93 réponses à ce sujet

[Big stupid jellyfish]

Hello Rob,

First of all, thank you for your time. ME-forum isn't spoiled with Bioware's attention these days. =)

I would like to (suddenly!) agree with Zulu here --

Zulu_DFA wrote...

I think that the "Music" setting should affect only the game score proper, but not the music that Shepard can hear in-game, i.e. in bars or on his cabin jukebox. The in-universe music should be set by the same SFX scroller as the gunshots and explosions. Because it is kind of weird to walk into the Afterlife club and have to bring up the options menu to set the music to appropriate level, as I tend to turn it down to 10% during the combat sequences.

Why? Because these all are sounds Shepard can hear in the Mass Effect universe. Club music, cars flying by, guns firing, etc. etc.; sounds that surround Shepard and add to immersion. It is a bit strange to hear all the SFX sounds but not club music clearly because the music slider is set to 30%. Strange, because Shepard is suffering from selective deafness; strange, because club music is supposed to be loud.

As for the 'music' slider, I'd rather it represent the actual score added for players only; music that doesn't 'play' in the actual ME-universe, music Shepard doesn't hear.

Speaking of new sliders, I don't feel the one for the 'in would music' being necessary, as outlined below; but I'd vote for a separate slider or on/off toggle for the hub worlds music specifically.

I guess I'd like to draw the line between music playing during specific missions, dialogues, scenes etc and general hub musiс that plays when you're visiting some location. Music of the first type is unique and is tied to specific events, thus you are unlikely to hear the same tune many times (unless you're replaying); the hub world music can help pinpoint the atmosphere of the place, but if you're visiting a hub world for fifth, sixth, tenth time it can get unnecessary, or even annoying. Or in my case, for example, ME1 Normandy music just sends me a wrong vibe: I've always felt 'something-wicked-this-way-comes' in it, thus it makes me nervous.

So in the ideal world hub music goes with a separate slider for me. =)

Of course, that's relevant only if the hub worlds are big and the player really spends much time there. Also, that's not a big deal; but since you've welcomed as to share our thoughts and ideas, here they are.

/rant

P.S. Oh yes, and mattahraw's suggestion regarding hub music is also pretty good:

mattahraw wrote...
Rob,

Perhaps you could do the same
thing as the hub music in Jade Empire. Rather than constantly looping,
it would play once, fade out, and then gently come back after a while.
That way it's not looping endlessly but we still get some atmosphere.

Some of the most memorable songs from ME1 were the normandy song and the presidium music. It'd be a shame to cut it completely.

Modifié par Big stupid jellyfish, 02 avril 2011 - 10:30 .

[kohlmannj]

A good compromise, if the audio pipeline allows it, could be to bring the pitch of enemy VO all the way down, like it is in ME2 currently, but leave the pitch of squad members' VO higher so it's still discernible. That way, we can hear the most important information spoken to us while in slow motion, but still get the cool effect on all the enemy speech.

[Edit] Also, I don't mind switching on subtitles, so if trying this just breaks the audio system, I can live with that.

Kane-Corr wrote...

Hathur wrote...

I was wondering if there will be any way around the issue of Adrenaline Rush & VO in ME3 (assuming the skill returns or something similar).

I had to completely stop using Adrenaline rush as a skill because the slow-mo effect makes voice over audio a complete garbled mess..<snip>

I understand where your coming from...BUT, it does make sense to let this feature to continue as it was in ME2. By changing around the voices...you'd be changing the whole aspect of the Adrenaline Rush in general. It would be ideal, but it also would make things very different.

Modifié par kohlmannj, 02 avril 2011 - 10:43 .

[Dominus]

If that's technically possible kohl, it's a very good compromise. You have my vote.

[kohlmannj]

Big stupid jellyfish wrote...

<snip>

I guess I'd like to draw the line between music playing during specific missions, dialogues, scenes etc and general hub musiс that plays when you're visiting some location. Music of the first type is unique and is tied to specific events, thus you are unlikely to hear the same tune many times (unless you're replaying); the hub world music can help pinpoint the atmosphere of the place, but if you're visiting a hub world for fifth, sixt, tenth time it can get unnecessary, or even annoying. Or in my case, for example, ME1 Normandy music just sends me a wrong vibe: I've always felt 'something-wicked-this-way-comes' in it, thus it makes me nervous.

I always thought the Normandy background music was there to give you this urgent, uncertain vibe anyway.

Agreed, there are four types of music in the game: Combat Music (during battles), Ambient Music (in hubs), Environment Music (in/around clubs), Cinematic Music (in cutscenes). Offering sliders for all four music types would be a usability nightmare, however, so let's regroup them into Cinematic Music (combat and cinematic), and Ambient Music (ambient and environment). My reasoning is that the audio team probably isn't going to build an environment that contains clashing ambient and environment music, so they'll never conflict in theory. Likewise, the combat and cinematic music, at least in ME2, were either interwoven or never in conflict.

