[Mod] Sound Polish

Taffingtaffer · August 17

Mod that polishes several sound aspects that affect the gameplay.

TDM 2.12 introduced a subtle rebalance to player footstep sound volumes. This was meant to be the first step towards an overhaul for all footstep sounds, both in volume levels and variety, since quite a few materials share sound files. 2.13 added "improved footstep sounds for broken glass and ice material surfaces"

Almost one year later since 2.13, this project has completely stagnated; as a regular user that tried to chip in, I've seen the motivation fade out from the devs and mappers involved.
So instead of letting it rot, I've made the early attempts to achieve this overhaul into a mod.
The scope has widened a bit, since I decided to tackle annoying things such as alert 3 & 4 duration or sound propagation for blackjack/sword impact stims.

Repository to report issues: https://codeberg.org/SilverKeeper/tdm-sound-polish

Installation

Latest release: https://codeberg.org/SilverKeeper/tdm-sound-polish/releases/download/v1.0/Sound Polish Mod v1.0.7z

The mod comes in three versions:

x_sound_polish_mod.pk4 is the main version, using TDM Core sounds but with handpicked improved files from other soundpacks. Read the changelog for a detailed listing.
x_sound_polish_mod_VoltaFootstepMod.pk4 has the handpicked files from the main version + footstep sounds from Kingsal's "Volta" series, both for the player and humanoid AI.
x_sound_polish_mod_ThiefierSoundsByGin.pk4 has the handpicked files from the main version + the footstep sounds from Gin's "Thiefier Sounds" soundpack, both for the player and humanoid AI.

Copy one of those to TDM root folder.

Additionally, you can copy autocommands.cfg or my personal autocommands_full.cfg and rename it as autocommands.cfg.
Look at Gameplay and TDM settings for a brief explanation.

The `_Docs` folder has detailed documentation on my definition changes, final footstep propagation values (based on TDM Core `tdm_propagated_sounds.def` propagation values) and a list of FMs with custom footstep
sounds to keep track of potential incompatibilities.

Overview

Footsteps

.sndshd files for humanoid and player footsteps were a complete mess. They were mixed between 3 files when they should've been properly categorized in 2, materials shared one shader for the AI and the player, and in rare cases they outright played the wrong sound files (player carpet footsteps were "placeholders" currently used as AI barefoot footsteps). This has been the hardest part of the mod and hopefully it serves as template for TDM Core files.
Both the player and AI (but particularly the player) are too quiet when they walk. The player barely hears their own footsteps, but the AI reacts strongly to them. Material sound shader values have been balanced according to the sound propagation transmitted to the AI.
Jumping shaders are the loudest and speed shaders decrease the volume from there the slower you move.
AI shaders start being audible too late for them to serve as a warning; their `maxDistance` has been increased. Monsters were also too stealthy, specially spiders (and particularly the small spiders).
Sound files themselves had room for improvement, too. Some files needed amplifying (without clipping, of course) to have more leeway with sound shader volumes. Others were disabled/pitch-modified/replaced. In particular, AI had some weak-sounding footstep sounds. Pitch-modified variants of the player footsteps have replaced the worst AI footstep sounds.
Alternative versions with "Volta footsteps mod" by Kingsal and "Thiefier Sounds" by Gin have also been created.

Sound propagation and AI

While TDM AI reacts to sound reasonably well, the base volume of the player's walk and creep sound propagation shaders is a bit too high, triggering alert 2 too easily.
Those have been decreased for a more enjoyable gameplay.
Thief featured a bait mechanic in the form of stims triggered by slamming your blackjack or sword against objects. This was nerfed in Deadly Shadows; now even walls played impact sounds, but AI was deaf to them. Currently, TDM has the potential to bring the mechanic back, but it's undercooked.
All materials play the same sound propagation shader, so AI only hears you bashing wood, regardless of the material... And even that does absolutely nothing to the alert level.
I've improvised material-specific shaders for both the blackjack and the sword. There seems to be a problem with value modifiers for the weapon entities... I can't take advantage of the feature.
Alert 3 & 4 have insane duration and fuzzyness values. AI takes forever to go back to alert 2; duration gets... multiplied? randomly by, at most, the fuzzyness value or any number below that. Those values have been decreased for a reasonable fail state, so players don't normalize quicksaving when they get caught.
Stationary AIs should play their barks frequently so you can point them out by ear before stumbling upon them. TDM Core intervals are too wide... Now barks and snores will occur more frequently.

