GT4 should have background noise!

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Robin

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I just wanted to know what you lot thought of this idea........I was wondering why PD doesn't record BACKGROUND NOISE for each of its tracks. If you notice when u race in New York is sounds very oddly silent even when racing, there is no way that New York sounds like that on a sunny afternoon!......its like a ghost town. In the GTA's they had a 20 minute soundtrack for just background noise.....like wind, people talking, urban hussle and bussle and traffic noise in the distance. Why cant PD make New York, Hong Kong etc sound real! where are the traffic horns! the people shouting, the noise of roadworks!!, Police cars for goodness sake! :D stuff like that wouldn't be hard to put into the game.....it would just be another sound file overlapped over the in game music and add hugely to the realism. All PD would have to do is setup a mic in the middle of NY and record for a while :D If PD want the environmental effects to be realitic they should start at least by making the tracks SOUND like the locations, even if other things (like 3D spectators) are proving a challenge to do on the PS2's hardware.......PD should take one step back and do the obvious........if they can do painstaking reconding of 500 cars engines then they can do this. Yes, tracks have people, cars, trees!.........BUT WHAT ABOUT SOUND!!! :lol:

What do you think......... 👍 👎

Robin
 
Don't forget, at the New York course, Times Square has been shut down for an auto race, so there's going to be practically everyone in the city at that event, not driving and honking. But anyway, I do think ambient crowd noice would add a bit to the replays, and maybe ambient wildlife sounds for rallys.
 
That is basically what I ment.....if the whole of New Yorks gonna be at the race........then PD should make it should it sound like the whole of New York!!! When you stop your car on New York circuit and listen.........theres nothing.....AT ALL! you would still hear crowds cheering and maybe the rest of the general urban noise......at least not total silence! As you said also with the rally tracks...where are the birds singing and the animals!......its ment to be the wilderness.......not a nuclear bunker! :lol: As for Hong Kong......you should hear the habour boats....the water lapping against the shore.....maybe the odd helicopter! Life wouldn't stop in these cities......you would still hear the people, the traffic and other noises in the background......

To make it the real driving simulator.....you need the atmosphere......which needs some sound apart from the cars! :D
 
Sounds like a good idea but I think I'd rather have a few extra cars in before such extravagances! I suppose it would be nice but you have to remember how much space audio takes up on a PS2 disc. I don't know the figures, someone else here will, but its a lot so you may have to forfeit music if you wanted ambience.
 
I disagree. If anything what I was wanting from GT4P and indeed the forthcoming GT4 was the annoying background noise to be removed. I was so relieved to be able to drive round the circuits without stupid crowd noises spoiling the engine noise in GT4P.

Example, driving in GT3, say on Laguna Seca. Just driving round the track, I don't want crowd noise .... Bloddy engine noise is more important to me. GT4P is that way so I'm a happy chappie.

Maybe having the ability to turn on/off the background noise would be a fair compromise. I can take your point about adding to the realism but i'm more in to the racing and the noise of the cars than the actual crowd.

💡 So, GT4, give your gamers a choice!

Cheers
 
Why waste DVD Quality Audio which around 48khz High Def, on Crowds noises and ambience when it could be put to better use in the car and vehicle engine and SFX.
 
RacyBacy
Example, driving in GT3, say on Laguna Seca. Just driving round the track, I don't want crowd noise .... Bloddy engine noise is more important to me. GT4P is that way so I'm a happy chappie.

Maybe having the ability to turn on/off the background noise would be a fair compromise. I can take your point about adding to the realism but i'm more in to the racing and the noise of the cars than the actual crowd.

Cheers


Well not every track in upcoming GT4 will have crowds surrounding the entire track itself. (i.e. - Nurburgring). The idea of turning it off is a good one. The more options to suit the drivers taste, the better.

Nice Audi 5000 (or is it a 100?), used to have one myself. Moved onto E30 BMW though. Right Wheel Drive... :)
 
When most of you talk about background noise 'wasting space' on the game disk I don't believe that it would have such a disasterous effect on the games ability to have just as many other features. Vice City managed to map miles of 3D areas, cars , people, guns and still have room for weather effects, radio stations, cut scenes actors voices, and BACKGROUND NOISE. I'm sorry but if Rockstar can put that much detailed data on to one disk then I don't believe that PD, with a better knowledge of the PS2 can't achieve the same, or even more! As Eagle mentioned, the background noise doesnt have to be encoded in high quality sound! The CD quality can be used for the engine noises and music but you can have a simple low quality WAV sound file for ambiences.

