I just wanted to share with you all, what seems like "The Official Answer" from Dolby Labs themselves - the answer to the question:
In the Spatial Sound tab of the Properties of my Headset/Headphones, should I have the "Turn on 7.1 Virtual Surround Sound checkbox selected ('checked'), or not..?
I found this question asked in a Steam Discussion earlier in the year, about whether or not the checkbox for
"7.1 virtual surround sound" should be selected or not. At
the time, I was sending emails back and forth with Dolby Support a bit, and got the answer of 'use whatever sounds better for your headset'
- which does make sense; each model in each brand of every set of
headphones has different capabilities and manufacturing limitations
and can indeed sound different from the next.
While helpful advice, I
had submitted a Feedback Comment at their website, that said that the Dolby App did not specifically address this checkbox in Windows 10 (and
whether or not it should be 'ticked'). I looked recently at the Dolby
App again just a couple of days ago [as of the time of this posting, which is near the end of 2018] and found that a diagram, showing
the answer to whether the 7.1 Surround Sound checkbox should be
selected/ticked or not, was now present; and wanted to share it with you all, here.
Below then, is the Screenshot from the Official Dolby App in Windows 10 [and the "Spatial Sound" Tab of my Headset, how it was at the time, shown on the Right]:
The Dolby Atmos App in Windows 10, showing the "Turn on 7.1 virtual surround sound" checkbox suggested as "Checked", with my Windows 10 Sound Properties panel shown on the right (showing the checkbox unselected at the time)
It seems then, that 'the final answer' to whether or not this checkbox should be selected or not, is "Yes", as suggested by Dolby Labs themselves.
[Edit: After returning to do more Testing with Dolby Atmos in Windows 10, I have found that the checkbox for "Turn on 7.1 virtual surround sound" now automatically becomes selected ('checked') when SPATIAL SOUND > DOLBY ATMOS is chosen/enabled (eg. when right-clicking on the Speaker icon [Sound] in the System Tray / Notification area of the Taskbar to enable it [near the Clock on the taskbar in Windows])]
If I may still add, 'juuuust in case', to try both ways still, with whatever headphones you are utilizing, taking a moment to listen to something with it checked then unchecked, to 'make sure' that you are getting what sounds the best, to YOU - as suggested by Dolby themselves [to me directly through emails with them]. Regardless, I hope this helps to clear things up a bit.
Addendum:
While a Review of Dolby's Atmos surround sound for Windows 10 is out of the scope of this specific posting, I am slowly working on a short "Review" of the function/app, comparing it to other '7.1 Surround Sound' sources, such as Razer's "Surround Pro" and others, with some examples/recordings of the differences as well.
Until then, to help, I will state a very brief 'first impressions' of this audio functionality/app [that Santa saw fit to give me as an early Present for Xmas] - that is, a point-form of my own 'first impressions' of Dolby Atmos in Windows 10:
- It does sound good' overall, with the expected "Dolby Quality" that their products produce. Clear and Crisp and Boom-y
- The surround sound works very well, moreso in movies than games though; as in some games it can seem a bit 'muddled', where the surround directionals 'leak' a bit into each other[to my ears]
- Overall though, it has clear, crisp highs and nice booming/pounding lows [the high end seems to be a bit over-accentuated to me, but it may just be that my ears are a bit more sensitive to that range. it is a common practice to enhance Treble slightly to increase perceptive audio clarity to humans]
- The only thing missing from the App is a configurable Equalizer (sliders that can adjust the strength of each frequency range, so that users can increase/decrease ones that they wish to adjust), but then, it is suggested in the app itself, that it actually adjusts automatically, based on the source and frequencies within the media itself (as their proprietary Dolby algorithms/functions do in movies,etc).
- If you don't have a Surround sound option with your headphones already [a 7.1/8channel dongle/plug or option somewhere - for example, my Headphones from Santa one Xmas has a little box on the USB cable that has a '7.1 Button' on it, which works surprisingly well for emulating Surround Sound]the sound quality of Dolby's Atmos really does seem worth the $15 so far in my limited testing; however don't worry if you can't purchase it, Windows 10 now comes with its' own "Windows Sonic for Headphones" 7.1 Surround Sound emulation.
So, I upgraded my system to Windows10 and have been using it for a couple of weeks now (and was part of the Beta before that). One of the things I was doing, was testing out the Windows built-in game recording program "Game DVR", to see if could be a replacement for third-party game recording applications (such as MSI Afterburner, Bandicam, OBS and others). I am currently working on a longer Quality Test article, going into detail about Game DVR and the recording output it produces and comparing it to other game recording programs and codecs - however for now, I quickly wanted to share a fix I found for a problem with Game DVR in Windows 10 (which I saw that many online were running into as well), that capturing with the Game DVR app results in no sound/audio in the output file - even if the Audio Setting is "On" in the Settings for Game DVR (shown just below):
The Audio Settings for Game DVR in Windows 10, showing the Audio as being Enabled
At first, nothing I did locally on the system seemed to alleviate the issue. Game DVR was recording only video, no audio, in any and all games and applications [there was literally no Audio Track within the recorded/created file]. Sound was working on the system, I could hear everything - it just did not get created within the output file, produced by Game DVR when I hit "record". I quickly wrote a Quick Tip about how I found a temporary Workaround, posted here at the blog, where I used a Secondary Audio Device to get it to record audio. However, most users I believe, will not have a second audio device available, desiring to use the built-in (onboard) audio adapter on their motherboard - and so this was not a "true 'fix'", at the time...
To make a longer story short for this post [I realize I tend to ramble on, whether it is to help explain something or get off track, thank you ADHD!], after working on this problem off and on, I finally found more of a real answer, via a Microsoft Support Engineer's Tip on the Official Microsoft Forums to try the How-To page on Fixing Sound Problems for Windows 10, located here:
These are the steps it eventually took to get Game DVR to record audio in Windows 10:
Open the Device Manager for Windows by clicking on the Start Menu (in the lower-left corner) and in the Search "the web and Windows" area, start to type "Device Manager" (without quotation marks) - a prediction menu should show up, displaying "Device Manager" at the top. Click on it to launch the Device Manager interface.
