Version 2.02 "Improved Racing Sounds"

  • Thread starter leighton
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This again? Hey which 787B is that? That one seems to be a manual but the other video of it running on a course in Japan, the car was clearly automatic and the steering digital readout was red leds and not an LCD. The one in the video sounds like an F1, only time it has personality is when it is accelerating in low rpms, high rpms sound like every high rpm car in the world...what's so great about that? The McLaren F1 has a better engine wail than that, jaguar XJ220 does as well. Not sure what you guys are going on about the 787B, nothing really impressive sounding aside from low to mid rpm acceleration growl but that disappears and you are left with high pitched wail like every other high revving car.

Hopefully PD actually turns up the default engine sound on each car, because most of the muscle cars are quite muted and distant but the engine sound is definitely there, again that stupidly loud transmission whine drowns out everything else at higher rpms. Many of the racing exhausts seem to mess up sound output I think they might have the parameters reversed because instead of the engine note getting deeper it somehow gets higher...that makes no sense free breathing V8's idle like a bull snorting fire and ready to charge. PD needs to fix that serious issue with racing exhaust, sounds like stupid aftermarket mufflers with those annoying bafflers in them. Stock vehicles sound better, also only a few cars you can actually hear your turbos spool up(BTR is one of them). PD used to really pay attention to each engine, and turbo and superchargers got their due, just go play GT2 you will hear what I mean. Blow off valve heaven GT2 was...come on PD I know someone over there knows that there is definitely something wrong with the sounds that come out of those racing mufflers, they make my ears bleed especially on ferrari's those cars are already high pitched clutching the nut sack cars, no need to hear it super loud. 599 GTB is wicked loud from 3RD person with sound on normal setting for the other cars. Hopefully this is the start of PD tweaking the sounds to get the samples to playback how they recorded them.
 
SavageEvil
This again? Hey which 787B is that? That one seems to be a manual but the other video of it running on a course in Japan, the car was clearly automatic and the steering digital readout was red leds and not an LCD. The one in the video sounds like an F1, only time it has personality is when it is accelerating in low rpms, high rpms sound like every high rpm car in the world...what's so great about that? The McLaren F1 has a better engine wail than that, jaguar XJ220 does as well. Not sure what you guys are going on about the 787B, nothing really impressive sounding aside from low to mid rpm acceleration growl but that disappears and you are left with high pitched wail like every other high revving car.

Hopefully PD actually turns up the default engine sound on each car, because most of the muscle cars are quite muted and distant but the engine sound is definitely there, again that stupidly loud transmission whine drowns out everything else at higher rpms. Many of the racing exhausts seem to mess up sound output I think they might have the parameters reversed because instead of the engine note getting deeper it somehow gets higher...that makes no sense free breathing V8's idle like a bull snorting fire and ready to charge. PD needs to fix that serious issue with racing exhaust, sounds like stupid aftermarket mufflers with those annoying bafflers in them. Stock vehicles sound better, also only a few cars you can actually hear your turbos spool up(BTR is one of them). PD used to really pay attention to each engine, and turbo and superchargers got their due, just go play GT2 you will hear what I mean. Blow off valve heaven GT2 was...come on PD I know someone over there knows that there is definitely something wrong with the sounds that come out of those racing mufflers, they make my ears bleed especially on ferrari's those cars are already high pitched clutching the nut sack cars, no need to hear it super loud. 599 GTB is wicked loud from 3RD person with sound on normal setting for the other cars. Hopefully this is the start of PD tweaking the sounds to get the samples to playback how they recorded them.
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I have witnessed the 550 in race form at petite le mans here in atlanta a few years back and I can tell you. That engine scream makes the 599 sound like a chirp. If the 550 was anywhere near you could not hear another car. I had a migraine...really. Was puking by the end...but I got to see the vette beat the 550 by a few car lengths so it was worth it.
 
Eunos_Cosmo
The RM Corvettes are completely off, but the stock Vettes sound just fine.

