Mod to fix the audio spikes on comm chatter.

[Frigidman]

After just 4 hours, I was dredding every single encounter as that insane loud comms SPIKE shoots over the speaker system, piercing my eardrums. Only to do it again when the NPC stops talking. Then again when I blow them up, and again and again.

Man, it seriously hurts.

I run this game out of a soudblaster z card to a full range 5.1 system. Even turning all audio down to 30%, does not reduce the painfulness of the comms chatter start/stop spikes.

After looking at how to mod this game, I pulled the audio files out and realized they were all .ogg, and the annoying 'TSSHT' on the start and end of comms was actually copy/pasted into every single comm audio file in the game. Not only was it a bad audio byte, it was 'clipped', making it sound even worse.

So after a couple hours of dinking around, I purged all those spikes from every COMM audio file, and repacked a new data2.pak file.

ALL GONE!


https://www.dropbox.com/s/g2e8q0703d8oxqv/RG-NoMoreCommsAudioSpikes-v1.zip?dl=0
(if the above link goes to a missing file, just ping this thread and I'll move it back)


* NO LUA's CHANGED. This does not actually change anything in-game but how you 'hear' comms audio chatter that occur during flight/combat/escort. You should not notice a single difference to any conversations you have (didn't touch a single conversation file).

** No warranty's that every spike or sharp static was removed.

*** I take no responsibility if it explodes your game lol. I tested it for a few hours, and it seems ok.

[Frigidman]

Ok, after delving into the data.pak myself, and figuring out how the devs did this mess... I have discovered that they hard-burned that godawful audio spike on the front and back ends of the ogg.

So, to mod this, I'm going to have to go edit (clip off) every ogg in every COMMS sub folder, and repack a new data2.pak. Sadly, there was no simple LUA that allowed 'start and stop timestamp' for each of the files to simply soft-clip it. And sadly there wasnt just a global audio file which was used repeatedly for the nasty effect.

After doing this, I have updated the OP.

[Zidders 'Rockin' Bard' Roofurry]

I for one would appreciate you sharing this mod. Maybe a mediafire link? I'd be happy to host/mirror it on my account if you like.

[Frigidman]

I need to do some more testing to make sure its working as intended, then I can plop it on my public dropbox for the time being. But give me a bit to test it more.

[Frigidman]

Found some files that didn't batch well, so redid them in specific groups (some types of NPCs had a slightly longer or shorter 'intro spike' so I had to adjust so it wasn't cutting off actual chatter).

After play testing it a bit, I noticed I was getting annoyed with some of the audio that would end with *garbled* or *static*... painful to hear a lot of. So I softened those sharp static endings. Encountering NPC's now in game seem a lot better (to my ears) ;)

Updated OP with file link. If I need the space, I'll move it out if no one is getting it, but if that happens, just ping this thread and I'll notice someone wants it again.

[Darphnix]

Just curios, but why are all your files bigger than the original files while simultaneously containing less time?

On another note: I tested a few at random and at least in one instance the perceived sound quality dropped in your version (GREEL - 6_ANOTHERCHAT.OGG) *Might be just on my system

Those two aside: Working.

[Frigidman]

The size difference is due to not applying any compression on export to prevent any sound loss. Its negligable and if a machine cannot handle a few more MB of memory, it shouldn't be playing this game to begin with.

They are not of lower quality, as evidenced by the wave forms compared side by side. They sound completely different because the assaulting noises on start and end have been removed... which makes them 'sound' so much more different (softer, smoother, cleaner).

I made this mod for myself, to enjoy the game because those noises were about to make me give up, delete, and move on ;-) And this mod has achieved that goal 100%.

I only share it because someone asked.

[Zidders 'Rockin' Bard' Roofurry]

Thank you kindly for the share.

[Zidders 'Rockin' Bard' Roofurry]

File is no longer there. :/

[Frigidman]

Updated the OP with the new link.
Dropbox killed the 'public' share folder system, so I had to make a specific direct-link now.

[Farneil]

Link is ok I just wanted to thank you dude <3

[Zidders 'Rockin' Bard' Roofurry]

Originally posted by Frigidman:

Updated the OP with the new link.
Dropbox killed the 'public' share folder system, so I had to make a specific direct-link now.

Thank you! I'll update my mod list accordingly.

[MysticSoul]

Thank you Frigidman for your hard work on this.
My ears thank you aswell!

[Frigidman]

Good to know I wasn't the only one ;)

[Zidders 'Rockin' Bard' Roofurry]

OP if you're interested in the next iteration in the series you might want to chime in here https://twitter.com/RebelGalaxy/status/1087918446560501760

[Frigidman]

Originally posted by Zidders:

OP if you're interested in the next iteration in the series you might want to chime in here https://twitter.com/RebelGalaxy/status/1087918446560501760

Noted :)