I just want to make it perfectly clear to people that if you only have teensy 2 watt speakers either built into your monitor or ones that came free with your computer then, no, you're not going to hear what we're talking about.
I have a 2.1 speaker system connected to a audigy II soundcard, so my system is not what you would call basic. Maybe the audigy's filters makes my sound better?
fhqwhgads > there is a lot of different qualities of speakers. Last week I sold a pair of speakers costing about 4500$. It's not basic, it's true. But If you have an audio system that cost 60 bucks (nevermind your soundcard) for sure you just hear a few mediums, something you can call acute, and a big bass boost that make "boom boom" it's true you could not hear the difference... it's like all those things they put on japanese soups, they all have the same flavour, even the same color.
Actually, I don't have Hifi speakers, but sometimes I use JBL's Creatures II system, which let me hear some glitches... but with headphones it's awfull... even if you youse portable devices (like a Koss Portapro, with his well-known V equalizer) you can hear it.
Ok, true, but my speakers are a far cry from "teensy 2 watt speakers".
To be honest, I have replayed episode 1 and have listened closely and must admit the sound IS below the standard. But my point stil remains that the sound quality did not affect my initial game experience.
That said, I'm all for releasing a patch or add-on for those who did find it annoying!
I have a 2.1 speaker system connected to a audigy II soundcard, so my system is not what you would call basic. Maybe the audigy's filters makes my sound better?
No, I have the top of the range Soundlaster X-fi soundcard and the 24bit crystalizer only makes it worse. It's supposed to enhance it but the only thing it enhances is the niose in the voices. So when I buy a brilliant soundcard I expect it to be used and Sam n Max doesn't use it.
I would just like to thank everybody. Now that it has been pointed out to me, I am PAINFULLY aware of the sound quality. The director during the Midtown Cowboys puzzle is especially grusome. Thanks a LOT!
Please make the voice quality sound better it would make the game so much better and not annoying to hear. Even though I've only played the 2 demo's so far I am displeased with the voice quality as it murders the fantastic writing and voice acting. It sounds muffled, flat, and many of the words have a static like effect. I also noticed the big difference in voice quality from the the two Ep 2 video traliers.
By the way, if you honestly think the audio isn't bad, just compare the speech sound quality from the first trailer of Situation: Comedy ("Next time, on..."), to the second (cooking gameplay). The difference should be obvious: the first is high-quality, the second has been horribly compressed and is what the game actually sounds like.
It's funny you think so, considering the trailer footage and the gameplay video were captured at the same time, on the same machine.
It's funny you think so, considering the trailer footage and the gameplay video were captured at the same time, on the same machine.
I keep listening, but I can't see how this could possibly be the case. The distortion of sibilance and other artifacts are either gone or vastly minimized in the trailer. I suppose it might be possible with a truly superb mastering job...
Oh, and there's the other possibility: that the second trailer sounds awful because it was compressed badly by GameTap. Either way, the first trailer still sounds better than the game.
Are you talking about our trailer (the one up on our website), or GameTap's trailer?
Remember that gameplay videos (and trailers) are captured from the game and then converted into WMV format, or Flash, or something else so they can be put up on the website. Nothing that's captured from the game and put up on the web in another format is really a valid representation of what the game sounds like.
As we've said before, the sound compression we use helps keep the downloads small, and that is a top priority. We're considering releasing versions with higher quality audio at some point, but it's probably not going to happen before the end of the season. Telltale is well aware of the pros and cons of the audio we use. It is nice to get a feel for how many people would download a bigger version with higher quality audio if it were available, but we're not going to go out and change the way we build our games based on a few complaints about the audio. There are a lot of people out there who think it sounds fine.
Though seriously, while I realize the forums on a game's website usually aren't very representative, I'd expect it be a bit more so for a web-distributed game like Sam & Max.
If you thought the voice quality was absolutely fine the way it is, would you bother to post in a thread called "petition for better voice audio quality"? (Fine, maybe you would, but I personally wouldn't, and I'm sure there are others out there like me!)
We have learned from past experience that the people who tend to complain loudest about something on our forum usually don't represent the vast majority of people out there. I'm not saying that we aren't paying attention to what you guys have to say, but you all have to understand that we can't go around making business decisions based on a forum thread, either.