Conclusion: Three sliders for All Music, Ambient Music, and Cinematic Music. The latter two sliders would be relative, so 50% ambient music and 50% all music means that ambient music plays at 25% volume level.

-------------------------------------------

mattahraw wrote...
Rob,

Perhaps you could do the same 
thing as the hub music in Jade Empire. Rather than constantly looping, 
it would play once, fade out, and then gently come back after a while. 
That way it's not looping endlessly but we still get some atmosphere.

Some of the most memorable songs from ME1 were the normandy song and the presidium music. It'd be a shame to cut it completely.

The cool thing is that BioWare used both looping styles in Mass Effect [1], and both were pretty successful. If we get all three music systems (continuous ambient, repeating ambient, and dynamic combat/cinematic) in ME3, consider my socks knocked off. :-D

[Dominus]

 ...you really know your stuff, kohlmannj 

Modifié par DominusVita, 02 avril 2011 - 10:47 .

[Vena_86]

As much as I like the atmosphere in ME1 I find the constant music distracting at times and robbing the environments them self from the ability to breathe and create immersion. ME2 was doing in good job in finding a balance, however the problem to me is that the music was not consistent enough. Instead of having one style of music that represents the game like in ME1, ME2 features many different styles which made it hard to associate the game with the music as a whole, which in the end disrupts the atmosphere each time a different score plays.

Modifié par Vena_86, 03 avril 2011 - 12:03 .

[mattahraw]

Vena_86 wrote...

As much as I like the atmosphere in ME1 I find the constant music distracting at times and robbing the environments them self from the ability to breathe and create immersion. ME2 was doing in good job in finding a balance, however the problem to me is that the music was not consistent enough. Instead of having one style of music that represents the game like in ME1, ME2 features many different styles which made it hard to associate the game with the music as a whole, which in the end disrupts the atmosphere each time a different score plays.

I agree, ME2's score was pretty good, but was missing that coherent blade runner vibe that made ME1's soundtrack so brilliant.

[javierabegazo]

mattahraw wrote...

Vena_86 wrote...

As much as I like the atmosphere in ME1 I find the constant music distracting at times and robbing the environments them self from the ability to breathe and create immersion. ME2 was doing in good job in finding a balance, however the problem to me is that the music was not consistent enough. Instead of having one style of music that represents the game like in ME1, ME2 features many different styles which made it hard to associate the game with the music as a whole, which in the end disrupts the atmosphere each time a different score plays.

I agree, ME2's score was pretty good, but was missing that coherent blade runner vibe that made ME1's soundtrack so brilliant.

One thing I'd like us to talk about is the more ambiatic (?) music, not specifically character themes and such, but tracks such as this [Benezia(Liara)
the looped sound byte that plays during the Benezia confrontation on Noveria].

I think one thing that you lose when you add in more ochestrated pieces, is the sheer tension that synths can provide, which is very suiting to Science Fiction, especially the ME Trilogy, which all things considered, is more in the realm of Dark Sci-Fi.

@Brenon Holmes, can you say if the sound design team intends to bring more synth into the ME3's audio?

ps. Try listening to that and NOT get nostalgic for ME1

[Foxhound2020]

kohlmannj wrote...


I think Foxhound2020 was referring to a scenario like this—please correct me if I'm wrong:
1. Engage enemies in combat.
2. Enter a situation that causes one of your squad members to speak dialog, i.e. "Deploying Overload", "One Less", etc.
3. Activate the Combat HUD/Power Wheel (i.e. hold Shift) in the middle of the character speaking their lines.
4. Exit the Combat HUD/Power Wheel.

Expected Results: Character finishes their line.
Possible Actual Results: Character is now mute, having been cut off by the player pausing the game.

I'll see if I can reproduce this soon (may not be today).

That was a much better way of explaining it. I'm not certain that this happens on the xbox version, but it does happen in pc version. You can try it on the mission where you recruit grunt from okeer and the compound is controlled by blue sun mecenaries because there is lots of times when the leader of blue suns is talking over a loud speaker to the mercenaries while your in combat. I believe it can be replicated outside of combat as well.
http://masseffect.wi...er:_The_Warlord

-somone is talking outside of the dialogue wheel
-enter power hud
-exit power hud
-conversation is removed entirely like it never happened

It really makes you sad when you miss out on things this way.

Modifié par Foxhound2020, 03 avril 2011 - 02:48 .

[Ultai]

Who composed Arrival's soundtrack? I think it struck a nice mix between ME1 and ME2 styles, which would be fitting for ME3

[MC P Pants]

The audio in Mass Effect is outstanding, and the OP is right about Dead Space as well - 2 very nice sounding games! Ive been lucky with my time with ME2 and never had the sound break down on me - well, only once - but i was trying to get through the game really, really fast - and was pressing x real fast to skip all the dialogue - beat the game in 10.5 hours or something like that! But yeah, the audio didnt react well to that, and it often became a silent movie - to be expected for that kind of punishment. Was great to hear from the dev in this post too - seems like he loves what hes doing!

