Feature request: info_location_seperator with ability to play 2 sound shaders

[Bikerdude]

The idea came from a suggestion a friend made this morning.

 

Where you have two 'leafs' (locations, zones, rooms, etc) each with thier own info_location speaker (IL) separated by a info_location_separator (ILS).

 

Leaf 1 is play 'sound A' and leaf 2 is playing 'sound B' but the problem is there is no sound overlap. So my friends idea was to get the ILS to play both Sound A & B, and the mapper would set a distance of say 1-3 meters. And the ILS would only play both sounds when the Vizportal its sitting in/on is open.

 

I tried to simulate the effect I want by placing 2x speakers in the VP location, but for some reason the info_location speakers in 1.08 don't loop reliably.

[grayman]

I don't understand what you're trying to achieve. When you pass from leaf 1 to leaf 2, there's a period of time where sound A fades out and sound B fades in.

 

What effect would you rather have?

[Bikerdude]

I would like the sound to overlap, so there is no break in sound.

[grayman]

On each info_location entity:

 

"fiduration" is how long it takes the ambient to fade in when you enter a zone.

 

"foduration" is how long it takes the ambient to fade out when you leave a zone.

 

Both are set to a default of 4 seconds.

 

Are you saying this isn't working?

[Bikerdude]

The fade in and out is working, but the issue there is no overlap. The first sound has to fade out fully before the second fades in, having a second or two of next to no sound breaks immersion.

[grayman]

The fade in and out is working, but the issue there is no overlap. The first sound has to fade out fully before the second fades in, having a second or two of next to no sound breaks immersion.

 

From the info_location wiki (italics are mine):

 

fidelay

 

"Fade in Delay". You can delay the beginning of the in-coming ambient's fade-in after you enter the new area. You might want to do this, for example, if you want the out-going ambient to completely fade out before you begin fading in the new ambient. So you would set fidelay to the same time as the foduration. By default it is set to .001 so that there is no delay and the fade in starts immediately. If the out-going fade-out also starts immediately (which happens by default), then they blend together in a nice transition fade.

[Bikerdude]

"If the out-going fade-out also starts immediately (which happens by default), then they blend together in a nice transition fade."

 

This dosent happen, there is no blend.

 

Default settings

• fodelay and the fidlay are default of .001s and foduration and fiduration to 4s - no blend
  

then

• set both the fodelay and the fidlay to .001s with foduration and fiduration at default of .001s - no blend
  

then

• set both the fodelay and the fidlay to 1s and foduration and fiduration to 1s - no blend
  

then

• set both the fodelay and the fidlay to 1s and foduration and fiduration to default of .001s - no blend.
  

And to annoy me further, when I start playing around with the fid/fod duration and the fid/fod delay the ambients stop looping, despite adding "s_looping 1" to just the "info_settings" and then "info_settings and "info_location".

 

So I set everything back to default and then have a play with the fovolume setting, setting this to -25 is the only thing that seems to achieve a proper overlap.

[grayman]

Default settings

• fodelay and the fidlay are default to 4s and foduration and fiduration to .001s - no blend
  

Huh? The default settings on an info_location are:

 

fodelay = fidelay = 0.001 (not 4)

 

foduration = fiduration = 4 (not 0.001)

 

If you really have these set the way you described, then I wouldn't expect a blend. fodelay says to wait 4s before fading out, and with foduration set to 0.001, then the fade out would happen immediately at the 4s mark. And with fidelay set to 4s, the new sound won't start for 4 seconds, and with a fiduration of 0.001s, it will fade in immediately at the 4s mark. So the result would be that 4s after you cross the boundary, the old song will end immediately and the new song will start immediately.

 

I just read the code. The fade out and fade in are started in the same frame, so I'd expect them to blend, as long as you use the true default settings.

 

Since what you're requesting as a new feature is the way it's already supposed to work, you should file a bugtracker issue with your observations. I don't see any open issues on this topic.

[Bikerdude]

fodelay = fidelay = 0.001 (not 4) and foduration = fiduration = 4 (not 0.001)

 

Since what you're requesting as a new feature is the way it's already supposed to work, you should file a bugtracker issue with your observations. I don't see any open issues on this topic.

Sorry that was a typo on my part and Will do.

[Obsttorte]

Biker, I've just took a ook into the map you've uploaded in the other thread. You''ve set both fiduration and foduration to 0.001. Setting both values on both info_location entities to 4 for example cause the blending effect as desired.

 

I've used the zone system for ambient sound for both of my FM's and with the default settings this always worked.

 

EDIT: 4 seconds for the duration and 0.001 seconds for the delay are the default values.

[Bikerdude]

Biker, I've just took a ook into the map you've uploaded in the other thread. You''ve set both fiduration and foduration to 0.001.

EDIT: 4 seconds for the duration and 0.001 seconds for the delay are the default values.

• Yeah that map still have the test settings.
  
• Well I found a workaround, I just put everything back to default and set the fovolume to -25.
  

[grayman]

So there's no issue?

[demagogue]

What fovolume does is, rather than fading the outgoing ambient to silent, it fades it to some intermediate volume in its foduration time. So (I believe) the effect is that it stays louder longer throughout its fadeout, and you can actually hear the overlap more. That's what I think is happening that makes it sound better for Biker than the default (which still has the overlap, but I think the outgoing was already too quiet by the time the in-coming really kicks in that you don't get the nice overlap as well).

 

Edit: I understand that some of the terms and mechanics aren't the most clear to a mapper. Sorry about that. I tried my best, and I tried to document everything as clearly as I could. But I think it does most anything a mapper would want to do if they play around with it enough.

[Bikerdude]

No the issue still exists, but I found a work around.

 

The blend of the two sounds the wiki mentions never actually happens with default settings or any setting I tried, until I started playing around with the "fovolume" arg setting. But even that dosen't work as expected, because the sound after fading to -25db does actually stop playing after a few seconds.

 

[edit] - Demagogue beat me too it :-D

[demagogue]

Did you try making foduration a very long value, like 8 seconds to fade-out?

Edit: And keep the fiduration like the 4s default.

[Obsttorte]

No the issue still exists, but I found a work around.

 

The blend of the two sounds the wiki mentions never actually happens with default settings or any setting I tried, until I started playing around with the "fovolume" arg setting. But even that dosen't work as expected, because the sound after fading to -25db does actually stop playing after a few seconds.

 

[edit] - Demagogue beat me too it :-D

Strange, it worked fine for me.

[demagogue]

@Obs, do you mean with Biker's testmap, or generally? Each ambient combination sounds a little different with the default fade durations. Some of them are already a bit quiet, so even the default fade doesn't give as nice an overlap as others. I tried to find the best one for most ambients.

[Bikerdude]

Maybe its my sound card (Xfi) and the poor driver support in Windows 8.....

[Obsttorte]

@Obs, do you mean with Biker's testmap, or generally? Each ambient combination sounds a little different with the default fade durations. Some of them are already a bit quiet, so even the default fade doesn't give as nice an overlap as others. I tried to find the best one for most ambients.

Both. Although I must admit that in Bikers testmap the effect isn't that great as the ambients take a while before they really "start". As you've already mentioned this should be able to overcome by increasing the fade durations.