PD said that they had squeezed 100% out of the PS2 for GT3......I guess there was more juice cos they still manage to release amazing features!

You have to admit that in the real world tracks wouldn't be silent people would be cheering for you wether you like it or not! However it would be good if the feature could be turned on and off to suit various drivers.

Robin......
 
M-Technik III
Well not every track in upcoming GT4 will have crowds surrounding the entire track itself. (i.e. - Nurburgring). The idea of turning it off is a good one. The more options to suit the drivers taste, the better.
Yep, the option to have background noises on or off would be a useful one I feel. But robin2223 wants the noises of trees included so the Nurburgring would be all rustly as you powered round it in your BMW. Little birds twittering etc as you scream past at 140 m.p.h! :lol:


M-Technik III
Nice Audi 5000 (or is it a 100?), used to have one myself. Moved onto E30 BMW though. Right Wheel Drive... :)
You let the side down moving on to BMW's my friend!

It's an Audi 200 quattro turbo but they were badged 5000 in the good old U.S.A. Only the later 5000's and 20v versions were badged 200 I think in the U.S.A.

I wouldn't mind racing you in the upcoming gt4 with me in the 200 and you in your E30! You would be slithering about with the R.W.D and I would be powering through the bends in beautiful four wheel drifts! :cool:

Cheers
 
Uve gotta admit that the birds would be damn scared if you bombed past then at 140 mph!!! :lol: :lol: That is the realism that i'm talking about.....Environments are not dead, they have other influences.....Fast cars would make the trees rustle, for example. Whe racing you hear the tires screach.....so why not anything else! :D
 
Yeah, the birds would be a little shocked to say the least and even more so if I had driven by in my quattro turbo because I would have been going faster! Hehe, sorry it's the old Audi/BMW rivalry.

The other aspect to background noise was when it got activated etc. In GT3 you just needed to be at a certain point on the circuit and the crowd noise would come on. It was so annoying. :grumpy: I think the immplementation of decent background noise would be tricky to say the least. Give us options GT4!
 
O no, I was so happy when I found out that that stupid spectator noise was finally gone. Please PD keep it away! :yuck:

I prefer to hear my engine.
 
Me too, but you can barely hear the spectator noise in GT3, unless you have a soft car. I can hear my engine noise very well :) It's usually the music that is annoying...
 
All you naysayers: adding background noice wouldn't be any harder than adding music. It's just another audio layer. And all you really need is a few short, mid quality audio loops. And although it wouldn't add much while racing (like I could hear birds chirping while driving a race car...a Prius on the other hand...), it would certainly add some atmosphere to some replays.
 
At first, I was going to completely disagree with the topic being raised, but after a little thinking, here is a "on the other hand" view of this topic.

This is no such race track, but imagine being on a race course complete with natural waterfalls (as opposed to man-made waterfalls), sandy beaches, and maybe even a train station. Now imagine yourself ride right along. Normally, you would hear the noises of (1) the water rushing down the waterfall, (2) the seagulls and jetskis in the water, and (3) a train running down the track. In most games, you'd see hear those sorts of things. One of the best cases of ambient noise is in "Ridge Racer Type 4." From the planes of the "Helter Skelter" race event to the fireworks of the "Shooting Hoops," you hear all and see all. This past weekend, my parents took me out (while I was enjoying Le Mans coverage). When we came home, my parents turned down the radio as were trying to hear a plane take off from the airport. Now, I kind of hear this all the time because I live not too far from an airport. Keep in mind that we were able to hear the plane because we run at normal, daily driver speeds. Had it been a professional race, you wouldn't be able to hear the plane very well because you're out racing. So even if you hear someone talking to you cheering "go (your name or nickname here)!", you won't be able to hear them at speed. So maybe when at slow speeds, it's possible, but for the most part, you can probably care less.

By the way, there are two examples from Sega's "Super GT/SCUD Race" I could have used in describing a racing environment. The two beginner tracks are an aqua park and an airport respectively. The aqua park was kind of more what I wanted to talk about in my reply. Then the airport has no planes flying by for what I remember. Anyhow, there you have it.
 
If it has to be in the game for the nonsense freaks, or for those who prefer to test drive a mazda mx-5 before 100.000ds of cheering crouds, then let it be unselectable at least ...
 
Buggy Boy
If it has to be in the game for the nonsense freaks, or for those who prefer to test drive a mazda mx-5 before 100.000ds of cheering crouds, then let it be unselectable at least ...

