Low quality audio of NPC voices on PTS - is it going live?

Fischblut · February 2020

Greetings everyone.
At the start of this PTS cycle, one of the first things I noticed was reduced quality of some audio. All NPC voice lines now have reduced quality (including voices of NPCs in upcoming dungeons, so it's not just for old content). I waited first week, but nobody else posted about it and there was no official mention of the reduced audio quality. So at the start of second week, I've submitted bug report about it...
PTS is now almost over, and there was still no mention of this, and no fix. As upcoming update should reduce size of the game, I fear that low quality NPC voices were done intentionally - cause they take less space

I've recorded few samples.

Today on live server, part 1:

https://youtu.be/y03WX3-Adtg

Same NPC today on PTS, part1:

https://youtu.be/pmQZfEvHm4Q

Today on live server, part 2:

https://youtu.be/7xEgQgy9gLY

Same NPC today on PTS, part2:

https://youtu.be/XebH5Ks21vM

It's like all NPC audio was converted from high into low bitrate. It's very unpleasant to listen to those hissing sounds

I can't hear any reduced quality in ability/mount/pet/environment sounds (I especially tested my mounts when EU was copied on PTS) - only in NPCs voices (in dialogue mode, or when passing by and NPC says something).

So I need to know - is the reduced audio only for PTS, or for live server with next update as well?

Eormenric · February 2020

I've listened to both sets a few times with my terrible monitor speakers (2-channel) and my Sony MDR-7506 (7-channel). I think I can maybe tell a difference in the low-end, but I welcome that compression because it's always annoyed me how bassy and up close these voices are even when they're far away--but such is the industry. I certainly don't hear anything close to a hissing. You should isolate the voice if you want good feedback on it. You still have ambient and effect sounds enabled... If I have to strain so much to hear a difference, then any change is not going to be noticed whilst engaged and certainly never by the average player that doesn't work with audio.

Perhaps your listening device has certain frequencies dialed up more than others--E.G. not a balanced setup--and this change could have affected that Hz level. Do we know what format the files were and what they became?

I'd be more concerned about the weird eyebrows the Ilmeni Arelas does in the second video... :P

Royaji · February 2020

I'm willing to bet that 90% of the playerbase either does not have audio equipment decent enough to make this difference noticeable or won't notice it even if they might own a headset good enough to hear that.

What many players will notice though is several gigabyte reduction in game size.

Taleof2Cities · February 2020

We can't confirm 100% but likely yes, @Fischblut ... the Sound Team is always working on something on PTS it seems.

But issues often don’t carry over to Live (including music).