[Question] When I want to have engine sound while flying

[Max Bain]

Does anyone know what I have to do to make engines make sound not only when you accelerate or deaccelerate but also when you just fly? It takes a lot of immersion to me if you are flying but you dont hear your engines. Its like driving a car and you only hear it when you start and stop.

[Neloth23]

Does anyone know what I have to do to make engines make sound not only when you accelerate or deaccelerate but also when you just fly? It takes a lot of immersion to me if you are flying but you dont hear your engines. Its like driving a car and you only hear it when you start and stop.

Basically, you have to change the type of volume curve used by engine sounds to "forwardspeed" instead of "forwardspeeddiff". You can try something like this:

Code: Select all

<replace sel="//group[@id='enginedetail_ship_03']/sound[@id='enginedetail_ship_03_jet_01']/volume">
		<volume start="1.0" distance="2">
			<customcurve input="forwardspeed">
				<point position="-1" value="0.6"/>
				<point position="-0.8" value="0.4"/>
				<point position="-0.2" value="0.2"/>
				<point position="0" value="0"/>
				<point position="0.2" value="0.2"/>
				<point position="0.8" value="0.5"/>
				<point position="1" value="0.8"/>
			</customcurve>
		</volume>
	</replace>

In a "forwardspeed" curve, "point position" corresponds to your speed indicator (0 is full stop, 1 is full forward), while "value" corresponds to the volume of your sound. With this command, I have a sound playing at 0.8 volume while the ship flies at full speed.

Hope this helps a bit.

[Max Bain]

Thank you very much!

Wow, I just checked the sound__library and hell there are so many sounds that are beeing played depending on the engine...
Do you know what lfe and pitch means in the sound library? I found something like that:

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      <pitch>
        <customcurve input="forwardspeed">
          <point position="-1" value="0"/>
          <point position="0" value="-0.3"/>
          <point position="1" value="0"/>
        </customcurve>
      </pitch>
      <lfe>
        <customcurve input="forwardspeeddiff">
          <point position="-0.75" value="1"/>
          <point position="0" value="0"/>
          <point position="0.5" value="1"/>
        </customcurve>
      </lfe>

edit: I think the sound you pointed me at should exactly be like what you suggested (so input should be speed and not diff) because below there is already a specific sound for accelerarion and deacceleration what is the sound you hear in game when you accelerate or deaccelerate.

[Rastuasi]

Yet on space you don't keep the engines going like a car, I'd say the graphics is wrong and not audio. Unless changing speed or direction, we should not see ANY engine graphics.

[Max Bain]

Yet on space you don't keep the engines going like a car, I'd say the graphics is wrong and not audio. Unless changing speed or direction, we should not see ANY engine graphics.

If you follow this arguementation we will never ever have a proper space game .
I would say "if its cool, implement it!"

[Rastuasi]

Yet on space you don't keep the engines going like a car, I'd say the graphics is wrong and not audio. Unless changing speed or direction, we should not see ANY engine graphics.

If you follow this arguementation we will never ever have a proper space game .
I would say "if its cool, implement it!"

Perhaps, but I was simply stating that having sound all the time will break immersion for those that know how space works.

[Neloth23]

Thank you very much!

Wow, I just checked the sound__library and hell there are so many sounds that are beeing played depending on the engine...

Yes engine sound in the sound_library uses 6 sounds per reactor type:

• "thrusters_accel" and "thrusters_break" are used for the acceleration/deceleration and they are not looped;

• "jet_01" is the main reactor sound. I'd say this is the one you want to modify. "jet_02" is an additional reactor sound that you can edit if you like. Both are looped sounds.

• "lfe" and "stutter" are additional looped sounds that play when the ship steers or has brutal speed changes.

There are also sounds for boosters and travel mode, but that's another matter.

Do you know what lfe and pitch means in the sound library? I found something like that:

Code: Select all

      <pitch>
        <customcurve input="forwardspeed">
          <point position="-1" value="0"/>
          <point position="0" value="-0.3"/>
          <point position="1" value="0"/>
        </customcurve>
      </pitch>
      <lfe>
        <customcurve input="forwardspeeddiff">
          <point position="-0.75" value="1"/>
          <point position="0" value="0"/>
          <point position="0.5" value="1"/>
        </customcurve>
      </lfe>

edit: I think the sound you pointed me at should exactly be like what you suggested (so input should be speed and not diff) because below there is already a specific sound for acceleration and deacceleration what is the sound you hear in game when you accelerate or deaccelerate.

The pitch command allows you to modify the tonality of the sound (think of it as raising or lowering the pitch of a music note).
LFE stands for Low Frequency Effect. I believe this command is used to increase the amount of bass frequencies of the sound, or to direct it to a subwoofer. I'm not entirely sure though, as I've never messed with this command.

If you want a constant sound to play while your ship flies regularly, a "forwardspeed" curve is the way to go, as "forwardspeeddiff" is used to play sounds when your actual speed is different from that of your speed indicator.

In your lfe example, "point position" 0 is used when your speed reticle and the actual speed of your ship are identical. Point positions of -0.75 and 0.5 mean that your actual speed is lower or higher than what your reticle indicates (because you are strongly steering the ship or entering travel drive for instance). That's when the effect plays.

I hope all of this can be helpful and not too boring.

[Max Bain]

That was very helpful. Thank you man