ArmA Reforger 1.1+ Sound War: Comparing Top Reforger Sound Mods

[@Nillers]

I know I'm a little biased, but as someone who very recently went and shot some of these guns IRL (specifically the AK and M16) in full auto indoors, the vanilla sounds are the closest to real life. While I like the work on the other mods, they seem to over do the echo a bit.

[@tanaKaa]

I agree. Now if only we could get some tech that replaces your heartbeat like the M2 does, we can truly be immersed.

[@coffinbunnyzoey]

Bohemia seems to really care about sound now, and while I respect the efforts of amateur modders I just don't think they'll be able to compete with the budget and production assets that Bohemia has access to. Vanilla sounds are so damn good in Reforger, it's part of why I've played the game so much. I can't wait for Arma 4, it's gonna be so good :3

[@lorenr3276]

The biggest thing that vanilla does right is the crack from the bullet penetrating the sound barrier. When I fire my Mosin IRL it kind of sounds like a really evil lighting bolt

[@tanaKaa]

Yeah, sonic cracks are the #1 to immerse people. Apparently 1.2 is a lot better about it, so more to come from me in the next update.

[@TheDAWinz]

Vanilla 74 sounds perfect to me, as someone who has fired the 74 often, the SR sound mod makes it sound like a 20mm cannon lol. SR sound mod mixing is also horrendous currently, I just wish these modded servers stuck to vanilla until the mixing gets addressed.

[@tanaKaa]

Yeah the mixing is BAD, which feels bad because of how good the audio engine is for enfusion lol. It might be a different story on A3.

[@Twizted86]

@@tanaKaa The experimental version currently has audio changes too, so these mods may break when it goes live..I don't know how the audio process works but exp. has different interior reverbs for room spaces and hallways to the forest echoes etc.. Vanilla in the experimental sounds really nice currently.. I feel the vanilla sounds are legit, i just wish they were slightly louder. Though not as loud as the SR mod, somwhere in the middle would be perfect imo.

[@RyanRyzzo]

Vanilla, SR and BS. It's really difficult to replicate gunshots in videogames, but vanilla Reforger is probably one of the best in sound design out of the box. Often what's lacking is that powerful central sound. In Ground Branch game some 7.62 weapons nearly get that down - but it's still so-so.

[@TheSound0fLegends]

The inside sounds for SR sounds are accurate imo. The sonic cracks for SR sound are very good indeed. If the vanilla had these elements it would sound perfect.

[@shimavitz47]

IRL ear based injuries please

[@tanaKaa]

HUH?

[@shimavitz47]

@@tanaKaa what?

[@Twizted86]

@@shimavitz47 Did you say something?

[@pog428]

WHAT!?

[@TheCasualSirenEnthusiast]

better sound's interior echoes only work on some spots.

[@latch909]

Vanilla sounds so good for most to me. The mods are atmospheric but they really overdo the echo. I do think the Far Firefight for SR is more representative of a range in the distance however

[@tanaKaa]

Yeah it almost feels like the sounds stack on top of the vanilla tails, especially the trail offs against the environment. Vanilla is definitely the most balanced and appealing to most. I just wish they had better sonic cracks. That might be my next mod project. 🤔

[@RakaiVDentist]

Thank you for the ASMR video

[@munir9781]

Vanilla is simply better. The mods are just loud, they don't even sound like how the real guns sounds.

[@tanaKaa]

I agree. It's really hard to capture a weapon sound and translate it to something that sounds "good" in an engine. Weapons sounds are loud, which is what I think a majority of mod creators are trying to capture, but in the process they're losing what makes the vanilla sounds great.

[@SWIMEN3skss]

nice 😏👍

[@TumbleTrashOfficial]

My better sounds seems to be broken based on this video. I only get interior sounds, the rest are vanilla.

[@tanaKaa]

@TumbleTrashOfficial Yeah this video is now outdated as it was recorded in Reforger 1.1. BetterSounds has a bug where you only get maxed out interior sounds, but not everyone gets it. I think it's been reported to Ashyl already so a fix may come soon. For now I'd recommend SR Sound Mod with SR safety mod if you absolutely want to use a sound mod.

[@TumbleTrashOfficial]

@@tanaKaa Ah, alright then.

[@stefanDjuric-b7h]

is it possible to make a sound that is realistic to life during the fight to hear the bursts from a distance, is it possible to do it

[@bokc_nonpopularsalt1011]

Battlefield bad company 2

[@trashcompactorYT]

Better sound is the best if you like loud, Vanilla is the best if you want something that is nice and clean while still being realistic. SR Sound is just.... blown out. It's like you're shooting autocannons

[@Panazoko]

You know all these mods will be completely different in 1 year lol. Good sound mods even in Arma 3 are very important. Comparatively they changed over the years too.

