Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) => Topic started by: SadisticSid on April 30, 2004, 04:57:02 am
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I don't think this has been brought up before, but Freespace is particularly crap when it comes to playing sounds. Oft times 'parts' of the beam cycle, notably the loop, do not get played because of the number of sound effects being played when it fires, and sounds with the same index don't seem to be played multiple times if their start times are in close proximity to each other - example: two turrets with the same weapon fire exactly at the same time, except only one of the sounds is played.
Is there any chance this could be addressed after 3.6?
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A lot of this is on purpose. FlyBy sounds for instance will only play one at the time and cut out the older one mid play if needed. Voice messages will play only one at the time, stopping all the rest. It's not the sound system that does this, the game checks for a currently playing sound of the same type and then stops it to play a new one.
I'll look into changing this (especially weapon and flyby sounds) after 3.6 is released.
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Thanks! :)
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I'd love to see the sound part of FS2 upgraded, it's the only part that no-ones really looked at from an SCP point of view :)
I'm still plugging for ambient 3d subsystem sounds btw ;)
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I've just bought a 5.1 sound system for my machine.
I know nothing about sound programming.
But I might have a look around at some of this stuff this year.
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It is definitely something we should look at, sound is an often undervalued part of hte game.
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*brainwave*
Inq, didn't you report the flyby cutoff as a bug on Bugzilla ages ago? I vaguely remember transfering it.
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Originally posted by Flipside
I'm still plugging for ambient 3d subsystem sounds btw ;)
remind me later
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Originally posted by RandomTiger
I've just bought a 5.1 sound system for my machine.
I know nothing about sound programming.
But I might have a look around at some of this stuff this year.
Originally posted by Inquisitor
It is definitely something we should look at, sound is an often undervalued part of hte game.
I love you guys :yes:
Go for mp3 support ;)
If you start doing somthing with EAX, let me know it.
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Go for mp3 support
I'd prefer Ogg Vorbis support, it's much easier to do in Linux and OSX. This thing isn't just for Windows ya know.
Inq, didn't you report the flyby cutoff as a bug on Bugzilla ages ago? I vaguely remember transfering it.
Yep, it's bug number 58. Does it actually cutoff though or does this one only play a certain number of times (ie. once per second, I think). I'll play with this when I get a chance but I'm a bit behind on the Linux code at the moment.
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I'd prefer .ogg support as a musician, for two reasons, one is that I actually think .ogg is higher quality, and two, because my MP3 encoder on Soundforge has expired it's 'test period', and since I have already paid for Soundforge, I refuse to pay to reactive a feature of it, and Cubase usually crashes when you try to export mp3 :(
Personally, I think enhancing sound abilities can improve the atmospherics of the game as much as visual ones :)
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LOL about the Soundforge expire time.
Indeed, sound would be a thing to update/upgrade too.
Hope you don't forget about backward compatibility. I can't afford an SB Live 5.1 card and system yet :P
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you can export MP3 in goldwave, all you need is the LAME dll on your pc
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Due to licensing issues with the MP3 format we cannot use it
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hmm i just checked and its 2500 for a game. last time i checked it only applied to hardware decoders. bummer
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5.1 support would be very much appreciated :yes:
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Originally posted by SadisticSid
5.1 support would be very much appreciated :yes:
I take it that it doesnt have it at the moment then?
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For Version 4, I would suggest.
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There is this game: Allegiance, where everything gives off a sound when it shoots and gives off an engine sound too, the cool thing is, though, that the doppler effect was very well implemented! When someone flew by, it wasn't a prerecorded sound, but the engine sound rising in frequency. When someone was shooting at you and moving towards you, then the shooting sound increased in pitch. Can we implement this one? (knows the equations)
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Post any info you have and we can dig it up and look at it if we get into the code later.
