Read more about Cyberpunk 2077➜ https://cyberpunk2077.mgn.tv
We know that the visual fidelity of Cyberpunk 2077 can be outstanding when running on a very high-end PC, when looking past all the glitches and streaming issues (I know, it’s hard). At times the crowd and traffic density are really high, yet I always felt like there is something wrong with Night City, making it feel a bit lifeless and dull, despite what you see on screen.
For a while I thought the only reason was the lack of proper AI. However, I came to realise that the biggest issue of Night City in my opinion is its sound design. When walking through the dense city center, what you see just doesn’t match up with what you hear. A lot of objects and events don’t have any sound assigned to them when they should be making sounds. Sports cars are very quiet when accelerating fast, you don’t hear rolling tires on asphalt, and the idle sound of all combustion engines is almost inaudible or completely missing, just to give a few examples. Also the space you’re walking in barely affects the audio, for example walking under a large bridge should create more echo.
Here is a post production edit I created to give a rough idea of what Night City could feel like if these shortcomings were fixed and the audio fidelity was on par with the visual fidelity. This is not just an edit of the in-game audio, but I collected real recordings of all kinds of car and city sounds and layered them over the in-game audio, placing them in 3D, to create a more authentic sound field.
Note that I did not spend too much time on this edit to work it all out in detail. It was done fairly quickly just to get a rough idea where things could go and get a feeling for how it affects the level of immersion.
Enjoy and let me know what you think.
00:00 – Intro
00:16 – Setting 1 / original audio
01:23 – Setting 1 / enhanced audio
02:30 – Setting 2 / original audio
03:15 – Setting 2 / enhanced audio
03:59 – Setting 3 / original audio
05:00 – Setting 3 / enhanced audio
source
Yes, the game can look outstanding. AT TIMES. Even on a high-end PC– and I DO have a high-end PC– it looks bad and glitchy. Sound design is yet another issue of Cyberpunk 2077 and a gerat example of how the game is just low quality all around. No matter where you look, there is something that is just half-baked or poorly developed. And that is the reason why the game in its entirety feels bad and glitchy. Even on your gameplay there are pop-ins of people, models and textures. Cars stopping for no reason in the middle of the street. Animations stopping and resetting. This game still looks like beta 7 months from release.
4:12 the car 😂
Came across this on reddit, incredible work bud
It does feel like a whole different vibe with the enhanced audio. Wish it could be a mod to be included but I can imagine the insane amount of work to be done.
CDPR hire him, please.
That was great, especially if just listen without a picture, the difference is huge.
Yeah, it doesn't sound like CDPR put in too much natural reverb or wind sounds. And the new engine sounds are a nice touch!
OMG THIS IS BEAUTIFUL
Good idea for a mod since audio modding is already possible
Wow, yeah, the original really sounds nothing like the streets of a large and noisy city. The original sounds more like a suburban commercial district or a busy strip mall parking lot. I'm not a big audiophile at all, so I never even noticed it until watching this. Great work.
Great job, Cyberpunk indeed just sounded too empty which added to the emptyiness of the not-so-interactive world.
Something you might want to add for more immersion is random emergency services sirens, and I suppose also more random chatter/crowd sounds, but the higher noise level floor is much missing from the game itself yeah.
Alright. I hadn't noticed a huge problem when first playing CP77, but now I will never unhear this. thank you.