Sound Effect Features and Changes
Posted: 05 Dec 2015, 05:24
Hi everyone,
I wasn't sure whether to put this under the OpenMW-CS section or here so hopefully it's in the right place . Anyways I'm currently in the middle of working on an OpenMW exclusive mod (.omwaddon file) that replaces all of the original sounds of Morrowind with the higher quality equivalents from Skyrim and Oblivion. Don't worry, no sound files are being uploaded anywhere. The user has to extract the sound files themselves from the respective game's BSA archives but my mod takes care of implementing everything in-game once that is done. So with that said I have a few suggestions I'd like to throw out there that could really help me and others that are wanting to improve the sound quality for OpenMW.
1. As far as I can tell OpenMW is using "Body Fall Medium" as the default landing sound for the player and NPCs. It would be much more beneficial for modders if the default landing sound used in OpenMW was switched to the "DefaultLand" sound. I believe Bethesda intended this anyways but never got around to putting it in for whatever reason. It might even be that way in the original game. I'm not sure. Both of the sounds in the CS play the "bodyfallMED" file when used so it would make no difference to a player that wasn't using mods but for us modders it would allow us to replace the landing sound without messing up the sounds that creatures make when they fall over upon death.
2. Would there be any chance of a sound randomizing feature being implemented into the OpenMW-CS so that modders didn't have to use the extremely limited scripting method to do it? This could be accomplished by using a simple check box near each sound ID name in the OpenCS that when ticked displays a modifiable list underneath the information that is already present for the sound. The modder could then just add whatever sound files they wish to have a chance of playing when the sound is called for in-game. So for example if "ThunderClap" is called for during a storm and it has been designated in the OpenCS as a randomized container of sounds it would pick "Thunder0.wav", "Thunder1.wav", or "Thunder2.wav" from the list of sound files to be played at random. It would also be very useful to have a way of controlling the chance that a particular item on the list is chosen so that "Thunder0.wav" might be called for 80% of the time while "Thunder1.wav" is at 15% and "Thunder2.wav" is at 5%.
This would allow me to add a much wider range of variety to the current sounds that aren't possible with scripting. The sounds for thunder are just one example that cannot be modified with scripts at all as there is no way of detecting when it happens. This would also allow me to add a variety of footsteps or "Armor Hit" sounds as opposed to the single sound the game currently gives players. Right now there is no reliable way to add a variety of randomized sounds to armor strikes that would work for both the PC and NPCs without adding a script to each one individually. That is a very time-consuming, inefficient system. With the new system in place I could simply designate the "Armor Hit" sounds as a container of random sound files and have every actor in the game using them without scripts involved.
3. Texture based footstep and landing sound effects ( For snow, dirt, sand, ect. ). I know this one has probably been requested already but just to be safe here it is again in the case that someone is willing and able to code it into the CS at some point.
4. Allow setting the volume of sounds past 255. It doesn't have to be crazy high, but it would be nice to be able to increase the volume a bit more for certain sounds without having to open them up in an external program and increasing it there.
5. Allow a way to play the sound files directly from the OpenCS. This would be so very helpful.
6. The footstep sounds are extremely muffled in the current build unless you are looking directly at them. I notice this quite a bit for many directional sounds in-game as well. Perhaps broadening or loosening up the direction of the sounds in general could help with this. As it is now, some of the sounds are more like lasers that pierce into only one ear at a time as opposed to gently rolling off of one ear and lightly touching the one furthest away. This might just be me or my specific rig but I thought I'd mention it.
That's all I got for now. Thank you for taking the time to read this and sorry about the wall of text. If anything comes of it at all I'd be more than grateful. Let me know what you guys think.
I wasn't sure whether to put this under the OpenMW-CS section or here so hopefully it's in the right place . Anyways I'm currently in the middle of working on an OpenMW exclusive mod (.omwaddon file) that replaces all of the original sounds of Morrowind with the higher quality equivalents from Skyrim and Oblivion. Don't worry, no sound files are being uploaded anywhere. The user has to extract the sound files themselves from the respective game's BSA archives but my mod takes care of implementing everything in-game once that is done. So with that said I have a few suggestions I'd like to throw out there that could really help me and others that are wanting to improve the sound quality for OpenMW.
1. As far as I can tell OpenMW is using "Body Fall Medium" as the default landing sound for the player and NPCs. It would be much more beneficial for modders if the default landing sound used in OpenMW was switched to the "DefaultLand" sound. I believe Bethesda intended this anyways but never got around to putting it in for whatever reason. It might even be that way in the original game. I'm not sure. Both of the sounds in the CS play the "bodyfallMED" file when used so it would make no difference to a player that wasn't using mods but for us modders it would allow us to replace the landing sound without messing up the sounds that creatures make when they fall over upon death.
2. Would there be any chance of a sound randomizing feature being implemented into the OpenMW-CS so that modders didn't have to use the extremely limited scripting method to do it? This could be accomplished by using a simple check box near each sound ID name in the OpenCS that when ticked displays a modifiable list underneath the information that is already present for the sound. The modder could then just add whatever sound files they wish to have a chance of playing when the sound is called for in-game. So for example if "ThunderClap" is called for during a storm and it has been designated in the OpenCS as a randomized container of sounds it would pick "Thunder0.wav", "Thunder1.wav", or "Thunder2.wav" from the list of sound files to be played at random. It would also be very useful to have a way of controlling the chance that a particular item on the list is chosen so that "Thunder0.wav" might be called for 80% of the time while "Thunder1.wav" is at 15% and "Thunder2.wav" is at 5%.
This would allow me to add a much wider range of variety to the current sounds that aren't possible with scripting. The sounds for thunder are just one example that cannot be modified with scripts at all as there is no way of detecting when it happens. This would also allow me to add a variety of footsteps or "Armor Hit" sounds as opposed to the single sound the game currently gives players. Right now there is no reliable way to add a variety of randomized sounds to armor strikes that would work for both the PC and NPCs without adding a script to each one individually. That is a very time-consuming, inefficient system. With the new system in place I could simply designate the "Armor Hit" sounds as a container of random sound files and have every actor in the game using them without scripts involved.
3. Texture based footstep and landing sound effects ( For snow, dirt, sand, ect. ). I know this one has probably been requested already but just to be safe here it is again in the case that someone is willing and able to code it into the CS at some point.
4. Allow setting the volume of sounds past 255. It doesn't have to be crazy high, but it would be nice to be able to increase the volume a bit more for certain sounds without having to open them up in an external program and increasing it there.
5. Allow a way to play the sound files directly from the OpenCS. This would be so very helpful.
6. The footstep sounds are extremely muffled in the current build unless you are looking directly at them. I notice this quite a bit for many directional sounds in-game as well. Perhaps broadening or loosening up the direction of the sounds in general could help with this. As it is now, some of the sounds are more like lasers that pierce into only one ear at a time as opposed to gently rolling off of one ear and lightly touching the one furthest away. This might just be me or my specific rig but I thought I'd mention it.
That's all I got for now. Thank you for taking the time to read this and sorry about the wall of text. If anything comes of it at all I'd be more than grateful. Let me know what you guys think.