[@thamerjawish3906]

This guy has a sexy voice doesn't he

[@rampantporcupineandfriends3793]

I Like the vanilla sounds. When I hear audio from a sound mod in game the first thought in my mind is, "that was some audio designed to sound like a gun and it was irritatingly loud" but when I hear a vanilla sound I think, "that was a gunshot". What I am saying is that the sound mods lessen my feeling of immersion. However, that's not to say I think vanilla is more realistic. I have to defer to your judgement on that. I'm just sharing what my experience has been as someone who appreciates Arma for its merit as a video game rather than its merit as a military simulation. I am curious if others can relate at all. I also really wonder what the intentions of the devs were when designing their sounds. My guess is that they thought of these sounds as being video game sounds first and authentic sounds second. Finally, it would be really cool to see something like engine simulator but done for guns. I wonder if the simulation methods it uses to produce audio could have a benefit for gun sounds as well. It would almost certainly be an impractical solution for a real time video game, but I thought I would share it anyways because it is a cool bit of tech that highlights the fundamental inadequacy of traditional sound design techniques to emulate these kinds of sounds in a purely realistic way. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iHy3XqaBqbdsbZI

[@tanaKaa]

I think it's damn near impossible to make sounds that are both nice/balanced on the audiophile side of things while also making them "realistic". Real sounds don't sound nice. They hurt and are extremely "in your face" if that makes sense. Likewise the curated weapon sounds from the audio designers/BI devs feel like they exist in a wide open space/sound stage and don't overpower. They did a really great job and I can only assume they'll be doing the same with tracked vehicles in the future.

[@LAxemann]

Heya, Reforger sound designer here! :D First off: I have a video about this very topic on my channel ("Authentic Gun Sound Design in Video Games (For Non-Sound Designers) in about two minutes"). TLDR: Recreating extremely loud noises like gunshots in a video game is figuratively and literally impossible. Aside from not being able to (luckily) reproduce the sheer volume physically on headphones and pretty much any speaker system, a "gunshot" is really just an energy impulse sent into the environment. What we perceive as "the weapon sound" is 98% consisting of the energy bouncing off the environment. In order to accurately simulate this, we'd need to do a perfect real-time simulation of simulated soundwaves in 360°, including frequency- and material-based absorption, reflection etc. For every single shot, or sound in general. As far as I'm aware, there's no program like that in existence as of now. Let alone doing these sort of calculations in real-time in a game environment. :P As for the sound design in Reforger: Just like the rest of the game, our approach was it to create "authentic" sounds that balance well against the rest of the soundscape. Some things we focused on were e.g. making sure that, over distance, most guns of the same calibre sound pretty much the same (aside from cadence). Extra care also went in ensuring that our gunsounds evolve over distance a lot, so just from hearing one you could quite confidentally determine the rough distance. I could ramble on forever here, so I'm stopping. Just know that the soundscape in Reforger, be it weapons, characters or environment, have a LOT of thought and detail put into them. :D (Did you ever hear water splashing beneath manhole covers after/during rain? Or that every larger piece of equipment on your character makes a sound, including the weapon on your back/your backpack?) I also want to mention that the inception of our weapon soundscape was a collaborative effort between Andrej/Megagoth and myself, but Andrej took over most weapon firing related stuff a long while ago. So all the polish and refinement over the past years is thanks to him (and our audio lead Filip, who continuously provided valuable feedback and input!) Oh and @tanaKaa, nice video!

[@tanaKaa]

@@LAxemann I think you put it much more eloquently than I ever could. Thank you guys for laying the foundation with Enfusion. The future is very bright.

[@LAxemann]

@@tanaKaa Thanks, dude! I've been playing Arma/OFP for 16 years and modding it for 10 before joining Bohemia, so I'm just as excited as any other Arma fan out there! :) Keep your ears peeled for new audio stuff/functionality in the next update!

[@rampantporcupineandfriends3793]

​​ ​@LAxemann Thank you for the detailed reply! I watched your ("Authentic Gun Sound Design in Video Games (For Non-Sound Designers) video and found it very enlightening. :) I had no idea about the significance of a gunshots tail or 0dBFS. Maybe one day we'll get the kind of 360 real time sound simulation that you describe. It sounds impossible but ray tracing has already done a similar sort of thing for light. So maybe not as impossible as it sounds, so to speak? We could perhaps hear it in our lifetimes. Though I wonder what kind of noticeable difference there would be considering that it would still have to come through our speakers. Finally, I did not know of the manhole cover and equipment carrying sounds. :0 I’ll definitely go give those a listen when I get the chance! And I look forward to hearing all the sounds that come out with future updates!

[@pandaliebhaber1993]

SR Soundmod is bullshit. When this Mod is on a Server, my Effectvolume goes down to 10%. Its Just loud nothing else

[@stacksmalacks8826]

Is that tanaka from cod