Sorry I didn't read the whole message.

I don't want realistic gun shot sounds into games, because besides the obvious loudness, the one's I've heard in real life are highly annoying. Kind of like someone banging a big rusty plate of iron with a big hammer or something, IIRC. I rather take the Hollywood-versions of those sounds in games, thanks.

My limited experience with guns and such:

As most Finnish men, in the army I fired quite a bit with this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rk_62

and also a bit with some unknown 9mm later (in the army).

Afterwards I've sometimes fired in a range with .357 Magnum revolver and 9mm, but last time has been two years ago or so, and before than many many years. So I'm much more used to hearing guns in movies and games, than in real life.

Hmm. Well, I'll have to take a look at that again, then. I haven't played STALKER in a few years.
Indeed. The HL2 gun sounds are pathetic. Except the shotgun, that is. The shotgun sounded pretty good.

Very interesting article. And it makes me think that trying to make guns sound realistic really isn't all that important. Making the sounds FEEL realistic is far more important.

Not sure I really liked his example sound, though. Again, it sounded far more like a machine than a gunshot.

I did a sound design class recently and one of our project was to do the sound for a game (that was made by game design students). I spent hours in our sound banks (including Sound Ideas which has been used in many major games and movies) and let me tell you that real guns sounds a lot like airsoft guns. Most "cool" gun sounds that we hear in games were either modified or came for a different gun altogether. I remember doing the sound of a shotgun blast (which ended up getting unused) and to make it sound just right, I had to combine a SPAS shotgun sound (a famous one) a magnum gunshot and a grenade explosion (to add some oomph).

That's some crappy sound banks they gave you.

I fired a Beretta 84 and a Spas 12.and the sound of them in many games are very off

If video game guns sounded like real guns, I wouldn't play any games with guns.
Which would be preferable for realism, having the game make a tinnitus sound for a few hours/days after shooting or the sound being realistic enough to cause actual tinnitus? :p

I don't want gun realism in my games in other ways either (I'm not into simulators, those probably should have some gun realism (but even those shouldn't kill people :p )). If the game guns look and feel "cool", it's enough for me.

The sound you hear when firing e.g. an assault rifle is basically your ear telling you "WTF you maniac!!!" It's dulled because it went over the pain barrier. Hearing it while wearing some primitive ear protection, just to take the edge off, would be preferable in regards to quasi-realism, but the dud sound is still considered the real deal.

Yes, I've fired a weapon while not exactly wearing ear protection (it fell out). No, it was not pleasant.

Also: the sound of MG42 in the Close Combat series... how did they manage that? Someone blowing their nose?

Never fired a gun so past a certain extent, the accuracy of the simulation that pertain to firing your weapon is lost on me.

In a way, I appreciate the accuracy of bows & arrows more, just because they are somewhat more predictable based on the knowledge I acquired in my physics classes in college.

However, I did appreciate the recoil accuracy found in more modern games, but that's mostly because I referee Shadowrun games and recoil is included in the game rules (and that is the extent of my exposure to it).

Anyways, I prefer that a simulation where I shoot people not be overly realistic.

In a shooter, I want to shoot people, but I don't really want to shoot people :P.

FN F2000S, our standard issue rifle. It fires NATO SS109 rounds, pretty standard stuff. It's not that it's unbearable, but it does ping your ears and after a few rounds you start feeling numb hearing wise. I prefer ear protection on the firing range, thank you.

Most guns aren't "standing next to the speakers at a nightclub" loud, but they're plenty loud enough to cause damage to your ears. Overuse can even cause permanent hearing loss. So I think this would be an acceptable reality break, on account of nobody wants to blow out their computer speakers or eardrums from a videogame. Similarly, people don't want to be blinded if they move the camera towards the sun, even if the bloom *IS* turned all the way up. It's realistic but it's not GOOD.

To be fair, these are really good sound banks. A lot of the guns sounded right, just not what we're used to hear in movies and games. The airsoft guns comment is mainly directed to shotguns and pistols (except magnums of course).

In fact, the pistol in Half-Life 2 sounds the closest to it's real-life counterpart than in other games.

If one sticks marshmallows into one's ears, presses pillows against them and holds it together with earmuffs, then a real gun sounds almost like the teacup-safe firecraker of HL2. I've only gone as far as earmuffs, yet. Game guns suck at filling the space with sound, maybe that's why the whole echo and reverberation are usually stuffed into the shot sample itself to make it sound decent. In HL2 someone decided that the simple "pop" is enough.

I actually would like to see at least one game do something with ear ringing after firing a gun. It would be interesting, if nothing else.

I should also mention that my real priority here isn't necessarily technical realism. More like a feeling of realism. Despite the fact that the HL2 pistol does technically sound like a pistol (or a recording of a pistol shot, at least), it's unconvincing to the max. The impression you get firing a pistol in real life is completely different.

That's true that the lack of realistic echoing could be a major contributing factor. I can't think of a game that does outside reverb well (not that they don't exist, I just can't think of one). I know from experience that even when you fire a whimpy little .32, the sound hangs in the air much longer than you'd expect.