We’ve all been caught out when we think we’ve done something silently, when actually
everybody else in the room heard the fart, loud and clear.
But the same can happen in Counter-Strike, so I’ll be revisiting this topic with updated
information to find out which -seemingly- silent actions leave an unwanted mark, and
how not to follow through with them.
You can see written, on-screen, where the audio is from that you can currently hear
being played.
It will either be ‘listener’, indicating it’s what another player can hear, or it
will be ‘noisy person’s audio’, in which case, the audio will be from the person performing
the actions, from a first person perspective.
Let’s start with something simple.
Movement!
Yes, that’s mostly straight-forward, but with a few unexpected twists along the way.
Kind of like a walk back from the pub.
As you might expect, you can hear other players’ footsteps when they’re running, but not
while they’re walking or crouching.
Yes, we are starting at this sort of basic level for this video!
And it’s the same with the ladders- if you climb up them full-speed, then you can hear
the rungs being clung.
But if you’re walking or creeping then they won’t hear a peeping.
And here’s some examples of it in action.
Now here’s something interesting: your footstep sounds can be louder for somebody else, than
they are for you, the one who’s making them!
I know!
I couldn’t believe it either, so just LISTEN.
And utilising the magic of stereo, I can play both at the same time, one in each ear.
In extreme cases like this one, your footsteps can be over 10 dB louder for somebody else,
than they are for you!
This is, like, the audio-equivalent of your gun sticking around a corner.
You will be forever underestimating how much sound your clumpy cloppy man hooves are making,
which will make you easier to detect than you might think!
Yes; all those people you reported for wallhacking might have been genuine when they said they
heard your footsteps.
Jumping is a different topic, though, and you can hear a player jump off the ground,
and also when they land on the ground.
Simple enough.
But, if they’re bunnyhopping, you’ll only hear the first landing sound.
After that you’ll only hear the launches.
HOWEVER!
If they’re jumping up onto something higher than when they started, you can hear the launch
sound, but not the landing.
I tested the height this silence would kick in at and I could still hear the landing at
8 units, but not at 12 units, which is greater than the height of a properly-made stair would
be.
So if you’re jumping onto something higher than a stair, the landing sound won’t be
there.
But the launch sound will still be.
So it’s difficult, you see.
The launch sound is a quieter on though so it should quickly fade into the background
as the distance between you and your secret listener increases.
A few things seem to have changed since last time I tested this topic- previously, crouch-jumping
was silent, but now all jumps are equal, no matter which buttons you have pressed as you’re
doing them.
The other thing that’s changed is the FALLING DAMAGE!
Because previously, even if a player took damage from falling too far, the noise that
other people would hear would still be the normal ‘landing on ground’ sound.
But this has now been switched out for a more…
SATISFYING sound instead.
*Splat*
And dying from falling damage sounds just as satisfying as ever.
*SPLAT* ‘Counter-Terrorists win’
Let’s move onto water.
Believe it or not, running through water causes splashy sounds.
But if you move slowly, it doesn’t.
Let’s switch to the noise-maker’s perspective and audio here.
That water-in-ears sound can’t be heard by anybody else.
In fact, the first sign to anybody else on the server that you’re in the water will
be when you start taking drowning damage!
*Splat splat splat* Which can I just say, doesn’t sound like
someone drowning.
Speaking of which, this is probably the best chance I’m ever going to get to shout out
one of my favourite websites:
spotthedrowningchild.com.
And you never know when it might come in handy.
You have to watch a clip with an unknown amount of build-up -it gets tense- and at some point,
a child will probably slip off their inflatable ring and starting splashing about.
THAT’S what drowning looks like.
Not this.
Familiarise yourself with this website, and who knows- maybe one day, you’ll be able
to save a life.
Though probably not cos lifeguards are too damn good!
Let’s… move on.
WEAPONS- Yes, to get the obvious out of the way, enemies can hear you firing your gun.
Even the ‘silenced’ ones, but the sound of those quickly trails off with distance,
and soon becomes difficult to hear over the sound of background wind.
