems those that hold a major stockpile of 'keys' may get shafted after the changes take affect. Just as a follow up question, Will the skins available in crates now be available for purchase on epic or are you starting with a clean slate so to speak?
We fully expect items currently obtainable in crates to be obtainable via the new systems we roll out in the future.
But what about for Rocket Passes in the future? I have 10 keys specifically for that reason and they get renewed by the next Rocket Pass so I can keep getting Rocket Passes. If these keys are taken and I have to pay to get the premium Rocket Pass it simply won't be happening. As much as this doesn't hinder my gaming experience much I would still like the ability to access this extra content.
For changing Keys specifically, we will make Rocket Pass use the same currency system as whatever Keys "become", so you would still have the same value (~10 keys = 1 RP Premium Upgrade) in your account before and after the change.
Will the keys refunded be transferrable in any way or will it be converted into a non transferable in game currency?
We can't speak to details just yet, but making "Keys" - or whatever replaces them - untradable would be very damaging to the trade economy, and doesn't meaningfully satisfy our company goals around removing random purchases. Take from that what you will.
It's gonna completely destroy trading. If a new car comes out, people who want it will buy it, and keep it. The rest won't, so there won't be any sellers to trade with.
This assumes that new cars are automatically offered for sale to all users, but we have not shared details on the replacement system yet.
If the opportunity to buy the new car came as a random drop like receiving a crate and opening it, that "drop" would still have trade value.
It'll be interesting to see what it does to the market but it shouldn't ruin trading. You're still just as likely to get a crate with a specific item in it. On the other hand prices could drop like crazy if it only takes 1 key to open a guaranteed BM decal.
Edit: actually depending on how the system works. If players know what is in the "crate" before opening it it could lead to MORE trading. For example, if I get a "crate" that I know has valuable stuff in it then I will trade it, where as it would currently just sit in my inventory never to be opened.
It is safe to assume that you will not be able to get a guaranteed Black Market Decal for 1 Key.