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Tarumbar: calculating doppler affect is really simple, the most complex math it needs is the pythagorean thereom
Once you have the correct relative speed (delta hypoteneuse) you simply plug that into the doppler shift function and that is only an operation of the wave speed, wavelength and source speed - a IIRC one divison, one multiplicaiton and one addition (in that order!)
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so how hard is it to code that?
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Originally posted by RandomTiger
I take it that it doesnt have it at the moment then?
Not if my ears are to be believed - there's an EAX option (which seems to do bugger all) but no >2 channel support
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turambur: more difficult than calculating the doppler shift
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Is it possible to implement OpenAL ?
"The OpenAL API is designed to be cross-platform and easy to use. It resembles the OpenGL API in coding style and conventions. OpenAL uses a syntax resembling that of OpenGL where applicable. "
Would be a major improvent for the portability.
Or is this a ridiculous question ? (I have no idea how hard to implement this would be...)
Edit: http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1958.asp
Looks simple, even though I don't understand this stuff.
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now this brings something into question, my old computer had an Aureal sound card wich did the doppler shift on it's own, why can't EAX do this? I havn't looked at the sound code, so I realy have no idea what's going on in there, has anyone looked at this?
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Originally posted by Bobboau
now this brings something into question, my old computer had an Aureal sound card wich did the doppler shift on it's own, why can't EAX do this? I havn't looked at the sound code, so I realy have no idea what's going on in there, has anyone looked at this?
EAX should be able to do it.
http://eax.creative.com/learning/doppler.asp
Too bad :v: didn't use it...
So we have to do it.
http://eax.creative.com/developers/sdk.asp
Edit: ;)
Alan Lawrance, Volition, Inc.
"We've been very impressed with the SBLive! support recently added to FreeSpace. The positional audio sounds great, especially with four speakers. We really like the EAX features too, both because they sound great and are a breeze to implement.
FreeSpace sounds great on the SBLive! The voice manager provided by the SBLive! gives us excellent DirectSound3D performance, and the EAX effects are very cool."
Edit2: Did you use A3D ?
I'll check out whether A3D creates this effect.
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tehy're using opanAL
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A3D doesn't sound better for me. And yes my audio chip is A3D compatible (MPC-T).
The simulated speech seems to sound worse. Everthing else isn't different to DS3D.
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I dont know, I have a SBLive! 5.1 but whenver I put EAX on everything went to poop. The sounds were all choppy. Something would happen and it would studder. The game itself would also lag and studder.
This may or may not be related to Freespace as I'm realizing it happened to me on Deus Ex also, and I think other games did it to me as well. I thought at first it was cuz I was playing on a dinky 400 mhz, but it happens with my 2400 also. I spent money on an SBLive! 5.1 and I can never use it :(
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Have you tried upgrading your drivers? The early ones were absolute crap and ****ed up every game under the sun, I remember trying FS2 with them and got the same problems you're describing. But it doesn't happen any more since I got the latest pack.
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Another question...what controls the FS2 sound mixer, if there are too many sounds played at once? That would be a problem if you increase the number of sound channels. It's gotta scratch, if there is too much signal info.
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Originally posted by SadisticSid
Have you tried upgrading your drivers? The early ones were absolute crap and ****ed up every game under the sun, I remember trying FS2 with them and got the same problems you're describing. But it doesn't happen any more since I got the latest pack.
Sadly, my attempts on getting an updated driver were for naught. It seems that creative labs never made driver updates for my particular card. When I tried to find the drivers, I found out (thru their tech support) that my card was actually a left over OEM card that they packaged into a regular box and sold. They claim they do this often. Anyway, that particular model # isn't found on their website so whenver you try to update them it says the card # isn't found. Tech support says they don't have an update for my card :(
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The EAX setting on my Aureal would create much the same problem as described at the start of this thread. Switching to Directsound fixed the problem :) Creative sound drivers absolutely and utterly bite. They can either get 3D surround to work properly, OR they can get the ASIO drivers to work properly.
And they default to this setting that makes your rear speakers sound like a pair of drowning canaries :(