Thats true, it'd be good if they have a crowd 'modifier' so when I'm 'racing' in my Fiat Panda around say around Grand Valley there isn't a load of full stands with spectators. Of course if it was a professional race maybe, but not the same crowd for both! :indiff: It just looks wrong...
 
Hush, Scud Race was teh 0wnZ.

I always used to drive Viper GTS-R.

As for crowd noise, well it's not a football match so you aren't going to be hearing mutch anyway. I think it's fine the way it is in GT3 and GT4:P of course it will be quiet if you are blasting through a straight at 180mph, or franticly braking down and apexing through the first corner.

Aren't the stands empty in GT3 when you drive time trial, or was that in the older games?
 
How about they work on the sounds of your car and the other cars at first. Have you ever been door-to-door with a car at full throttle that has a straight pipe w/ no muffler for an exhaust, and an open intake w/ no kind of air box or resonator? It seems louder then your own car. Also, just about all race cars are required to run with the windows down, so wind noise, and the noise from competitors, should definately be a factor.

In regards to the rest of this topic... race car drivers wear ear plugs because their car and other cars on the track are too loud. Even a car with a stock engine and a street exhaust roars from the driver's perspective at moderate speed when the interior trim has been taken out. The last thing you are going to hear from the cockpit of any kind of race car, be it an F1 car or production-based club racer, are the damn birds and bees, or the squirrels russling in the trees.

I for one will not be pulling over before the bridge of Grand Valley, listening carefully, then being upset because I can't hear the baby ducks down below.
 
Has anyone (Greyout exepted) ever sat in a racing car with a helmet on and engine running?

- you can't even hear somebody shouting through the window at you, let alone any spectator mumblings or birds chirping! - thats with the engine ideling - not at 8000rpm
 
I think crowds were gone during testing in GT1. I'm not so sure, though. I SURELY know stands were empty during license tests. I can even recall that easy A-License test with the Subaru Impreza around a 100-meter oval. No one in the stands.

Now on to Code_kev. I've played "Daytona USA 2: Battle on the Edge" about... 2 or 3 times. I played each track (especially that challenging street course). But in terms of environments, Sega arcade racers are king. From Daytona USA 1 with the slot machine on the oval to the Italian-like twister in Super GT/SCUD Race (SCUD stands for "Super Car Ultimate Drive" for the uninitiated), these games are king. Only racing game from them I've never played in an arcade was Sega Rally.

But with the reasons stated, you're not going to hear much outside of your car except the wind rushing by. I wonder if you'll probably hear some super-cute and super-annoying Morning Musume song when racing in Tokyo? Could happen. Don't bank on it, though.
 
TheCracker
Has anyone (Greyout exepted) ever sat in a racing car with a helmet on and engine running?

- you can't even hear somebody shouting through the window at you, let alone any spectator mumblings or birds chirping! - thats with the engine ideling - not at 8000rpm
You're right : little, except your engine, can be heard.

And if I remember well, in a F1-race on TV you seldom hear spectators sounds, let alone every turn on and on. :ill:
 
Ok, look, sure you can't hear anything but the car when you're driving an LMP or something, but don't forget, this is GT4, and it has 500+ cars, including hybrids and electrics. Those cars make almost zero noise, and it's almost eerily quiet while driving them in Prologue. Not to mention that some replay cameras focus on cars from a long ways away, and you can easily hear crowd noice at that distance from even a race car.
 
There already is some background noise, such as when you drive past the crowd; you can barely hear them roar. You would hardly ever hear birds chirpping while driving, so I don't see any concern there.

Plus, there are also sounds affects that you probably never even noticed, such as on the Test Course. The windmills have their own noise, like a hum (but I am not sure yet if it is present at the Super Speedway). It also is mistakenly carried over through the far exit of the tunnel, unless I am hear PD's tunnel acoustics.

You just have know when to listen.

Sound in GT4 will be improved anyway, so we needn't worry.

Cheers,

MasterGT
 
Its nice to see that all of you have your various viewpoints.....I can understand that maybe in high speed and loud performance cars that background noise would not be heard but I have to agree with Sven when he says that we have to remember that this is GT4......The whole point of GT4 is to have cars of various cars at various degree's of capability and all of you know that not all of the cars in any GT series are exsactly noisy! What about the slow old 80's cars, the hybrid's or the Minivans, cars like the Yaris (vitz) and Micra.....those are adverage day to day cars and if you were driving one around I am sure that you would hear alot of stuff around you other than the low volume engine noise. Not all cars obliterate outside noise and there are some cars in GT4 which won't in real life.

Robin :D
 
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