In the Device Manager window, expand the category "Sound, video and game controllers" (which lists (among other things) audio devices installed in the system and useable by Windows), by clicking on the ">" arrow next to the title of the category.
Right-click the audio adapter you wish to use as your main audio recording device for Game DVR. In this case, I wanted to use the built-in (onboard) audio adapter called "Realtek High Definition Audio". A submenu will pop-up, showing "Update Driver Software", "Disable" and "Uninstall", among other choices.
Select the choice "Update Driver Software" by left-clicking it.
In the "Update Driver Software" Wizard that pops up, choose "Browse my computer for driver software". This is because, if your audio is working properly already (you can hear audio - but can't record it in Game DVR), there are already Drivers installed for the audio device ['Drivers' are System Files that Windows uses to "talk to" and use the device] and we want to Update/append them.
In the next window, choose the option to "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer". This will list installed/found Drivers that your hardware/device can utilize. It should list your audio device and Drivers for it, as shown below.
Choose a more recent version/dated Driver for your audio device, if there is more than one listed and click on it. If there are only two items (eg. "High Definition Audio Device" and something else that is your audio device), choose the one that is more specific to your hardware (containing the name of the device, etc).
Click "Next" to advance the Driver Software wizard.
A warning may be displayed, informing you that using the chosen Driver is not recommended because Windows has not verified it will work with your hardware. Do not worry, this message is mainly stating that Microsoft has not had a 'chance to officially test' your audio hardware with Windows 10 yet, informing you of this as a precautionary measure. What we want to do is, allow Windows 10 to utilize the Drivers we have installed in the system for the audio device (as opposed to a Windows 10 'generic driver' for the device).
Click "Yes" to try using the installed Drivers for the audio adapter (and no longer use the Windows 10 generic drivers for it).
The Driver Software wizard will complete and list your audio device. Click "Close" to exit the window/wizard. It may inform you that you have to Restart your system to properly initialize the audio device and load the Drivers for it in Windows fully.
Restart your computer to re-initialize the audio device and load the Drivers for it in Windows fully.
Now, you should find that the Game DVR in Windows 10 records a proper audio track, creating it within the recorded file, giving you full game recording audio!
Below, is an example of testing the new configuration with Game DVR, immediately after restarting my system (using the PC Gamer Minecraft Demo as a test) - note that this is not a 'tutorial', it is merely an example of Game DVR properly working with audio, after taking the steps listed above:
Hopefully it will work for you, dear reader, as it did for me.
Just yesterday, I upgraded my system to Windows10. Yes, I took the plunge... I was in the Beta for Windows 10 and have been using it for a while, testing out games for a future article on Windows 10 and Gaming here [Coming Soon™], and today, I tried out the Windows built-in game recording program "Game DVR", to see if could replace third-party game recording applications (such as MSI Afterburner, Dxtory, Bandicam, and more). I am currently working on a longer Quality Test article, going into detail about Game DVR and the recording output it produces; however for now, I quickly wanted to address a problem that I ran into already with Game DVR in Windows 10 (and saw that many online were running into as well): capturing with the app results in no sound/audio in the output file - even if the Audio Setting is "On" in the Settings for Game DVR...
The Audio Settings for Game DVR in Windows 10, showing the Audio as being Enabled
Nothing I did locally on the system seemed to alleviate the issue. Game DVR was recording only video, no audio, in any and all games and applications. Sound was working on the system, I could hear everything - it just did not get created within the output file, produced by Game DVR when I hit "record". Interesting. Just in case, I re-installed Audio drivers and rebooted, re-installed a few test games and tried again. No audio within the recordings from Game DVR. I even tried Disabling and Enabling various combinations of the Input and Output devices listed under the Sound properties. No audio in the recordings from Game DVR still. Interesting.
A typical Game DVR popup ...sorta
As general Troubleshooting steps dictate, once Software has been investigated, if there is no progress, then Hardware should then be looked at. So, I attached a USB Audio Device I had left over from my last set of headphones: a Creative Labs THX-Certified Tactic 3D USB Audio Adapter - and plugged in my headphones into it. Boom. It worked! Game DVR was now recording Audio and including it in the videos created by the app [the game recordings].
The list of Playback Devices in Windows 10, showing that I attached my USB Headset Audio Adapter and unplugged it from my Onboard (built-in to the motherboard) Audio Adapter (the red arrow). Using this device, Game DVR then produced Audio properly within produced recordings from the app.
Detaching the USB Audio Adapter, my Onboard Sound Adapter kicked in automatically (a Realtek ALC1150 with 8-channel HD audio) and I still had sound - but Game DVR no longer recorded any (again, no Audio Track within the recorded file). Re-attaching the USB Audio Device, Game DVR records audio within the recordings once more... So, it seems that it simply does not like my onboard (built-in to the mainboard) audio. That's fine, no hurt feelings, I'll explain it to my motherboard tomorrow. My 'workaround' then?
Install a Sound Card or USB Audio Adapter, to use as an additional audio device - then "Game DVR" will use it to record audio within your game recordings.
Since this isn't really a 'fix', I will post this as a "Workaround", as it is something that an end user will have to do to get the app working as desired. Slash-sigh, I know... Well, until this gets patched within Game DVR, or Drivers get updated [it could possibly be my mainboard drivers, too], or Windows gets an Update that addresses this, I'll just leave a little Suggestion via the Feedback app in Windows 10 to take a look at the Game DVR app - after all, I'm certainly not the only one to run into this (I have seen it come up in a few forums now) - which is why I am quickly writing this post; perhaps someone else may be helped or may be able to at least record their games with Sound, even though it may take extra steps or devices to do so. Hopefully it will work for you, dear reader, as it did for me.
Good luck with it - and See You In The Games!
