New sound effects

[encinodude]

I searched and I found nothing and I'm surprised I haven't found anything on a project to improve DX's sound effects. The voice acting is still excellent for me in general, some of Chinese and French accents aside, but the sound effects are just terribly dated and were probably dated to begin with. This is especially true for the weapon sounds. None of the weapons sound like real weapons; they're terribly subdued or just plain terrible.

Anybody know if it's possible to replace sound effect files in Deus Ex?

[SlySpy]

I can't confirm this because I'm not working on this project, but I believe that the project members are going to keep the sounds the same even with the graphical overhaul.

[Fledge]

Thank god, I thought I was the only one who noticed how terrible the accents were. I thought the Chinese ones were almost offensive.

[encinodude]

I can't confirm this because I'm not working on this project, but I believe that the project members are going to keep the sounds the same even with the graphical overhaul.

Since it's a graphical overhaul I didn't think they would touch the sounds. I meant it would be really nice to have a separate sound effect project, or a tutorial of some sort to edit the sounds manually if it's possible. I can get over dead bodies falling halfway through walls, nothing to be done about that, but with the sheer improvements to the game's visuals the horrible old sounds would be just jarring.

Thank god, I thought I was the only one who noticed how terrible the accents were. I thought the Chinese ones were almost offensive.

I actually thought the French accents were worse. One guy even sounded like he was trying to do a French and a Hong Kong accent at the same time.

[SlySpy]

"You made a big mistake, homeboy."

[DDL]

There's nothing to stop you rerecording every line of VA, if you really wanted to, it's just that decent voice actors are often harder to find than texture artists, and they usually require payment...and of course, there is a SHITLOAD of VA in DX.

Sound effects themselves are easier, since there are far far fewer of them, but it's still a substantial amount of work to either replace the sound packages or recode deus ex to use different sound packs.

(plus if I'm being honest, I quite like the sound effects)

[Mr Fossy]

This is my first time posting on the HDTP forum, but I've been following the project for years For some reason I couldn't help contributing to this post.

Firstly, I want to say an obligatory thank you for the hard work that's been put into this mod!

Obviously, overhauling the DX sound design would be a fairly large project in itself - I don't begrudge the HDTP folks for not touching it. I think the original voice acting is fine, besides the (and I agree with Fledge here) borderline-offensive Chinese accents in HK. And I wouldn't dream of touching Alexander Brandon's music, which is some of the most brilliant I have ever encountered in a game.

But I think some of the SFX and atmos tracks could do with an update. I've studied sound engineering at university, and I'm currently finishing up an honours thesis on video game sound. Over the course of this, I've spent quite a lot of time working with sound in the Unreal 3.0 engine... I'd imagine that the tools in UE 1 would make it pretty difficult, though, and I'm quite sure there's no reverberation effects, or any of the other handed-on-a-silver-platter aural frills.

I just think things like the gunshots could pack a bit more punch (whether by remastering or replacing them), and other sounds (like metal crates hitting the ground, explosions, doors) could be improved. I've felt for a long time that I'd like to investigate the possibility of using my own skills to contribute to the DX modding community... I'm pathetic at visual art, modelling and animating (I can't even draw a human hand), so I didn't feel there was much I could do for HDTP. Perhaps after my thesis is finished, I might take a look at Unreal Engine 1, and see what re-designing the SFX might involve

[DDL]

Well, you've got two options: the first is a bit laborious (rebuilding the sound packages yourself, with new sounds but the same sound name references as the original) but would then work with any and all other mods, and the second (rebuilding the deusex.u core code package to reference your sounds instead of the originals) would be slightly quicker but would only work with that particular deusex.u (so wouldn't be compatible with shifter or HDTP).

If you're planning on replacing more than say...60-70% of the sounds anyway, the first option is only marginally more work than the second.

Bear in mind the sounds are limited to "16bit mono .wav" files, so it's not going to allow a great deal of freedom, but if you're interested I can talk you through how to set it up.

[encinodude]

The voice acting is beloved to me, even with the horrid French/HK accents. I wouldn't touch them unless it were a project to record new Paris/HK sounds, but I'll bet most people don't have decent recording equipment, so there goes that idea. Any attempt to overhaul the weapon sounds, though, is a step in the right direction. I wish you luck, Fossy.

[Mr Fossy]

Thanks DDL, I appreciate your feedback. Naturally, I would be thrilled with any help you could offer if I try my hand at this

I'm six months into my impossibly esoteric research thesis - I can deal with laborious Besides, I wouldn't want to go to the trouble of working on something that I couldn't readily distribute into the DX modding community. No, the first option definitely sounds better...

Working in mono is no problem at all... It makes sense, considering that the engine will handle the panning. I wasn't aware that DX worked in 16-bit sound, however. Though I guess the 16-bit sound setting in the sound options menu should have clued me in. I suppose that's just an artistic constraint. It'll be like Dogme 95... For modding... Without a smugly annoying Danish guy at the helm.

