ACCEPTED Audio Overhaul for Skyrim (by David Jegutidse)

[TheWatcher]

I happened to become interested in the subject earlier today and have researched various videos of both the mods. I spent most of the day today listening to all of the sounds showcased by the videos and taking scrupulous notes. At the moment I'll post the videos to you guys can see for yourselves, but at the moment my notes have gone into three pages into half of one of the videos, so I'll edit my conclusion into this post later when I'm finished (and spoil tag them so I don't kill anyone's eyesight...Fortunately for me I'm already blind as a bat. :P).

Sounds of Skyrim

 

• Sounds of Skyrim Project - The Wilds by VEProductions:
• Sounds of Skyrim Project - Civilization by VEProductions:
• Sounds of Skyrim Project - The Dungeons by VEProductions:

Audio Overhaul for Skyrim

 

• Skyrim Mod: Audio Overhaul for Skyrim by Brodual:
  (I used this video due to the nice comparison between vanilla and AOS)
• ]Audio Overhaul for Skyrim - Gameplay by davidJsound
  (This happens to be the one that I'm five minutes into it with three pages of notes.)
• Skyrim Mod Sanctuary 77: Audio Overhaul, Matter of Time and Alternate Summoning Visuals by Gopher
  (I will not listen/watch this one. I added this so there would be an equal number of videos to manually compare to. I vaguely dislike Gopher due to certain actions and comments that I find disagreeable so I am not watching his videos. Sorry if that bothers you~ Just explaining myself for future reference.)

 

[generalnutt]

I have seen both the video's you mentioned for AOS, and I have played with AOS, since almost it's release. The video's are not a good way to judge this mod, they do not give the same experience as using the mod in game. They tell you about the mod, but they can not make you experience it.

[TheWatcher]

At the moment I cannot play it, so these videos are what I've got to work with. I vaguely remember deathneko wanting to play with AOS in a playthrough and showed it to me but I found it deafening when he neared any river, I could not think over it...but that may or may not have been because of a water mod. I'd have to ask him. Either way, when I get back I'll play it on my own and make a choice. The videos were more for 'waiting until a better comparison video appears', as Mr. Tech has suggested he might do. As with most art forms, sound is subjective to the viewer so my conclusion wouldn't be needful because it's only my own uneducated and biased examination with my impaired hearing. Forgot the first rule in aesthetics...So do not mind my conclusion, as it's based on my personal experience and not what you have personally experienced.

[Spock]

This mod seems to be missing a wiki page, I tried to add it to a mod list in my pack but that didn't work. I'd fix this myself but I don't know how.

[flyingspatula]

I have been out of the mod loop for a while. Is this mod still in an unfinished state, or is it a well recommended sound mod that is save to use? I don't mind not using the Immersive Sound mods for this if its actually finished.

[z929669]

To add this to the wiki, just load up the page:

https://wiki.step-project.com/Form:Mod

 

then enter the name of the mod and proceed.

[EssArrBee]

Can I get general consensus from the MTs about this mod. What gets dropped if the Release Coordinators decide to accept it? Are you guys leaning towards recommending it? What in STEP needs patching that you know about?

 

Just trying to get an idea about the upcoming mod list if this is added, so I can get ahead on some things.

[z929669]

We are sorely lacking in the MT department. None of our official MTs are doing any testing for us, and we will likely need to solicit others to replace them. Hopefully, this will improve once we release 2.3.0 (or 2.2.8 for that matter)

 

Tech is out, so there is nobody really rallying the crew anymore, and I don't have the time, so I just solo the guide, release and website dev with s4n.

[EssArrBee]

Yeah, I guess I will have to start doing some actual testing myself. Work isn't really busy until the 21st, so I could test out a few mods until them. One of our MTs did the patching for this mod that was released a while back, maybe he will have input on it for us.

 

I'll start on it after I do some more testing of Come Together.

[z929669]

Testing this alone against STEP:Core (no SoS), overriding other sound plugins with this one.

 

Part of our testing should examine what conflicting sounds are better ... example: Better Weapon Swings. AOS has superior swing sounds where they overlap, IMO.

 

This guy is meticulous, and I tend to favor those with that kind of attention to detail. Still need to compare against pure SoS. If one or the other seems better, then we should compare with using both mods (depending on load order).

 

Again, this may obviate other sound mods, so a detailed compare of the conflicts with each is necessary.

[Genius384]

This mod makes a huge difference when you use headphones. Like night and day compared with vanilla skyrim.

[EssArrBee]

Wow, headphone users really need that reverb patch.

[Spock]

Testing this alone against STEP:Core (no SoS), overriding other sound plugins with this one.

 

Part of our testing should examine what conflicting sounds are better ... example: Better Weapon Swings. AOS has superior swing sounds where they overlap, IMO.

 

This guy is meticulous, and I tend to favor those with that kind of attention to detail. Still need to compare against pure SoS. If one or the other seems better, then we should compare with using both mods (depending on load order).

 

Again, this may obviate other sound mods, so a detailed compare of the conflicts with each is necessary.

The problem with comparing on a sample by sample basis is that the composition is really important. The sum of the best samples won't make the best sound mod. You are bound to find samples you like better in one mod or the other, what makes this mod outstanding is the overall composition and the changes to the way sounds behave in Skyrim. On the downside this also means it's really easy to break the composition of adding in other sounds that are not designed with the composition in mind.

Some advantages of this mod that I noticed:

- Low repitiveness of samples (in vanilla if you really listen closely you will notice the loop in some sounds)

- The changes to reverb and distance behavior (this is just amazing, most of the comparison videos show this. It makes the sounds much more believable for me. It does have the downside of sometimes hearing things through solid objects though because of engine limitations)

- "Crispness" of the samples (the frequency balance of the sounds is outstanding. This is very improtant for the overall experience)

- Realism (many sounds just sound the way thing should sound in real life. The archery sounds are that of real life, I tried it. A friend of mine built a small tesla coil a while back and AOS' electical sounds reminded me of that. Apart from high voltage discharge though but he is changing the sounds for high level shock spells in the upcoming version. The smith probably was the loudest thing you could hear in a small medival city.)

 

This is highly subjective but personally I think AOS reflects the actual things you see in game very well. For me it perfectly fits the atmosphere of the game (better then SoS).

 

Like EssArrBee pointed out the amount of reverb is somewhat depending on your sound setup. It's also personal taste. But that's what the reduced reverb patch is made for.

[z929669]

Yes, thanks for infusing some insight into the importance of context. Of course you are correct; however, in the case of the weapon swings and given what I know about this mod so far (and you are on the same page as me), the samples were enough in this case.

 

I use 5.1 surround, and the positional-reverb audio of this mod is fantastic. I also use headphones and agree that the sound is fantastic through them. People with simple stereo will not benefit as much.

 

I also found that several of our existing sound mods overlap to some extent, and Skyrim never sounded so good to me as with this mod. Where there are partial conflicts, I am not sure that we want some of the other sound mods, due to the contextual and stylistic differences. I still want to give SoS on its own a fair trial, but AOS will be tough to beat.

[EssArrBee]

With speakers I had no need of the reverb patch, just on headphones or ear buds and I tested with both. One thing I'll say about the realism front is that nature does not have that much base. I've spent many grips just hiking and camping in the woods and have yet to run into natures subwoofers unless there was thunder. This mod just kept coming at me with the lows though and that kind bothered me a bit.

 

I did like how on solsthiem I could here the silt strider moans from the top of the mountains. That made the game feel more alive. If anything it is an improvement over vanilla in enough places that it should be a base to build from or we can drop a few mods to save plugins spaces.