7.1 Surround Sound and other features

[2coolforu]

With immersion being one of the most important features of a game I think its important to add the little details that really increase the believability of a game.

5.1/7.1 Surround Sound

Using surround sound can really build a great gaming experience, having directional sounds allows you to pinpoint enemies with more accuracy, if you link it to a voice broadcast system (e.g. if your buddy is to your right and is giving orders the sounds actually come into your right ear) then it can become extremely easy to immerse yourself in a game.

Head movement independent of body
There is a feature that isn't present in many games - the ability to turn your head independently of your body or vehicle; In OFP/ArmA/Arma2/OA you can hold down the LALT key and turn your head without turning your body, you can also use a system like natural point (TrackIR) to do this without keybindings. It's extremely useful in a game as it allows you to survey and area while keeping your gun pointed in the place you are needing to cover, it also means you are talking to people you can turn your head to them rather than spin your whole body and point your gun in their face, it feels a lot more natural. Obviously this is quite a big feature to implement and I can't see it being worth the effort it takes unless the game is a milsim or realism game but it's a nice little feature. It would be INSANELY useful in aircraft, it was in Battlefield 2 as you could spin your head around in the helo's to spot targets. Being able to look around in a jet massively improves situational awareness and it's incredibly useful in these vehicles (especially if 3rd person is getting the boot)

Dual GPU/4 Core compatibility

I'm sure multi-GPU setups and quad core processors will be supported by Planetside (And I am aware that crossfire/SLI support is more dependent on Nvidia/ATI putting effort in but Sony can press them to get the drivers out) but given how many games out there release without proper system compatibility you can never be too careful. Even games like Bad Company 2 had horrible system resource utilization when they were released however they were console ports.

Local voice chat

I know how resource/bandwidth hungry a local VOIP would be but it is still pretty cool. It would just be a proximity voice chat that would operate as if your ingame avatar was speaking out loud, the enemy team could hear it (Possibly, this could make door camps and bit 'chaotic' as I'm sure all you would be able to hear is attackers screaming "Leeeroooy" or "CAMPING N00BS" ). The only reason I'm suggesting it is because some of the coolest moments in Arma 2 have been times when I've ninja'd enemies and got close enough to hear them giving each other orders during multiplayer or simply chatting.

Perhaps a local voice chat would be too open for abuse to be implemented, it would be nice to have some form of directional voice chat though.

[Redshift]

head movement is pointless tbh

proximity voice, urgh, most people are arseholes, i don't want to listen to them :P

[Goku]

I like the idea of the sound as that makes a game more impressive to the player.

I do not know about the whole head turning and keeping your gun pointed in one area at the same time. Sounds a bit overpowered and sounds like it can even encourage some camping to how third person is now in PS.

There will be people out there using multi gpu yes. Though really it is up to AMD/Nvidia to get it sorted, if they do not its their problem. SOE isn't the one making money off multi gpu after all.

I do not want to hear people in a proximity area either. I am sure it works in smaller games, but look what at red alert bases are like. Far too annoying and would not serve a purpose. Most clans have a voice client these days, so I do not think it is a big concern to do even a in game voice client. Most outfits will still use their Mumble/Vent/TS3 still.

[2coolforu]

Originally Posted by Goku

There will be people out there using multi gpu yes. Though really it is up to AMD/Nvidia to get it sorted, if they do not its their problem. SOE isn't the one making money off multi gpu after all.

I already mentioned that it is mostly up to ATI/Nvdia to release the crossfire/SLI drivers for the game, however sony is a huge billion dollar company with millions of customers and I'm sure they can speed up or improve the process if they wanted to, in the same way that many other AAA titles get decent GPU driver support.

