Version 2.02 "Improved Racing Sounds"

  • Thread starter leighton
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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.

nod nod 👍
good post
 
For me the csl '03 sounds better as I thought I'd try out its new boots, it just gets drowned out by the loud wind noise and tires
 
Go to the options menu and select Audio, adjust the "Racing Sounds" to about 80-90, that helped tone it down but you can still hear the wind, it just doesn't drown out the engine noise on quieter cars anymore.

Mine was already on 90. It seems turning my subwoofer way down helped a lot but didn't fix it. The wind noise is so terrible, it just sounds like tape hiss or something to me, wish I could turn it off.

The engine on the "Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR '08" was virtually inaudible for me in traffic in the Laguna Seca Stars & Stripes seasonal. Switched to the Z06 '09 and can hear to shift anyway, but it's still not good hearing the horrible wind effect.

Maybe it's a good time to switch to interior view.
 
I haven't bought the latest dlc pack yet. But comparing two different videos, the Scirocco in GT5 sounds similar to the one in real life. It's very impressing. Does anyone else agree?

GT5:


Real life:


PD is doing a good job with the engine sounds. They have good audio high quality :)


I love how you can discern audio quality levels from an offscreen video with further compression...

And if by "a good job with engine sounds" you mean incorrect with completely new cars than yeah, awesome job.
 
Obsidian-2
Mine was already on 90. It seems turning my subwoofer way down helped a lot but didn't fix it. The wind noise is so terrible, it just sounds like tape hiss or something to me, wish I could turn it off.

The engine on the "Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR '08" was virtually inaudible for me in traffic in the Laguna Seca Stars & Stripes seasonal. Switched to the Z06 '09 and can hear to shift anyway, but it's still not good hearing the horrible wind effect.

Maybe it's a good time to switch to interior view.

I just found out that method I suggest doesn't actually work at all, I noticed no difference whatsoever between 90 and 70.. I hate this new wind sound, it's great to make it realistic, but its way to drastic to the point I can't hear the car's engine so I know when to shift, give it more gas, let off, etc.. The tire sounds seemed to be improved though, they're much louder and they sound much more realistic and I like that, I just can't stand the new wind noise..

EDIT: I just tried setting the racing sounds all the way down to 50 and it still sounds the same.. Ugh. And now I brought it all the way down to 20 and it turns out it effects how loud the engine and tire squeal is, the wind can't be adjusted unfortunately.. bugger.
 
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What's your sound setup, are you using home theatre or just the speakers from your tv?
I had my tv on virtual surround before and it sounded like crap, now that I've switched it back to normal 2 speakers, it sounds a whole lot better.
I just found out that method I suggest doesn't actually work at all, I noticed no difference whatsoever between 90 and 70.. I hate this new wind sound, it's great to make it realistic, but its way to drastic to the point I can't hear the car's engine so I know when to shift, give it more gas, let off, etc.. The tire sounds seemed to be improved though, they're much louder and they sound much more realistic and I like that, I just can't stand the new wind noise..

EDIT: I just tried setting the racing sounds all the way down to 50 and it still sounds the same.. Ugh. And now I brought it all the way down to 20 and it turns out it effects how loud the engine and tire squeal is, the wind can't be adjusted unfortunately.. bugger.
 
djs
Do you have any intake sound at all?
I don't... :grumpy:

There is no intake sound in GT5, except that which bleeds over from the "engine" sound, which is very rare. In my opinion, adding intake sound (even for turbo cars) would massively improve the accuracy of the sounds; at least for stock cars.

We should make that abundantly clear in the feedback section.
  1. Fix the allocation of samples to cars, so that they actually sound like they have the right kind of engine.
  2. Get to work adding intake for all cars.

The exhaust on the Scirocco sounds good to me. Not heard one in real life, mind you.
The "engine" is a different matter, but that's par for the course at this point.
 
One thing I've noticed:
I have a low end 5.1 system with 800w output. I've been using the small theatre option all along from the beginning, now I use living room and i thing it suits me better.
At least now sounds come to my ears a bit clearer than before...
 
djs
One thing I've noticed:
I have a low end 5.1 system with 800w output. I've been using the small theatre option all along from the beginning, now I use living room and i thing it suits me better.
At least now sounds come to my ears a bit clearer than before...