Gameplay and TDM settings

Frob distance for pickpocketting has a shorter distance than other actions in TDM. While in principiple this should make pickpocketting more "tense", the bump mechanic gets in the way here. Being caught because you miscalculated the timeframe before the AI would turn around is one thing; being caught because you bumped your head into their back from forward-leaning in another.
Now frob distance of objects carried by AI is more consistent with the rest of TDM and closer to Thief.
Several aspects of the movement are rather uncomfortable. Headbobbing is nauseating, footstep rate is very exaggerated and running speed feels slow.
An autocommand.cfg file has been provided for this, as well as a complete autocommand_full.cfg with my personal settings for TDM.
While the increased running speed shouldn't break anything, it is an opionated value from two FM authors and might not be balanced for the rest of TDM FMs.

Credits & thanks

Daft Mugi and WellingtonCrab for carrying the brief but powerful efforts to start cleaning this up, and for creating the Player Footstep Sounds Test Map.
Daft Mugi in particular for sharing the tuned player sound propagation values and the pickpocketting frob distance overrides.
WellingtonCrab in particular for helping with AI alert 3 & 4 values and mentioning their overrides for AI barks used in their FMs.
Ujtudor for their "Collection of adjusted sounds".
Kingsal for their "Volta footsteps mod".
SeriousToni for their "Alternative Footstep Sound Package" mod.
Gin for their "Thiefier Sounds" mod.

If any dev is interested in starting and merging a stable implementation, I would suggest some considerations:

Fix jumping stepvol modifiers, if they even exist. Right now the player perceives different ranges of noise when jumping, but AI always hears the loudest value possible...
Make wiki documentation for every TDM material on how noisy their footsteps are for AIs. I've included all material final propagation values (as shown by the "tdm_spr_debug 1; con_noPrint 0" command) in a "_Docs" folder.
Inspect all entity .def files to detect missing sound material definitions

Besides that, sound files are all over the place. I would propose this for both sfx .pk4s:

tdm_sound_sfx01.pk4

Move all player climbing files from sound/sfx/movement/footsteps in tdm_sound_sfx02.pk4 to a sound/sfx/movement/climbing folder here.
Move all humanoid rustle files from sound/sfx/movement/footsteps in tdm_sound_sfx02.pk4 to sound/sfx/movement/rustles here. (and any other rustle files that wander around the .pk4s)

tdm_sound_sfx02.pk4

Move all used player footsteps in sound/sfx/movement/footsteps or sound/sfx/movement/footsteps/human to sound/sfx/movement/footsteps/player. (You would need file duplication for some files, since core player declarations currently shares many files with NPCs...)
Move all used NPC footsteps in sound/sfx/movement/footsteps to sound/sfx/movement/footsteps/human.
Check and delete unused variation files of materials (there are a lot).

Edited December 1 by Taffingtaffer

snatcher · August 17

Excellent. Thank you very much for your mod @Taffingtaffer. I will try it out for sure.

(No mention to sound propagation so I guess you didn't toy with it yet...)

Bikerdude · August 17

I cant remember which team member talked about this, but the foot step sounds have needed looking at for a VERY long time.

Taffingtaffer · August 17

2 hours ago, snatcher said:

Excellent. Thank you very much for your mod @Taffingtaffer. I will try it out for sure.

(No mention to sound propagation so I guess you didn't toy with it yet...)

