Sound Effects

[Puure]

Hello. There are many propositions for new poly types, new jumps, movements, so I would suggest sound effects on maps. I read this topic http://forums.soldat.pl/index.php?topic=42042.0 and this what I will talking about, will be something else than scriptcore playsound. Ok so let's suppose that we have new folder (ambient,sound effects w/e) in the main soldat folder, and we have few .wav files there. We make a new map, which uses these sounds (it will be works same as scenery on map - we put scenery/sound in polyworks). Now we start playing a map and we hear sound at the selected place by us. So it will look like that in PW...

On CTF, DM its unnecessary ofcourse, because we hear only chaotic whizzing bullets, and there is no practical application for this. But for other modes (yee I mean climbs) would be nice to hear some sound effects. Moving around inside buildings we could hear sound of working machines, burning fire or animals in the forest etc. It's not only beautifying effect, sound effects would give a tip where is deadly poly (e.g. electric current flowing), or it can help us to choose right way (human voice). So i think it may be practical too. There's a lot of ideas for maps with sound effects. Mapmakers won't be bored. It would be great to introduce something unique for soldat. Is it possible? What do You think about it?

[Szaman]

Great idea! This is "soldat must have"!

[Shoozza]

It could be done.
I like the idea it makes me ask a lot of questions.

What would be possible feature wise?
What is the minimal feature set you would be happy with?
What is the extended feature set you would like to see?

A few questions to help finding possible features:
How do you play the sound?
In a loop?
With a delay between loops?
Just once or each time a player enters the sound area?
Should it start when you enter it or when you are at a certain point?
The certain point would be a trigger for the sound does that mean other players could trigger sounds for you and you could hear them if you are at the right place?
Could there be an on and off trigger for sounds?
Does on and off mean start and stop or should there also be pause and continue?
Can sounds move or are they static?
Can you change the play volume of the sounds?
Can you script the playback so that it can be muted and unmuted?
Can the sound volume for the sound be scripted?
What about the playback speed can it be scripted or changed as well?
Can you combine the sounds so multiple ones get played with onetrigger and stop at the same time even if they are scripted to start at different times?

Im sure there are more things you could think of. So lets collect them

[kicikici]

Akinaro proposal sounds good, but I would like to say my idea about loops - we can set play sound forever in loop (delay optional) or only once, if we choose:
- forever - there is no trigger for that, sound is played for all players all the time in radius of area (ambient sound behaviour),
- only once - there is trigger for that, sound is played for all players in radius of area when someone "touch" a trigger (event sound behaviour).

[Puure]

I think the most important options should be in properties window like opacity for polygons, and for those less imprortant make a new window.
In properties window should be ofcourse options like: volume, radius [1 point - least square grid] (don't know what would be the largest scale for radius), loop [on/off] as Akinaro said, if ON, it makes available additional options like "delay" between loops, also it may be manual option for numbers of loop [0 - infinity]
If sounds would be played immediately after loading map (e.g 20 sounds) and soldat plays them nonstop at the same time, but they are muted (because we are out of range), does it mean more lags? soldat won't be charged?
If we are in sound area (track lenght is 10 seconds) and we leave that area in 5 seconds, and we enter quickly again, then sound shouldn't playing from the beginning.

Can sounds move or are they static?

Very interesting. I imagine moving sounds of birds with different sound levels <3 If it possible, definitely yes! It could be work same as waypoints for bots
Make a time limit for .wav files, imo 10 seconds (if longer than allowed, soldat won't load it) Why time limit? simple.. It will be ambient sounds, not full soundtracks.
Add the "turn on/off sound effects" in soldat config.

[L[0ne]R]

As the most basic functionality, I suggest at least adding support for ambient sound effects on a map, which would be entirely client-side, always loop (but with customizable interval), and always remain in the same spot of the map.

How sounds could be placed:
The most basic way would be the same method as collider or spawn placement - a sound would be a point on the map with a set range at which it's audible. The closer the player is to the sound's source - the louder the sound gets.

A more complicated, but more useful way would be to use sound polygons to outline a sound's range, allowing for more complicated shapes to be used while polygon transparency parameter would instead affect the loudness of the sound effect. (Needless to say these polygons should not be visible in-game, only in map editor).

Minimum recommended set of parameters:
- Audible range: range, at which sound's volume is higher than 0.
- Max volume range: range, at which sound's volume is at max. Useful if you want player to hear the sound at its max volume way before he reaches the sound's source. If "sound polygons" method is used, there's no need for this parameter.
- Min/Max volume: how loud the sound is at the end of its range, and how loud it is at its source.
- Ambience: how obvious the sound's location is. Low ambience would make it very clear which direction the sound is coming from - left, right, up, down, etc., while high ambience levels will make it sound like it's coming from all directions as long as you're within range.
- Interval between loops: self-explanatory.


Animation and triggering:
These, I think, should be entirely separate features that are not tied to sounds alone. If animation and event triggers are introduced for polygons, sceneries, and other objects - it shouldn't be hard to extend their functionality to sounds.

Make a time limit for .wav files, imo 10 seconds (if longer than allowed, soldat won't load it) Why time limit? simple.. It will be ambient sounds, not full soundtracks.

I wouldn't suggest limiting it to just 10 seconds as there can still be legitimate uses for it. For example you could have a blank sound that starts playing at a start of the match, but at a 60 second mark you could have some kind of sound effect for some kind of event.

[homerofgods]

It has been suggested atleast 2 times before:
http://forums.soldat.pl/index.php?topic=39069.msg478057#msg478057
http://forums.soldat.pl/index.php?topic=32200.0

And I still want it