Cutscene audio ever gonna get fixed?

[SolomonGrundyThanksForTheTurkey]

Is it?

[Víli]

I was curious if it was going to get fixed sooner than later as well. I don't doubt it will be fix, just would like to know if it's high priority or not. Kinda immersion-breaking

[RPG Hacker]

I did look into this problem for a good while, tried many different things, many different audio settings (both in-game and in the audio driver settings), even tried different physical devices (speakers and headphones), but I wasn't able to reproduce the problem in any form. That's why we weren't able to fix it yet. If I could find any way to reproduce the problem here, I'd be more than glad to fix it.

[Víli]

Originally posted by RPG Hacker (KAIKO):

I did look into this problem for a good while, tried many different things, many different audio settings (both in-game and in the audio driver settings), even tried different physical devices (speakers and headphones), but I wasn't able to reproduce the problem in any form. That's why we weren't able to fix it yet. If I could find any way to reproduce the problem here, I'd be more than glad to fix it.

Odd. For me it seems to be a specific kind of scene. Minor ones don't seem to have it but ones like where War meets Ruin or when War first sees the Stygian after getting Ruin, the music and sound effects all cut out with what I assume to be audio labeled "voice" still working.

I know for sure that all cutscenes (but maybe one) starting with the arena intro through killing the Stygian do this. More do this but I did this section of the game last night. All drivers are up to date and no other games do this to me. Hope that helps.

EDIT: Remembered that the scene of War killing the Stygian was one of the scenes that worked fine. If others could post telling which cut scenes are messed up and in what way, that'd be awesome

[SolomonGrundyThanksForTheTurkey]

Originally posted by RPG Hacker (KAIKO):

I did look into this problem for a good while, tried many different things, many different audio settings (both in-game and in the audio driver settings), even tried different physical devices (speakers and headphones), but I wasn't able to reproduce the problem in any form. That's why we weren't able to fix it yet. If I could find any way to reproduce the problem here, I'd be more than glad to fix it.

Have you tried with an external soundcard? Could the issue be with users using an external sound card at a higher audio bit rate?

[RPG Hacker]

Originally posted by ???:

Odd. For me it seems to be a specific kind of scene. Minor ones don't seem to have it but ones like where War meets Ruin or when War first sees the Stygian after getting Ruin, the music and sound effects all cut out with what I assume to be audio labeled "voice" still working.

I think I mainly tried the video cutscene in the first level where you meet Abaddon for the first time. Does that one have the issue as well?

Originally posted by Tron Cat:

Have you tried with an external soundcard? Could the issue be with users using an external sound card at a higher audio bit rate?

Have not tried an external sound card. I do have a USB sound card somehwere at home, though, so I guess I could give it a try.

[Víli]

Originally posted by RPG Hacker (KAIKO):

Originally posted by ???:

Odd. For me it seems to be a specific kind of scene. Minor ones don't seem to have it but ones like where War meets Ruin or when War first sees the Stygian after getting Ruin, the music and sound effects all cut out with what I assume to be audio labeled "voice" still working.

I think I mainly tried the video cutscene in the first level where you meet Abaddon for the first time. Does that one have the issue as well?

Well, I rushed through the first part of the game for you and found that the first cutscene with the problem is when you meet Samael for the very first time. I believe it does this with at least all the intros to the bosses (right before fighting them officially) that have Samael's hearts, at least one Gatekeeper intro, arena intro, and Ruin intros.

Sorry if this sounds rude but I'm not gonna run through the rest of the game to find 'em all as I'd like to continue my original save. Hope this helps.

EDIT: I think I remember one of the Gatekeepers walking away in complete silence and I'm not sure if it does this every time you talk to Samael subsequently so I don't think it's only intro cutscenes

[RPG Hacker]

Thanks for the hint!
I thought all the cutscenes had the problem, so that's probably why I didn't find anything. If only some of the cutscenes have the problem, it's possible that it's the cutscenes themselves that are broken. I'll take a look at it.

[Jahellson]

For now I replaced the videos of warmastered version by the original version.

[somebody]

Originally posted by RPG Hacker (KAIKO):

I did look into this problem for a good while, tried many different things, many different audio settings (both in-game and in the audio driver settings), even tried different physical devices (speakers and headphones), but I wasn't able to reproduce the problem in any form.

The issue with audio in cutscenes happens for me on two different hardware configs. The first one had Creative X-Fi ExtremeGamer Fatality Pro card and the second one has integrated Realtek ALC S1220A audio with Windows 10 built-in drivers (not the ones from Realtek website) (the mobo is ASUS PRIME Z270-A). In both cases the OS was Windows 10 and I use stereo speakers. I recorded one of the cutscenes with Fraps to show how exactly the audio is broken (audio track built into media\Scene_02.wmv is very faint but the spoken audio played by the game separately (when the characters grunt or speak) is very loud): http://www8.zippyshare.com/v/4Omg0Zk7/file.html

Does this cutscene on your setups where you try to reproduce the problem sound any different?

I just installed original Darksiders1 to see how cutscenes play there and I must say it practically the same - faint wmv volume and loud voice (played from separate audio track) volumes:
http://www95.zippyshare.com/v/MJpt2JI4/file.html

So it seems remaster didn't break anything in this regard. To clear all confusion, RPG Hacker (KAIKO) can you please record (with Fraps or anything else) and upload this cutscene so we can establish how those cutscenes are supposed to sound in game in the first place?

[RPG Hacker]

The background music and sound effects do seem a bit quiter in that first video though, you're right (although not by much - at least on my current setup). For reference, did you use the same audio volume settings in both versions of the game?