They are just more compressed and even in volume, the true experience comes from Large Theater (needs Volume level adjustments bc menu sounds\music will be much much lower than race and replay fx), in this setting you can truly hear the dynamics of the sounds, and it wont do "volume stabilization" like when you are surrounded by cars and your car seems to drown out, in large theater the louder it gets, the louder it gets, not just having the extra noise at same levels.

In sum Large Theater does require level adjustments, but is the most pure and raw form of sound that GT5 can produce.
 
I don't know if it's the update or has it been this great from day one but oh my god the 350Z Nissan (the Fairlady something in-game) sounds nice! No idea how it compares to the real world 6cyl Nissan engine but I enjoyed it in GT a lot.

Strange how I hadn't bought this car before today because this is one of the few Nissans I actually like IRL too :D

Anyways I'm really happy with the improved sounds overall, thanks PD!
 
They are just more compressed and even in volume, the true experience comes from Large Theater (needs Volume level adjustments bc menu sounds\music will be much much lower than race and replay fx), in this setting you can truly hear the dynamics of the sounds, and it wont do "volume stabilization" like when you are surrounded by cars and your car seems to drown out, in large theater the louder it gets, the louder it gets, not just having the extra noise at same levels.

In sum Large Theater does require level adjustments, but is the most pure and raw form of sound that GT5 can produce.

Is it supposed to work with my system or is it needed a 7.1 set?
 
This question has probably nothing to do with the recent update, but I'll throw it in anyway.

I have just recently installed a 5.1 system and got a little surprized when driving my favourite car, the 787B: the engine sound seem to be distributed 20/80 (left/right surround). Other cars, for example, have a balanced sound. So I can rule out my settings on the sound system itself.

Should the car sound be like this? Does it sound the same in your systems?
 
I have just recently installed a 5.1 system and got a little surprized when driving my favourite car, the 787B: the engine sound seem to be distributed 20/80 (left/right back surround).
Some cars have uneven sounds in the channel distribution. This is extremely annoying with headphones. In my experience, engine and exhaust sound source isn't that narrowly localized in real life.
 
Take it to the top of 5th gear. Listen to the woefully horrible looping noise. It also sounds like it constantly missing. It should be absolutely smooth, just listen to this and compare:



This could just be due to a crappy recording but listen at 1:24 and 1:43 in this clip. If I recall correctly, I think you hear these sounds in the game also at max rev. Is this the loop sound you were talking about?
 
Some cars have uneven sounds in the channel distribution. This is extremely annoying with headphones. In my experience, engine and exhaust sound source isn't that narrowly localized in real life.

Indeed, the car's cabin reverberates all the sounds slightly (it's all very short-lived, but it makes a massive difference). Add to that the exhaust emits sound along its length, transmits vibrations into the chassis, the intake emits sound along its length, the engine transmits vibrations into the chassis, the suspension transmits vibrations into the chassis etc. etc.

All of this colours the interior sound greatly, but you can't do that with the two sound sources in the game. It needs to be a bespoke mix / sample set, which requires either loads more processing power, or a bit more memory. You can get partway there with several cheats, mind.
 
Some cars have uneven sounds in the channel distribution. This is extremely annoying with headphones. In my experience, engine and exhaust sound source isn't that narrowly localized in real life.

I agree, I use headphones and some cars sound sources are too narrow, leads to annoying sound distribution. Doesn't bother me too much after a little bit but I do hope they mend it.
 
Right now I am so mad I didn't become a collector sooner. I don't have the freaking 22B. I would go to the trading section but I would think that word would get out about how badly I want it.

Random online trade lobbies for me........ Crap.
 
They are just more compressed and even in volume, the true experience comes from Large Theater (needs Volume level adjustments bc menu sounds\music will be much much lower than race and replay fx), in this setting you can truly hear the dynamics of the sounds, and it wont do "volume stabilization" like when you are surrounded by cars and your car seems to drown out, in large theater the louder it gets, the louder it gets, not just having the extra noise at same levels.

In sum Large Theater does require level adjustments, but is the most pure and raw form of sound that GT5 can produce.

Did this for the first time and I see what you are talking about thank you!
 
So today I was racing the Ferrari F10 on Spa on roof cam and I noticed the "air" sound :P
Pretty cool that they finally added this in haha, but to be honest I'd rather listen to the engine noise rather than air - but hey it's more realistic they way they got it now ;)
 
I always race my standard cars from the hood view the air noice makes me crazy I really hate it. Please make an option to turn this sound down, can't hear me cars :(. Ps I use a 4.0 960rms setup the louder I turn it up the more it makes me crazy.
 
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