[Bf-committers] Game engine and samples

[Alexander Ewering]

Hi Kester,

thanks for the reply. On the whole, I've found a lot of parameters of
a SoundObject that are appearently not even editable by the user anywhere.
Very odd.

For example, where do I, the user, set things like m_rollofffactor,
m_referencedistance, m_mingain, m_maxgain? I see no sliders for this...

In the end, while I'm already digging into all this, it would be nice
to know what the sound engine is actually *supposed* to do :)

For me, sensible parameters for a sound are:

Volume: This would be the power of the sound source. The higher it is,
         the slower it attenuates with distance.

         What is the meaning of the current "Volume" slider? Is it this,
         or does it actually mean "Gain" (next point)?

Gain:   Maybe! Just an additional absolute scaling factor the sample
         is multiplied by.

Pitch:  That's already there as a slider, and seems to be meant in
         semitones. Fine.

Surround Scaling: This is already there, but I'm not sure what is meant.
To me, it would make sense if it were the factor by which viewer orientation
relative to the sound source can pan the sound left/right (or behind, if
we get more esotheric and do stereo phase inversion). If set
to 1.0, it fully pans. If to 0.0, the sound doesn't pan at all. This is
useful for doing (especially stereo, ambient) sounds coming from everywhere.

I think the whole audio system needs a rethink, so why not start now.

Any other opinions?

| alexander ewering              instinctive mediaworks
| ae[@]instinctive[.]de   http://www[.]instinctive[.]de