Please Add 5.1 Surround Channels!

[lettuce]

Have been playing Twilight Zone on the PS3 today and have noticed the game is only using 2.1 sound channels. Would it be at all possible to add 5.1, then it would be possible to say have the ROM audio coming from the left and right speakers and the actual table sound (flippers, bumpers, ball sounds) coming from the center speaker and or the rear speakers? This would make the game a whole lot more immersive, and you could alter how loud table sounds are

 

[shutyertrap]

Sound from the actual ROM audio is mono. Even though you see 2 speakers on the actual table, one was a tweeter, the other a midrange, no actual stereo going on. I asked Norman about this, even going so far as to say that the mechanical sounds on the table, as they are real and in front of you, would have an aural stereo effect. He said that it is possible to put in such a thing, but it's not something they want to deal with now, as it would just push release dates of tables back even further. The current goal is tables every 4-5 weeks. Putting that kind of effort into sound would push the releases back by another week or 2.

Believe me, I'd love for TPA to sound crazy awesome too, but the reality is it's probably not gonna happen. Oh, and for mobile platforms it definitely won't. They have a limited amount of space for sound package, and it's at its cap now. Also, since an say an iPad there's only one speaker anyways, keeping it pure mono just makes sense. I mentioned that you could always plug in headphones, but then it went back to size of audio package and the ROMs being mono anyways.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

Just need ambient arcade noise from the rears.

 

[lettuce]

That that would be awesome, center speaker would be the rom audio (mono), left, right and sub speakers would be table audio (bumpers, slingshots, flippers, ball hitting objects and rolling) and the rear speakers would be for arcade ambient noise. Im not sure how this would create that much more works as you just programing which audio channels are outputted to what speakers

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

PHOFGC has ambient arcade noise and PHOFWC!

 

[phreaker47]

PHOFGC has ambient arcade noise and PHOFWC!

I would love that too, but would also suggest making it a menu option to toggle on/off

 

[Worf]

Yeah, I hate the PHoF background audio.

But yeah, pinballs are actually all mono. Before Sega withdrew, there was a huge cry when they actually went with a single speaker (and a sound knocker), instead of wiring up another speaker to give faux-stereo.

Williams tables with DCS tend to have full range audio - a tweeter for the highs, a midrange on the other side, and a sub out the bottom. There's actually a crossover on the A/V board.

 

[George Klepacz]

Sound from the actual ROM audio is mono. Even though you see 2 speakers on the actual table, one was a tweeter, the other a midrange, no actual stereo going on. I asked Norman about this, even going so far as to say that the mechanical sounds on the table, as they are real and in front of you, would have an aural stereo effect. He said that it is possible to put in such a thing, but it's not something they want to deal with now, as it would just push release dates of tables back even further. The current goal is tables every 4-5 weeks. Putting that kind of effort into sound would push the releases back by another week or 2.

Believe me, I'd love for TPA to sound crazy awesome too, but the reality is it's probably not gonna happen. Oh, and for mobile platforms it definitely won't. They have a limited amount of space for sound package, and it's at its cap now. Also, since an say an iPad there's only one speaker anyways, keeping it pure mono just makes sense. I mentioned that you could always plug in headphones, but then it went back to size of audio package and the ROMs being mono anyways.

"Putting that kind of effort" is very telling to me. I know these are your words, but they are definitely the impression I've been getting from Farsight ever since Black Knight was released. MAYBE assigning mechanical sounds to different channels would increase the sound package to be above some cap, but what about the effort it takes to make sure art isn't missing or reversed? What about making sure a table is scripted accurately before release? What about the effort to animate sling shots and pop bumpers, which a year into the game should be second nature by now? Their mission statement says, "exact recreations" and while nothing is perfect, there are some obvious things getting pushed through just to make a schedule they themselves have come up with, putting them farther from "exact" than they should be.

I understand they need to pay the bills and need a stream of income. Then hire another employee to help with the workload. Not everyone there needs to be a pinball aficionado to check the accuracy of artwork, or animations, or sound design, or UI design. Hook up with some local universities and get yourself some interns to do this if you have to. Farsight is already getting pro bono work from the beta testers here to help them with gameplay bugs/errors to lighten some of the load.
I’m sorry my rant went a little off topic. I should start my own thread.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

2 weeks isn't very long. Id gladly wait 2 weeks if they could add ambient sound through the rears and ambient sound L/R tables next to th one you picked, so if funhouse is to your right you here rudy in attract mode taunting you and the option to turn it of and rearrange your tables to play whatever you want your L/R ambient table sounds wich eliminates those from the rear ambient sound. But mobiles cant use this whaaaaaaa! Im sick of being hindered by them.