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PR Noise-Problem Solution

Posted: 2013-05-14 22:46
by Spook
Updated for 1.6! Cleaned up irrelevant information, fixed links.

So this is a quick tutorial I did for the hotkey settings and tools I am using to solve the problem with the Ingame noise.

Like getting forced to ALT+TAB and lower the game sound while driving a vehicle to be able to understand other people in mumble or Teamspeak....and then being forced to alt+tab and increase the sound again when you are in a situation with enemies close by, but not being able to hear their footsteps and what not because you lowered the game sound when you were in the truck/chopper before.

Thanks to Prevtzer for initially coming up with the tools and giving me the idea for this. And thanks to Senshi for giving the script a usability revamp.

It may look like a lot of stuff to do, but it is actually really easy and done in a couple of minutes and it is worth it. I just wrote it very detailed so people will not have that much questions.

_______________________

First of all you need to have Win7 or up. I do not know if it works with Vista.
Will not work with XP!

1.
Download and extract this file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hxgrH8 ... wuZIgAbLJz
Password: PR

(I passworded the archive, hoping this will prevent Google from falsely detecting a virus in the nircmd.exe and blocking the download.)

Put the PRVolume folder anywhere you like. I prefer the BF2 folder so I know where to find it later.

The nircmd.exe inside of it is a utility that allows us to perform windows commands and actions without using the user interfaces.



2.
Install AutoHotkey by downloading the latest version from AutoHotkey)

This tool allows us to bind the nircmd commands to any hotkey we want.

Be aware that Anti-Cheat systems in a lot of other games nowadays consider Autohotkey as a cheat and might kick you from a game. It can be used to create no-recoil macros etc. You probably won't be banned, just kicked from the game and told to turn it off. Normally the script is designed to automatically close itself when PR closes, just having Autohotkey installed is not a problem. Its just when an instance of Autohotkey is running the AC might trigger a false alarm, so make sure the auto-close of the script works properly.



3.
Edit the settings.ini in the folder "PRVolume" and replace the PR Game path and the path to the nircmd files with your own.



This starts up PR as soon as you execute the script. You will not have to first open the script and then start PR. You will just need to execute the script and PR will start. Also when you close the game, the script will automatically close itself.



4.
Execute the "PRVolumeStd.ahk" script by double-left-clicking it. Or press right-click -> Compile Script to create an executable.

Change Volume in the Mumble settings to 70%. Teamspeak to +0.0dB in its settings. Set it higher if needed. I have it at +8dB.
Change PR volume settings ingame to 100%.

Now press Left-Windows Button + 1 or 2 or 3 or 4. If you Alt+Tab and watch at your Volume Mixer in Windows, you will see the volume bars change their position to your configuration.

Try it out and look if you like my settings. I use

LWin+1 for normal combat.
LWin+2 for normal combat with vehicles closeby (increased TS and Mumble volume).
LWin+3 for travelling in vehicles (low game volume, high TS and Mumble volume)
LWin+4 for "Danger Close" (very low TS and Mumble volume so you can fully focus on your surrounding sounds when enemies are very close to you.)

If you like my settings, keep them. But you can change it anyway you like. Just edit the "PRVolumeStd.ahk" script. You will see the different presets and the volume numbers at the end of each referenced process.

1.0 means 100% of the master volume. So if you put your master volume to 80%, the application will be at 80% as well. 0.4 would make the application go to 40%. If you put Master volume to 100%, 0.5 would make it go to 50% of course.

So simply play around with the settings. Save the script before closing it and right click on the tray icon again and choose "Reload This script", to apply the new saved changes.

If not satisfied, open up again and change it again.

You can also add more hotkeys for more modes, or reduce them. Just copy and paste one of your modes in the script and edit the values and the hotkeys.

You can also replace the TeamSpeak process with Discord or add further processes.

