Request for new feature: Flavour Sounds

[Cpl Steiner]

Hi,

Whilst building a map today consisting of small, walled compounds with overgrown yards, I thought to myself wouldn't it be great to hear a stray dog barking in the distance.

Then I remembered, that's something the game "Operation Flashpoint" had. I remember it being one of the cooler features of its map editor. You could add a point-source sound object anywhere on the map, such as a barking dog or a bird call, and you would hear the sound in-game at the correct volume for your distance from it.

As CM:SF already has a great editor and correctly models sound attenuation with distance, this should be an easy thing to add.

How about it BFC?

[Holman]

Given that a player is usually viewing all or most of the map, how would the game know when to play these sounds? When the camera passes over the sound point? I could see this becoming very confusing unless it was limited to extremely low viewing angles (as an FPS like Operation Flashpoint always is).

[Cpl Steiner]

If you are viewing all or most of the map then by definition you are far away from the point-source of the sound so it would sound very distant or you would not hear it at all.

If done correctly, it would add lots of atmosphere and wouldn't confuse the player IMHO.

Some examples: crickets in long grass; bird calls in trees; maybe an owl for night battles.

[tc237]

I had the same idea Cpl Steiner.

I want to add mosque chants.

TC2M can do this, play sounds at different points on the map. (but, IIRC TC2M is a DirectX game.

[SlowMotion]

This might not be added very soon, but:

it would be nice if those sounds could be made to start or stop with some trigger: after enough time has passed, soldiers/vehicles move within certain distance of the sound source, weapons fire etc.

So in this Cpl Steiner's night battle example you might hear some bird calls from a nearby forest. After some time they stop. Someone moving there?

Or troops enter a village that appears deserted. Then a dog starts barking at one side of the village. Is it based on timer or ?

[ August 22, 2007, 07:55 AM: Message edited by: SlowMotion ]

[HawkerT]

Theatre of War does this via sound points placed in the mission editor

All the best

Frans

[Other Means]

Like the idea.

[Madmatt]

Actually, I made up several hunderd different ambients sounds and variable backgrounds that I am still *praying* get implemented at some point.

All sorts of animals, birds (and YES I made sure they are native to Syria this time!) and everyday sounds of the middle-east (city, rural, desert etc..) but due to the huge code footprint already required for the weapon-vehicle and voice sounds, they didn't make it in.

Charles and I also talked about at some point implementing a system similar to ToW's editor and how to PLACE sounds on the map but again, time ran short before we could do this.

Hope springs eternal though and I would love for the fruits of my audio labor to someday come out...

Having said that, there are some other audio changes that should be coming in future patches/updates...Stay tuned for more on that....

Madmatt

[Bradley Dick]

I SWEAR on all that is F*ING HOLY. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not implement the call to prayer from the mosques. I listened to that crap for two years of my life and I have no interest in listening to it in a video game.

I'm begging you here. At least make it optional to turn off.

[Hawkmek]

You could just delete the prayer wave file and replace it with Louie, Louie or something maybe.

Didn't CMBO have these ambient nature sounds?

I remember hearing birds. They were die hard birdies too. No matter how many arty rounds fell, they kept on singing.

[Stirling]

I used to think those ambient birds for CMx1 were kind of silly. But I've been watching combat videos from Iraq, and the birds are just chirping away with heavy fire going on all around. Guess they've just gotten used to it.

[Sequoia]

Originally posted by Bradley Dick:

I SWEAR on all that is F*ING HOLY. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not implement the call to prayer from the mosques. I listened to that crap for two years of my life and I have no interest in listening to it in a video game.

I'm begging you here. At least make it optional to turn off.

I think it would be hard to refuse such an earnest request. Besides, I doubt they'd be doing it with a company of Strykers rolling into town.

By the way, aren't dogs rare in Moslem countries?

[tc237]

Originally posted by Sequoia:

Besides, I doubt they'd be doing it with a company of Strykers rolling into town.

Sure they would, it just would not be a call to prayer but a call to arms.

By the way, aren't dogs rare in Moslem countries?

Nope.

Don't know about Syria but in Iraq dogs are everywhere.

They are not pets. They roam around in large packs and eat the trash. The Iraqis could not believe that we kept a small puppy as a pet.

They consider dogs as we would squirrels. Never once saw an Iraqi treat a dog as anything other than a large rat.

I always said there were 4 large factions in Iraq: Sunni, Shia, Christian, Dogs.

[-E]

Originally posted by Madmatt:

All sorts of animals, birds (and YES I made sure they are native to Syria this time!) and everyday sounds of the middle-east

What about the flies?

[benpark]

If you guys are tasting what you are hearing, it's time to ease that pipe on down.

[Apocalypse 31]

Originally posted by Sequoia:

Yes they do it all the time here, even when we roll around in our Strykers. Pain in the butt.

And yes, there are practically armies worth of stray dogs running around here.

[Sequoia]

Well, you learn something every day. I thought since most Moslems despise dogs they'd be rare.

Hey maybe Kwazydog can add them as a flavor object!

[pad152]

Of all the things the game needs, sounds are about at the bottom of my list.

1. Quick Battles

2. AI Improvement

3. Pathfinding Improvements

4. TO&E

5. Editor Improvements (show AI for testing)

.

.

.

327. Improved Sounds

[ng cavscout]

How about the visual flavor of dead animals in the road? Nothing like your driver hitting a dog that has been dead for 4 days in 130 degree heat and having its juices splatter the underside of your truck right at the start of an 8 hour mission.

And, Bradley Dick, how can you get tired of "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhuuuuu akbar" repeated at maximum volume on the mosque PA at 0345?

[Pinetree]

And, Bradley Dick, how can you get tired of "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhuuuuu akbar" repeated at maximum volume on the mosque PA at 0345?

LOL, reminds me of my first morning in Turkey waking up with a hangover to the call to prayer blaring from the mosque across the road.

[Nidan1]

One of my real disappointments in this game was the re-using of the cheesey American English voice files from CMAK.

[Melnibone]

Originally posted by Nidan1:

One of my real disappointments in this game was the re-using of the cheesey American English voice files from CMAK.

Agreed - first hearing those I had to check I was playing the right game!

[Bradley Dick]

Originally posted by NG cavscout:

How about the visual flavor of dead animals in the road? Nothing like your driver hitting a dog that has been dead for 4 days in 130 degree heat and having its juices splatter the underside of your truck right at the start of an 8 hour mission.

And, Bradley Dick, how can you get tired of "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhuuuuu akbar" repeated at maximum volume on the mosque PA at 0345?

How about having to secure a perimeter around a week old dead dog, in 120 degree heat? While waiting on EOD to come detonate the dog ? Because the dog has an IED, 155mm artillery based, shoved inside it's dead body ?

That F*ing sucked.