[Personal Version/Opinion: Obviously, this post is directed more towards those that really, really want to use Game DVR as their main game recording application. It's quite alright if you don't use it or can't at this time. It isn't 'the only game in town' that offers game recording... I myself prefer Bandicam the most and I usually suggest MSI Afterburner to those who want a free program. I also have an old Fraps I purchased years ago that I try out for games that are 'finicky' to record with. I have also tried Dxtory and OBS and others, as well. My point is that Windows 10 'just' came out days ago and trying to use Game DVR in it puts a User 'on the leading edge' of technology. When that happens, there are bound to be problems encountered. This is one. Don't be too upset if you cannot use it yet dear reader, especially when there are so many other options for the same thing. If you are able to get your hands on a second audio device of some sort, great - I hope it works out for you then, as it did for me... Take Care]
Update: A fix was found via a tip from the Official Microsoft Forums - I have personally tested it and it worked for me! That post is the very next one here at the blog.
Update: Audio has been improved for many games, kudos go out to the Curators at The Archive Update: Added a few Helpful Controls for the emulation, at the bottom of the article
For those who don't know, there are now over 2,000 DOS-era games that are playable directly in your browser at The Internet Archive, here:
I have been testing out these MS-DOS games for the past while and want to share with you all what I have experienced so far...
Only a smattering of the huge library of games available to play at the archive
Looking at the huge list of games from my past, a tear almost came to my eye, thanks to Jason Scott, curator of the collection at The Internet Archive. He has uploaded close to 2400 games at the time of this post, to the collection at the first link above. Smiling at the possibility of him making a 2400-baud Modem 'inside joke' (even if he didn't mean to), I quickly found some childhood favourites to try.
The 'DOSbox' Loading Screen at the Archive for the browser-based interface to the games
The games appear to run in a DOSbox emulator, running within a Java-based Engine in your browser. Unfortunately, there seems to be some problems with how the games are running [at the time of this writing]. For me, trying over a dozen of these classic games, all of them had sound that was 'garbled', or 'glitchy', with 'echo-ey' clicks and pops, which weren't supposed to be present [weren't present in the originals].
Title Screen captured from one of the Classic DOS Games playable at the Archive (Wolfenstein 3D)
Click to see 'Full Size'
Although the games looked fine, I started troubleshooting what might be happening with the audio... At first, I tried different browsers. Originally playing them in Google's Chrome, I tried Mozilla's Firefox as well, and then Microsoft's Internet Explorer. In all three browsers, the problem with the audio remained, for me. So, I moved to other troubleshooting steps, changing my audio adapter from the built-in ('on-board') motherboard audio to a more dedicated device (I had a USB Sound Adapter from my Creative Labs Tactic 3D headphones, which I wasn't using at the time, so I plugged that in for a quick test). The problem with the 'static-y'/'glitchy' sound remained. Slash-sigh.
Gameplay screenshot captured from one of the Classic DOS Games playable at the Archive (Prince of Persia)
Click to see 'Full Size'
Just to test if it was some configuration problem perhaps (after updating Java and other drivers), I tried accessing the site from an older XP machine I have. The sound in games still had 'pops' and 'clicks' [at the archive site]... I lastly tried a couple of games on a friend's PC (which was running Windows 7 64-bit, as my system was) and still experienced the sound problem. All of these games from my childhood - and I can't get any of the sound working properly for them, no matter what I do? But I'm sooo close to gaming nirvana! I felt like I finally arrived at Wally World after travelling across-country all this time, only to get a recorded message of Harold Ramis, delivered from Marty Moose, telling me that the amusement park is closed for two weeks for cleaning and repairs... /ShakesFistAtTheSky
Title Screen captured from one of the Classic DOS Games playable at the Archive (Total Carnage)
Click to see 'Full Size'
But, all is not lost... Surely there are other people enjoying the games as they are - as I didn't find many people talking online about having sound issue(s) in a rudimentary search online. Just to make sure my machine wasn't completely becoming a sufferer of Dosphobia (an illness I just made up), I tried some DOSbox-run games that I purchased from Good Old Games [now GOG.com]. Thankfully, Theme Hospital ran flawlessly (when run locally)!
Welcome Screen captured from one of the Classic DOS Games playable at the Archive (Warlords 2)
Click to see 'Full Size'
So, my dear friends, a veritable treasure trove of games exists at The Archive now, and is awaiting to be experienced. Hopefully, you are one of those whom are having no problems at all - and if you are having audio issues as I am ...well just play without sound for now. How? In the upper-right corner of the page, you should see two small text buttons that say "Exit Beta" and "Feedback". Clicking "Exit Beta" will take you to the 'Version One' of the game collection's [Archive] interface. When clicking on a game to play, there should now be a "Mute" button below the area where the game runs. Although the game will run without audio, they still appear to run fine visually [I had no problems on my older dual-core XP machine, running the games themselves, even though the sound problem still existed].
The upper-right corner buttons to use if you are having issues with audio (as I was) or if you are experiencing the mouse not being aligned properly (the mouse being far away from what is shown on the screen). To fix that problem, see the below Tip
If you are having issues with your mouse not lining up properly (not being 'where it should be' on the screen), try disabling the newer Beta interface/page by clicking on the "Exit Beta" button in the upper right corner. You will get a page that should now have buttons below the area where the game runs. Clicking the "Fullscreen" button should allow the game to 'take over your mouse' and align it within the in-game cursor more properly.
Gameplay screenshot captured from one of the Classic DOS Games playable at the Archive (Dune 2, The Building of a Dynasty)
Click to see 'Full Size'
Since the collection is still in Beta, it is understandable that some problems are present and hopefully these glitches will be fixed in the future - for those that experience them, like me. For now, it is still a fantastic effort by Mr.Scott to make all of these Classic games available at The Internet Archive website. Check them out - and enjoy reliving (or experiencing for the first time) a 'Golden Age' in gaming.
Menu Screen captured from one of the Classic DOS Games playable at the Archive (Eye of the Beholder 2, The Legend of Darkmoon)
Click to see 'Full Size'
By the way, because the games are being presented in DOSbox (an MS-DOS environment emulator), this also means that DOSbox keys should work within the Stream interaction as well. I haven't tested all of them, but here are some that may be helpful [and I know these work for sure with the Streaming Archive as I have used them myself]:
CTRL+F10 - Release the mouse (if the game has 'captured' it) and also get the game to 'recapture' it
CTRL+F12 - Increase the cycles the game uses [of the server, since that's where it's running].
