ZK Sound Redesign Thread

That is a promising start. Also, good on you for demonstrating it at various distances and directions.

Brawler Update v2




Previous Ver(s):

V1:

This one was fun.

Features:

Added case ejection noises during fire, and 1 sec after
Mechanical whirring during fire (but no spin down as I noted these aren't rotatory)
Pitch shifted/Time Manipulated gunfire + lots of bass beefing.

I'll change the impact noise later to reflect something like a .50 cal rather than 30/40mm cannons... unless they are... then I need a design rethink.


Update:

Reduced volume via unit LUA
Reduced Bass via file change

I'm not so sure Brawler and Stardust. They aren't firing real bullets and a lot of that sound could be grating on the ears. I don't want us to sound like a WWII simulator.

I would lower the volume of the sounds, and Brawler sounds a little too boomy (wall of sound, really). Consider these sounds going on constantly with 16 players having these units, that's the point where it needs to still not be too annoying.

I like new sounds, would be nice to try in real game

The sounds are good. I personally like the shotgun one.. the current shotgun sounds so... not shotgunny.

I liked the original brawler sounds, they were amongst the best in ZK, both fire and impact. Most surely they could be adjusted (volume, clipping) for thegreater good, but not outright replaced!

quote: I just hate the fact that every unit name is messed up and has never been updated since their creation in 1999 or whatever

The topic of mass infliction of naming schemes on unit names has been raised multiple times, each time to be shot down by the Gatekeeper.

Maybe whatever-current-iteration-is is a charm?

quote: If we're not able to update the graphics anytime soon due to engine constraints, at least let the sound make the game sound more mature and shiny.

There aren't many engine constraints on graphics. Spring still lacks skeletal mesh deforms, but even that one is bound to fall. Now, sounds? You are only allowed to use 16-bit mono wav pcm without metadata for ingame effects. You might have found what happens if you disobey by now.

...

In artistic terms, i don't think the issue with ZK sounds is that they are unrealistic. It's that they lack depth; quite a few are very "simple" from the sound-engineering standpoint. A few notable exceptions exist (large beam lasers like Stinger, Pene), but most pew-pew could be made "grittier" without getting tainted by "realism".

If anything, quite a few sounds and visuals could be adjusted to be less "realistic" while more "sci-fi" and "deeper". I'm looking at you, weapon-category Plasma Cannon!

I don't think we need much of an ejection noise at all. Also from the point of view of usability it is important to be able to tell what is firing even when you cannot see it.

quote: While they are plasma projectiles, remember that they are still encased in metal

1) It's plastic, and not metal! Read the technobabble.
2) It's just technobabble! They are still magical glowing fireballs.

Variation it is!

As for casing, I can make them quieter. I just wish I can make them scale differently using the engine, but it doesnt' support combining multiple layers of sound with different rules.

Anyways, I'll make a note on the shell casing being too loud, but I think it's an important detail to hear it. If your'e gonna see it, might as well hear it. Also, the casing is definitely one of the most notable sound on a very heavy MG/minigun.

Also, in the demo, most of those are zoomed in so you can hear the detail, they actually go away for the most part when you play at the usual zoomed out level.

Also, "more sci-fi" is a vague description. I'm modelling the sound more to the style of Battlestar Galactica (which is still very sci-fi), rather than say Star Wars.

MauranKilom, I aappreciate you have more inputs. but I think you're speculating and brining up an issue without even trying it yet. As for iconic, I think the HLT and ICBM sounds are very iconic and required very little work besides removing the clipping in the sound file itself. Maybe add some bass and call it done.

I disagree with the Brawler as I actually tried to keep it in the design process but it just didn't seem dangerous enough. Anyways, these will probably be the most realistic sounding weapons I design, as they seemed most like conventional firearms to me.