[Scummvm-tracker] [ScummVM] #10165: SCI: Phantasmagoria 2 movies volume too low

[Colin Snover]

#10165: SCI: Phantasmagoria 2 movies volume too low
-------------------------------+-------------------------
  Reporter:  domino1983        |      Owner:  (none)
      Type:  defect            |     Status:  new
  Priority:  normal            |  Component:  Engine: SCI
Resolution:                    |   Keywords:  sci32
      Game:  Phantasmagoria 2  |
-------------------------------+-------------------------

Comment (by csnover):

 Thanks for your report!

 Yeah, this is not great. I skipped all the videos when I was testing the
 game so did not notice this problematic sound level problem. Mixing was
 not great in the original game either, but it is worse here because the
 video volume shares volume control with the in-game volume in order to
 make sure that video volume is also adjusted whenever the game’s volume is
 adjusted from within ScummVM, so it is only possible to play videos more
 quietly than the in-game audio, not louder.

 There are a couple options I can think of off the top of my head, I am not
 sure which is best or if there are some better alternatives (neither of
 these seems particularly great):

 1. Add a hack to the video player so that it reduces the volume of other
 game audio whenever a video is playing, similar to games like Torin’s
 Passage where the volume of music is reduced whenever speech is playing.
 2. Add a hack to the audio subsystem so that in-game audio (i.e. music and
 sound effects) is always played at a fixed lower volume than what is
 requested by the game. This would be roughly similar to the way the game
 sets its default volume levels, where the in-game audio defaults to being
 somewhat lower than the video volume, though this would be hard-coded in
 the engine code specifically for this game.

 (A side-note about the in-game “music” volume slider: the game actually
 (intentionally) changes both the music ''and'' sound effects volumes when
 you use this control, despite its name.)

--
Ticket URL: <https://bugs.scummvm.org/ticket/10165#comment:3>
ScummVM <https://bugs.scummvm.org>
ScummVM