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Memfis

Empty (silent) doom format sound?

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Can anyone make one? I tried recording nothing with the default Windows thing but I still get HSSHSSHHS when I use it in Doom.

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If you can use a hex editor, the info at http://doomwiki.org/wiki/Sound would allow you to create one, at least for source ports that implement the full interpretation of DMX format 3 samples properly.

DMX wouldn't play any sound that has less than one "slice" left over after subtracting the 16 pad bytes it expects at the beginning and end of each sample. That means making a sound shorter than that (for example, containing only the 32 pad bytes, like the DSSMFIRE sample in the Strife IWAD) will make it completely silent.

But, a lot of source ports haven't updated themselves to conform to this new discovery because it requires a small heuristic (simple memcmp operation) to detect whether or not samples were generated with the pad bytes in mind or not. To my knowledge, only Chocolate Doom and Eternity currently implement this properly. The resulting rendering of sound where it is NOT implemented properly is a loud obnoxious clicking/popping sound.

Some ports will allow a zero-sized sample to mean silent. It's technically malformed however and may crash older source ports and possibly cause undefined behavior if used with vanilla.

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Uhhh, thanks for the insight but this is some complicated technical stuff I don't undertand and I definitely wouldn't use a solution that doesn't work in most ports anyway, I just want a wav in Doom format that is silent (you don't hear anything), I don't care if it's 1 or 30 second long or whatever. I just can't figure out how to make it (recording system sound in the default Windows thing while no sound is playing gives me SSSHSSHSSH in Doom for some reason). Can somebody make one please?

edit: tried editing this post several times but if it still sounds rude I'm sorry, that's just not exactly what I was asking.

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Does that matter? o,o I want to replace the Icon of Sin pain and death sounds.

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Maybe you could open the original sounds in a wav editor (like cool edit or something) and make them silent (there's a specific "silence" option in cool edit) while making sure the wav properties (like bitrate etc.) and exact length are unchanged.

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You're all concerned about port compatibility but you're going to use a .wav? Only two ports support .wav at all that I know of.

My point in mentioning all that technical stuff was that, for most ports, a sound has to be in the DMX 03 format. That means if you take a "silent" .wav file and convert it using some program, say, SLADE, and the program doesn't take care of the factor I am talking about in my first post then guess what...

It probably won't be silent in the game.

That was my entire point.

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Quasar said:

convert it using some program, say, SLADE, and the program doesn't take care of the factor I am talking about

SLADE 3 does take care of that (since January 22); though it's optional precisely because not all ports are aware of it. If CVAR dmx_padding is true, there is a small check to verify that the first 16 and the last 16 bytes are indeed padding before they are ignored for playback and conversion to .wav; and inversely when converting to DMX sound padding bytes are added.

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Oh... Maybe I understand now. So you mean it's actually impossible to have a non-malformed silent sound unless the port I'm using handles that DMX 03 stuff correctly?

I tried the sounds posted by GreyGhost and vtm and they aren't silent for me in PrBoom+.

I don't know, maybe there is a better way to do what I want... I have a vanilla map and in the exit room there is a switch with "floor raise (crushes)" action which starts rising the whole room kind of like a lift and at the same time crushes Romero with barrels outside of the map. So basically the map ends during the lift movement, like in Hexen you have some maps where you jump into a hole and the level transition happens before you fall to the ground.

edit: and so I need a silent sound for Romero death since it is heard everywhere in the level.

edit 2342: maybe I can just replace Romero death sound with moving floor sound and then it will be almost unnoticeable...

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Memfis said:

edit 2342: maybe I can just replace Romero death sound with moving floor sound and then it will be almost unnoticeable...

If you're willing to live with BOOM-or-up compatibility level, you could remove the A_BrainScream pointer from the boss brain's head using a BEX patch (set the pointer for that frame to null). All it does is create the explosions and make the screaming sound that you're trying to get rid of.

The pointer that actually exits the level is A_BrainDie and is called several frames later.

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I've never tried it but could you simply create a new blank text file and change the file extension to .wav or something then import it into a wad? I'd think patching the lumps with something that seemingly cannot be played back would be enough to make the sounds not play at all, unless it causes Doom to crash or something. I'd have to test it to be sure.

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Not sure how GreyGhost made that file, but it's definitely not silent. Sounds like line noise.

Try this. Tested in Chocolate Doom and PrBoom+
Makes DSBOSSIT and DSBOSDTH silent

https://www.mediafire.com/?aydy7dwc36cvvz2

TBH I don't understand the problem with padded/unpadded sounds if the actual sound data is all empty anyhow.

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Laz Rojaz's WolfenDoom wads have loads of silent sounds, the ones that I've tried, seem to work in multiple (i.e all the ones I've tried) ports.

Bare in mind though, that he changed how he made them several times, throughout the development of the WolfenDoom mods and I haven't tried every variant he made in multiple ports.

EDIT: Dang it, late. :p

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Get Audacity, a free audio editor (windows + linux). Make it generate a SILENCE with a duration of a second or less, export to WAV or whatever you need and test it. I would keep the length of the silence to an absolute minimum.

The menu : generate -> silence -> enter duration.

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Freedoom has a dummy.wav file that is just silence. It's used for sound effects that are missing.

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