If you mean messing with the propagation values, nope, I don't dare. I did take into account how far the sound travels and went with my gut feeling with the shader values from there, but for further tweaks I'll follow Daft Mugi's methodology with the test map. Hence the beta version numbering.

snatcher · August 18

Here is what I think I know about footstep sounds.

AI is deaf. They don't hear any sound: a door, music, machinery, thunder, the player... nothing.

Here is a footstep sound found in tdm_player_thief.def:

tdm_footstep_stone_walk
{
    description "Made by SeriousToni"

    minDistance 1
    maxDistance 30
    volume -12

    editor_displayFolder    sfx/movement/footsteps/player

    sound/sfx/movement/footsteps/player/stone_walk01.ogg
    sound/sfx/movement/footsteps/player/stone_walk02.ogg
    sound/sfx/movement/footsteps/player/stone_walk03.ogg
    sound/sfx/movement/footsteps/player/stone_walk04.ogg
}

This sound - just like any sound - is heard by the player only. The radius goes from 1 to 30. This means from 0 (origin) to 1 the sound is played at full volume (original volume minus 12DB in this case); and from 1 to 30 there's a falloff meaning the further away you are from 1 the lower is the sound the player hears. You cannot hear this sound beyond a distance of 30. The radius doesn't make sense for these footsteps because the player always is at the origin but it plays a role in "propagation".

AI has a sense of sound called propagation. If a sound has a "matching" propagation definition then AI will perceive this as kind of stim(ulation) and produce a response.

Here is the generic walk propagation found in tdm_propagated_sounds.def:

entityDef sprGS_footstep_default_walk
{
    "inherit" "atdm:propagated_sound_base"
    "vol" "42.6"
    "dur" "100"
    "alert_factor"    "0.35"   // AI can hear footsteps at a distance but don't react strongly to just one
    "alert_max"    "12"
    "editor_usage"    "Propagated footstep sounds from the player"
}

Internal calculations will determine whether AI senses this "sound" or not and how to react to it.

Last, there are propagation modifiers that allow fine-tuning how a particular "sound" is perceived by AI and it can be found in tdm_player_thief.def, in our case:

    "sprS_footstep_stone_walk"            "footstep_default_walk:-3.9"

A true "footsteps sound overhaul" should take into consideration not only the sounds but propagation modifiers as well.

snatcher · August 18

Forgot to mention players can tweak Settings > Gameplay > Difficulty > AI Hearing and this will impact sound propagation to some extent:

Nearly Deaf
Forgiving
Challenging (default as of 2.13)
Hardcore

I don't know for which difficulty the current propagation values were adjusted for but I guess the first step before tweaking propagation is to settle on one difficulty.

EDIT: I guess current propagation values were adjusted for "Challenging", according to these internal values:

cv_ai_hearing_nearly_deaf = 0.2
cv_ai_hearing_forgiving = 0.6
cv_ai_hearing_challenging = 1.0
cv_ai_hearing_hardcore = 1.5

Edited August 18 by snatcher

snatcher · August 18

If I was to propose a change for core I would ask to review the difficulty names and defaults.

Why AI hearing is "Challenging" by default? I want by default a normal experience and decide from there.

Why two settings for lower difficulties? Did you go too far with "Challenging", my dear? I find "Forgiving" & "Nearly Deaf" names kind of insulting.

Why only one setting for a harder difficulty? Oh, you already made "Challenging" the default.

Easy
Normal (default)
Hard
Expert / Extreme / Legendary / Nightmare - pick your choice

Edited August 18 by snatcher

Taffingtaffer · August 18

37 minutes ago, snatcher said:

If I was to propose a change for core I would ask to review the difficulty names and defaults.

Why AI hearing is "Challenging" by default? I want by default a normal experience and decide from there.

Why two settings for lower difficulties? Did you go too far with "Challenging", my dear? I find "Forgiving" & "Nearly Deaf" names kind of insulting.

Why only one setting for a harder difficulty? Oh, you already made "Challenging" the default.