The hotkeys can be changed as well. They are defined at the beginning of every "mode", in this case: "#1::"
# is the left windows key, and 1 stands for the number key. Just look up the other key commands up here List of Keys and Mouse/Joystick Buttons for Hotkeys and Macros and do your own hotkeys if you do not like mine.

Re: PR Noise-Problem Solution

Posted: 2013-05-14 23:16
by Nate.
Awesome! This hopefully will change my ongoing deafness when being in a helo or APC!
Thanks for making this tutorial ;)

Re: PR Noise-Problem Solution

Posted: 2013-05-15 00:35
by Gracler
Excellent idea.

I remember 1 guy screaming at everyone to shut up in squad-mumble because he was in a close encounter and it disturbed him, although this is more for being around vehicles, i wonder if there is a way to customize mumble in a way that incoming squad-voice can be changed individually from incoming proximity voice. In a real life situation you would be able to turn up or down your radio so if this feature doesn't exist it would be nice if someone could "fix" it.

A "filter" added onto "Squad-leader" chat that makes it sound like a radio so you could tell that it isn't local would be even more epicness.

Re: PR Noise-Problem Solution

Posted: 2013-05-15 00:56
by KiloJules
Thank you very much! Will test/setup tomorrow and see how it goes in-game.

Re: PR Noise-Problem Solution

Posted: 2013-05-15 12:32
by SAM609
Did you test it in punkbuster enabled servers ??!
Important AutoHotkey note: Games utilizing PunkBuster as an anti-cheat measure may mistakenly interpret AutoHotkey as illegal and as such will automatically kick you from any respective servers. Battlefield 3 is the most notable example.
Does it work now ??!

Re: PR Noise-Problem Solution

Posted: 2013-05-15 12:39
by WeeD-KilleR
SAM609 wrote:Did you test it in punkbuster enabled servers ??!

Does it work now ??!
It's a setting server admin can choose to activate. I can't name one PR server that has this PB setting activated. At least I am not getting kicked with my G15 makro software running.

Re: PR Noise-Problem Solution

Posted: 2013-05-15 13:21
by Spook
No, PB is not kicking for that in PR.

Re: PR Noise-Problem Solution

Posted: 2013-05-15 16:24
by KiloJules
Perfectly explained, works like a charm and is very easy to setup and use. Thanks again!

p.s. it also works to start any other PR-related software with this script, so only 1 double click for me in the future - YAY!

Re: PR Noise-Problem Solution

Posted: 2013-05-17 19:39
by DesmoLocke
I'm going to have to try this. I see this being especially helpful inside loud vehicles and while playing the night version of Normandy. Those U.S. troop planes are ridiculously loud.

Re: PR Noise-Problem Solution

Posted: 2013-05-17 21:04
by Bluedrake42
have you ever thought of also creating a vst host and using a plugin to duck? thats what I do.

Re: PR Noise-Problem Solution

Posted: 2013-05-18 12:16
by KiloJules
Sorry what? You mean you don't have to hold ctrl to duck down but rather have a macro hold the button for you?!

Meh...

Re: PR Noise-Problem Solution

Posted: 2013-05-19 01:47
by ChallengerCC
Realy good work.

Re: PR Noise-Problem Solution

Posted: 2013-05-19 05:21
by Gracler
KiloJules wrote:Sorry what? You mean you don't have to hold ctrl to duck down but rather have a macro hold the button for you?!

Meh...
I think he means ducking in relation to audio, like the way it works in vanilla bf2 when someone talk the in-game sound is lowered.

Re: PR Noise-Problem Solution

Posted: 2013-05-19 13:18
by Spook
I did not want to do that. This would be annoying as hell, if ingame sound would keep increase and decrease all the time when being in TS or Mumble.

I added something to the tutorial. TS3 64 bit does NOT WORK with this tutorial.