P.S.: It's possible that the videos above don't capture the problem reliably, because the error might only occur during playback. As I said, when playing the first video, the background sound was slightly quiter than with the second video, though it was still very audible and far from silent. I'm not sure if this is the problem people are refering to, so I'm not sure if my current setup reliably reproduces the issue, even with that video. I'll have to see if any settings change that.

[somebody]

Originally posted by RPG Hacker (KAIKO):

The background music and sound effects do seem a bit quiter in that first video though, you're right (although not by much - at least on my current setup). For reference, did you use the same audio volume settings in both versions of the game?

P.S.: It's possible that the videos above don't capture the problem reliably, because the error might only occur during playback. As I said, when playing the first video, the background sound was slightly quiter than with the second video, though it was still very audible and far from silent. I'm not sure if this is the problem people are refering to, so I'm not sure if my current setup reliably reproduces the issue, even with that video. I'll have to see if any settings change that.

I just re-recorded the videos from both games and this time I reset the audio settings in each game to default before recording.

Original Darksiders:
Audio settings: https://s8.postimg.org/ger6b1ntx/audio_original.png
Video: http://www90.zippyshare.com/v/E9CIcQfz/file.html

Remaster
Audio settings: https://s8.postimg.org/qdc4xix9h/audio_remaster.png
Video: http://www90.zippyshare.com/v/sx0S0UsC/file.html

Now I can definitely say that in original Darksiders the volume of the audio embedded into cutscene (Scene_02.wmv) is higher than in Remaster but the volume of the character voices (played by the game from separate audio source) is about the same. This exactly represents the problem me and other players were originally complaining about - in Remaster the voices are too loud in comparison with the rest of cutscene sounds. The volume of other cutscene sounds should be (under default audio settings) upped to at least the level it has in original Darksiders or even higher.

Also, Remaster with a cutscene file (Scene_02.wmv) taken from Original game sounds exactly the same as Remaster with its own remastered cutscene file. So the problem lies not in the movie itself but in the way the game plays the audio.

Just went to experiment with in-game volume sliders under audio options in Remaster. The first 3 sliders (Music, Sound, Voice) do not affect cutscenes in any way. The last slider (Video) affects the volume of both cutscene built-in audio track and the voice track played separately. So it really does not matter what volume setting user choses in-game - the difference in volume between cutscene built-in and separate voice tracks cannot (and shouldn't) be influenced by user settings. That difference must be properly specified somewhere in the game code (it should not be configurable by user in game settings).

[Víli]

Originally posted by RPG Hacker (KAIKO):

The background music and sound effects do seem a bit quiter in that first video though, you're right (although not by much - at least on my current setup). For reference, did you use the same audio volume settings in both versions of the game?

P.S.: It's possible that the videos above don't capture the problem reliably, because the error might only occur during playback. As I said, when playing the first video, the background sound was slightly quiter than with the second video, though it was still very audible and far from silent. I'm not sure if this is the problem people are refering to, so I'm not sure if my current setup reliably reproduces the issue, even with that video. I'll have to see if any settings change that.

This is correct. I do have this problem as well, but I was focusing on the problem with the cutscenes that have only voice audio. So yeah, two different audio issues on different scenes unfortunately.

[somebody]

Originally posted by ???:

I was focusing on the problem with cutscenes that have only voice audio.

Now I am confused, ALL cutscene files in the game (in the media\videos folder) have a built-in audio track (with music/ambient sound/sound effects, etc.) - try playing any of these files separately outside of the game and see for yourself. And most (if not all) cutscenes also have a separate audio track with character voices played on top of cutscene built-in audio track when the cutscene movie file is played by the game. So the is no such thing as "cutscenes that have only voice audio".

P.S. Just to clarify when I say "cutscene" I mean the pre-rendered (not realtime in game engine) cutscenes based on the .wmv movie files in the "media\videos" folder.

[Víli]

Originally posted by somebody:

Originally posted by ???:

I was focusing on the problem with cutscenes that have only voice audio.

Now I am confused, ALL cutscene files in the game (in the media\videos folder) have a built-in audio track (with music/ambient sound/sound effects, etc.) - try playing any of these files separately outside of the game and see for yourself. And most (if not all) cutscenes also have a separate audio track with character voices played on top of cutscene built-in audio track when the cutscene movie file is played by the game. So the is no such thing as "cutscenes that have only voice audio".

I wish I could record it for you, friend. I suggest testing the scene were you meet Samael for the first time or scenes I mentioned above to see for yourself. Maybe it isn't voice only but if everything except voice can be hard to hear, perhaps in some scenes that audio might as well be mute.

P.S.: Just incase I want to say that I in no way meant to sound as though I was discounting the issues you mentioned. I only intend to work together to identify and hopefully help solve these problems. There just seems to be problems in later cutscenes that are not present in the first few.

[somebody]

Originally posted by ???:

I wish I could record it for you, friend. I suggest testing the scene were you meet Samael for the first time or scenes I mentioned above to see for yourself. Maybe it isn't voice only but if everything except voice can be hard to hear, perhaps in some scenes that audio might as well be mute.

P.S.: Just incase I want to say that I in no way meant to sound as though I was discounting the issues you mentioned. I only intend to work together to identify and hopefully help solve these problems. There just seems to be problems in later cutscenes that are not present in the first few.

I recorded the cutscene were you first meet Samael in Remaster:
http://www69.zippyshare.com/v/kwovd0gJ/file.html

Does it sound the same for you when played in game?