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XCOMUFO & Xenocide

Programming Sound, What We Want, What We Can Do.


Darkhomb

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Ok after discussing a little with dteviot, we need to discuss how we want sound. As right now this is a simple sound model.

 

How many variations of things do we want. And what can actually be done by the programming department.

 

My ideal world of the game play.

 

Sound effects for movement depending on model and depending on surface.

 

IE hard footsteps on metal for xcorps solider. soft footsteps in grass.

 

slithering for a viper.

 

Sound effects for firing depending on type of shot, and weapon with variations so it does not sound the same

 

Regular_Pistol_Snap_01

Regular_Pistol_Snap_02

Regular_Pistol_Auto_01

Regular_Pistol_Auto_01

 

Sound effects for weapons hitting objects in battlescape depending on type of shot and type of surface.

 

Regular Pistol (Dirt)

Regular Pistol (Grass)

Regular Pistol (Wood)

Regular Pistol (Tile)

Regular Pistol (Metal)

Regular Pistol (Cement)

Regular Pistol (Hit Alien)

 

Plasma Pistol (Dirt)

Plasma Pistol (Grass)

Plasma Pistol (Wood)

Plasma Pistol (Tile)

Plasma Pistol (Metal)

Plasma Pistol (Cement)

Plasma Pistol (Hit Alien)

 

 

Sound effects for PSI Attacks

Attempt failed

Attempt Successful

Soldier Panic

Soldier under mind control

 

Sound effects for dying depending on type of model with variations.

 

Viper_Death_01

Viper_Death_02

 

Sound effects for reloading

 

Sound effects for medkit.

 

More to come.

Edited by Darkhomb
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Cool. I think I am the only one working on sound effects right now, so I will start doing sounds based on priority. Starting with the most basic foundation sounds like gunshots for each weapon, and I will stay away from smaller details like shells dropping. The priority should be based on what is ready from a programming standpoint. In other words, I probably shouldn't be designing sounds that the engine isn't even ready for. So programmers just let me know of any main, basic sounds that you will be able to use right away or in the near future, and I will work on those first.

I've started a new "WeaponsSFX" spreadsheet that will list all the sounds for each gun, their filenames, length, size, etc. That way it will be easy to find stuff, rather than digging through files like: "0001_0022" trying to find your sound.

This is just an idea of how we could keep SND on the same page as programming, and maybe start to get finalized Fx into the game a little quicker.

 

-Clay

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I suspect I posted most of this stuff previously, but to answer Claymation's question about what we can do now (and in the very near future)

 

OK, I'll make a few comments about what is available for putting sound into the battlescape.

Please note, this is just my current thoughts and what we've got at the moment. Which isn't much.

 

Enough digression. What we've got is that each item in item.xml that can appear on the battlescape can have a startSound attribute. e.g.

<item id="ITEM_PISTOL" name="Pistol" xsi:type="rangedWeaponItemType" score="0">
<storage type="STORAGE_GEAR" units="1" />
<price buy="800" sell="600" />
<battlescapeInfo armor="255">
  <carryInfo xSize="1" ySize="2" mass="5" equipable="true" spriteTop="0" spriteLeft="1" />
  <graphics model="Weapons\Xcorps\pistol" x="0.0" y="0.0" z="180.0"/>
</battlescapeInfo>
<ammo capacity="12">
  <ammoName name="ITEM_PISTOL_CLIP"/>
</ammo>
<actions>
  <throw percentage="0.25" />
  <shoot percentage="0.18" name="ACTION_SNAP_SHOT"  accuracy="0.6" range="35.0" startSound=""/>
  <shoot percentage="0.30" name="ACTION_AIMED_SHOT" accuracy="0.78" range="35.0" startSound=""/>
</actions>
</item>

 

Note, at current time, none of the entries in item.xml have been given a value for startSound. (In fact none of them even have declared the attribute.) This is because there were no sounds. (Or, at least, I didn't know where they were.)

The idea was, when the action started (e.g. A weapon was fired) the sound would be play. This would allow a weapon to have multiple sounds, but only one for each firing type. e.g. One sound for a snap shot, and another for an aimed shot. If the shot actually hit something, then the combatant that got hit would give an appropriate sound.

 

These other sounds would be attached to each combatant. So we needed to build a list of the sounds that each combatant would make. This has not been implemented, again, because I didn't know of any sounds. However, it should not be difficult idea is add a sound element to each combatant. The simplest implementation would be a sound element, with an attribute for each type of sound. e.g.

<sound
   walk=""
   hitByBullet=""
   hitByLaser=""
/>

 

I should add, I haven't tested the code to play start sounds and the only actions that have been connected up are the shoot actions.

 

The issues I see is that I haven't allowed for "miss" sounds. Actually, it's potentially a bit more complicated. I think the general solution may be that actions may require not only aa start sound, but possibly a failure sound. Might there be others? Also, there's a desire to have pick sounds from a set. (e.g. Have a number of "aimed shot" sounds, and pick at random between them.) This probably isn't too difficult to handle. Replace the attribute with an element and put a list of sounds into it. Things become more complicated if we want to select the alternate sounds due to other conditions. e.g. A different miss sounds depending on what the missed shot finally impacted on. This is may get even more complicated if we consider the difference between missing with a rocket, and missing with a bullet.

 

A final comment about different sounds for the bullet ricochet, depending on the material struck, or the material walked on. At the current time, the terrain model doesn't have that information. And it may be some time before it does.

The problem is programming team is mostly me, and I'm trying to do the bits that give the "most bang for my buck" (excuse the pun) in terms of game play. And things like the multiple sounds, well, I think they're pretty far down this list. http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?sh...2028636&hl=

(Note, priorities on list are open for negotiation. For example, if you need stuff to continue with what you're doing, then obviously it's going to be a priority for me.)

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