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So I've long noticed that the sound in 2.5 is a lot worse than 2.8.5 and, in many respects, simply inferior. The doors and footsteps are literally, completely silent if you take advantage of certain peculiarities in the game. For example, a popular glitch we all used to use in Invite-level competition was on Pipeline. When, on assault, rushing Primary (or to Main Pump basement) from Oil, if you keep running without stopping, the sound you actually make won't render for the other team until a moment AFTER you are directly in the FOV of the other team. This occurs even if an OpFor is on Basement floor crouching down and looking at Primary. For OpFor, the enemies will simply 'appear' there like a ghost, or like the theoretical result of a teleportation device, with no precursor indication.

Another example is carpet sound, which changed in 285 and became not only, subjectively, better-sounding, but also better for people to hear it correctly. I believe 285 also changed the internal rolloff filters. The gun clicks and nade-pin sounds in 285 were crisp, sharp, and could be heard nearly anywhere on the map, which also balanced out some of the game's peculiarities in its sound production. And they probably did this because they had to remove/disable shadows altogether, as a result of a graphical anomaly (which still exists in 2.5 today) that allows big, black, boxy "shadows" to appear through walls, floors, etc.

I submit, basically, that we should try addressing the sound glitches of which folks who are in-the-know can take advantage, and simply allow everyone to hear more. I don't know if this encompasses modifying the internal roll-off filters or whatever, but I do know that even someone without an X-Fi (or any 3D-surround audio interfaces) will benefit from being able to hear more and get an idea of where people are when they are near -- rather than sounds randomly going straight to 'mute' when you were JUST able to hear them. Instead, I think the sound should gradually decrease with distance, which is more realistic. So if this is possible to implement, it would be amazing, and it would stop me from being able to sneak up on people all the time who, realistically, should have been able to hear me.

Lastly, the big, black box "shadows" are still here, and I think it's time we either disabled the "Full" option for the Shadows (which is the only way to promulgate the shadow glitch), or we figure out why it happens at all and fix it. I'd go with the former, seeing as though the AA devs didn't even really figure it out; instead, they simply disabled being able to put shadows to "Full," but they allowed "Blob" because you can't do the glitch with the Blob setting.

The sound problem is because of Windows 7.

you dont know anything about sound in aa dude

what turnaments you won? who are you?

IMHO hearing people miles away, isn't really as realistic as you're making it out to be. When was the last time you were sitting at home and heard a neighbor open his bathroom door? Or hear him go from the kitchen's hard surface to his living room with a carpet?

The sound is great as it is now, I dont experience anything what you described. So please dont try to "improve" the game again.

There are lots of things you can already hear; there are just anomalies that I think we should address and make it better for everyone. Like I said -- if you want players like me to have an advantage like that over others because they're not as experienced and/or in-the-know, fine. lol

I do agree with you, as I have pretty much felt the same about sound being totally different for me since 2.8.5.

I think there's too much sound in AA. It should be lowered to keep the game fun and fair. Sounds makes the game shitty as it's the one that has the best sound, who pays the most for headphones or has the most knowledge about sound that will win. It's impossible for someone of average level to 1 vs 1 against someone with perfect sound. It's like a wallhack or something and it makes the game really unfair.
Just my 2 cents

I completely disagree. You should certainly not have to guess so much. As I alluded before, even people with ostensibly "crappy" sound cards will still be able to hear, if they listen. If someone doesn't listen, it doesn't mean that we should move toward lessening the ability to do so, all for the sake of evening things out. This will NOT even things out; believe me, it will do the complete opposite, as I often play without AA sound at all, and I STILL take advantage of these sound anomalies, to much success. Instead, I think that we should move toward perfecting the sound we already have, fixing the anomalies. This will make the game more enjoyable for all. As it stands now, however, I certainly have acquired enough knowledge -- esoteric and otherwise -- over the years about the sound production of AA, and it's not necessarily (and mostly) my 'ability' to hear that allows me to have a sound-centric advantage. Rather, my sound advantage -- irrespective of my overall experience -- has to do with exploiting the manner in which AA 2.5 produces sound. So I'm on here admitting to you that I exploit, but I'm doing so in a very strange manner that isn't at all illegal and "checkable," which brings us to my proposition.

Oh yeah, and the matter of the black, humongous, boxy shadows DEFINITELY has to be addressed. A temporary solution could be implementing a CVAR check that disallows putting Shadow Detail to "Full." If players want shadows, just let folks use Blob.

My sound is terrible on win7 x64 compared to what it was on xp. More than likely a simple fix but i dont know of any.

I've not had any issues with sound or shadows. I'm not quite sure what's being discussed. Seems like a bulk amount of complaining. Does anyone actually have screenshots or video of the problem?

Haha, don't worry, Spanky. I'm definitely not complaining. I just want to prevent folks like me from having such a BS advantage by masking my own sound via the game's deficiencies. This is quite BS, to be honest. It definitely feels that way, and I get accused of hacking daily, and I honestly don't blame folks for accusing. You wouldn't believe how often and easy it is for me to sneak up on people. As for those shadows:





And don't be silly enough to think I play with these shadows and this is the reason I can "sneak up" on people. Don't make me video record you!!! I've been doing that lately. ;-)