Game Development

PearsonArtPhoto

1:42 AM

Just for the fun of it, this is with a perspective camera. It would require a fair bit of work to get right, but...

I think I'm done for now with playing with the perspective, but it could be fun still.

Pip

I think that looks pretty nice actually

PearsonArtPhoto

Yeah, it does.

It would take a fairly signficant re-write of my world wrapping code, however.

I think that's in my cards one way or another, however, so...

I'm glad the changes I made to do a tilted work still mostly work with this system, however.

Also, the movement looks a bit weird. The mountains are a bit higher than they probably should be, so...

The only two things that my current world wrapping doesn't do well are clouds and allow for this perspective.

I'd also have to re-write my minimap code a bit, but not too badly I would hope.

PearsonArtPhoto

2:11 AM

user92578

12:57 PM

So how do games usually handle having a bunch of sound emitters next to each other which makes the sound a lot louder than it's supposed to be?

user92578

I can't really come up with anything, maybe like doing a pass on sounds and seeing if their ranges overlap, and if they do, I would pick the middle point and place a sound there and remove the others?

user92578

A max number of (the same) sound effects playing at once?

user92578

Would that mess up the stereo positioning though?

user92578

If a limit is exceeded, only play the nearest ones to the player?

Alexandre Vaillancourt

I don't get why they should get louder?

user92578

1:02 PM

Because there are like 8 blade sound effects going on at once

Uri Popov

well if you have a bunch of enemies making stepping sounds they will amplify

Why not make something like a listener zone around the player. Only play sound effects in that zone? You can even layer it so you have a constant background sound and then sounds based on distance

Alexandre Vaillancourt

Well if you set the volume at X db, many time, how could you get a higher volume out of it?

Uri Popov

or several ranges in the listner zone that control the volume based on distance

user92578

That's basically a test scenario

user92578

1:05 PM

Blades have a saw sound going on at a loop

user92578

The sound is emitted at the center of the blade, and I have set it to have a minimum distance, under which the sound is heard at 100% volume

user92578

The sound also has an attenuation factor, which will decrease the volume once the player is out of the minimum distance zone

user92578

@UriPopov A static zone won't work because some sounds need to be heard from afar

Uri Popov

its not static it follows the player

user92578

Well it is static around the player

Uri Popov

1:10 PM

I'm thinkingof the audio listener component in unity

it does what you want

You can even layer it so you have a constant background sound and then sounds based on distance

Alexandre Vaillancourt

I dunno, I have not faced that issue before. I mean. I have often situations where there are a lot of things colliding (rock-rock and rock-metal) types of collisions, but the behaviour was as expected.

PearsonArtPhoto

Dev Blog- Sea Trading Game. Improved perspective, rendering, and choosing a hold configuration! kd7uiy.com/2016/12/dev-blog-sea-trading-game-angled-camera.html

3

user92578

1:27 PM

@AlexandreVaillancourt Odd, I would think this issue would be universal

user92578

Finally gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/60939/…

user92578

?

Alexandre Vaillancourt

Simlog Off-Highway Truck - Complete Haul Cycle 2 Module

►

Sorry, youtube wanted me to copy the URL instead of doing it for me...

user92578

I see what you mean, but I'd argue that those sound effects are a little different

Alexandre Vaillancourt

Yes, probably :)

user92578

1:36 PM

They are not played at the same time, and not looped

user92578

So that's what you do for a living?

Alexandre Vaillancourt

Yeah :)

user92578

What does that mean like more in-detail? What aspect of the simulation do you handle?

Alexandre Vaillancourt

@Tyyppi_77 Agreed.

user92578

So I think the easiest initial tweaks from the question I linked are 1) Alter the pitch a little 2) Offset the sound a little

user92578

1:38 PM

But I don't still think that will change the volume really

Alexandre Vaillancourt

Hmm, we're about 5 ppl working on the software, so I get to do a lot. I'm not the expert on the physics, and I'm not the expert on the graphics, but I still tackle both of these parts once in a while. I tend to take care of the architecture of the software, and the optimization, and the audio.

user92578

That's really cool

Alexandre Vaillancourt

I like it :)

user92578

So that's a custom engine then?

Alexandre Vaillancourt

Each simulator is a software based on a load of in-house libraries and open source libraries. I would not call it an engine..

We build a new simulator by copying the files of the last one we did, remove what was specific to it, and add the new stuff in. The 'core' of the software keeps evolving, and we can retro-fit some improvements if we feel it's needed.

user92578

1:44 PM

Ah, so like more like a framework then

Alexandre Vaillancourt

More like it, yes!

If it were to be all re-done, I'd do some things differently (I've been here for 4-5 years now).

user92578

2:03 PM

// make a passthru processor function that does nothing...
void noEffect(int chan, void *stream, int len, void *udata)
{
    // you could work with stream here...
}

user92578

That's pretty much all the documentation I get for how effect processors work

user92578

Am I assumed to know what the hell is even in stream???

Alexandre Vaillancourt

That's SDL documentation?

user92578

SDL_Mixer documentation

user92578

jcatki.no-ip.org:8080/SDL_mixer/SDL_mixer.html#SEC76

Alexandre Vaillancourt

2:12 PM

I guess you'll have to dig in the code?!

user92578

yeah I guess so

user92578

I got slightly side-tracked from the original issue with this pitch-shifting idea

user92578

stream seems to be an array of int8

user92578

what could those represent?

Alexandre Vaillancourt

I can't tell.. been a while since I've worked with core audio

Kevin van der Velden

2:17 PM

Sound samples? Presumably

Though I think 256 levels of sound isn't much, TO THE GOOGLES

user92578

So for an example to pitch shift to twice the pitch I would basically just remove every other element from stream and then move all the samples together?

Kevin van der Velden

I don't think it's 8 bit actually

user92578

oh right my bad

user92578

FUUUUCK

user92578

so apparently it can be 8 bit

user92578

2:20 PM

It can also be 16

user92578

it can also be unsigned

user92578

The library actually implements panning with the effect pipeline

user92578

That file is 1.6K lines long

Kevin van der Velden

Also you can't remove elements, that'd wouldn't be a pure pitch shift either that would just be a speed up

user92578

really not sure if I want to get into this at all tbh

Kevin van der Velden

2:23 PM

Pitch shifting is rather complex

user92578

yeah I think I'll just skip this, looks like other users of SDL_Mixer have come to the same conclusion

user92578

The lack of documentation also doesn't help

user92578

2:43 PM

aaand somehow I've managed to make the blades sound very very glitchy

user92578

with 2 FPS in release...

user92578

yeah this was not the way to go

Alexandre Vaillancourt

quick! Revert!

user92578

Me: Well surely SDL_Mixer then must have functionality to start the playback at a specific time in the effect

user92578

Developer of SDL_Mixer laughs manically

Uri Popov

2:52 PM

me every time I break the build youtube.com/watch?v=l12Csc_lW0Q

and I need to explain to the other people at the startup why things dont work right now :D

user92578

sigh

Kevin van der Velden

@UriPopov would this not be a better method?

Uri Popov

was going on a smoke break. Now I have to listen to shaggy

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