Re: PR Noise-Problem Solution

Posted: 2013-05-20 19:48
by Vicious302
Much more simple solution:

Set BF2 volume to 90%
Set Mumble output volume to 140%

Re: PR Noise-Problem Solution

Posted: 2013-05-20 20:40
by Nate.
Vicious302 wrote:Much more simple solution:

Set BF2 volume to 90%
Set Mumble output volume to 140%
And how exactly do you get the same results that way?

Using Spooks setup, you can adapt your sound for every situation.
Your settings don't allow you to hear the enemies when there is heavy mumble-chatter.

Re: PR Noise-Problem Solution

Posted: 2013-05-20 20:44
by Vicious302
I don't lead myself into situations where the mumble chatter gets heavy, I take care of my communication before I get into a situation, down to the detail. If anyone has anything to say, it is just as important to hear as a footstep and I'm sorry but I just don't understand the need. I feel that with my setup, and a change in how you operate, you can accomplish much more success than trying to change your mumble volume in a dynamic, vicious, and unforgiving environment.

Re: PR Noise-Problem Solution

Posted: 2013-05-20 21:33
by Spook
So wait how do you get yourself NOT into situations with much chatter? You avoid any dangerous situations and just stay 300m behind the frontline? Even with very skilled and disciplined players it is impossible to keep the chatter clear all the time in a game like PR. Its just way too fast for proper coms like in RL or ArmA. There is always suddenly a squad popping up behind you and everyone starts yelling reports of contacts around you.

In a situation where your enemy is just around the corner and you need to hear the footsteps to be able to predict where he is gonna popup and save your own life by that, things like "TANK leaving main" is not an important information for you. Actually nothing else matters for you except the sounds of the guy right next to you. The information that threatens your life most (in this case the footstep-, reloading-, shooting-, hook-, nade- etc. sounds) always have the highest priority, everything else needs to be ignored in this situation. And since you only hear them clearly if your sound is high, you will need to lower the volume of the game as soon as you are close the vehicles again. otherwise you will not understand chatter anymore. How do you avoid that? It is simply impossible to lower the volume to hear chatter in vehicles and hear footsteps 20m away with the same setup. it does not work unless the footstep sounds will get increased to the same volume as a rolling tank.

Re: PR Noise-Problem Solution

Posted: 2013-05-21 12:42
by Gracler
Vicious302 wrote:I don't lead myself into situations where the mumble chatter gets heavy, I take care of my communication before I get into a situation, down to the detail. If anyone has anything to say, it is just as important to hear as a footstep and I'm sorry but I just don't understand the need.
It doesn't sound like you have played PR on a public server. id estimate 80% of what is said on mumble is either not directed to you....not important for you... or just useless chatter / cheering. So 80% will be noise that will prevent you from spotting the enemy close by.

I prefer when things that is directed to the team and not urgent is put in chat instead of mumble... at least that limits the chatter. But the reality is that people will ask on squad-chat.... can someone pick me up at...... enemy tank is going to main to repair...... sniper spotted (in the middle of nowhere important). And of course every communication to sq 8 goes on squad-leaders-channel.

How you can avoid that situation is by playing it commander style....not engaging any enemy's at close range? There is not enough recourse with just 30-32 players to leave the fighting to your team-mates, while you babysit the radio, or engage with ..bzzzzzz ....nbzzzzz bzzzzz ..... sniper in A1 kp1.....zzzbbbb. in your ear.

A simple shortcut for muting mumble is a good alternative though, this fix just seems to work better.

Re: PR Noise-Problem Solution

Posted: 2013-05-21 13:51
by Elirah
Well, thats why sometimes my squadmember going to hunt the enemy, because they cant hear me saying "Ignore them, head *direction away from enemy*". Brilliant....
I prefer hearing communications prior to footsteps which aren't that important at all. Maybe its important for your life in the most simplistic way, however its better to hear communications that give you more information than a simple footstep (and yes, you can hear footsteps beside communication, you just need to use local mumble)...

I hope I wont see many of my SM using this technique. Thats gonna be very frustrating...