We are certainly hear (loud and clear) that there is a group of folks that would prefer less compressed audio. However, we are still a small studio that is delivering you a game every 30 days. We simply don't have the resources to create and support any different versions of our games at the moment. There is more involved than just "zipping up" higher quality audio. It also involves supporting people who's download didn't work, or those who can't get the higher quality audio working, those who get confused by the multiple offerings, designing the site so you guys can access the larger files, making the installer, etc. It quickly adds up when you only have 4 weeks in between game releases (15 days if you take the GameTap launch into consideration).
We'd rather wait until we can offer the higher quality properly than rush to give you something half thought through. Until then, I hope the compression isn't so distracting that you can't enjoy the game!
If you thought the voice quality was absolutely fine the way it is, would you bother to post in a thread called "petition for better voice audio quality"? (Fine, maybe you would, but I personally wouldn't, and I'm sure there are others out there like me!)
We'd rather wait until we can offer the higher quality properly than rush to give you something half thought through. Until then, I hope the compression isn't so distracting that you can't enjoy the game!
I appreciate the detailed response, but the simple answer seems to be to fix the audio for everyone. You're already talking about 70MB downloads, I don't see how it would change much to bump that up to maybe 100MB. I'm not aware of a single other commercial game, downloadable or otherwise, that uses such extreme, quality-destroying compression on their audio samples. It's not about adding a feature, it's fixing a problem. I understand that it's nontrivial to update the episodes you've already released, but it makes sense to change your settings when packaging the media for the next one.
I agree with Nasarius. There is not an episodic game as small as Telltale's in the world. Half-life, Advent, SiN, etc. are all expecting people to download several hundreds of megabytes and they don't seem to be cutting off any potential customers because of large download sizes.
But we could keep discussing this forever without agreeing on anything, and I'll be the first to admit I don't have any statistics to back up my argument.
You must have some marketing research guys on your team who can figure out if the supersmall download is the actual reason that S&M is so popular, or if it's just something we're all telling ourselves.
Exactly what percentage of Telltale gamers are on dial-up and would anyone be unwilling to buy the games if for instance the download size doubled?
Personally I'm a rabid fan with broadband, so I'd download it even if it was a 4GB installer, but I do understand Telltale's need to revive the genre and introduce the new generation to adventure games.
But honestly. The most recent Internet survey showed that 78% of all internet connections in the USA are broadband
Personally I'm a rabid fan with broadband, so I'd download it even if it was a 4GB installer, but I do understand Telltale's need to revive the genre and introduce the new generation to adventure games.
But honestly. The most recent Internet survey showed that 78% of all internet connections in the USA are broadband
And everyone on Gametap has a broadband connection... but I've already seen at least one post from South Africa saying how grateful he/she is for the small download size, as he/she is on dial-up and they charge them outrageous rates even for a dial-up connection.
And everyone on Gametap has a broadband connection... but I've already seen at least one post from South Africa saying how grateful he/she is for the small download size, as he/she is on dial-up and they charge them outrageous rates even for a dial-up connection.
Yes, yes and thanks.
I know this is a little off topic, but its just to bring things more in perspective. Our telecoms company in SA (the ONLY telecoms company in the country) is so outrageously overpriced, that recently a journalist made the following comparison:
The cost of downloading 100GB of data with our 'broadband' service at a maximum speed of 1Mbps is would roughly amount to R9918.28 (about $1,391.49) and take 9.5 days to download.
The cost of flying to Hong Kong, visiting an internet cafe and downloading 100GB there at 1Gbps would be R7959.43 (about $1,113.96) and take 13 mins (excluding time spent on plane).
While I do appreciate the fact that the most of the US has broadband, I would just like to give TextureGlitch a friendly reminder that the world is not equal the USA .
I have to agree with Nasarius on all points. Start compressing the sound less in future releases. Adding just a couple of megabytes could probably make the squeekiness of the voices go away.
Just finished the whole season, and I must say I agree completely. It was one of the only annoyances in an otherwise excellent update (no widescreen support being the other thing, but we've already been there several times :P).
The majority of the voice work and Jared Emerson-Johnson's excellent score were top notch, so it's a shame that they were crushed by such poor quality bitrates. I'm of the opinion that audio makes up a third of the whole game experience, perhaps even more in adventure games, so it would be great to see some slightly larger files in Season 2.
Comments
I have a 2.1 speaker system connected to a audigy II soundcard, so my system is not what you would call basic. Maybe the audigy's filters makes my sound better?
Actually, I don't have Hifi speakers, but sometimes I use JBL's Creatures II system, which let me hear some glitches... but with headphones it's awfull... even if you youse portable devices (like a Koss Portapro, with his well-known V equalizer) you can hear it.
