diasurgical
[Feature Request]: Add speech volume control
Feature Type
Quality of Life
Describe
Add volume control for character speech, as it is implemented in ps1
Is there a reason other than "ps1 did it"? This technically doubles the work for halving or muting sound volume, so there should be a compelling reason to separate.
As for me personally, I feel comfortable playing with music set to below average...otherwise...I get tired and uncomfortable. When music is set to below average, the voice of speech is hard to hear. If you increase the Sound settings, the sound of speech will increase...but other sounds will also increase...which is also not bad. On the PS1 there were additional options for adjusting the sound: speech and sound effects. I did not use Sound effects (although maybe other people need this option, I don’t know), but regarding Speech, it was very useful to me. Everyone has different hearing: someone will feel more comfortable with quieter, someone with louder. But if it’s too difficult to do, then it’s not worth it...it plays well... after all, this is not a business project where they try to please the buyer as much as possible for his money.... Therefore, if you do this, it will be great, and if you don’t, then it’s okay, I will play as I did before.
Is there a reason other than "ps1 did it"?
The different voice pack may well have different normal levels then the rest of the game, you could argue that it's an issue with the voice packs but good luck telling that to 1998 EA and have them change them.
Is there a reason other than "ps1 did it"? This technically doubles the work for halving or muting sound volume, so there should be a compelling reason to separate.
@FitzRoyX do keep in mind how often a person changes those settings. I've never ever touched them myself, so the additional overhead of a new slider is basically zero.
Not saying that's the case for everyone, just raising the point.
Also, a "master" slider could be added too, to give global control in a single place, which I assume would alleviate your concern.
Is there a reason other than "ps1 did it"? This technically doubles the work for halving or muting sound volume, so there should be a compelling reason to separate.
@FitzRoyX do keep in mind how often a person changes those settings. I've never ever touched them myself, so the additional overhead of a new slider is basically zero.
Not saying that's the case for everyone, just raising the point.
Also, a "master" slider could be added too, to give global control in a single place, which I assume would alleviate your concern.
A master slider would be very convenient. I often want to mute the game temporarily but I keep my music slider proportionally lower than my sound slider and it's quite annoying to slide them both to the left then have to guess where I had them previously, when returning them to their original positions.
This will depend on the new in-game settings since there isn't room for all of that.
All people are different and each person has a different perception of sound. That's why there are as many as 4 sound settings on the ps1: Master, Sound, Music effects, Speech. This will allow any person to choose the optimal settings for themselves. For example, if I play for more than 40-50 minutes, the music tires me out and my head starts to hurt... and that's why I turn the music volume down below average before starting the game... so you can play for an hour or two or more and not experience any discomfort from a long game. But at the same time, the volume of speech also decreases and nothing can be heard in the dialogues. Again, I repeat, if the implementation of this option requires a lot of effort for its implementation and as I understand it, only I suffer from this problem, then you shouldn't bother and it's better to focus on some other improvements... I'll survive somehow
What exactly differentiates Speech from the rest of the sounds? Do monster grunts qualify as speech?
no, grunting is music sounds. But "speech" is the live speech of the characters: both the people in the village and the quest characters in the dungeon (Butcher, imp, Goat-Man, Magician, knight, Lazar, female voice at the initial appearance in the nest, etc.) In general, everything that is voiced by live voices.
What exactly differentiates Speech from the rest of the sounds? Do monster grunts qualify as speech?
In technical terms it's basically streams that aren't music
no, grunting is music sounds. But "speech" is the live speech of the characters: both the people in the village and the quest characters in the dungeon (Butcher, imp, Goat-Man, Magician, knight, Lazar, female voice at the initial appearance in the nest, etc.) In general, everything that is voiced by live voices.
I guess that would require going through every sound file and reclassifying it as speech or non-speech. If you were to make a list of filenames and how to classify them, that might make it more appealing for someone attempting to work on such a feature to reduce the workload involved.
Is there a reason other than "ps1 did it"? This technically doubles the work for halving or muting sound volume, so there should be a compelling reason to separate.
@FitzRoyX do keep in mind how often a person changes those settings. I've never ever touched them myself, so the additional overhead of a new slider is basically zero.