[FastAndFree]

Originally Posted by Redshift

head movement is pointless tbh

proximity voice, urgh, most people are arseholes, i don't want to listen to them :P

It's not useless when you are in a vehicle and want to know what's going on around you. 3rd person only gets you so far. If there will even be a 3rd person view for vehicles

[Redshift]

Originally Posted by FastAndFree

It's not useless when you are in a vehicle and want to know what's going on around you. 3rd person only gets you so far

Isn't already in PS1 for vehicles? i seem to remember being able to look around with the mouse if you go first person in an ant

[FastAndFree]

Yes but that only works for wheeled/tracked vehicles

You can't look around in hover vehicles or aircraft

[2coolforu]

This is exactly what I mean about a 'head movement' feature, many aircraft get target fixation and tunnel vision, I've even been playing with friends and specifically tell them not to attack an enemy due to the volume of anti-air yet they do it anyway because they can't see the Triple-A in their tunnel field of vision so they instantly think that I must be seeing things as their target fixation makes them desperate to get a kill. It's the same with many pilots, especially in the old days before people learnt the ropes, full galaxies would just fixate on their drop target and ignore aircraft off to the flanks because the centre of their vision was on the base roof.

With the ability to turn your head you can look around to see enemy targets, vapor trails from rockets and incoming tracer fire. This would be INCREDIBLY useful at nighttime when you would have to rely on spottitng muzzle flash or tracer fire to avoid getting swatted, I use it all the time in ARMA 2 and the number of times that being able to look around as allowed be to see the backblast from a Strela or Tunguska launch or an enemy AAA vehicle has saved my life is massive.

[Vancha]

Holophonic sound please (requires headphones).


Edit: Actually maybe this would be a better example. Imagine they're gunshots/cannons instead of fireworks.

[BorisBlade]

Originally Posted by Goku

I do not know about the whole head turning and keeping your gun pointed in one area at the same time. Sounds a bit overpowered and sounds like it can even encourage some camping to how third person is now in PS.

Not sure you understand what he's talkin about. Gives no advantage other than you can run one way and look another, but that does mean you cant see where you are running. Your view is no better than without it as far as givin any advantage like third person does. The only real difference is you can easily turn your head to look around via an accessory like the TrackIR which is easier and faster than havin to turn your whole body which when moving also changes wehre you are movin too. Its much more immersive, without giving any real advantage. Its hugely helpful in air vehicles.

And they would have to be mentally retarded to not put 3rd person views in for vehicles. Yeah it should not be in for infantry but its a must in a vehicle. You just cant see enough to navigate worth a darn without it. I've never played any good fps game that didnt have 3rd person in vehicles, that alone would tell them its a good idea.

[Sovereign]

Pretty sure they'll have a form of holo sound in game I hope that its of realistic properties akin to how it is in BFBC2..

In regards to the camera functionail, I think it would be neat if it were flexible enough to where it helps you peer around corners in closed confines.

[Vancha]

Originally Posted by Sovereign

Pretty sure they'll have a form of holo sound in game

I'm pretty sure they won't.

[Hyncharas]

I think 7.1 is wishful thinking. Most people only have 5.1 since its big brother is a lot more expensive at the best of times. The same can be said for the head independency, but more because MMOs don't have as rigid a system as typical single/multi RPGs or shooters.

I do like multithreading, though - I saw games that dialled back the performance because of the CPU, but higher specs suddenly had beautiful vistas once more processing power unshackled parts of the graphics.

Local voice chat would be great as well, particularly if you wanted to address a whole platoon one minute, and then someone in your squad privately the next.

[Tatwi]

That first video was pretty neat. I found that most of the sounds seemed like they were coming from behind me, but some with the matches and paper bag sounded out in front. Neat system that is!

Sadly, my internet (motorolla canopy wireless isp) is such that I can use voice and enjoy 600 to 50,000 ping when raiding in WoW and using Vent (800 was about average) or I can not use voice and play Planetside with 60 to 200 ping. What would be cool is if the voice part of Planetside could be run from a smart phone (like my Blackberry) so that it wouldn't effect the game's Internet connection.

High ping in WoW didn't really matter so much, but it makes a FPS game very hard to play.

I'd love to use a 7.1 surround sound system with Planetside 2, but what's more likely is that I'd continue to use my headphones, because explosions and gun fire tend to disturb the wife and kids.

[2coolforu]

I don't see how 7.1 is this huge mystical thing that no developers will support - here's the games that support it

ARMA 2, Bad Company 2, Civilization 4, C&C 3, C&C Red Alert 3, Company of Heroes, Garrys mod + Other source games, Starcraft 2 and those are just from the top of my head. Given the prevalence of 7.1 headsets and other audio devices I don't see why it wouldn't be implemented. Plenty of people use multichannel audio systems after all.