Go to 2:30 or so and listen from there. It sounds pretty much like a Stock Z06 to me. Again, some more induction noise would help, but it's pretty good/accurate.
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Now put a exhaust on that Z06. ;)
 
So, you present a point that, within the very same sentence, you undermine?

Not sure if serious. :P
 
Terronium-12
So, you present a point that, within the very same sentence, you undermine?

Not sure if serious. :P
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I'm saying that they both fail on the upgraded exhaust portion.

I find the sports exhausts on GT5 to sounds pretty nice though. Usually just gives it a bit more rumble. Maybe that's just me though.
 
Rudenut
I have witnessed the 550 in race form at petite le mans here in atlanta a few years back and I can tell you. That engine scream makes the 599 sound like a chirp. If the 550 was anywhere near you could not hear another car. I had a migraine...really. Was puking by the end...but I got to see the vette beat the 550 by a few car lengths so it was worth it.
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I'm just saying that the 599 is one loud car, you're comparing the sound from a car with shortened exhaust and no catalytic convertor, of course it's going to make more noise than all the souls in hell. PD messed something up with the racing exhausts, they raise the pitch of the exhaust note instead of lowering it and increasing the dB, so you get these weird sounding tones which make no sense on a race car. V8's, V10 sound pretty rumbly and loud, the V10's in some cars come across raspy but do have this rumble depending on the maker..check the Viper and M5 V10's for comparison. One sounds like a monster V8 and the other sounds more like a diesel truck with a supercharger. I listened to an M5 fire up, was taken aback at how non BMW that engine sound, like a idling truck but once the rpm's climbs that truck disappears into a loud roar.
 
I swear to god some premium cars sounds like vacuum cleaner and so ''easy'', or created in virtual dj in pc, theres only thing i dont like in gt5, and it is.
 
One of few good sounding car, beside the 787, was the Nardo. It has a character, don't know if its accurate or not, but I could hear the orchestra there. Looking forward to hear the next update sound.

But I don't put my expectation high... As usual :)
 
HuskyGT
The sounds are better than in any game, so I can't think of how PD can improve them.

As I've said a millon times, the problem is the samples. So I hope that this is what's being taken care of. If they change the sound effects how they are right now but the RM Corvette still sounds like a six cylinder, then I'll be dissapointed.
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Have you played Forza 4? GT5's sounds do not compare. :/
 
Exhausts in GT5 are just different Equalizer settings. No matter what you put, the source remains the same. Bad.

That Furai cockpit video scared me and made me giggle at the same time.
 
zReHmz
Have you played Forza 4? GT5's sounds do not compare. :/
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Shift2 is better than GT as well to be honest, oh and Race pro.

Oh PGR too.....etc, etc.

If the sounds were the best in any game ever, I would imagine they wouldn't have thought it nessecary to improve them.
 
Somebody slap on a semi-racing exhaust on their Ferrari F430, or 458 Italia and please yell out "What the Bloody Hell?"...
 
I think we should all be looking to PGR4, not FM4, for how to do sound properly. FM4's sound is so poor quality it's actually laughable. Sure, it might sound "raw" on your tinny TV speakers, but it's actually just a mess of distortion (so I guess what normally comes out of those speakers, right? :P) I could have forgiven them if that distortion was used appropriately, for example when the car is tuned, or only when it gets close / really loud. As it stands, they mince the crap out of the intake sound to give it that roughness, and that should actually be a crime.

The lack of intake sound kills GT, as does the often incongruous exhaust upgrades. Keep it all stock, though, and it's only half bad (no intake.) I, too, prefer that they're trying to offer upgrades, and I'd rather they persevere than fold and take FM3 / FM4's approach of "one sample fits all", and overly distorting and exaggerating the mix to make it sound "awesome" - if you're the kind of child that needs that in your life, more power to you, but realism doesn't have to be boring either (PGR4).
 
