ZDoom ambient sounds bleeding throughout the map problem.

[Gunrock]

Hello!

I have ambient sound thing placements in my map. However, some sounds are "bleeding" in other rooms and it all sounds like a garbled mess of sounds fighting each other for control. I tried playing with various numbers using "Max Heard Distance", "Min Fading Distance", and Volume, but it seems its not doing any good and I dont know what values to even begin to use. I want the ambient sound volume to be as close as possible and not overwhelming half the map.

 

Thanks for any help!!!!

[Bauul]

Ambient sounds can be a little finicky to get right at first.  Presumably you've familiarized yourself with the ZDoom Wiki page on the subject?  I'm presuming you've set the SNDINFO lump up correctly and have defined the sounds as Point sounds already.

 

The sounds aren't affected by walls, and simply extend in a sphere from the Sound Thing.  Once you've picked your sound, the Sound Thing takes four arguments:

1. Volume: leave this as 100 unless the sound is too loud, then reduce it accordingly
2. Minimum Fading Distance: This is how far away from the Sound Thing the sound begins to get quieter as you move away, in map units.  I tend to leave it as a relatively small number like 48.
3. Max Distance: How far away you can hear the sound, in map units.  The sound will gradually fall off between argument 3 and this argument.  Using the sector draw tool, draw a line from the center of the Sound Thing to the maximum distance you want to be able to hear the sound.  GZDB will tell you how long that line is.  Cancel the drawing, and write that number in here.  So a value of 256 can be heard 256 units away from the Sound Thing.
4. Multiplier:  Unless your using Hexen map format (which you shouldn't be these days), leave this as 0.  Typing in any number will multiply the above arguments by 255, making them likely fill the entire map.  So just leave it well enough alone.

One final thing to note: the circle that indicates the size of the Sound Thing's hearing radius in GZDB seems to be broken.  It never matches up to the reality in game, so I'd just turn them off if I were you. 

[Gunrock]

Thank you!!!!

You are amazing!!!