To be honest, I have replayed episode 1 and have listened closely and must admit the sound IS below the standard. But my point stil remains that the sound quality did not affect my initial game experience.
That said, I'm all for releasing a patch or add-on for those who did find it annoying!
No, I have the top of the range Soundlaster X-fi soundcard and the 24bit crystalizer only makes it worse. It's supposed to enhance it but the only thing it enhances is the niose in the voices. So when I buy a brilliant soundcard I expect it to be used and Sam n Max doesn't use it.
I would just like to thank everybody. Now that it has been pointed out to me, I am PAINFULLY aware of the sound quality. The director during the Midtown Cowboys puzzle is especially grusome. Thanks a LOT!
It's funny you think so, considering the trailer footage and the gameplay video were captured at the same time, on the same machine.
I keep listening, but I can't see how this could possibly be the case. The distortion of sibilance and other artifacts are either gone or vastly minimized in the trailer. I suppose it might be possible with a truly superb mastering job...
Here, I made two clips (captured on an Audigy 4):
http://www.drakostar.com/files/samnmax/samnmax-trailer.wav
http://www.drakostar.com/files/samnmax/samnmax-game.wav
Oh, and there's the other possibility: that the second trailer sounds awful because it was compressed badly by GameTap. Either way, the first trailer still sounds better than the game.
Remember that gameplay videos (and trailers) are captured from the game and then converted into WMV format, or Flash, or something else so they can be put up on the website. Nothing that's captured from the game and put up on the web in another format is really a valid representation of what the game sounds like.
As we've said before, the sound compression we use helps keep the downloads small, and that is a top priority. We're considering releasing versions with higher quality audio at some point, but it's probably not going to happen before the end of the season. Telltale is well aware of the pros and cons of the audio we use. It is nice to get a feel for how many people would download a bigger version with higher quality audio if it were available, but we're not going to go out and change the way we build our games based on a few complaints about the audio. There are a lot of people out there who think it sounds fine.
Though seriously, while I realize the forums on a game's website usually aren't very representative, I'd expect it be a bit more so for a web-distributed game like Sam & Max.
If you thought the voice quality was absolutely fine the way it is, would you bother to post in a thread called "petition for better voice audio quality"?
We have learned from past experience that the people who tend to complain loudest about something on our forum usually don't represent the vast majority of people out there. I'm not saying that we aren't paying attention to what you guys have to say, but you all have to understand that we can't go around making business decisions based on a forum thread, either.
We'd rather wait until we can offer the higher quality properly than rush to give you something half thought through. Until then, I hope the compression isn't so distracting that you can't enjoy the game!
She says after posting in this thread :P j/k
But we could keep discussing this forever without agreeing on anything, and I'll be the first to admit I don't have any statistics to back up my argument.
You must have some marketing research guys on your team who can figure out if the supersmall download is the actual reason that S&M is so popular, or if it's just something we're all telling ourselves.
Exactly what percentage of Telltale gamers are on dial-up and would anyone be unwilling to buy the games if for instance the download size doubled?
Personally I'm a rabid fan with broadband, so I'd download it even if it was a 4GB installer, but I do understand Telltale's need to revive the genre and introduce the new generation to adventure games.
But honestly. The most recent Internet survey showed that 78% of all internet connections in the USA are broadband
And everyone on Gametap has a broadband connection... but I've already seen at least one post from South Africa saying how grateful he/she is for the small download size, as he/she is on dial-up and they charge them outrageous rates even for a dial-up connection.
Yes, yes and thanks.
I know this is a little off topic, but its just to bring things more in perspective. Our telecoms company in SA (the ONLY telecoms company in the country) is so outrageously overpriced, that recently a journalist made the following comparison:
The cost of downloading 100GB of data with our 'broadband' service at a maximum speed of 1Mbps is would roughly amount to R9918.28 (about $1,391.49) and take 9.5 days to download.
The cost of flying to Hong Kong, visiting an internet cafe and downloading 100GB there at 1Gbps would be R7959.43 (about $1,113.96) and take 13 mins (excluding time spent on plane).
While I do appreciate the fact that the most of the US has broadband, I would just like to give TextureGlitch a friendly reminder that the world is not equal the USA
The majority of the voice work and Jared Emerson-Johnson's excellent score were top notch, so it's a shame that they were crushed by such poor quality bitrates. I'm of the opinion that audio makes up a third of the whole game experience, perhaps even more in adventure games, so it would be great to see some slightly larger files in Season 2.