Arma 2 Sound Modding 101.

[chammy 7]

Excellent news, glad to see you back mate, we're gonna have some fun with A2 :)

btw...I did pm ya alittle while ago ;)

Yup buddy and i got it, but ithink i had emailed you back, I've been so busy it's hard to keep track of everything. Btw, ArmA2 just arrived 10 minutes ago:yay: But I noticed that it does not have the insignia of any distributer like GotGame or 505games.

Edited July 16, 2009 by Chammy

[TangoRomeo 10]

Good initiative. Would be great to have something like a syntax compendium, explaining all possible sound variables.

[eble 3]

Lo all,

I've recently started the beta release of the OH-58 Kiowa Warrior, this addon really needs some decent A2 sounds to make it better.

So if anyone is up for a small challenge let me know.

Cheers

Southy

[Mark XIII (DayZ) 18]

Excellent new southy :)

Thx

[Snake Man 407]

When lets say missile launch is heard all over the terrain (like 10km away) like it was right on top of you, what sound config value is wrong (too high?) in this situation?

Is there some guidelines of sound volumes on the config, or does it relate too much for the actual wss sound level and only can be tweaked by trial and error?

[Goeth 0]

Hi there fellas.

I would like to drop something here also, iv´e noticed that db values don´t work anymore, example

begin1[] = {"\HiFi_GAU8_Auto\GAU8_s1", 1.77828, 1, 3000};

The first value in this case 1.77828 don´t work anymore, no matter what you put there, 1.77828 or db+20 etc it doesn´t change the volume level ingame anymore.

Or maybe im just doing it wrong?

[.kju 3245]

It was never about volume, was it?

It was how far the sound traveled before no longer being possible to hear.

No?

[andersson 285]

Yes.

That is the "strenght" it has ingame, not the volume. So it affects how far the sound travels. If you put the soundsource close to you you shouldnt notice any difference tweaking that value. Try to put your soundsource 1 km away from you and tweak. If you want to change the dB change your sample.

edit:

Ofcourse the distance to the soundsource depends on what you are tweaking ;) When I was tweaking the reloads for HiFi I had the soldier reloading his gun next to me, 5 m away and 20 m away. Then I tweaked until I could here it good next to me, could hear it 5 m away and couldnt 20 m away.

Edited July 17, 2009 by andersson

[TangoRomeo 10]

Hi there fellas.

I would like to drop something here also, iv´e noticed that db values don´t work anymore, example

The first value in this case 1.77828 don´t work anymore, no matter what you put there, 1.77828 or db+20 etc it doesn´t change the volume level ingame anymore.

Or maybe im just doing it wrong?

Don't quote me on it, but i think it sets the volume in relation to other sounds playing at the same time. This way you could set a dominant sound within a set of samples being played.

[andersson 285]

Don't quote me on it, but i think it sets the volume in relation to other sounds playing at the same time. This way you could set a dominant sound within a set of samples being played.

Also right, forgot that :) If two sounds are being played at the same time close to you the one with higher dB is heard more even if they have the same sample dB. So an explosion with high dB should make other sounds less audible or even silent. Another example is when you shoot or a tank rolls by the insects get silent as they have a very low dB.

edit: the use of dB shouldnt be used to tweak the volume itself, soundmodders should do that through the wss files. dB value is for the soundengine only. Else strange things can happen, for example hearing crickets while flying a chopper..

Edited July 17, 2009 by andersson

[TangoRomeo 10]

When lets say missile launch is heard all over the terrain (like 10km away) like it was right on top of you, what sound config value is wrong (too high?) in this situation?

Is there some guidelines of sound volumes on the config, or does it relate too much for the actual wss sound level and only can be tweaked by trial and error?

Try decreasing the coloured values.

i.e. sound[] = {"\TRSM_Tracked_Vehicles\SFX\Fuel_Explosion.ogg", 31.6228, 1, 1000};

[Mark XIII (DayZ) 18]

Excellent input so far guys...Really happy to see so many people exchanging infomation :)

[vo.2 0]

edit: the use of dB shouldnt be used to tweak the volume itself, soundmodders should do that through the wss files. dB value is for the soundengine only. Else strange things can happen, for example hearing crickets while flying a chopper..

The crickets are audible because theres no occlusion sound entry anymore and the inside sound entry is set quite high.

Did not try if its still functional yet, but might be worth a try for RH i.e.

This is an example of my latest ArmA1 config for the UH60 which worked out best.

   		insideSoundCoef = 0.001;
   		occludeSoundsWhenIn = 0.02;
	obstructSoundsWhenIn = 0.02;

[andersson 285]

When I tweaked the environment dB for HiFi I got rid of the crickets while flying without making them more silent when alone with them.

Occlude blocks the sounds yes, but if the dB is big enough between the sounds the lower will disapear.

(If Im not totally making a fool out of me now..?)

[Mark XIII (DayZ) 18]

Sorry Tango I had to ;)

Don't quote me on it, but i think it sets the volume in relation to other sounds playing at the same time. This way you could set a dominant sound within a set of samples being played.

Unless this feature has change drastically, I'm sure that the dominate volume wins out over those set lower. If I recall, any tiny change to things like footsteps, enviroment etc would make for extreme changes ingame.