[javierabegazo]

Ultai wrote...

Who composed Arrival's soundtrack? I think it struck a nice mix between ME1 and ME2 styles, which would be fitting for ME3

The same people who composed the OST for Kasumi's DLC

[kohlmannj]

Aha, so there might be more to this one. I recall having party character dialog cut off in this way, but the loudspeaker speech you're referring to could be "environment audio" in terms of the sound system design. Maybe that's the real problem—environment audio not continuing where it left off after entering and exiting the Combat HUD (and then, perhaps only on the PC version).

Foxhound2020 wrote...

That was a much better way of explaining it. I'm not certain that this happens on the xbox version, but it does happen in pc version. You can try it on the mission where you recruit grunt from okeer and the compound is controlled by blue sun mecenaries because there is lots of times when the leader of blue suns is talking over a loud speaker to the mercenaries while your in combat. I believe it can be replicated outside of combat as well.
http://masseffect.wi...er:_The_Warlord

-somone is talking outside of the dialogue wheel
-enter power hud
-exit power hud
-conversation is removed entirely like it never happened

It really makes you sad when you miss out on things this way.

[mattahraw]

javierabegazo wrote...

Ultai wrote...

Who composed Arrival's soundtrack? I think it struck a nice mix between ME1 and ME2 styles, which would be fitting for ME3

The same people who composed the OST for Kasumi's DLC

I thought the arrival OST fit pretty well actually, no complaints about it.

[CannotCompute]

Rob Blake wrote...

However, I'll try uncoupling the effect and having it pitch the audio less to see how far I can push it before it starts breaking stuff. Also, I can move it on to separate audio outputs and have different pitch curves for sound and VO, but that will take more work and will cost extra memory and CPU...

If it eats performance, then I'd rather see the (constantly visible) radar returning instead (which was removed because it was too performance heavy). Never noticed any sound glitches myself anyway.

[InfoGuy101]

 Generally the audio it great from my experience of playing the game on PC (ME1) and PS3 (ME2) but like the original post mentions there are a few hiccups here and there. The one I noticed the most was on the PS3 version when the audio would go out of sync sometimes during cut scenes but hopefully it all sorted in ME3. 

Modifié par InfoGuy101, 04 avril 2011 - 08:46 .

[Mikey_205]

I really missed the ambient music from ME1, especially on the Normandy. It made the environment feel empty I missed it a lot especially since they played it right at the start. To be honest what I would have liked would have been to have had a selection of ambient music in Shepards cabin and had the music play out over the entire ship (he's captain so he gets to pick what his crew listens to ).

On this subject tho I think having music for the more atmospheric slow parts of the game is very important. Creating atmosphere when you're at a hub is probably the most important time to do it to lend the location a vibe and a sense of place.

[The Shadow Broker]

rating some dialogues by importance is a great idea. For example im listening to companions chating or even the news in illium when the dialogue is interrupted by a volus talking about adquiring junk omnitool.


Also the other day i re-played ME1 and i LOVED when the normandy theme was playing inside the ship. Great nostalgic memories back, i loved that exact theme.

AND finally adding LOUDER heartbeat sounds not only when LI chating,but also when a critical choice must be made, that would be VERY INMERSIVE

Modifié par The Shadow Broker, 05 avril 2011 - 01:37 .

[kohlmannj]

The Shadow Broker wrote...

rating some dialogues by importance is a great idea. For example im listening to companions chating or even the news in illium when the dialogue is interrupted by a volus talking about adquiring junk omnitool.


Also the other day i re-played ME1 and i LOVED when the normandy theme was playing inside the ship. Great nostalgic memories back, i loved that exact theme.

AND finally adding LOUDER heartbeat sounds not only when LI chating,but also when a critical choice must be made, that would be VERY INMERSIVE

Yeah, prioritizing party dialog seems like a simple adjustment that'll help a lot. I'm not sure about the louder heartbeat sound effects, though, and here's why:

I'm on my second playthrough of Mass Effect (as FemShep this time around), and before one of the big decisions (not *the* big decision, but still, an important one) in the game I realized, "hey, I played my last round very close to Paragon, so let's try Renegade this time." when it came time to choose, I must have stared at the conversation menu for 3 minutes, tense with apprehension—apparently I'm not badass enough to make the bad decisions in the game. The audio at this moment was pretty much dead silent, and that's the brilliant part—that's what let me feel my own heart beating and racing.

In short, the heartbeat sound effect is clever at points, but it should be used sparingly. You've got to be careful, since it could be "laying it on thick" if the player and the designer don't care as dearly about a particular choice.