5.1 and The Living World Stories (No Cutscenes)

[notebene.3190]

My question is _similar_ [to this one](https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/61674/varying-sound-levels-eg-in-purifying-orr#latest "to this one"), but I have actual 5.1 hardware, receiver, optical audio using DTS Interactive. All is well and good on that front. Unless you tell me it won't work with DTS Interactive, at which point I'll have to finally throw in the towel and go buy a receiver that isn't so old and actually has all the HDMI inputs on it. :)

 

I would like to say, the sound design is great in the game! I've got conversations and voices and random sounds happening all around me. Wonderful!

 

This is more specifically a comment about how hearing conversations properly has changed since Living World story telling moved away from the original story cut scenes to open world conversations (whether in the actual open world or instances).

 

It seems like our 'mic' is a few feet in front of our head, and directional. When conversations are happening and people are standing all around us, if we don't position ourselves to face as many people as possible, we have to constantly shift so we can hear what they are saying. Even on TV and in movies, when people are having a conversation on screen (other than Interstellar, of course, where the sound was horrible, I don't care how Nolan feels about it), it's generally in the center channel, with few exceptions. In the game, it just seems to obey the laws of where they are standing in relation to you, and while that's realistic, it doesn't lend itself to hearing the story well.

 

Would it just be possible to change the dialog in those story moments such that they disobey those laws, and for lack of a better way to phrase it, just happen in our head, so we hear everything just as loud as when we're using our new Pet Dog Whistles and telling him what a good boy he is (which I picked because it's one the the loudest and clearest vocals in the game)?

 

Having said that, I 'do' feel that as the LW has gone on, it seems to have gotten better. I don't find myself having to twist around and face people or find the best place to stand in PoF and LW4 as much as I did in HoT and LW3. Is that just an illusion, or have there been some active changes in that regard as time has gone on?

 

Thank you all very much for all the hard work and wonderful game!

[Jason Wolford.7841]

Hi notebene, thanks for the comments. Your points are well taken. And you are correct, the audio engine has undergone some vast improvements over the years, and we are glad that players like yourself have noticed. With each release we strive to make improvements to the overall mix, but we have to be careful that these changes don't have an unintended effect on existing content.. There are legacy reasons that the dialog functions the way it does in surround. And the fix you are suggesting might be a big ask technically speaking, but we will certainly keep it in mind when considering future audio improvements. Thanks for listening and paying attention to the details!