enableVisualFeedback

#1
Coincidentally, I've been working on this just this weekend. The impending beta has a new point cloud rendering feature that visualizes sound cones and distance attenuation.

Unfortunately, it still suffers from a problem that is quite the opposite of what it used to be in TGE: in fully textured levels, it is kind of hard to see. ATM it's all rendered as 1-pixel points (GFX currently has no support for setting pixel size and starting with DX10, point sprites are deprecated). Have to find a better rendering approach on the long run.

#2 Thanks for the update, does that mean that this feature has little likelihood of appearing soon?

If not, do you have any suggestions about pinpointing the issue?

#3
Well, the feature is there. It's just not optimal (yet). Just needs a little more work.

As for getting to the root of what's causing volume changes in your case, switch to the fly camera and rotate it. If the volume changes, it's HRTF that's active on the listener (picture sound cones for the listener; just that they don't emit but rather receive). With FMOD, there's a script variable to switch it off if you don't like it. For the other SFX providers there isn't (usually, doesn't make sense anyway; HRTF is great).

#4 I cannot seem to find the HRTF script variable to disable in under FMOD. Could you point me in the right direction? Thanks Rene.

#5
It's $pref::SFX::FMOD::useSoftwareHRTF. Note that this is new in 1.1 Alpha.

BTW, it's HRTF only if you rotate on the spot (happens in free-fly cam but usually not with mounted views) and you hear changes in volume. If you have to actually move the listener, then it's either distance attenuation or the sound cone setup. When it's pitch shifting instead of changing the volume, then it's a bad doppler shift setup.

Also be aware that rotating an emitter only has an audible effect if proper sound cones are set up.

#6 Thanks Rene,

The attenuation occurring while yawing in place is what I was trying to fix. BTW, are these attributes documented anywhere? I searched the codebase for HRTF and came up empty.

I have tried:

$pref::SFX::FMOD::useSoftwareHRTF = "false";
$pref::SFX::FMOD::useSoftwareHRTF = "0";

Neither has made a difference.

#7
I this on 1.1 Alpha? If so, I have actually added these after the alpha rolled out and was wrong in my statement above. Documentation for the new SFX functionality in 1.1 alpha is not yet available (besides the two threads I have started in this forum).

Nevertheless, HRTF in FMOD is off by default so if it isn't explicitly enabled in the FMOD layer, then it's off.

Also, if you walk around a level with some sounds and you don't get a very audible effect when you turn your virtual head, then there is no HRTF.

Also,

metrics( "sfxsources" );

can help in figuring out what the volume of a source does over time. Sound cones are not taken into account by it, though (this part of attenuation happens in the mixer, anyway).

#8 No, not the 1.1 Alpha, I am running 1.01, sorry about that. Well, HRTF is definitely on in my system as yawing the camera in place will attenuate the audio based on orientation. Since my environment emitters are placed in a bubble around the camera, I am tempted to just place the emitters 5 units above the camera in Z to mitigate this as you tend to pitch the camera far less in Fly Cam mode.

I will take a look at the sfxsources metrics, thanks.

Did you see my other post about fading a looped sound?

#9
The sfxsources metric is only available since 1.1. SFX has seen a major overhaul from 1.0.1 to 1.1. As I've already mentioned in the thread about fading looped sounds, I really advise a switch to 1.1 when the Beta comes out (which is soon).

If you are using FMOD on Windows here, then it may be that FMOD is using DirectSound for output which has HRTF on by default AFAIK. This also can be disabled in the 1.1 SFX.