Timing of moves compared to the beat

[alphanimal]

I remember in an older version, when you moved with the beat, the actions were pretty instantaneous. Now you actually move a half beat after the music beat. I don't know if it is intended, but i think the old behaviour felt much more responsive.

edit:
Here's a comparison! The first part is from an older version, the second part is what I get in the current version:

https://clyp.it/qmnlzeia

edit2: spelling + new link... soundcloud seems broken

[Nada Afterwards]

Maybe the devs thought it was too fast for the player to react in time, I can imagine how more difficult Bolt would be, especially on Death Metal. Unless Bolt doesn't have the delay, I can't tell since I don't play as her.
The old behaviour certainly sounds better but I'd imagine it wouldn't look too good with the hopping "animation" shortened in duration.

[Nazenn]

Hmm, I can see what you mean in that clip, but I certainly dont have such a delay in my game at all.
Its possible that instead of changing the beat detection, theyve actually improved the latency so your latency settings might be off? Try fiddling with them and see if it helps.

[alphanimal]

I can see why it would make the game easier when you have more time to complete a move, but I'd prefer it for the sound to be played as soon as possible. You can make a move made a bit after the beat still count. I think there's no reason to delay every sound.

Maybe I don't understand the exact mechanics behind this, but I really much prefer how it sounded in the old version. When it changed, I thought they'll fix it eventually. But it's a couple releases later and still the same so I thought I'd ask :)

@Nazenn: It's not the latency settings as far as i can tell. It just delays everything, but the relative timing between music and SFX doesn't change. I'll try fiddling with the settings and audio drivers... maybe it's really just on my end.

[alphanimal]

After a little testing I found out the game can't predict the future :D

The problem was I was pressing the keys in sync with the music. But there is a minimum physical delay between me pressing the key and the SFX from that move arriving in my brain. When I try to press keys a little before the beat I'm able to sync it and it sounds fine.

It would be possible to force synced music and moves, but then the input must be pressed no later than the amount of physical delay before the actual audible response.

Bottom line is, there is delay that can't be compensated. In my case this delay was coming mostly from my wireless headphones (according to delay compensation around 120ms). After switching to wired headphones the delay is not noticeable anymore and gameplay is much better.

I don't know why I blamed it on an update. Somehow I came to that conclusion.

[Adriel]

I'm glad it worked out alphanimal!

[!Supreme Grand Wizard Yoodiv]

Your computer can't record what's coming out of your wireless headphones, unless you actually held a separate external mic up to it! So no, it's not the fault of your headphones.

And you can clearly hear the difference in those 2 clips. I agree with this completely. As a rhythm game, which SHOULD be focused on timing and audio perfection, it is horribly wrecked by this. Still fun of course, but has the potential to be so much better, as in the first clip.

It seems especially bad in co-op play. Is it maybe related to processing?

[Adriel]

Hi alphanimal! There is actually something strange happening in that clip. Would it be possible for you to record some video? We'd like to figure out what's going on.

[alphanimal]

Originally posted by Yoodiv:

Your computer can't record what's coming out of your wireless headphones

But it can record what's coming through my audio device, and that's the same thing coming out of my headphones, right? It's just delayed but the recording is the same.

[alphanimal]

Originally posted by Heather:

Hi alphanimal! There is actually something strange happening in that clip. Would it be possible for you to record some video? We'd like to figure out what's going on.

Sorry I'm not really able to record video right now, maybe I'll try later.

I really think the game is fine. It's just because of my long audio delay. I'm pressing the keys in sync with the beat I'm hearing, which means the input arrives relatively late in comparison to the game outputting the music. There is some threshold when the game detects no input, i's going to count it as a skipped beat and break the Groove Chain. I think I'm pretty close to that threshold every beat.

It can be a little hard to wrap your brain around all the delays involved. That's why I made this bug report, but now I actually think the game is good. If there is a long audio delay there's nothing you could do about it.

[alphanimal]

I made a graphic[content.screencast.com] :)

[!Supreme Grand Wizard Yoodiv]

I can't provide a solution, I just know that the audio examples initially posted make a huge difference to game enjoyment, and we/you should strive for the first one.