You can’t hear changing weapons.
So you won’t reveal your position by switching to the knife.
The exception to this is on arms race when you reach the knife stage, which is clearly
audible to all players to tell them to watch their backs.
But no one plays that gamemode so it doesn’t matter.
Changing firemode CAN be heard.
As can scoping sniper rifles, and so can swiping your knife- with either attack mode.
MOST weapons make a sound when reloading, along with an extra sound when the magazine
hits the ground.
You don’t hear the reload after every shot with weapons like the scout or the AWP, but
you do hear the big reload when you finally replace their clip.
Weapons like the negev make a reloading sound, but don’t drop anything on the floor, and
there are even a few weapons that don’t make a reloading sound at all!
These include the 3 shotguns where you reload each shell manually.
The mag7, being reloaded in just one clip, still makes a sound.
But there’s ANOTHER weapon that doesn’t have a reloading sound, as well!
And that’s the revolver.
Curious indeed- maybe at some point you had to load the bullets into this weapon one by
one, as then at least then the revolver would be consistent with the shotguns which don’t
have a reloading sound.
But alas, that isn’t the case, and so reloading sounds are confusing.
Valve has fixed one of the bugs I spotted in 2015, where even if you switched weapons
mid-reload, it would still play the whole reload sound.
But now when you do it, the reloading sound will stop immediately.
This means that, sound-wise, it’s beneficial to switch away as soon as the gun has been
reloaded, as it cuts off the end of the reload sound.
Which may help you to avoid detection!
I spend a lot of time shitting on CS:GO, so let’s take a moment to appreciate this game,
and the wonderful attention to detail that’s been put into these third-person reload animations.
That’s enough appreciation for one day.
Moving on: you can’t hear other peoples’ weapon inspects.
And you can’t see them, either.
This sort of makes sense otherwise fancy skins you keep flicking in front of your face would
be pay to lose.
And Valve wouldn’t want that.
If you chuck an item, then others will hear if it lands on the ground.
However, if it’s before it lands on the ground then it won’t make a sound.
If you pick an item up that’s on the floor then it will play the equip sound, UNLESS
you’re walking at the time.
So with a bit of skill, you could be running along and provided you press the walk button
the moment you pick the weapon up, it will still be done silently without slowing you
down too much.
Moving onto grenades, you can’t hear them being equipped.
And most won’t even make a sound when their pins are pulled.
The exception to this is the Molotov!
You can hear this one being set alight.
The CT equivalent, being the incendiary grenade, doesn’t make a sound when its pin is pulled,
which makes the firey sock of doom the only grenade to make a noise before it’s thrown.
But ALL grenades make a sound when they are eventually thrown- but they might make less
noise than you’d expect, since when YOU throw a grenade you hear the radio guy screaming
‘FIRE IN THE HOLE’, but when enemies throw one, you only hear the sound of their arms
flopping about or whatever it is that makes that gentle rustling sound.
Getting to the gamemode-specific actions now… you can hear when an enemy starts planting
the bomb.
Because otherwise fake defuses wouldn’t work.
But that’s the only sound the bombs make!
Apart from the beeping and the exploding, obviously.
Even when a bomb is successfully planted, the only sound the enemies will hear is the
radio guy saying that the ‘BOMB HAS BEEN PLANTED’.
Which gives away that the bomb has been planted… but not WHERE it’s been planted.
‘BOMB HAS BEEN PLANTED’
Defusing can also be heard by the enemy.
Because otherwise fake defusals wouldn’t be a thing!
Hostage gamemode behaves a bit differently.
Terrorists can hear the hostage being picked up, but the sound only lasts for as long as
the pick-up attempt does.
So if you start picking a hostage up, but immediately stop again, then the sound doesn’t
have time to reach that noisy bit.
So fake-pick-ups aren’t as effective as fake bomb-plants are.
Get this.
You know that quiet, whimpering sound that hostages make?
*GASP RASP PUFF PANT*
Yeah… anybody close to you can hear as well.
Isn’t that sweet.
*Huhhuuhuhuhuhuuhhh*