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Posted by
Thomas
McGuire on May 07, 2002
Developed by: Raven
Software
Publisher: LucasArts
Buy Jedi Knight II at the
lowest
price.
One
of the greatest and at the same time most flawed components
of Jedi Outcast has to be the in-game audio. From a basic
viewpoint the game is limited to what you’ve heard in the
Star Wars films and in that regard there really wasn’t too
much that could be done to mess it up, that’s the case of
the weapons that sound like they do on the films.
At
times you’ll also hear the enemy engaging in some
conversation, similar to what you would have heard in Max
Payne, though far more limited. Once in fights there’s
also speech from various foes, from the taunting laughs of
Reborn to Storm Troopers commanding you to not move. It’s
all much like that in Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight if you’ve
played that previously.
The
voice acting for the cut scenes is pretty decent and
thankfully done using the game engine itself rather than the
“real actors” used in Dark Forces 2. As pointed out on
the Game box Billy Dee Williams even does the voice of Lando
Calrissian which probably adds some weight to the voice
talent used, though Mark Hamill doesn’t return to voice
Luke Skywalker however (This is kind of strange as
reportedly he is doing some voice acting for Soldier of
Fortune II).
As
regards in fights themselves it can get pretty complicated
and it’s generally quite thrilling to listen to, what with
weapons being fired from multiple foe and that which
doesn’t hit you generally ends up being heard hitting off
some piece of terrain or object, wall, etc. The lightsaber
generally lets off a pinging noise as it deflects weapon
fire also or a general scorching noise as it burns through
walls or enemy. This is an area that has been greatly
improved upon since Dark Forces 2. The lightsaber seems
significantly more threatening as you hear it burning
through basically anything it comes into contact with.
That
said Sound isn’t without its problems. Much like Medal of
Honor: Allied Assault, Jedi Outcast disappointingly contains
no in-Game options for using 3D Audio. Based on the in-Game
menu what you basically have in Quake 3 Arena Audio
configuration options.
Much
like Quake 3 Arena, Jedi Outcast only features a maximum
sampling rate of 22 kHz, which is disappointing to be
honest. Though Games have come a long way since the first 3D
supporting Games were released it’s pretty disappointing
to see that 22kHz, 16-Bit Stereo sound is still considered
“High quality” Audio.
But,
3D Sound is available in Jedi Outcast. For whatever reasons,
3D Audio is available by editing the config file that Jedi
Outcast store game settings in. In the GameData
folder, there are the files EaxMan.dll (EAX support)
& OpenAL32.dll (Creative DirectSound3D wrapper)
which will provide 3D Audio support once you set seta
s_UseOpenAL "1" in the Config file.
With
OpenAL (3D Audio) enabled, the game turns more immersive,
the 3D positioning is excellent, with weapon fire
surrounding you, explosions going off in the background or
voices emanating from various Speakers as appropriate with
where the source is. As it happens, by enabling OpenAL other
than using DirectSound3D it also enables EAX support. The
EAX presets are surprisingly well used throughout the game
as it happens in some parts it also uses some of the EAX
Advanced HD features available with the SoundBlaster Audigy,
though support for that is limited to a few sections. One
problem with using 3D Sound however is that voices become
inaudible over short distances and in particular it’s hard
to hear what Kyle has to say.
In
case you were wondering why OpenAL,
3D SoundSurge got
some information which should answer this for you:
OpenAL games will automatically take
advantage of any card supporting DS3D just like any DS3D
supporting game would. The major difference compared to a
normal DS3D game is that the soundcard can also directly
support OpenAL. The advantage of directly supporting OpenAL
is improved performance. According to a source at Creative
in developer relations the improved performance is basically
VXD performance on a WDM driver. That is when the Audigy
support OpenAL directly it will have the same performance
for those games in Windows XP as it currently have for DS3D
games in Win9x. As you may know the Audigy has no CPU usage
for 3d sounds in Win9x.
One
of the weirder scenes in the Game involves falling enemies.
Seemingly when falling from a certain height models will let
out a long scream as they fall to their doom. This is pretty
nice as you throw them from a ledge but you’ll more than
likely come across it happening inappropriately, e.g. After
shooting a Stormtrooper from a gantry above me, it fell off
& began this particular scream. The only problem is that
after landing a little in front of me with a satisfying thud
the scream continued for several more seconds.
Even
more annoying would have to be the lines of friendly
characters in the game. Hitting the Use key on them will
basically always result in them uttering one phrase. That
being that they heard something. Be it Jan Ors or rescued
Miners, they all say the same damned lines. On one of the
later levels I also noticed two Jedi would both say the same
line from the same voice actor.
Overall
the Audio in Jedi Outcast can be considered a well-done job,
though with some problems and certain laziness showing in
some areas as mentioned. Certainly not having the option to
use 3D Audio via an in-Game configuration option is the most
disappointing however. Details on enabling 3D Audio can be found
here.
Note
– SB Live! & Audigy latest drivers from Compaq (and
presumably the next official Creative release) include full
OpenAL support which fixes the low volume voice problem I
mentioned, along with generally improving the Sound quality
further (After deleting the Openal32.dll file that comes
with the Game). These issues should however remain with
other soundcards until they support OpenAL, too.
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