Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Pacing in dialogue

Hi everyone,

I have a minor suggestion that, I think, could go a long way to make cinematic dialogue more enjoyable, and that is pacing. Often, the pauses between character's voicelines are just a bit too long, making it rather awkward to watch. Speeding this up just a little bit would improve the cinematic dialogue a lot in terms of keeping the player's attention and avoiding awkwardness.

Let's not turn this thread into another 'cinematic dialogue is bad in the first place' thread. I suggest we work with what we got, since Larian are unlikely to change their strategy this far into development.

Anyways, thanks for reading, bye-bye!

I always figured the slow pace of dialogues was due to perfomance issues. I wonder how dialogue feels on a top end rig.

I whoheartedly agree that it’s pointless hoping for the cinematic system to change. It’s such a huge endeavor, paired with Larian’s “permutation” design. It’s been at the core of the creation process from the start. That’s the only way it can all possibly get done on time.

I would say I have an 'almost top end rig', so I doubt it is a performance issue.

Agreed. I've noticed a huge difference in the pause between various computers. If it's too slow, I'm guessing that something is probably slowing it down. When things are performing well, there's no discernable pause.

Not entirely sure if that is what OP is talking about, but i have noticed small pauses between certain phases of dialogue ... rarely longer than 1, maximally 2 seconds ...
But that is caused by the fact tht dialogue is not recorded as single long cinematic, and the game needs a little time to figure out where to head next ... and that is impossible to create prefectly fluid.

If it is truly impossible to make it fluid, that defeats the purpose of cinematics. It’s hard to get sucked into the world when everyone looks like an actor waiting for someone offscreen to feed them their next line.

Presuming me and OP are talking about the same thing ofcourse ...
I can be totally off, wouldnt be the first time.