CTRL+F11 - Decrease the cycles the game uses.
Cycles are how many Instructions that DOSbox will try to emulate each Millisecond. When running DOSbox locally (on your own system), a window in the background will usually display the Cycles setting the game is on, but as this is an online ("remote", client/server) version, that window isn't seen. If a game is seeming sluggish/slow/laggy/etc however, you can still try increasing the Cycles; but be aware that if it goes too high, it can make the game skip/chug and seem laggy as well. It's sort of a balance you'll have to find [I try to increase it if a game is running a little slow, but if the sound starts to cut out or skip, then I pull it back down a bit, and this seems to give a good emulation speed - this is the same process I use when playing purchased DOSbox games locally, on my system].
For ALL the controls available for the DOSbox Emulator, see this page at the Wiki for DOSbox:
(Note: I have not tested all of these over the Streaming playable games from The Archive, some of them may not work the same way [when used through the streaming interface as opposed to using them when running DOSbox locally])
Enjoy and See You In The Games!
[Update: During the period of testing and writing this article, some changes have been made at The Internet Archive's MS-DOS Games Collection. It seems that some games are now automatically 'Muted' (the audio is turned off). They can be 'Unmuted' via a button, but this is encouraging evidence that the curator et al. are listening and responding to Feedback that has been submitted at the site. To quote a new piece of text that now appears at the collection's page: "Thank you for your feedback - we will continue to upgrade/bugfix the emulator going forward". Fantastic, in my opinion]
[Update 2015-01-17: Going back and testing many of the games that I had first encountered in this article, the audio has been improved (less clicking, stuttering) in all of them so far - kudos to the Curators at The Archive!]
With the Bandicam "For Edit" Preset, every frame is an independent Keyframe or I-Frame (Information Frame), which is a type of frame that can be 'cut' or started from in video editing programs (technically, every frame is a JPG picture). Also, the audio is Uncompressed, which means that any video editor should be able to recognize the sound data. Errors in programs like Virtualdub saying "Error initializing audio stream decompression" or Sony's Vegas showing "Stream attributes could not be determined" will not occur and these will open the audio just fine with this setting.
Testing out Bandicam as a game recorder and playing during the launch of Diablo 3 (woot!), I've put together some settings/specifications, uploaded it to YouTube, and collected some results for you all:
The video is short, but I was mainly testing a few things:
1) D3's performance, with all options maxed out
2) Capture quality of Bandicam's 'For Edit Premiere/Sony Vegas' Preset and performance/lag of using it
3) The Logo/Watermark capability of Bandicam
4) YouTube's quality maintainability
Recorded with: Bandicam
- v.179204 (Latest at time of this post)
- 'For Edit (Premiere, Sony Vegas)' Preset
- MJPEG, "Full Size", 80%quality (Preset), 30fps, Uncompressed PCM Audio at 48kHz
- Logo option (our GTAM watermark), lower right, 10% opacity
Game: Diablo III (Retail Release) Launch Day
- Witch Doctor, Cathedral Level 3
- Texture Quality: High
- Shadow Quality: High
- Physics: High
- Clutter Density: High
- "Anti-Aliasing" checkbox ticked ON
Resolution: 1680x1050 (1.6AR) recorded at 1680x1050 ("Full Size")**
Filtering: 4xMSAA, 4xAF, set in Control Panel of Videocard
Framerate while not recording: 80-100fps
Framerate while recording: 80-100fps
For people trying out Bandicam and finding your recordings are choppy/laggy on playback (when looking at the original generated/recorded file), you should find that compressing it to a file with a smaller bitrate/size in a format you will keep it permanently in, it will play back that file just fine.
I chose this D3 clip for a Quality Test because it was a good example of both fast movements/action on the screen, as well as slow/non-moving parts, including text. It has dark and light areas, high contrast edges, and tests wide area panning as well.
Bandicam's "For Edit" Preset worked great, with clear text and action in the original recording, while flatter, darker parts were not overly compressed which would create excessive macroblocks or be too smoothed out. There were some Gibbs Effects/Mosquito Noise around text and on some of the button logos in the original recording, but you had to look closely to see it, which is pretty good for not being a 100% Quality setting.
The very small amount of color banding present in the original recording was somewhat generated by the Game Engine (seen in the lower-right quadrant of this video, and in the Diablo3 login screen around the moon, etc.), and there shouldn't be much, due to using MJPEG as a recording codec.
If you are having problems with Color Banding that is not in the game itself, try MJPEG as your recording codec
Average bitrate of the original was about 40Mbps, which meant a writing stream to the disk of about 5MB/s, which any hard drive can handle (recorded onto a drive capable of 150MB/s).
Framerate during recording was maintained at 80-100fps (same framerate as not recording).
The original 1 minute generated file is about 300MB in size with these settings. The recompressed MPEG-4, resized to 1080p file, has an average bitrate of 20Mbps and is about 140MB in size.
While this Preset in Bandicam is designed for compatibility with editing programs, the original recording was uploaded directly from the Bandicam-generated file anyway, to test the effects of uploading to YouTube from an original recording.
** The video at the top was Lanzcos3 resized from the original 1680x1050 capture to a 1728x1080 (1.6 AR) [MPEG-4 H.264 AVC/AAC file with a bitrate of 20000kbps (audio at 384kbps) using a Deblocking Filter setting of +0+0] because the original upload was down-sized to 1280x720 by YouTube and looked much worse, see here below:
The Result:
Recorded at 1680x1050, YouTube had downsized that one to 720 vertical lines. The Gibbs Effects were no longer present because of this, but excessive smoothing and other compression artifacts were introduced. Text was far less readable and nothing on the screen was as crisp as the original 1050p recording. Aliasing was also introduced. This was unfortunate but understandable however, as YouTube can no doubt not keep 'everything' at 'very high bitrates' on their servers, and since it was not 1080p, it simply scaled it down.