Easy

Normal (default)

Hard

Expert / Extreme / Legendary / Nightmare - pick your choice

I've always thought the difficulty settings make the light and sound systems feel even more inconsistent. It's not doing the mod or the players any good; maybe the problem is that the "base" (Challenging) propagation values/modifiers aren't very good to begin with.

If Looking Glass tried to mess with the AIs vision & hearing between the 3 difficulties I doubt Thief would've released. They chose to stick with a more organic difficulty scale: add additional objectives, more guards, open up some parts of the map and such.
Deadly Shadows did introduce higher senses depending on the difficulty, but I never noticed an increase compared to Thief on the hardest one. Maybe the "higher senses" referred to noticing extinguished lights, doors being open or hearing them open and all those details; it's what I'd expect from them, even during an unfortunate console-centric development.

Edited August 18 by Taffingtaffer

snatcher · August 18

I don't consider how others do *it* a deciding factor. We can of course compare and borrow ideas from other games but *it* has to work for TDM. All decisions were already made long ago and TDM is feature-complete and changes in many areas, including sounds, are very subjective at this point.

Let's begin by assuming people will agree and disagree and nothing of this will ever make it into core. This mod (and any other mod) can take a Thief-like approach or become the Taffingtaffer's Sound Overhaul mod but it needs a starting point, a vision.

So... what do we want this to be?

BoilerDunce · August 18

This deserves attention, so I'd like to contribute to its footprint by mentioning something else I've thought about the footstep system.

Personally, it seems like the character takes too many steps relative to how fast they're moving. I don't know how tall the player character is, but it just feels like their stride sounds shorter than it should.

I wish I knew a way the way to mess with the relative rate of footstep sounds to playerspeed.
I'm sure you or snatcher could find out though.

Taffingtaffer · August 18

1 hour ago, snatcher said:

I don't consider how others do *it* a deciding factor. We can of course compare and borrow ideas from other games but *it* has to work for TDM. All decisions were already made long ago and TDM is feature-complete and changes in many areas, including sounds, are very subjective at this point.

Let's begin by assuming people will agree and disagree and nothing of this will ever make it into core. This mod (and any other mod) can take a Thief-like approach or become the Taffingtaffer's Sound Overhaul mod but it needs a starting point, a vision.

So... what do we want this to be?

For the sake of simplicity (and my sanity), I will stick to what the main post states: "Footstep Tweaks is a mod that bumps up the player's and NPCs' footstep SFX volume, as well as editing existing sound files that are too loud, as in go-beyond-0db loud."
My judgement will go like this: the sound with the highest final propagation value (jumping on Squeak Board) has to sound as loud as the original file can, hopefully 0db or close to that; from there I'll go downwards. This may prove certain sound files to be too quiet for their purpose, but let's make one step at a time. If a sound file has clipping that has to be addressed, even in the main mod.
After that's done, the NPC footstep volumes will have to be checked so they can actually serve as a sound mechanic, but without going overboard.

Like I said, the idea of our small group was to ultimately overhaul the footsteps in all aspects, but that would have come after we reached consistent, modular volume levels with what TDM has now. Daft Mugi got half-way there with the player footsteps to not introduce a drastic change in TDM's development cycle, I pressume.

Another mod that addresses the base propagation volumes and the questionable difficulty levels won't invalidate my tweaks, because from what I'm seeing the material hierarchy makes sense; they would just all scale down from how they are currently. Otherwise maps would have their design completely destroyed in some areas.

59 minutes ago, BoilerDunce said:

This deserves attention, so I'd like to contribute to its footprint by mentioning something else I've thought about the footstep system.

Personally, it seems like the character takes too many steps relative to how fast they're moving. I don't know how tall the player character is, but it just feels like their stride sounds shorter than it should.

I wish I knew a way the way to mess with the relative rate of footstep sounds to playerspeed.
I'm sure you or snatcher could find out though.

The rate of the steps is indeed rather fast. I'd like to look into this after I finish looking at propagation values and balancing sound shaders for the player.

Edited August 18 by Taffingtaffer

snatcher · August 18

Great!