Griffith500
I think we should all be looking to PGR4, not FM4, for how to do sound properly. FM4's sound is so poor quality it's actually laughable. Sure, it might sound "raw" on your tinny TV speakers, but it's actually just a mess of distortion (so I guess what normally comes out of those speakers, right? :P) I could have forgiven them if that distortion was used appropriately, for example when the car is tuned, or only when it gets close / really loud. As it stands, they mince the crap out of the intake sound to give it that roughness, and that should actually be a crime.

The lack of intake sound kills GT, as does the often incongruous exhaust upgrades. Keep it all stock, though, and it's only half bad (no intake.) I, too, prefer that they're trying to offer upgrades, and I'd rather they persevere than fold and take FM3 / FM4's approach of "one sample fits all", and overly distorting and exaggerating the mix to make it sound "awesome" - if you're the kind of child that needs that in your life, more power to you, but realism doesn't have to be boring either (PGR4).
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I get no distortion (Unless it belongs of course) through my Turtle Beach X41s Maybe you should stop using those 5w TV speakers as your bench mark.
 
FyreandIce
I get no distortion (Unless it belongs of course) through my Turtle Beach X41s Maybe you should stop using those 5w TV speakers as your bench mark.
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You do get distortion, FM4 provides it for you. Did you not see and hear those comparison videos? PGR4 is absolutely spot on. FM4 is somewhere out in orbit. I'm sure plenty of people enjoy it that way, but it's just not right, and to my tastes it's totally brainless. I know that plenty of people enjoy PGR4's sound, so I think it's fairly obvious in which direction GT should go.

Microsoft is pretty good at tailoring for a certain demographic, though (look at Halo; specifically its marketing.) It's a shame, because the sound in FM2 was miles better than what it is now. They were heading in the right direction, but sensationalism got the better of them. There'll be Michael Bay, petrol-bomb-like explosions in the next one! :P

EDIT: I noticed your headphones are wireless. That means they have a rather high noise floor, so uncompressed (in the audio sense -> full dynamic range) audio will not work very well with them, and will confuse the noise cancellation. But that's OK because most games target TV speakers and their terrible dynamic and spectral properties; whilst most other media target portable devices. 👍
 
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Griffith500
I think we should all be looking to PGR4, not FM4, for how to do sound properly. FM4's sound is so poor quality it's actually laughable. Sure, it might sound "raw" on your tinny TV speakers, but it's actually just a mess of distortion (so I guess what normally comes out of those speakers, right? :P) I could have forgiven them if that distortion was used appropriately, for example when the car is tuned, or only when it gets close / really loud. As it stands, they mince the crap out of the intake sound to give it that roughness, and that should actually be a crime.

The lack of intake sound kills GT, as does the often incongruous exhaust upgrades. Keep it all stock, though, and it's only half bad (no intake.) I, too, prefer that they're trying to offer upgrades, and I'd rather they persevere than fold and take FM3 / FM4's approach of "one sample fits all", and overly distorting and exaggerating the mix to make it sound "awesome" - if you're the kind of child that needs that in your life, more power to you, but realism doesn't have to be boring either (PGR4).
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Hear, hear. My thoughts exactly.
 
zReHmz
Have you played Forza 4? GT5's sounds do not compare. :/
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Look, there is a lot than just "sounds." Sound Effects in general are better in GT than in other games. But there is more than just having refined sounds, and awesome doppler effect and high quality suround effects. We have all this to consider:

-There is the engine sample itself (4cyl, 5 cyl, 6, 8, 10...etc) Which although GT fails in most cases, we have to admit they've been fixing this diligently, at least in GT5. I havn't played Forza, but of the 400+ cars they had in F3, I could only notice one that was wrong which was the Viper GTS/R Oreca which sounded like a V8. So I agree with you. Forza is better here. Again, I didn't have Forza 3 or Forza 4. This is just out of pure videos that I've seen or the few times that I've played it at a friends house.

