Please enable footsteps in combat

chimeric

With this engine there aren't many ways to bring out a monster or character, make him different. Small things, like sound - though why small? it's immediately noticed - can really make or break an impression. And foosteps is one of those details. It is possible to give a creature unique footsteps in its INI file. But the games are set up so as to mute default and custom footsteps as soon as fighting begins and battle music starts playing. Why? If I imagine how much more vivid stompings and clawings on the earth, colossal steps of a golem would make fights, in addition to the sounds of hits, whistling of arrows and battle cries, this addition seems just the ticket.

bob_veng

i think it was done to improve performance on slower pcs

chimeric

I doubt that can make a difference. Any number of footsteps can play at once outside of combat, it doesn't slow anything. If performance was the reason Bioware disabled them in 1998, modern machines don't care.

bob_veng

yeah, i meant back in the day. footstep sounds did affect performance even on average PCs, can attest to that

BelegCuthalion

got to agree for 1998, it slowed things down on my AMD K6-III
and got to agree for 2017, it won't slow down things on anything today, but maybe there are engine or driver limits to simultaneously played sounds?

chimeric

It's not about simultaneous limits, that's for sure. You can summon a bunch of creatures out of combat, have them all work around, say their voice bits, jingle armor - no problem. Combat doesn't add anything as far as sounds go.