Off-topic: now that you mention squeak board, I noticed rope arrows don't stick to squeaky board surfaces despite it being wood?

snatcher · August 18

6 hours ago, BoilerDunce said:

This deserves attention, so I'd like to contribute to its footprint by mentioning something else I've thought about the footstep system.

Personally, it seems like the character takes too many steps relative to how fast they're moving. I don't know how tall the player character is, but it just feels like their stride sounds shorter than it should.

I wish I knew a way the way to mess with the relative rate of footstep sounds to playerspeed.
I'm sure you or snatcher could find out though.

At a glance, the rate of footstep sounds seems to be governed by the internal "bobCycle" variable.

I would say the below cvars control this rate and don't impact anything else that may be considered relevant except perhaps for bobbing:

pm_crouchbob 0.2
pm_walkbob 0.3
pm_runbob 0.35

Open the console and try experimenting with walk:

pm_walkbob 0.2

Let us know the results!

BoilerDunce · August 19

19 hours ago, snatcher said:

Great!

Off-topic: now that you mention squeak board, I noticed rope arrows don't stick to squeaky board surfaces despite it being wood?

Another off topic musing right before I get to testing those variables:

I think it was never a good idea even back in DromEd to wrap up rope arrow function in as a universal property of wood. It allowed you to climb on things that could never have supported your weight. Definitely should be an isolated property to limit unintentional gameplay and revisions.

Also, a funny image: Imagine how much squeaking boards would squeak as you try to climb a rope arrow that's stuck in one.

BoilerDunce · August 19

14 hours ago, snatcher said:

At a glance, the rate of footstep sounds seems to be governed by the internal "bobCycle" variable.

I would say the below cvars control this rate and don't impact anything else that may be considered relevant except perhaps for bobbing:

pm_crouchbob 0.2

pm_walkbob 0.3

pm_runbob 0.35

Open the console and try experimenting with walk:

pm_walkbob 0.2

Let us know the results!

Right, so some somewhat more comfortable variables for me have turned out to be:

pm_walkbob 0.185
pm_crouchbob 0.14
pm_runbob 0.43

Can't guarantee they will feel right to anyone else. They don't entirely feel right to me either but we're getting into the ballpark.

While we're at it, let's discuss some more controversial territory. Player speed, which has gameplay implications.
It wouldn't be very nice to force anyone to make their guards run faster, for instance, but to me, the player speeds feel neither particularly stealthy nor particularly hurried when you want to be in a hurry.

I have pm_walkspeed at 75. Feels like you mean business when you walk to things, like its important that you get to that thing today.

pm_runmod is 2.25, which is much less sluggish than the current player character, but also careful enough that he conceivably could be making sure to step carefully down staircases. It doesn't really feel like the player is truly hurrying until up at around 2.5 or so, though.

pm_creepmod is 0.65, which has our character in somewhat more of a hurry while sneaking, while still being audibly careful.

pm_crouchmod is also at 0.65, making crouched walking somewhat more athletic than the default, while crouch-creeping is still painstakingly stealthy although the character sounds like they are skilled enough to still do it faster than a beginner.

In my subjective opinion, it sounds more natural with these values, from the perspective of a player just using their imagination. Which is the perspective that mostly matters in a game. Not to knock anyone with professional experience who's here to tell me there's no way this could be stealthy.

The other thing is, I don't think any of these updated values seem casual or blend in like someone who's "supposed to be walking around here". But unless you're on a guard's route, you'll sound out of place at any speed anyway.

Its certainly better to minimize contact rather than try to blend in. And with limited windows to move, I think players might prefer a more hurried pace from the player character like this. The lower bob values for walking and crouching, and higher values for running help to make it sound more natural, speed mods or not. Better not to let the tail wag the dog on this one.

Taffingtaffer · August 19

2 hours ago, BoilerDunce said:

Right, so some somewhat more comfortable variables for me have turned out to be:

pm_walkbob 0.185
pm_crouchbob 0.14
pm_runbob 0.43

Can't guarantee they will feel right to anyone else. They don't entirely feel right to me either but we're getting into the ballpark.

