This mod aims to improve the overall audio quality of Silent Hill 3 on PC, by porting the Ps2 Audio to PC.
The audio quality in the pc port of Silent Hill 3 on Pc is subpar to say the least. Audio is converted incorrectly due to oversights and unique nature of these sounds. Under normal circumstances converting a sound to a new format is just that and it plays fine without issue. But due to the PS2’s unique nature the playback speed of these sounds could be changed in real-time from what the original speed is.
This creates entirely new sounds on the fly. This technique is also used in Silent Hill 2. When it came time to port this game to pc the porting house simply converted the sounds from .vag(Sony’s preprimary format to wav and ADX respectively) without going back and adjusting the playback speed of each sound individually. This oversight leads to sounds not playing at the right speed or pitch or some sounds being lower pitched then they should be. Going forward these sounds would be used for the Xbox port of the game as well as the dreaded HD Collection which is a conversion of a conversion of a conversion (PC>Xbox>Xma/atarc3) Furthermore the sounds of the PC version are also highly compressed compared to their PS2 counterpart leading to a muddy sound. This is most likely because the game had to fit on CD-ROM. However the files for the cutscenes and background music are actually copy pasted from the PS2 version byte for byte. And are already converted to ADX and AHX properly. SO the only issue that was left to fix were the in game sound effects.
The Pc Version of Silent Hill 3 uses wav…. Yes regular wavs and ADX files for it sound effects. A small little fix by Pscyho-S initially fixed the pitch for a lot of the sounds but the compression still remained.
So I extracted all PS2 audio using some old python scripts and set out to recreate the sounds perfectly. The result is this little project I put together alongside the Silent Hill 2/3 HD Voice Packs. I hope you all enjoy! If you have any issues feel free to contact me. This mod can also be used with the Silent Hill 3 HD Voice Pack Version 5.2
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Changelog
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Version 1.0
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-Intial Release
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Version 1.0.1 (Main/Steam 006 Fix Branch)
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- Fixed a bug which Caused Heathers Final Death Voice Used When Falling To Start Playing To Early.
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Version 1.0.2 (Steam006 Fix Branch)
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- Updated the Steam 006 Fix to Version 1.9.9 Released on January 30th 2021.
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Version 1.0.3 (Steam006 Fix Branch)
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- Updated The Steam 006 Hotfix to Version 2.0.1 Released On February 7th 2020.
- Added Missing Lisa Audio.
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Version 1.0.4 (Steam006 Fix Branch)
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- Updated to the latest version of the Steam006 fix released on February 13 2021.
- Adjusted the ini to be compatible with custom images used in this pack.
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Version 1.0.5 (Steam006 Fix Branch)
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- Changed The Mod Description (The HD Voice Pack is compatible. Load BELOW The Audio Enhancement Pack Using Drag And Drop).
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Version 2.0 (Main/Steam 006 Fix Branch)
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- Reverb used In The PS2 version for footsteps, item pickup and item usage sounds have been restored.
- Corrected Pitch Of Item Pickup Sound To Match The PS2 Version.
- Implemented Higher Quality Radio Sound From Silent Hill 2 Enhanced Edition (Overall Sound Quality Is Higher)
- Updated Readme with proper credits to Steam 006 and Thirteen AG For Widescreen Fixes.
- Added A Separate Installation Instructions readme for Steam 006 Users.
- Added A Credits.txt listing all Credits.
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Credits
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Mario Tainaka: Porting the Gameplay SFX
Nisto: Old Python Scripts for Extracting PS2 Sound Banks
Sajid: VG Audio WPF
Slashie: Streamtools
Skyth: CSB Builder
Riders Lorten: Opening Banner and Logo Creation
Pscyho-S: Silent Hill 3 Sound Fixer
Piratesephiroth: MFA Extraction Script
Luigi Auriemma: Quickbms
Sewer: Reloaded II/File Redirector/AFS Redirector
ThirteenAG: ThirteenAG Widescreen Fix
Steam006: Steam 006 Widescreen Fix
The Silent Hill 2 Enhanced Team: Inspiration
For the credits:
It's Psycho-A, not S, who created the Sound Fixer.
Quick PSA: if you updated earlier tonight you might have to re-install the mods again and re-update due to a sudden change in Reloaded II's configs. Sorry about that.