Not saying that's the case for everyone, just raising the point.
Music is constant, repetitive, and can make actual "worldly" sounds harder to hear. That's why music got its own slider. OP did not come in saying he thought speech sounds were overboosted, he just saw that PS1 "had MoAr OpTions". Plus that, the pc font is way bigger, it's harder to make changes to it without reducing the font size and changing muscle memory. And now we're arguing whether monster voices are voices or not.
Also, a "master" slider could be added too, to give global control in a single place, which I assume would alleviate your concern.
Not really, a master slider moves all sliders including music. The point was that sound control will become two actions, and it will.
I always turn up speech volume in games that allow it because otherwise I often find it hard to understand.
+1 for this feature
@megaserhiizhuk
no, grunting is music sounds.
This feels incredibly arbitrary.
@FitzRoyX
OP did not come in saying he thought speech sounds were overboosted, he just saw that PS1 "had MoAr OpTions".
You are making a lot of assumptions here. From my perspective, I don't even care what the OP was thinking, I just think the feature makes sense by itself.
Plus that, the pc font is way bigger, it's harder to make changes to it without reducing the font size...
This is a current technical limitation. Doesn't invalidate the feature request, just potentially blocks it like Ajenbo mentioned.
and changing muscle memory.
This is the craziest purist argument I've ever heard here. Muscle memory around sound settings?!
And now we're arguing whether monster voices are voices or not.
Which is an important distinction in the context of this particular request. You don't need to join into that part of the discussion if it doesn't interest you.
Not really, a master slider moves all sliders including music.
Not sure where you got that definition of a master slider from. I've seen it implemented that way, but it doesn't need to.
The point was that sound control will become two actions, and it will.
This again depends on how it is implemented. You cannot state for a fact that it wiull require 2 actions.
There is also a stereo/mono option as visible in the picture. That one is quite easy to implement (usually just a flag in your sound library) although more relevant for old TV sound systems which may have had one speaker. Can reduce RAM usage though if the mixer converts everything to a single stereo stream...
This is the craziest purist argument I've ever heard here. Muscle memory around sound settings?!
The music slider does get used and it could get moved from this, because a 3rd slider begets a 4th slider. I think graphics and menu changes should have a complaint threshold higher than 1 guy in 25 years who calls grunts music, but I'm the crazy one?
Not sure where you got that definition of a master slider from. I've seen it implemented that way, but it doesn't need to.
Ok, I look forward to this seeing this master slider that moves only some sliders.
@FitzRoyX
The music slider does get used and it could get moved from this, because a 3rd slider begets a 4th slider.
This still seems pretty inconsequential to me to be honest... but I guess this is subjective so fair enough.
I think graphics and menu changes should have a complaint threshold higher than...
I don't think this needs any external confirmation to be a valid change. It just makes sense and is super commonplace. That warrants its inclusion even if there were no complaints/suggestions to do it IMHO.
... 1 guy in 25 years who calls grunts music, but I'm the crazy one?
To me you are both crazy 🤣
Ok, I look forward to this seeing this master slider that moves only some sliders.
The master slider doesn't need to move any other slider. It just controls the overall percentage that all other volumes operate against. For example, if you have "Speech" set to 30%, and everything else maxed, you get 30% volume for speech and 100% volume for everything else. If you have "Speech" at 30%, but "Master" at 50%, now you get a final output equivalent to Speech being at 15% volume while the rest is at 50%.
The Master slider is just an additional global modifier. The other sliders can remain as they are and can be used to define the proportion among each sound category.
This is why I said you can still control overall volume with a single slider. You set the proportions you want with the specific sliders (you'd likely only ever need to do this once), then you use master to change the overall volume when you need to.
There is also a stereo/mono option as visible in the picture. That one is quite easy to implement (usually just a flag in your sound library) although more relevant for old TV sound systems which may have had one speaker. Can reduce RAM usage though if the mixer converts everything to a single stereo stream...
Stereo/mono switch is on all my smartphones and they have no problem with the memory operator to switch the sound to Mono. Except for my TV box, it does not have this option. Apparently this option is made for some other purposes.