While we're at it, let's discuss some more controversial territory. Player speed, which has gameplay implications.
[...]

Nice! I had running speed set in autocommands.cfg as:

seta pm_runmod "2.35"

That value is used by... the Volta series? Can't remember which missions, but yeah, there are FMs that stray from the defaults.
For the bob values, I ended up satisfied with these:

pm_crouchbob 0.14
pm_walkbob 0.23
pm_runbob 0.30

They are as close as it gets to Garrett's rhythm in Thief 1-2. I might include both your speed values (or my running one, for consistency with existing maps) and my bob values as optional autocommands in the mod.

Going back to the mod, I've tuned almost every footstep taking propagation values into account.
There are some I didn't bother with, because they either need new sounds (eg. Twigs) or the values are basically the same as classic materials with variations so small that you have to add floats to sound shaders.
Dirt, Foliage, Gravel, jumping Glass and Swimming files would need more loudness to reach their correct dB values.
Dirt especially needs this, it sounds way too quiet for the propagation values it has. My knowledge about sound editing is very limited, so I'll be wary to not introduce clipping for the sake of this.
The player was also using some placeholder carpet sounds, according to a comment in the shader. I've noted that and specified it to just use the NPC ones (they come from T2X, if you're curious).
The "placeholder" ones were way too quiet to tweak the shader and they're used as barefoot sounds for NPCs.

In the process, I've found mistakes in propagation values... one, to be exact! Ice crouch-run was being less loud than walk.
I edited the player modifiers to interchange the propagation values; the modifier values make more sense in-file among the rest, so it's safe to assume it was a whoopsie.

Finally, I've organized these darned files. tdm_sfx_movement.sndshd now is just a placeholder so the original one doesn't load duplicate shaders. Everything else has been moved to tdm_sfx_movement_footsteps.sndshd (if shaders are clearly for humanoid AIs, or are shared with the player) or to tdm_sfx_movement_footsteps_player.sndshd
A couple of shaders have been commented out too because the associated sound files don't exist. Hopefully this won't break anything and will serve as a starting point to clean up these messy files.

Once I look into the quiet sounds, I'll post the next release.

Edited August 19 by Taffingtaffer

snatcher · August 19

We three agree crouch and walk step rates could be a tad slower

Increasing speeds changes gameplay so I won't touch those at this moment.

Spoiler

/* TDM ORIGINAL */

// Steps
pm_crouchbob 0.2
pm_walkbob 0.3
pm_runbob 0.35

// Speed
pm_creepmod 0.44
pm_walkspeed 70
pm_runmod 2.12

/* MOD by BoilerDunce */

// Steps
pm_crouchbob 0.14 // Slower
pm_walkbob 0.185 // Slower
pm_runbob 0.43 // Faster

// Speed
pm_creepmod 0.65 // Faster
pm_walkspeed 75 // Faster
pm_runmod 2.25 // Faster

/* MOD by Taffingtaffer */

// Steps
pm_crouchbob 0.14 // Slower
pm_walkbob 0.23 // Slower
pm_runbob 0.30 // Slower

// Speed
pm_creepmod 0.44 // Original
pm_walkspeed 70 // Original
pm_runmod 2.35 // Faster

/* MOD by Snatcher */

// Steps
pm_crouchbob 0.15 // Slower
pm_walkbob 0.25 // Slower
pm_runbob 0.35 // Original

// Speed
pm_creepmod 0.44 // Original
pm_walkspeed 70 // Original
pm_runmod 2.12 // Original

Taffingtaffer · August 19

Main post updated with the new version and changelog. I intended to avoid modifying sound files to increase their loudness, but idTech4 doesn't seem to care about ReplayGain tags...

OnlyTaffingCowardsHide · August 19

Nope, footstep volumes are fine the way they are. Even quieter would be better.

That's why why there should be a volume slider specifically for footsteps, maybe one for npc footsteps as well.

