Re: The sound is has been a little over lowered on footsteps.

Sound is a tough thing to get right. If you've ever read PUBG patch-notes, you might have seen charts (like below) which indicate the volume of footsteps at any given distance.

The problem with footsteps in Apex I believe is not the volume of them, but their directional and distance drop-off. I again want to stress how hard it is to get audio right in a game, especially when indicating verticality.

I believe CS:GO & PUBG have some of the best audio of any FPP/TPP shooters, but it took them many years to get it right. I trust that if CS:GO could do it, Respawn can get Apex's to the same standard given they both run on Source.

7 Replies

FaIIenAngeI777
6 years ago
@Dantenate Honestly I always hear footsteps, but I don’t understand why one day I can hear at volume 24 and next time its on 44 to hear anything.. like tf i use the same headphones, and when the volume changes it changes the pcs volume, and the game settings stay the same so how come sometimes 24 other times 34 other days like rn its on 44... then tomorrow will be 24 again
Dantenate
6 years ago
@FaIIenAngeI777
The master volume is the same across play sessions for me. However I find the longer I play in a single session, the more I need to up the volume a bit each time (this is because of ear fatigue rather than the game).
@hhnbbfggty66
Footsteps are sometimes completely inaudible. It's the only game I have these problems in (besides, I'm obviously not the only one), so it's clearly a problem with the game (apparently Source has problems with audio, so that's a good starting point for the dev team). I tend to only have problems with footsteps whose source is behind me. I remedy this by strafing sideways (W+A) to turn my head off centre, or bhopping, which means my directional audio is constantly moving.
tl;dr
Quick Fix:
1. Sprint off-centre (W+A or W+D)
2. BHOP
3. Sling your mouse around every so often
war_ant_5
6 years ago
Just a guess but i think it has something to with the horrible servers they using. Noticed since season 3 started how graphics are re rendering, from my expericence is server end issue of packets with low tick rate.
I believe CSGO uses servers with 120 hertz tick rate, why online experence for game good. Apex is a horrible 20 hertz tick rate LOL Probably the worse tick rate I know of for any FPS game.
Dantenate
6 years ago
@war_ant_5 If you turn your head perpendicular to the flight path, you'll notice voice lines dart between each ear. That'll give you an idea of the tick-rate, as well as the major stuttering server-side
hhnbbfggty66
6 years ago
@DantenateNo, it was the last update. They keep changing the sound. They dont put it in the clip notes but they are changing the sound.

At the beginning if season 3, the the footsteps were so loud I would be standing on the 4th floor of a building in Capitol city and could hear a pathfinder or bangalore 25 meters up the street walking around, entering buildings and closing doors.

After the Mirage event update the sound was so loud my headphones gave me a headache. And i havent changed the volume of my ps4 headphones for 6 months now. And when I went to his ship, the sound was deafening.

Then respawn released another update, the quick fix to lower the Christmas event xp.

The quick fix lowered the game sound effects. So now the Mirage ship wont blow your ear drums out, but now enemy players can barely be heard. Now I can only hear enemy players once they are within 5m of me. So I have been getting ambushed all week since that update.
hhnbbfggty66
6 years ago
@Dantenate
the surround sound is okay
The elevation sound can use some work.
I dont know if people are above me or below me.
Dantenate
6 years ago
@hhnbbfggty66 Yes, that's the case in almost every game though. Headphones don't have speakers above and below the main drivers, nor is making a driver that simulates elevation easy