I think that even with 16-bit samples, there still might be some room for improvement. I suppose I'll have to try it out before making any grand claims. In exactly one month I will have completely finished with my thesis, and will have a fair amount of free time. I really ought to take a more proactive role in the modding community, so once things settle down for me a bit, I might get in touch with you again, if that's alright?

EDIT: Cheers, encinodude

I agree - the voice acting has become very dear to me. Even JC's incessant monotone. And Tom Hall kicked arse as Walton Simons. I wouldn't want to touch the dialog, with the possible exception of noise removal if necessary. But even that would be indulgent and pointless - it's all well recorded.

The accents area problem, yeah. I have access to recording equipment/software, and even a respectable number of Cantonese international students at my uni, but I don't think any of them are up for voice acting Besides, the whole thing would blow up into a more elaborate coordinated effort, I suppose. I'll just see how I go with SFX and atmos, and if I develop into an master of organisation (like the HDTP and TNM guys) I'll try other things.

[Jonas]

For a long time I've been rather displeased with most of DX's weapon sounds myself. I've been using our TNM sound engineers to replace some of the worst ones, noteably the obvious oversight of the silenced assault rifle only making one muzzle sound for a 5-burst shot or the outstandingly jarring reverb on the sniper rifle.

These changes will only take effect in The Nameless Mod, however.

So aside from this information, I can offer this: If you do start a project to replace all the DX sounds, you can have whatever weapon sounds we've redone if you want them. And if you decide it's too much work to make a completely new mod, feel free to send anything you make to me, and I'll put it in TNM if we like it. Since we have our own classes for every weapon, replacing their sounds is easy, even on the original DX weapons. We are, however, scheduled to enter content lockdown around christmas, so that would be the deadline for sending us anything if you choose to go that way.

Either way, good luck.

[Mr Fossy]

Thanks Jonas! Also, I didn't know you were from Denmark when I made a comment about a "smugly annoying Danish guy at the helm". Just for the record, I was talking about this smugly annoying Danish guy

This might be another way to get more involved in DX modding while sticking to my strengths - coming up with a few ideas for new SFX and sending them to TNM. As said in my earlier post, I will have a lot more free time come the beginning of November, so sending stuff your way by Christmas would allow me a reasonable amount of time.

It's the atmos, rather than the SFX, that bothers me the most. The diegetic ambient sounds - which I just feel would sound better if they made fuller use of the frequency spectrum. Working in 16-bit will limit this, of course.

I suppose that the weapon SFX would be a good place to start. I mean, the sound of the assault rifle firing is so pissweak that it prevents me from ever using the weapon in-game. It's like the sound of shaking a shoebox with a tennis ball inside. Ugh

[Jonas]

We've already replaced the assault rifle fire sound. It's a lot better now. Also the sniper rifle fire sound, and the silenced fire sound for both (the original game only used a single silenced gunshot sound for all weapons, frankly a bit lazy).

[DDL]

Yeah: here at OTP we have our own smugly annoying Danish guy.



I think my issue with weapon sounds in DX is that for at least a decent percentage of them, they sound like 'movie' versions of guns, rather than realistic versions (silencer goes THWIP rather than "PHUT with background clicks of the hammer falling and the shell ejecting and a new round being chambered", assaultgun sounds kinda cinematic if you actually just hold the trigger down (not that you really can with only 30 rounds in the damn mag), etc).

Personally, I kinda like this. It keys into the inherent "cheese" factor that some aspects of DX have: it plays like a dystopian 90s scifi movie in parts.

Also, FWIW, I like the spiky sounding sniper rifle: it sounds loud and angry but also just sharp and restrained enough to be something you could actually fire while standing, and that would neatly perforate somebody.
TNM's sniper sound (while very, very nice) is so apocalyptic that I'm always amazed I haven't been flung backwards with recoil while simultaneously vapourising my target all over a nearby wall.

But yeah, alright, the original assaultgun sound is pretty awful.

[Jonas]

TNM's sniper sound (while very, very nice) is so apocalyptic that I'm always amazed I haven't been flung backwards with recoil while simultaneously vapourising my target all over a nearby wall.

Definitely gonna quote you on that.

And, you know, we ARE talking about .30-06 ammunition here. That's the sort of bullets you fire at aircraft. Sometimes from aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.30-06_Springfield

[EDIT] So... actually reading that Wikipedia page, does it occur to anyone but me that they spelled it wrong in DX? They always spell it 30.06, but that would actually be 30 mm as far as I can tell, which is like artillery shells - remember the assault gun's grenades are only 20 mm, so 30 mm bullets would be mmmmmassive. Apparently they're actually spelled .30-06.