BoilerDunce · August 20

With these faster bob speeds, I forgot to mention that the bobbing effect can give a lot of motion sickness for some players unless you really crank it down like to like 0.1 or less.

EDIT:

And not to mention, even on Hardcore for both hearing and vision, I feel like the AIs still have room to improve. Propagation could really be enhanced through floors to chambers below the floor as far as I can tell. Although probably shouldn't alert unless it really sounds like some mischief, running or jumping or a body hitting the floor. I know that total realism and total fun are in conflict, but when someone's immersion equals their fun, I think realism is the way to go. Especially if we give a buff to the creep button (and for goodness sake let me hold it instead of toggle it)

Also, I definitely expect Taffingtaffer's settings to be the most popular. Who doesn't love a full sprint? I would almost dare to say a full sprint should be the game's default- provided the guards are also updated to keep up on a straight path. And for really serious challenges, an enemy that can't be outrun, like a wolfhound or something.

Edited August 20 by BoilerDunce

snatcher · August 20

13 hours ago, Taffingtaffer said:

Main post updated with the new version and changelog. [...]

It is starting to sound great!

1 hour ago, BoilerDunce said:

Also, I definitely expect Taffingtaffer's settings to be the most popular. [...]

Absolutely! @Taffingtaffer please remove my parameters from the autocommands.cfg and make yours the default. You lead this initiative.

Perhaps at some point you want to spice up your mod or have complimentary mods? Have a look to @SeriousToni's New Footstep sounds v3 for different sound-sets.

2 hours ago, BoilerDunce said:

And not to mention, even on Hardcore for both hearing and vision, I feel like the AIs still have room to improve. Propagation could really be enhanced through floors to chambers below the floor as far as I can tell. Although probably shouldn't alert unless it really sounds like some mischief, running or jumping or a body hitting the floor. I know that total realism and total fun are in conflict, but when someone's immersion equals their fun, I think realism is the way to go. Especially if we give a buff to the creep button (and for goodness sake let me hold it instead of toggle it)

Sound propagation is tricky. Sounds don't go through walls but try to find the shortest clear path to target. If the target is within the radius the sound/propagation will apply. Visportals, as far as I know, are the only invisible entities that can block / diminish sounds.

snatcher · August 20

11 hours ago, OnlyTaffingCowardsHide said:

Nope, footstep volumes are fine the way they are.

Cool. You stick to vanilla and don't use the mod.

11 hours ago, OnlyTaffingCowardsHide said:

Even quieter would be better.

Mod it! And share your mod with us

11 hours ago, OnlyTaffingCowardsHide said:

That's why why there should be a volume slider specifically for footsteps, maybe one for npc footsteps as well.

This sounds like a terrible idea but who knows, perhaps you are right. Let's let that sink in.

BoilerDunce · August 20

@snatcher

Silly me... Toggle Creep was right there.

Re: sound propagation. Wow, it's worse than I thought. Visportals blocking sound, mercy me.

Personally I agree with maximizing all the customization. As long as the settings menu finally gets a big heroic button on each entry for resetting to default.

snatcher · August 20

34 minutes ago, BoilerDunce said:

Re: sound propagation. Wow, it's worse than I thought. Visportals blocking sound, mercy me.

No, no, it is not good or bad. It is the way it is and all pieces together make sound propagation feel "realistic".

I think I understand propagation and how the game deals with it conceptually but I am unable to explain the whole thing in detail. Perhaps an seasoned mapper can chime in and share experiences and/or more detailed explanations.

Edited August 20 by snatcher

snatcher · August 20

1 hour ago, snatcher said:

Sounds don't go through walls [...]

Correction.

Sounds do go through walls except if the map or area is "visportaled" properly:

https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php/Visportals#Sound_Propagation

Edited August 20 by snatcher

[Mod] Sound Polish

Recommended Posts

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Popular Posts

Taffingtaffer

Taffingtaffer

Taffingtaffer

Join the conversation

Recent Status Updates