Should Final Fantasy 8 have a mod for its sound effects?

[Seraphim87]

Now, I understand that FF8's Steam versionmod has music that.... kinda sound like steaming crap.

A lot of mods exist SOLELY to correct that!  Even the FMVs are bad too!  It's like they hired an intern to port this thing!

Now, what I'd like to know is... how good (or bad) is the quality for the sound effects in this game?  Does the Steam FF8 have the same sound effects as the PS1, or are they of inferior quality?

If they are inferior-quality sound effects, would it be very difficult to mod in the better sound effects?  Doesn't sound like it'd be a big deal.

I want the game to be perfect so, I really gotta know how the sound effects are just to be certain.

[Shard]

The sound effects are pretty terrible. I'm pretty sure all versions of FF8 use the same sfx library.

Some people have said they want to improve the sounds of the game. You should find them and start something.

The only problem is that the sounds have to be compressed into Microsoft 4-bit ADPCM, which has awful, awful compression artifacts on higher frequencies. However, the quality loss, despite those artifacts (if they show up) is surprisingly minimal.

[Seraphim87]

Ah, some the SFX are the same as the PS1?  At least they didn't degrade between versions.

As for starting a mod with others- alas, I'm not really a modder or anything myself, no technical skills there.  I wouldn't even know where to begin.

I do know that some SFX are different- notably Squall's school computer turning on/off as well as Quetzacoatl's opening SFX.

However, if you ever encounter anyone who expresses interest in making such a mod, please direct them to post in this topic.  If enough of them post together in the same topic they may form a group and get something started.

[dkma841]

.

[Seraphim87]

Thanks!  Again, if any of you see anyone talk about wanting to change the SFX (or you know how to get in touch with any of the guys who did the audio mods for FF8) please, PLEASE show them this topic and ask them to post here!  We got perfect and improved-upon music for this game, now all we need is improved-upon SFX!

(Thankfully it sounds like the SFX are at least about as good as on the PS1, though I'm no expert in that area to judge)

[Shard]

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14353.0 This guy was cataloging the ff8 sounds for a project (don't know exactly what the project was, but you could ask).

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=15266.0 This guy wanted to remake a bunch of sounds for FF7. Maybe you can interest him in improving the sounds in FF8 as well.

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14944.0 This tool allows you to play/extract/replace/add sound effects.

This is also something I'm interested in (though my priorities right now are on both voiceover projects). If you need to know where a particular sound is played and nobody else can find it, ask me and I'll try to find it.

One thing about the tool: Some of the sounds in FF8 have metadata that we can't account for. I think it's for looping, but that's a wild guess. Replacing those sounds in the tool will erase that metadata. If you ever discover what the metadata is for, please let me or someone else know so we can put it on the wiki (and so I can improve the tool).

[Seraphim87]

Thanks Mr. Shard!

Btw, is it possible to private message on this board?

[Shard]

Btw, is it possible to private message on this board?

Yes, but I think you need a post count of 10 first. It's an anti-spam measure.

[EQ2Alyza]

Last I heard, it was 5 posts.

[Covarr]

EQ2Alyza is correct. Members with 5 or more posts can PM.

[Seraphim87]

Great, I just gotta build up a few more posts then.

[falkTX]

I think the SFX is FF8-PC are fine, the issue is that they are missing chorus and reverb from the PS1.
Since adding those in realtime would not be easy (overriding DSound.dll perhaps?) a good audio mod for FF8-PC would just add the missing chorus and reverb.

And perhaps figuring out what's wrong with Quezacotl sound (the 2 first sounds are from the Phoenix GF)

I wouldn't change anything else.

[Seraphim87]

What about the SFX for Squall's school computer?  I've read that those are different from the PS1 version.

[nfitc1]

I always thought the PC sounds were really grainy. Like they couldn't be bothered to filter noise out of them after a conversion from 22kHz to 44kHz (that's just what it sounds like, not what was actually done).

[Seraphim87]

I'm still confused....

1. I know that Quetz. and the school computer sound different from the PS1.

2. "I think the SFX is FF8-PC are fine, the issue is that they are missing chorus and reverb from the PS1."

Could you put this into less technical terms?  Please explain this to me like I'm a 5-year old with Down Syndrome.


Also...

"I always thought the PC sounds were really grainy. Like they couldn't be bothered to filter noise out of them after a conversion from 22kHz to 44kHz (that's just what it sounds like, not what was actually done)."

Can I get more on this?  I'm not certain how to compare the 2 different SFX, but when you do compare the PC (or Steam) to PS1 are we certain that there is any difference at all between the two aside from the 2 sound effects discussed earlier?

[Seraphim87]

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=13715.325 (NOTE- great discussion here for more details on the game's SFX audiot)