There are two interesting things about the crack of a bullet passing by. One, they are super-sonic. Two, there aren't any in STALKER. Until now, that is. Saw that coming, didn't you?
The other day, I went out with my friend Keegan and recorded some rifle cracks to use in-game. I couldn't have done it without him - so big thanks to him. Using a Rode NTG-2 shotgun mic (about $250 USD), and a Zoom H4N field recorder (about $300 USD), we did just that. Soon enough, I'll have the proper equipment to record weapon reports, and this outing was good practice for that. In that scenario, though, I'll need to have around 3-4 field recorders set-up with anywhere from 7-12 mics. It is pretty involved, but not insurmountable.
There are a lot of other things for me to re-record for this game. Footsteps, monster noises, environmental noises, weather effects ...that is really only half of it, though. The other half is implementing them properly, which will take just as much time/effort as going out and recording new stuff.
Like anything, though, I just have to move down the list, doing one thing at a time, and keep going. Work flow is much, much faster now, given my long list of successes and ever-growing experience with the SDK. Nothing is ever easy with X-Ray, that much remains true, but it is incomparably easier from where I was six months ago. For that, and my hard work, I am grateful. Furthermore, Oilman has offered to lend his Lua expertise and maybe he and I will be able to polish a few things of mine that need polishing. A big thanks to him, too!
Also, I finally got around to using Adobe Premier Pro CS 5.5. However, I am still a noob with it and fucked up the settings, so it isn't at 1920x1200. It has shitty letterbox bullshit. My bad. I am working on putting another up right now. I'll update the link here as soon as possible.
[edit] Nevermind. We are stuck with this version for this video.
Daemonion
p.s. Make sure you watch the video on YT in HD. In-game demo starts at about 15:08.
p.s.s Soundcloud for the cracks here and here. Please note that I made 8 separate rifle cracks for in-game use, not just these two. It is important to minimize repeat sound use as much as possible. Imagine running around with only one "footstep" noise; it'd suck. Hence, eight separate cracks, each with their own variances.
Do you know why these are my favourite videos? Favourite game, nice guns!
Holy cow!
AWWWWWWWWWESOME work!
I deeply appreciate the time you put into creating an easy to understand and very informative video.
In regards to mixing up your amazing work with some of the (very) crappy default effects...please, if at all possible, don't.
In my opinion, the difference of quality is just too extreme. The level of contrast would be so enormous, as to make the default sounds stick out so much, that players are going to start listening FOR them, instead of just having them "happen" because they're part of the normal range of experience. I hope that I'm making sense here.
In other words, don't mix the prime rib with the meatloaf!
:-D
Not to pat myself too hard on the back, but dang, that last line was a good one, wasn't it?
I know that it probably means more work for you, but please try avoiding the mixing of your splendid and stellar work with other...lesser...things.
Again, TERRIFIC, and SPOT ON. Thank you so much for sharing!
Thanks for the comment. In the video, I actually mumble that I'll probably just make my own since the vanilla sounds are way too meatloaf-y.
It'd be nice to throw in a whizz or two from a sub-sonic round, like a heavy 9mm. But yea, I'd record them myself.
"Saw that coming, didn't you?"
I see what you did there.
/ITOLDYOUBROABOUTTHEBULLETCRACKS
This is... it's giving me huge boners!
Btw, thanks for the soundcloud link.
Keep it up!
First you talk about boners, then you also suggest I "keep it up."
Very subtle, my friend :D
Shiet, that came out wrong!
This is giving the game a much better quality, kind of a battlefield feel to it (which probably was your intention, and i definitely don't mind); can't wait to see what other ideas you got coming
Where's Holden and PanzerDraco in all this? I'd love to see some of their work as well
They're both pretty busy with RL as I understand it ...Panzer was mentioning he'd like to have something up for you guys relatively soon.
Holy ****, you are putting a lot of work into this, regardless of whether or not you like the mod, you gotta appreciate that much effort.