A single frame taken from each video for comparison (Frame 813, zoomed section) from the original Bandicam recording, YouTube's version of the 1080p upload and YouTube's 720p version of the 1680x1050 upload. Click to see Full Size.
The resized-from-1050p-to-1080p version maintained much of its detail after uploading to YouTube. The text is closer to the crispness of the original recording, and there is only some smoothing and deblocking being done. There are some macroblock artifacts and color banding accentuation in the darker areas however (for instance, the lower-right quadrant much of the time) but other than that, it is a decent quality version of the 1080p upload.
For those recording at 1680x1050, I recommend upsizing it to 1728x1080 so that YouTube keeps most of the detail of your recordings
Well done, Bandicam (and YouTube).
Hopefully this information will help out any gamers that are looking to start recording their experiences, or even the already numerous people who are recording and sharing their great videos. Thank you all for sharing and your efforts.
Please note dear reader, that I am not saying "This codec is the best one to record with" or "use this one only". I am merely showing that it is possible or how to tweak it for quality or file size, as to your own personal tastes. There are many codecs out there to choose from when game recording and although some are more apt for certain types of games than others, overall it is your own choice to do with as you will. See you in the games!
Watch Welcome To San Paro - Our Fan-Created Video Montage of the APB Reloaded Beta!
In One Sentence: I have never had such an experience that is so perfectly balanced with love and hate at the exact same time. That is APB Online (Reloaded Beta), circa 2011.
Don't get me wrong there are GOOD things about this game. FUN things, this game can really be fun as all get out, but the BAD things are very very berry berry bad and left me in hilariously angry moods after playing for a short time. Whether the game sitting was more good or bad didn't matter, APB Online Reloaded Beta is overall f-u-n.
First of all, the game seems to offer so much, the trailer shows amazing, crazy GTAplus-type of gameplay and as you start it all seems so comfortably managable. There's the standard MMO tutorial, the hand-holding instructions and pop-up information, the easy to find NPCs and simple map. It seems that you can be a master of it all in no time and not break a sweat. Then you actually play the game.
Hey you can kill people and drive a car, neat. Darn you died. Oops you died again. Oh that got you, you're dead. Hey, you got that guy, way to go! Ah, now you died. The mission's over. Oh, another mission. You died. What happened there? You're dead. Well, you died. Welp, you're dead again. Hey you got'em. Now, you're dead. Okay, don't go 'Ready' for a while, just roam around. As a criminal you can break into shops and sell the items for cash? Wow! Okay it's been a while, go 'Ready'. Hey you finished the mission. Oh, there was noone opposing you. Well, try another one. Great, you got that guy! Oh, he got you, your're dead. Got him. He got you. You're dead.
This paragraph is a summary of a typical gameplay sitting with this game. You had some fun, but good thing it's free.
Oh, did I mention that? I didn't play it from Day One, but apparently it was taken over by another company, GamersFirst and Reloaded Productions and they are in Beta (at the time of this post) releasing it as a Free To Play setup with a Cash Shop type of deal (how things mainly are in the East, but in North America, Brick And Mortar Boxed Retail sales rule the land). And it's a good thing this game is free as in beer. Like I said, it's fun, but there is still too much 'wrong' with it to warrant (no pun intended) throwing down fifty bucks or so for it. I don't think it will change to a subscription model anyway, games actually make a lot of money on the Cash Shop model. Those with money buy what they want and those without eek it out over time and (hopefully) can still access the same items, it will just take forever.
Heading downtown in my new car at dusk
You might be asking, So what are some of the things you can do?
After choosing a Faction (Criminals or Enforcers, opposing each other), you create your character, and the creation area is actually pretty good. You can change not only skin and hair color, but there are dozens of template s of each area of hair, eyes, nose, mouth, etc and then you still get to go into an Advanced Mode if you want, and tweak angles of ears and eyes, the length of the nose, weight and muscle size and visibility of muscles and veins (a la bump mapping). The character creation, although still somewhat limited, is definitely one of the things on the Good List.
(A sampling of some of what the Character Creation section can do is in the Welcome To San Paro video montage at the top of this post)
As a Criminal, you can do missions, which are assigned 'quests' that get you to go somewhere, do something like smash a store front, or take a package from A to B. You can also just roam around and steal cars just like in Grand Theft Auto and take them to Chop Shops for selling, as well as bashing into Store Fronts and picking up the items that 'drop' out and take those to a Fence for more money. Money in the game allows you to buy upgraded equipment like guns and cars and clothes and customization for all of that. You get access to the items to buy them by progressing through missions and Ranks, which are basically just a tally of how much you have done in the game, akin to Levelling in other Multiplayer games.
When doing Ram Raids as a Criminal, use your own 'recallable/respawnable' car. That way, Enforcers (and other players) can't steal your car on you while you collect what falls out of shop windows.
As an Enforcer, you can also do missions, which usually have you cleaning up the town's graffiti, trying to take evidence from A to B, basically much of the same as the Criminals get, but you are automatically (if you are Set to 'Ready') pitted against the Criminals in the area trying to do the same things. For instance, if some Criminals are on a quest to get 'packages' from A to B, your Enforcer will get assigned a mission to stop them, intercepting and either guarding the evidence or taking it back to your own drop-off, etc. This of course leads to PvP (Player Versus Player) and that seems to be the largest part of the game (Missions and PvP).
As an Enforcer, you can also just roam around the game (literally On Patrol) and watch for the no-gooders smashing their cars into stores, hijacking cars and after you 'witness' them committing the crime, chase them down and bring them to justice (alive or dead) after you witness such an act. This is a sort of 'World PvP' and although I have witnessed crimes as an Enforcer and done my share of hijacking/mugging/raiding shops in the game as a Criminal, the interaction between players on this level (roaming and finding each other) doesn't happen very often. I have an idea that I'm going to post in the Suggestions game forum about this sometime.