-Transmission, turbos, exhaust popping, superchargers, Gran Turismo has never been known to focus on these sounds. Since GT3 we first had the transmission whine which has been a pain since. In GT5 they have improved it, and it sounds nice in most race cars. In games like NFS is too exagerated and artifitial. With Forza, I have never heard it. Turbos have never sounded good in GT. Only on GT5 the "whistle" sounds half deacent, but it's nothing but a modified effect that has had since GT2. Same with the blow-off valve. Games like NFS and Forza do it better. Specially on Forza. Supercharger whine has never been present in GT except in the Shelby Series 1 and Ford GT. And they do sound accurate. Again the competition does it better. About the complexity of the sound of an engine, PD has made a great effort in this game, but it's noting more than retouches to the effects that they have always had. NFS and Forza are superior in this aspect, since even though in NFS sounds are too exagerated (shift), you can hear every single aspect of the engine (I don't know how to explain this)

-Gear changes, etc... GT has always failed on this. Unfortunately when you do gear changes and such, all cars seem to have DSG transmissions. They change too fast. This was something that was somehow fixed or simulated in GT4 because there was actually a pause between each gear change on stock cars. Games like NFS and Forza, you can even hear the clutch plate engaging after the gear change has been made and all. Gives it a better feel.

-Exhaust changes The most debatable thing in GT. the one thing that makes you ask yourself "What were they tinking." Everybody knows that changing the exhaust in 98% of the cars, not matter what type of engine it has, will always give you as a result a sound that doesnt match the engine type of the car. Only few examples can be mentioned, like some japanese 6 cylinders that always wiill have a 6 cylinder sound, The ford Mustang Mach 1 which always gets a V8 sound, the new Vipers which have a more grunty V10 sound with the Sports exhaust, and other few. The rest are terrible. Some might include the dreaded RM Corvette, that goes from a V8 to an undetermined engine. The Honda S2000 gets a 6 cylinder when changing to one of the first to levels of exhaust (i don't remember)... And the list is endless... Games like previous NFS have always been an example to follow. Where if you changed the exhaust, you still had the sound of the actual engine that the car had, but it just got louder and more grunty. Forza, I don't know.

So bottom line, I do like the sounds that Forza 3 (at least) had. They are more correct in all of the points mentioned above, plus they are not as exagerated and terribly distorted like in the newer NFS titles (shift). The sounds that NFS Undercover had in (which I counted only 3 cars that didn't have a correct sound) was a good example of how it need to be done, with a little bit more of refining that is.

But overall, I'm happy where GT has gotten now. In previous GT titles I suffered a lot because of this. Now there are more cars that I can enjoy since they have at least been given a propper sample. And yes, sound is very important for me, since it adds to the realism. I personally don't know how people can enjoy their favorite cars in the game with a modified exhaust that completely messes up the propper sound of the car.
 
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Good post HuskyGT, but you should check FM2 videos; it's better than FM3 because it's less over-the-top, and the cars' sounds changed when they were modified (at least, the exhaust did; so, as an example, a "fully tuned" DC2 Integra retained its somewhat gorgeous stock intake sound, but had a blaring race pipe - actually pretty cool).

Also, the (sequential) gear changes in GT are too clinical, but I prefer that to the over-done, almost badly timed changes in the NFSs. Forza isn't far behind in that respect.
Try the H-pattern and clutch, though, and it really comes alive - probably true for the other games, too. I think they sped up the shifting in GT5 in order to better match the capabilities of the H-shifty people; it was a lot slower in Prologue, and GT4.
 
I've always thought that in GT5 PD could correlate shift times to how quickly/strongly one presses "switch gear" buttons, for added controlled shifting behavior variability and realism.
 
Nice idea. I remember every other PS2 game making use of the pressure sensitive buttons on the DS2; not much of that about now, it seems. To be fair, the buttons on the DS3 don't feel as responsive as the ones on the DS2, but that might just be rose-tinted retrovision. :P
 

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