Low quality voices (German) : V

» Mon May 28, 2012 5:47 pm

Hi, i am just wondering, if there will be a "fix"/update for the german synchronization of Skyrim, which sounds pretty awful (never heard anything comparable to this in a videogame).

I've already changed sampling rate etc. but it didn't fix the issue and in another forum, i've heard, that it is a problem with the compression/packing of the german voicefiles.

» Tue May 29, 2012 4:45 am

Same issue here. It's not gamebreaking, but certainly annoying. It's worse if you turn your side to the character talking, sounds like a low-quality recording of someone talking into a bad headset...

» Mon May 28, 2012 10:27 pm

Seriously? You are able to read and write english but bought the game in GERMAN? Are you nuts?

You should have known that the translation is ALWAYS a pisspoor job - i read there are like only 10+ people who did the synchronization for the german localization. Every NPC name, every city has been translated through bablefish it is sooo awful

Do yourself a favor and switch to english.

btw: Ich bin selbst Deutscher - wie kann man sich sowas nur antun?

» Mon May 28, 2012 11:15 pm

Seriously? You are able to read and write english but bought the game in GERMAN? Are you nuts?

You should have known that the translation is ALWAYS a pisspoor job - i read there are like only 10+ people who did the synchronization for the german localization. Every NPC name, every city has been translated through bablefish it is sooo awful

Do yourself a favor and switch to english.

btw: Ich bin selbst Deutscher - wie kann man sich sowas nur antun?

Quoted for thruth. Oh and if your English isn't that good just turn on subtitles for everything.

But the case stands. If the sound lacks quality it should be fixed. There are after all people out there who paid full price for the game and can't speak English well enough to understand everything.

» Mon May 28, 2012 5:24 pm

I don't mind the german synchronization in Skyrim, that's why I leave it on german. I usually play games in english. *Shrugs*

The translated names of the cities and stuff is odd, but by far not game breaking or anything. We're not talking about bad speakers here either, but bad quality of the recordings, or just some issue with the audio.

» Mon May 28, 2012 8:28 pm

Seriously? You are able to read and write english but bought the game in GERMAN? Are you nuts?

You should have known that the translation is ALWAYS a pisspoor job - i read there are like only 10+ people who did the synchronization for the german localization. Every NPC name, every city has been translated through bablefish it is sooo awful

Do yourself a favor and switch to english.

btw: Ich bin selbst Deutscher - wie kann man sich sowas nur antun?

hey hey, I think that has nothing to do with what they are talking about. Seriously, I've bought the german version too and the synchronization is really well done this time (don't mind the different city names) I'm happy I don't have their problem O.o and I guess they really mean it like they said: it sounds like a bad headset take.

and really: the german synchro overall is really good^^" unlike Oblivion

» Mon May 28, 2012 7:22 pm

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Oh so maybe it is a problem with the sound card or something.

I don't mind the german synchronization in Skyrim, that's why I leave it on german. I usually play games in english. *Shrugs*

The translated names of the cities and stuff is odd, but by far not game breaking or anything. We're not talking about bad speakers here either, but bad quality of the recordings, or just some issue with the audio.

I hope it's some other issue than a bad recording, because if it is it won't get fixed. I don't think they will record everything all over again. Then again how would something like this pass QA...

» Tue May 29, 2012 12:07 am

My sound card is working flawlessly. So that can't be the issue.

» Mon May 28, 2012 10:33 pm

My sound card is working flawlessly. So that can't be the issue.

Yeah I meant your soundcard in combination with Skyrim. But if it's a problem that more people with the German version have it'll probably get fixed soon.

» Mon May 28, 2012 8:30 pm

Bethesda has to be aware of the issue first

» Mon May 28, 2012 7:33 pm

I'll just bump this for good, this is quite annoying really. I'd bet on the new compression system. It seems to affect the german audio though, can't hear the same bad quality in speeches when I turn the game english. Come on, there has to be a patch for this.

» Mon May 28, 2012 5:05 pm

I'll just bump this for good, this is quite annoying really. I'd bet on the new compression system. It seems to affect the german audio though, can't hear the same bad quality in speeches when I turn the game english. Come on, there has to be a patch for this.

Not only in german also my english copy has low voices even if I max everything.

» Mon May 28, 2012 8:50 pm

I don't mean low as in volume. I mean the overall quality of the speeches. There's a light static in the background when a NPC talks. This seems to affect the german version, not the english one.

» Mon May 28, 2012 9:25 pm

According to my experience, there hasn't been any high-quality translation to German in video games or movies within the last 10 years. That is why I stopped buying games or watching movies in German and I can only recommend to do the same.

Even if Bethesda would have spent money on real translation/sync, probably most of the accents and intonation would still be lost.

» Tue May 29, 2012 2:10 am

I'm not talking about the quality of the synchronization itself, my god. :brokencomputer:

I mean the quality of the audio, there's a static in the background as if it's some bad coded MP3 file.

» Tue May 29, 2012 1:50 am

I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed. The voice actors are doing a great job, they're well-known professionals.

The problem is the HORRIBLE COMPRESSION of the audio files. It's totally unmistakable when it comes to silbants like 'S', 'ch' or 'sch'. It sounds like compressed down to 32Kbit or something :brokencomputer:

» Mon May 28, 2012 6:08 pm

Finally someone's getting what I'm saying ^^

» Mon May 28, 2012 10:27 pm

The problem is the HORRIBLE COMPRESSION of the audio files. It's totally unmistakable when it comes to silbants like 'S', 'ch' or 'sch'. It sounds like compressed down to 32Kbit or something :brokencomputer:

This is what i meant, the voiceacting itself is quite good so far, but the quality of the files seems to be broken.

And you just can't agrue with changing language to english, i think there is a huge amount of people/players (also if it excludes myself), who aren't able to understand it and also would like to enjoy the game.

» Mon May 28, 2012 10:19 pm

My english is good enough to play it in english, but you should understand that you can only get immersing gameplay when you play it in your native language. And back to topic, I hope that Beth will notice this, my hopes are quite down, but who knows.

» Mon May 28, 2012 6:37 pm

you can only get immersing gameplay when you play it in your native language

It just makes me mad. They probably spent quite a lot of money on that star-studded cast. The confusing thing is that some lines seem to be pretty much ok, others are completely like people mumbling and hissing into tin cans. :unsure2:

» Mon May 28, 2012 6:10 pm

It's the compression for sure. They did use their new method of data compression to get the game down to like 6 gigabyte, all nice and dandy, but I'd rather install a 15 gigabyte game if I'd have better quality in voices.

» Mon May 28, 2012 3:29 pm

I do not have this issue I have to say, I would have noticed something like that since I usually use HiFi-Headphones for listening.

Would be interesting if you can tell about your sound hwardware and its settings.

» Tue May 29, 2012 12:40 am

Soundcard/Driver: ASUS Xonar DX (Audio Center) and Roccat Kave Headphones, and like mentioned before, no other game sounds like that (sampling rate doesn't change anything, except that some settings cause an enduring backgroundnoise).

Are developers reading these forums or is there another way to contact them?

» Mon May 28, 2012 7:02 pm

Has somebody been able to extract the files from the bsa archives? Let's have a look at those mp3s or whatever format they're in, I really doubt it's sound driver issues or whatever.

» Tue May 29, 2012 12:14 am

Good idea.