Hearing impaired Killers need help too!

PowZapBamWoofMeow

So survivors are getting some kind of visual aid update to help with the killer terror radius.

hey great!

but uh… hello, mcfly! What about killers getting visual aid for survivor sounds?

This works both ways you know.

I’m deaf in one ear and I can never tell where survivor sounds are occurring around me so like 90% I rely on visuals.

Seanzu

@Ithiria said:

My problem with using stuff like chase music to make things hard to hear is the same as my problem with trying to use darkness to make things difficult to see, or having no crosshair available.

You're giving a huge advantage to people willing to use external software, which isn't available at all for console players, and isn't practically bannable either.

Everyone already knows about NVIDIA filters for visuals. But Windows itself has a volume normalization option that makes footsteps and the like much easier to hear, and lowers the volume of the chase music. If you're truly sweaty, you can even use an equalizer and tune it to boost those sounds even further or use a compressor (the only ppl ive ever heard of doing this are spirit mains though.) All of this is super common in other FPS games like PUBG.

That is not how it works at all, if you have great thumping terror radius music on, windows is not manipulating the games audio to make footsteps hidden in that music louder it's just not a thing.

Ithiria

@Seanzu said:

https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/discussion/comment/3332015#Comment_3332015

That is not how it works at all, if you have great thumping terror radius music on, windows is not manipulating the games audio to make footsteps hidden in that music louder it's just not a thing.

Windows doesn't do it by default, it's an option called Loudness Equalization. (Also I never said it hid anything? The information is always there, it is simplify magnified or reduced when the software is used.) There's heaps of third party apps that can do it much better too.

The main thing it does is that it reduces the dynamic range, meaning the distance between the quietest sound and the loudest sound is much shorter. That's why it's an advantage, because the chase music isn't that much louder compared to footsteps and pain grunts anymore.

It basically exists because of movies that have a very high dynamic range which can be torturous without either equalization or subtitles.

BrownEncrustedBoxers

I'm deaf in one ear as well and it's hard to pick up on audio cues as a killer. I manage, but I totally get your point.

Ithiria

@Seanzu said:

https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/discussion/comment/3332015#Comment_3332015

That is not how it works at all, if you have great thumping terror radius music on, windows is not manipulating the games audio to make footsteps hidden in that music louder it's just not a thing.

I never said it did?

All I referenced was compressing the dynamic range of the game.

SkeletalElite

I think the mobile version has something like this, when in proximity to a survivor you get an on-screen notification I think with a general direction.

Reinami

@Seanzu said:

https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/discussion/comment/3331877#Comment_3331877

Turn your music on full blast, have someone tap the floor, sometimoes you'll hear the taping, sometimes you won't, the game cannot decide when you would and wouldn't hear this, brains are dumb and smart. HOWEVER the systems in the game will always see both of these happening and show you even if you didn't hear it.

That's about having good hearing (or good headphones) we should not be limiting "did you hear it or not" to random brain signals, especially when talking about people who are HEARING IMPAIRED.

YOURFRIEND

Wonder how these folks are gonna feel when the accessibility thing for survs is just a blanket buff and everyone has it on all the time because why wouldn't you?

Meanwhile hard of hearing folk who have the temerity to want to play mean ole killer just have to suffer because your accessibility only matters if you play one side. Ludicrous and hateful.

AssortedSorting

Gonna be a long while till I think they add in an audio accessibility setting for Killer in this regard, as it'll need to take into account all audio sources when showing that information.

Probably would be something like this:

Imagine a 3d Circle placed flat on the horizontal camera axis.

Parts of the circle can raise based on the amplitude of nearby sounds (raising less based on the distance).

The direction of sound sources compared to the camera will specify which parts of this audio circle will be raised by the incoming sound amplitude.

Chase music is sourced at the player, so it will cause amplitude changes on the entire 3D circle.

(Really crappy visualization of it:)

Then visually it comes down to understanding the amplitude change patterns on this 3D "audio compass" to see sounds for a specific action, and being able to discern them from any ambient or chase on the compass.

This would be a huge undertaking, and would take quite a while to add amplitude profiles to audio events and figure out a proper way to add them together, test, and make sure it all visually isn't too obtrusive.

The bonus is that this would effectively add audio accessibility settings to everything in the game for any role, not just Killer. (Think footsteps, chainsaws, Pallets Breaks, Window Vaults, etc.) And the complexity of understanding the visual representation would mean a player would likely need to be invested in this system to benefit from it (EG: actually need to use it to learn it).

(I also don't know if this is something that already exists, but uses another name than just "audio compass")