I do music, sound design, and have access to recording facilities!

[southquarter22]

Hey all. Recently joined. I'd love to contribute to TDM's ongoing improvement somehow if possible.

 

You can hear some examples of my music here on my in-progress website:

http://nickperrin.wi...ic#!music/c1yi7

 

I've yet to upload sound FX examples, but I can do that as well (using edited library sounds, field recordings, other originals etc)

 

I also have access to a studio space for high-quality recordings, although I'm no voice actor.

 

Cheers!

Edited March 22, 2014 by southquarter22

[kyyrma]

Just listened to your demo reels, cool stuff. I enjoyed your chiptune reel the most, and I mean that as a compliment. You can really hear you have a lot of love for those bleeps and bloops!

 

When it comes to audio, I'd recommend working together with FM makers, providing new ambient tracks, sound effects, etc. suited to their needs. Maybe create a track or two and offer them for free use in FMs?

 

I believe the team is not looking to add any more audio to the core files (with the exception of some missing stuff, like a Pagan voice set IIRC). This is to avoid bloating the filesize further. But I'm sure someone like Sprinheel will stop by soon and clarify.

[demagogue]

My suggestion would also be to just make a block of very atmospheric ambients and then upload them to soundcloud or YouTube, and then FM mappers can take what they want.

[Springheel]

Welcome!

 

We have no real roadmap for sounds at the moment, though I'm always finding gaps that we could use. Best thing to do is dive into TDM and identify areas where you think you could improve the sounds. Lots of them were D3 replacements we scrambled to find/make at the last minute, so there are definitely areas for improvement.

[Bikerdude]

The ambient track is very good.

[Airship Ballet]

Some pretty brilliant stuff on that there page, especially the ambience (pretty much only listen to ambient and post-rock nowadays). I think your stuff would certainly find a home here if you tailor-made something, depends on how much free time you have.

[SeriousToni]

I second what demagogue said. It's great to have an (online) archive with ambient soundtracks to different moods / in some variations for the mapper people. You can then do what you want and people can pick what they need

 

EDIT: An important point for the ambient tracks would be that one wouldn't notice when the track ends and starts to repeat.

Edited March 22, 2014 by SeriousToni

[Mortem Desino]

We have no real roadmap for sounds at the moment, though I'm always finding gaps that we could use. Best thing to do is dive into TDM and identify areas where you think you could improve the sounds. Lots of them were D3 replacements we scrambled to find/make at the last minute, so there are definitely areas for improvement.

Second that. I, for one, wouldn't be at all insulted if any of my amateur recordings get bested. I'm not sure how much foley work you do, but what I heard in the ambient track was grand!

[Goldwell]

Wow those demo's sound amazing!

 

If you're still hanging around here when the time comes and would want to I would love for you to do some custom sound effects/ambient tracks for my upcoming mission. Usually I have to raid freesound to get the exact sound i'm after but it seems like you have everything available.

[Lux]

I'd love to have some ambient for the FM I'm working. Something droning with a forboding curious oboe.

 

Some very interesting work and talent.

[southquarter22]

Thanks for the comments guys!

 

This gives me direction in where to help out. I haven't had a good reason to do some ambient-style work for a while, so I will be sure to make posts as I complete (looping) ambient tracks that people can download and use in-game.

 

More likely to happen sooner though is some sfx work, as I've definitely been paying attention to TDM's current sounds and thinking about what could be improved.

 

If you're still hanging around here when the time comes and would want to I would love for you to do some custom sound effects/ambient tracks for my upcoming mission.

 

For sure. Shoot me a message when the time comes and I'd probably be happy to help out!

[lost_soul]

If you can give us some better sounds for when the player is walking through very shallow water, it would be appreciated. Currently, the AI sounds in shallow water are great, but the ones the player makes are not so good.

[Mr Mike]

If you can give us some better sounds for when the player is walking through very shallow water, it would be appreciated. Currently, the AI sounds in shallow water are great, but the ones the player makes are not so good.

 

I think the problem with this is that the sound system only ever plays 1 footstep sound at a time, so walking in water means that the last footstep always clips off the sound from the previous footstep. At least that's what I was led to believe. I don't know if it's fixable.

[grayman]

I think the problem with this is that the sound system only ever plays 1 footstep sound at a time, so walking in water means that the last footstep always clips off the sound from the previous footstep. At least that's what I was led to believe. I don't know if it's fixable.

 

It should be. Player footsteps are always played on the same channel. Using one channel for the left foot and another for the right might mitigate the non-overlap problem.

 

Please file a bugtracker issue. Sounds like a minor enhancement someone could investigate.

[SteveL]

I'll take a look at that if you file an issue. I recently committed some changes to fix missing water footstep sounds for both player and ai on certain surfaces, but it didn't change any sounds. The ai currently have a single footstep sound on water, whereas the player has half a dozen at least, depending whether they're running, walking, creeping, landing from a height etc. I'm not sure my ears are sensitive enough to pick up the sound of a clipped footstep but I'll start by checking up what's the difference between player and ai when walking in shallow water.

[grayman]

There's a 200ms delay between footstep sound starts. That might be because the same channel is used every time. If a second channel can be added, the delay might no longer be needed.

[Mr Mike]

I'm not sure my ears are sensitive enough to pick up the sound of a clipped footstep but I'll start by checking up what's the difference between player and ai when walking in shallow water.

 

From memory A Noble Home is a good place to check as you start off in ankle high water. I found the sample being cut off by the next footstep really annoying, though perhaps that's just OCD.

 

There's a 200ms delay between footstep sound starts. That might be because the same channel is used every time. If a second channel can be added, the delay might no longer be needed.

 

Woah, that sounds odd. If a delay is used for every sound doesn't that cancel out any technical benefit? Also, doesn't that make the whole experience out of synch, or could it have been set that way for other reasons? Perhaps to tap-creep like in the originals...

[Springheel]

The ai currently have a single footstep sound on water,

 

Are you sure about that?

[SteveL]

Are you sure about that?

 

I was until you asked! But yes I just checked and there's a difference between AI footsteps and Player ones. The Player footstep code selects a different sound shader based on movement speed and things like landing from a height. The AI code just chooses the default shader for the material, then applies a volume adjustment based on movement speed. There are bits of placeholder code stored in AI.cpp ready for someone to finish the job and make AI select different shaders too.

 

The picture gets slightly more ambiguous when you check the extra soundshaders the player is using. Most of them map to the same .ogg files, but with a volume adjustment applied. So on many surfaces, the effect on AI and player will be the same. Water is one example though where the player does have different .ogg files for the different movement types, and AI don't use them.

 

@southquarter22: Sorry for straying a bit wide of topic but some useful sound production opportunities could easily come out of this discussion

[Springheel]

Yes, AI use a single sound shader, but there should be more than one file included in it.

 

 

[SteveL]

That's right, there is. I should have said one shader not one sound file.

[Mr Mike]

It should be. Player footsteps are always played on the same channel. Using one channel for the left foot and another for the right might mitigate the non-overlap problem.

 

Please file a bugtracker issue. Sounds like a minor enhancement someone could investigate.

 

Not quite sure how to set a bug tracker. Now this thread is completely derailed (sorry) but is this single channel issue also why the haunt (skeleton in builder chain mail) also sounds badly clipped and, well, crap? I don't know which pk4 the samples are located but I'm sure they don't cut off so abruptly as they do ingame.