Missions (the 'Quests' of the game) are assigned pretty much automatically no matter where you are in the game (if you have played other MMO games, no more running back to the NPC/QuestVendor for assignments!). If you are 'Ready' then you will get some communication from your Contacts (NPCs in the game) about something to do in the area like spray paint an area to claim dominance (or clean up the spraypaint if you are en Enforcer), steal some items for ransom (or retrieve the stolen goods) and so on. The Missions pop up on their own with a little info (and story) and most of them have multiple parts to them (eg. Steal Something, Take it to a Dropoff) and there are VIP parts sometimes where there is a person you must kill (or protect), similar to what has been seen in Counterstrike and other games.
As you can see, the amount of things you can 'do' in the game isn't large, but it is a decent amount and it feels great doing it all. With the pedestrians around you, running away from your car, getting run over by your car, ducking for cover in a shoot out, making comments like they are calling the Enforcers when you rob a storefront and more, they really add to the engrossment of the game. The automatic assignment against the 'other guys' who are doing many of the same things in the area, makes you feel involved and that you are affecting the environment, even if it's temporary (that building you blew up or fence you rammed though repairs itself, etc) but over time it can get repetitive, but then, you can switch to doing something different (like stopping to fish in other games, stop doing missions and just raid stores and cars for some money build-up) or just take a break.
How's the Driving?
Like everything else in the game, it's another love/hate relationship. Each car does handle different (a big armored security truck moves and turns slow and pushes other cars more easily than a smaller faster car that turns and grips better) but all of them are.. difficult. Well, maybe that's not the right word, you can eventually learn them all and once you get used to how they handle, you'll be drifting around corners and running your enemies down when you want.
Female Criminal Hanging Out At Night With Teammates Downtown
The thing is, like the combat, all movement, in cars or on foot, just feels stinted somehow. I know it's a hard thing to code for and it does a good job really, but if I can compare the animation engine to other games, it's somewhere around City Of Heroes and Medal of Honor. Don't get me wrong it does work and all of the vehicles feel different and have their own stats like acceleration, durability and more. There are a lot of things to the vehicles and driving in the game (I haven't even mentioned the customization yet) it's just that it works, but it's..odd.
One of the things that is on The Bad List for driving and vehicles is the damage appearance. Bumping into a mailbox, hydrant or wall at a low speed does nothing to the paint or car. A few good solid hits make it look crumpled slightly, then nothing again for a while (especially if you are only looking at your car from behind) until smoke comes out, flames, and then it's boomtime. A few extra steps of appearance changes in between would be nice, some displacement of the parts of the model would be great, especially for seeing damage from the rear view. A buildup of smudged blood from mowing down a multitude of pedestrians (front and back) would be downright awesome. As you can see, like everything in the game there are some good things, some bad.
Update: After purposely hitting some other vehicles and doing some Ram Raids, I see that there is (now?) a nice amount of crumpling going on if you look for it (and I assume have the graphic settings up high enough to see it fully).
My female criminal's car and her driving damage (not a female driving joke)
The same car all fixed up at a GA5
What is the Combat like?
Again, like everything in the game (have I said this enough yet?) there are good points and bad. That's just the way it is with this game, you can't just say "about this, it is good" or "about this, it is all bad", because with APB Online Reloaded, those quotes would not be fully true.
To start with what's good, the combat works surprisingly speedily, compared to most MMO games. You can actually dodge incoming fire just by strafing and you can run away from a grenade that was thrown at you. You can also dodge cars that come speeding towards you if you see them ahead of time. The workings of this seems wondrous to anyone coming from MMORPG games, where you hit TAB to automatically target your enemy, then just mash buttons/keys/numbers to automatically hit them with whatever you learned to use. I have not seen such lock-on targeting in the game so far, it is more like a shooter (Battlefield series of games, Call of Duty, Quake, etc) than anything. Also, each gun has it's own stats such as damage, accuracy, effective range and can be customized with silencers, scopes to help with distance aim, stabilization for the shooting spray and more.
So what's bad about combat? Well for starters, the guns are somewhat inaccurate. Now again, I have only just started to play (I have logged less than 30 hours so far) and you do get a feel for each gun and what situations it would be good for and how you would use it according to your playstyle, but everything I have tried so far has a crazy spread of bullets. Unless you are up close and doing a strafe-dance against someone with the same type of gun, your shots feel like they are going everywhere, despite being motionless and having your cross-hair on your target. This is something that I have little knowledge of, mind you, and later in the game there is no doubt (hopefully) more accurate and powerful guns available for purchase. I am getting better at it, and find that I am even able to shoot over distances with non-sniping weapons, but overall it is difficult for a new player to master.
GameTip: To help your aim, there are many things you can do like looking down the sight more (zooming in), crouching, not running, shooting a lesser amount of shots (single clicking and not holding down the mouse button) and of course, standing still. All of these things however slow you down and make you an easier target. It is up to you how and when to tradeoff any of these to help your accuracy.
How do you get items, like weapons, in the game?
Starting out in the game, you have pretty much one workout outfit, a couple small guns and a car you can call upon at special Stations scattered throughout the game - and that's about it. This is no real surprise however, as compared to say, MMORPG games, you'd also start out with just one set of armor, a couple cheap weapons and maybe a mount if you're lucky. This isn't anything against APB Online, it's pretty much the norm.
My female criminal gets a new weapon, yah!
Unlocking more items is connected to your 'progress' in the game. Money allows you to then buy the unlocked items. Let me explain:
At the beginning, most of everything is Locked. Mousing over items that look like something you like, whether it's guns or clothes or cars, it will tell you what you need/when you will be able to unlock it for purchase. I have seen two kinds of unlocks so far. NPC 'Standing' unlocks and Skill unlocks. I have yet to read any in depth material on the game (I am too busy just playing it and having fun!) but from what I have seen, NPC items are unlocked as you do missions and collect Standing with them. This acts like Experience (or Reputation/Favour) from other games, and as you do missions for NPCs, your Contacts, it goes up (you also get assigned numbers called Ranks - Ranks seem like Levels compared to other types of games, but does not seem to have any use yet, other than an indication of 'how much overall you have done in the game'). NPC item unlocks usually require a certain level of Standing (out of 10 for each Contact NPC) before you can buy a certain type of weapon and items from them. Also, it seems that different NPCs hold different items, so if there's no good sniper weapons at one NPC, find one with the one you want, and they will eventually sell it to you.