I'd say we all need to play with these settings simply because the default sound configs don't seem to have had much ingame testing. I'd say thats why we have in birds hiding in your choppers and general wierdness in certain situations (sound cut outs / extreme distortion).

I suggest that if you find something that works well, post it here. If we're all going to making addons in the future some sort of volume 'standard' would be a good idea too. From my own personal point of view, I can relay info on aircraft volumes, because thats what I'm working on.

For now my maxium volume over distance settings are as follows:

Av8b= 4500m

A10= 4000m

C130=6000m

Su25=4000m

Su34=5000m

These settings are for the main engine sound. the other 2 sounds engine_high & engine_low I'm currently playing with. I can share the A10 setting's as I'm happy with them right now:

EngineLowOut {"\HiFi_BIS_A10\A10_Ext_Engine_Low", 45.2387, 1.0, 700}

^^This sound you should hear last, its the rumble or 'jet wash' you get when an aircraft makes as it gets closer to your position.

EngineHighOut {"\HiFi_BIS_A10\A10_Ext_Engine_High", 25.2387, 1.0, 1100}

^^This is the 'throttle' sound, the sound activates when you apply acceleration as well as sounding at other (from what I can tell) drastic stick movements ? Had to define when you start to hear it but somewhere between the two others gives me the best results during a flyby.

ForsageOut {"\HiFi_BIS_A10\A10_Ext_Engine_Idle", 40.2387, 1.0, 4000}

^^This is the main engine sound, this kicks in as the the engine_start sound is fading out and plays a constant loop until you stop the engine or it gets destroyed.

Hope someone finds that helpful

Edited July 18, 2009 by Mark XIII
updating Info's

[GeneralDegal 10]

Hi all,

Like many of you, I've been struggling with the game sounds for quite awhile now. It's most noticeable during multiplayer gameplay when I'm flying a jet and trying to hear my friends on teamspeak/ventrilo. The worst part is that I have my 'effects' turned down to the very last possible notch and it still produces such a deafening noise in my headphones. Some things are just too loud.

I generally understand much of what's being posted here, but what I'm lacking is a clear way to implement this in my game to override the current default sound scheme. Lines such as this look useful:

ForsageOut {"\HiFi_BIS_A10\A10_Ext_Engine_Idle", 40.2387, 1.0, 4000}

But I'm not sure where to put such a line in order for the game to use it. Can anyone provide direction on that?

Thanks!

[andersson 285]

The problem is that you have to change the addon itself, and then you mess up the key.

I guess you want a more silent cockpit? I'll talk to MarkXIII and see if we can make one extra "more silent cockpit" version in addition.

I have your problem too, but I solved it by using my motherboardl soundcard for TS and my internal for game. That way I can use the earplugtype for TS and blast the gamesounds from my headphones. Also easy for me to change theTS volume with a volume controller on the cable :)

Edited July 21, 2009 by andersson

[Mark XIII (DayZ) 18]

Hi all, just thought I'd put together a 'beginners' template for those interested in making a small sound replacement.

I've basically completed my own HiFi sound replacement for the kiowa after speaking with southy and him very kindly requesting some help on this thread. I'll release this on my own thread in a 'complete' ready to play state, but I thought it would be a cool little project for anyone interested so andersson an I teamed up to offer you guys a nice clean working config along with a full set of sound by me which your welcome to edit and change to make release ready versions yourselves :)

The link to the files are on the 1st post...

Good luck ;)

any probs with the templates, post here.

[andersson 285]

Hmmm, Southy (Eble) should tag his addon before anyone starts to make addons dependent on this addon as the name will change (must change into a tagged one).

So hold your horses!!

[mrcash2009 0]

Has anyone thought about a "sound pool".

IE a hosted place to dump sounds? Or at least rack up links to sound sources?

Ie this thread has dropped a few pages but was kind of a start ref radio chatter audio :

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=78900

Edited July 21, 2009 by mrcash2009

[hamis 0]

Well,the pool ain't bad idea.Also unified effort for good sound mod could be nice thing.I have lots of good/real sounds to use for that.

[oyman 0]

does anyone know where the voices are? The dubbing.pbo seems to only have voices for campaign and SP missions. In arma1 there was a pbo named voices that had the voices but its not in arma2.

[hamis 0]

You can take a look inside pbo's with pbowiev.

[Opticalsnare 12]

What would be nice is that if you can add distance sounds based on distance from the player. Atm the engine just muffles the sounds out a bit with some effects, which anit too bad but its not quite enough. In crysis you can set up to something like 10 differnt sounds for each distance based on meters from the player so you can have

0m - upclose sound

50m - fade to new distance sound

100m - fade into another sound

300m -

500m - and so on

Something like this would be a epic task tho id think. But it would be one hell of a feature.

But anyway i wanted to know if it was possible to have differnt sounds for the weapons while inside a vehicle?

[Mark XIII (DayZ) 18]

But anyway i wanted to know if it was possible to have differnt sounds for the weapons while inside a vehicle?

Nope, I wished for this too but they failed to add it....

Such a simple thing to do...Convert the engine to except stereo wss files, then have 1 channel for 1st person the other channel for 3rd person (just like most source engine games). The game treats these 'stereo' sounds as mono and plays correct 'channel' when needed.

How hard would that have been really......Still, I guess what your asking is possible with scripting maybe ??