There are also Skill Unlocks, where is states Machine Gunner Rank 5 Required, but I have not learned enough about Skill Ranks to state exactly what it is all about yet. I am not sure whether your Skill in a weapon goes up through just using it, or it must be purchased (a la Training) somehow in the game.
So to me, here's how it seems so far: You do Missions (quests), which increase your Standing (reputation/favour) and your overall preogress is kept track of in Ranks (experience/levels) and higher Standing and Ranks allows you access to purchase better items. Neat. Money then, is your own limiter of how many/what items you can purchase. You get in-game money (cash) by doing missions (both factions), hijacking and selling cars to specific spots (Criminals, Enforcers must take the stolen car to Impounds), ramming into storefronts and picking up what comes out (Crinimals, Enforcers collect Evidence and take it to evidence lockers), or just mugging people as a Criminal. Enforcers generally do the opposite of everything the Criminals do (stopping them from doing it) so in essence they get money the same way, but at a slower pace.
Doing/collecting all of these things is not a bad thing, but it seems to go very slow. Mind you, I am a Free Player, using a Free To Play account and your collection of all the things you need to progress in the game (Standing, Ranks, even Money) are handicapped ('nerfed') and the game never fails to remind you after every mission "You earned ______ of _______ but you missed out on ________ of it because you aren't a Premium (subscriber/Pay To Play) Account!". This isn't necessarily a bad thing because for one thing, they have to make money somehow and for another thing, I am pretty much experiencing all the game has to offer (as far as missions, eventual access to items, and overall action) it's just that it will take a Free2Play account a much much much larger amount of time to get to play with the Big Guns, cars and other goodies in the game.
Even with all the above to do, there is still more to the game. Before I talk about the appearance of clothes and car customization, I have to mention the Marketplace (Auction House) and Music Studio. The Marketplace is your basic auction house where you can sell goods (you can't buy goods from your own account, I know people are already thinking of making tons of money on your Crim and then selling an expensive item for nothing to your 'Forcer - apparently you used to be able to send money to your other characters but can't anymore). The Music Studio is an in-game small tracking program (Fruity Loops, ScreamTracker, Cakewalk type of sequencing program) that allows you to make your own music for death sequences,etc. It seems easy to use and you can save your songs and share them, I believe. There is also an in-game music player that plays built-in songs, songs that have come from Last.FM (if it does this anymore) and songs you put in the playlists from your own machine. You can hear them whenever you get into a vehicle (a la GTA).
Speaking of Sound and Audio for a second, the sound is this game seems great so far. It supports the (now standard) Reverb and Echo effects, there is doppler on the car horns, you can hear the gravel getting spit up against the car in alleys and on grass and sidewalks have that repetitive thumping vibration. All the guns I have tried sound different, the vehicles are varied, there seems to be a small bank of sound for ricochets that the game randomly chooses from and a somewhat larger bank of sounds for the peds walking by. It's great to hear their comments as you play the game. One I remember distinctly is running a while on foot as a Criminal and when I rounded a corner and scraped past a pedestrian, he commented, "Hey, didn't I see you on a poster somewhere?". Nice touch.
The music overall is a nice mix of genres, you can pick which set you want to listen to, and it plays whenever you are in a car. If there are songs that the game 'knows' (verified/uploaded... still not sure how this works 100% yet) then you have the same songs on your system that someone else does, and you can hear whatever they listen to in their cars as they drive by or you hitch a ride with them. Neat idea.
Partly because I am just a new player and do not have the resources to fully enjoy it yet, and partly because it's a lesser important part of the game for me, I have yet to mention the immense area of Customization in the game. I have already seen personalized, souped-up cars with special decals and paintjobs, clothes of various styles and models with personalized patterns and more. Heck even without the importing of your own logos and art, there seems to be tons of customization in the game, with tattoos, fashion designs and more, there seems to be so much that I haven't even seen yet.
Just a sample of some of the character customizations found in the game...
It doesn't look too bad. How are the graphics?
Speaking of seeing, the graphics in the game are darn good for a Free To Play game. They are only slightly 'cartoon-y' (as I like to call it), looking more like a full shooter game like Battlefield 2 than a 'cartoonified' MMO such as World of Warcraft. The amount of polygons that comprise the complexity of the models I'd put solidly between Battlefield 2 and Battlefield Bad Company 2. To give an MMO example, the models have more polys than City of Heroes, but less than RIFT. These comparisons make sense since those games are successors to each other, but you get an idea from the examples of the complexity of the models. In the game there have been textures that have downright impressed me at the highest settings and while the main characters and cars have an expectantly good amount of polygons, the environment and pedestrians aren't too shabby either. You will see a lot of the same things reused (it is a city with tall things called buildings and lots of the same cars, after all) and sometimes I run into twin pedestrians, but again, the game does variation and complexity of objects well, especially when you count the money you spent (possibly) on it. Great job, developers.
Female Criminal Looking Towards Ads Downtown
There are a lot of small touches that I am impressed with, like floating papers 'in the breeze' that fly past you, and there is a really good attempt at shadows and both static and dynamic ('painted'/planned/unchanging and shadows that change depending on what is going on in your field of view such as explosions/gunfire/etc.
There seems to be a lot of people having trouble with the game and framerate (smoothness of the display), as seen in the forums. As I work with computer systems for a living, I will do an in-depth article on computer technology and how it affects games and apparent smooth gameplay in the future, but for now, as with all games, all I can do is suggest the standard troubleshooting steps of:
Turn special effects off one by one to see what helps
Tone down the anti-aliasing, filtering and other enhancements
Reduce your resolution (screen size)
Turn off background applications/programs running
Defragment your harddrive
Check for updates on your drivers (system files that talk to the computer hardware) like Video Drivers, Sound Drivers, etc
Purchase dedicated parts that work with the computer to bring the game to life. What I mean by this is, playing with a seperately-purchased and installed Video Card and Sound Card makes a huge, huge difference in playing games on a system, than using the built-in (onboard) chips that came with the average computer. These onboard/builtin components are made for office use (so that companies don't have to spend the extra money to get them seperately) and are not typically manufactured with gaming in mind. They do not have the power/speed/capacity to calculate and do many of the things that modern games need to show and play smoothly.
Upgrade parts of your system to more powerful components (the CPU (main engine of the computer) and the Video Card (that calculates what you display and talks to your monitor) are good choices to start with) or purchase more RAM (memory that the computer uses to do calculations with, showing you the output on the screen)
All of these steps (roughly in that order as well) will help you enjoy APB Online and other modern games much more, and if you can afford any of the purchase/upgrade steps, it is well worth it when you think of the stress you will be relieving and fun you will have.
Good luck with it and check back to this site in the future for a more in-depth article on computers and how to get games running better!
So what's so wrong with the game?
If I ignore the aimbotters and hackers (there aren't many that I have seen so far, but I have heard they are around quite a bit), I ignore the stunted driving and combat, I ignore the slow slow level and item unlocking progress (I am a Free To Play player though), there is one system in the game that I am disappointed with and that is the instancing of the world itself.
The way it seems to work is, there are 4-5 Time Zones or areas where you connect to ("pick the one that is closest to you") and in the game there are 3 main regions or maps (called Districts) you can play in (one of them is a Safe Area, consisting mainly of shops and stores and noone can attack anyone there). But these 3 regions/maps are not just the 'Main Playing Areas' for your Timezone/ServiceArea/Server. The 3 regions are further broken down into Instances (versions of the map you chose), meaning if you and your friend log in, pick the same timezone/servers, and even choose the same one out of those 3 regions (let's say The Financial District, a type of 'Downtown' setting), that region is still divided up into instances, so if you both join at the same time, you may get put into different instances (different copies of the same map/region, in this case, different copies of The Financial District). Each instance is isolated from the other versions, so if a player is on another one different from you, you won't see them in your area as you play and drive around.
That's the worst thing about this whole system. Not only are they isolated from each other but each instance of each region/map/district only holds about a hundred people and isn't very big (for those of you that have played GTAIV, a district is about the size of one island, if that). The main problem with that, is that your access to missions (remember they are automatically assigned to you based on players in your area on the other faction doing the same things) depends directly on the people that are in your instance (copy) of the map. What this means is, if you log on to the East Coast, and choose say The Financial District, your version of that map (your instance you go into) may have way more criminals than enforcers in it at that time. This isn't too bad if you want to go on a crime spree, but if you want to progress in the game/items by doing missions as a criminal, there may be so few opponents around that the game can't put together a team to oppose you!
That leads to one thing that the developers did right in this whole system, and that is let the game assign you missions that are just for you, even if there is noone else around or 'Ready' (basically like Soloable Quests in other games). The missions are basically the same (tag an area with paint, pick up some evidence to take to the locker) it's just that there is noone to fight against you, so you walk though the entire thing yourself and get a small amount of reward. Not great, but it is good that they put that in there. You can still 'play the game' even if there are odd settings of players around you at the time (you can also of course not do missions and just do the Roaming activities that build up your money/etc, especially if you are a Criminal).
My low level female criminal mugging an Asian man in front of what looks to be a hotel, judging by the window.
Another thing that the developers included was the ability to change instances. When you sign in and pick a District to go to, like the example above, you get automatically placed into an instance that has 1) similar levelled players to you and 2) an attempt at an even number of players on each faction. This is another Good Thing. Only once, playing so far, have I been put into an area where one side outweighed the other and it was hard to find opposing players to shoot at. Most of the time, the game does well at placing you in an area where there are similar skilled players and numbers of them. I suspect that this system could be exploited once the game goes Public, but for now it works pretty good for getting you in there and shooting up the opposing faction.
GameTip: If you play in one instance in one District too long, players may have been logging in and out and you may find that the player numbers drift toward being too many of one side. If this happens, you can use this ability to change instances to choose a more evenly numbered area, or let the game automatically reassign you to one.
Working with computers, I understand why they did this. It's a form of splitting up the workload among seperate servers into smaller and smaller pieces so that basically the game is always one little instance for a small number of players (about a hundred) and not one huge world or one big server with thousands of players on it. This also cuts down the load and traffic going to that one server (your instance you are playing in), which no doubt plays a part in how well the game responds to actions and updating what is going on around you and the combat and gameplay in general.
That's another Good Thing, by the way. For an MMO (although an entirely instanced one, unlike most other MMO type of games) it is surprisingly responsive. If I drive my car over an opposing player, I see his body knocked over and he no doubt has his screen thrown around at about the same time. In a firefight, getting shot at from one side, I can run forward around a corner and am no longer getting hit, and if I turn around to shoot my pursuer, I can strafe to the side a bit to avoid incoming bullets. The game works surprisingly well in combat for an MMO. I attribute this to how they have everything set up as it is. It's not pretty, but it works.
And once again, that is the summation of APB Online Reloaded Beta for me. It's not great in some areas, but overall it's good. To quote what someone said in game, "It's broken and it's free" is another good term. Sure there are things that are fine. Sure there are things that could be improved, but it is a game still in Beta, and from the looks of the developer's blog, it is lovingly worked on to this day.
(Addendum: I must restate the concept that this IS NOT an MMORPG. It is a Massively Multiplayer Game (although it barely squeaks by on the first M because it is instanced the way it is with limited players you can interact with at once) and it has some RPG elements (the 'Standing' you get from doing Missions for instance, is like Experience/Reputation/Favour, that unlocks items for purchase), but there is no actual 'Character Stats' per se. There are stats on weapons, such as the damage they do, and even stats on cars, but as many people in the game keep saying (perhaps to differentiate themselves on purpose) it is not an Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.)
Regardless of some of the things that are odd in this game, I am having fun playing it - and isn't that the most important thing? See you in there!
(Screenshots and Videos and further comments on the game to come!)
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