Feature idea: Marathon 2 style ambient sounds

[Blastfrog]

The way ambient sounds are usually handled by mods now is not bad (and is preferable to M2's method for very localized sounds like a single computer beeping), but is far from ideal for broader ambient sounds such as rain or wind (desyncs, adding up to be too loud, not being loud enough in some areas trying to avoid that, having to carefully place actors all over the place).

 

The following is guesswork, and I'm not looking for an exact reimplentation of how Bungie did it, but this is how I'd nevertheless like to see it done in Doom:

 

There'd be a sort of preset system saying which loops are to be on and their individual volume levels, individual sectors could have different presets assigned that are set as you are in them. As you switch between presets, it continues playing any shared loops from the previously used preset and crossfades the volume if different. If a sound from previously used preset is now missing, fade out to nothing instead of cutting off. If a new sound is introduced, fade in instead of just starting at target volume. If it's the same sound but now at a different volume, slide up/down to new target volume. If it's the same sound at the same volume, do nothing.

 

Not only is this a better sounding way to do broad ambient sounds than fiddling with little actors all over the place, it has less potential for problems and would also be far easier and more convenient to just assign a single property to sectors that are like "okay, this room sounds like this, done".

Edited May 24, 2017 by Blastfrog

[Voros]

You know. You could  have better luck asking for these features you've been requested recently over at ZDoom's Feature Suggestions forums. 

 

As for for my opinion, this seems like a trivial matter.

[Blastfrog]

Just now, Voros said:

You know. You could  have better luck asking for these features you've been requested recently over at ZDoom's Feature Suggestions forums. 

 

As for for my opinion, this seems like a trivial matter.

First of all, these aren't feature requests, let alone for any particular port. They're just ideas I felt like expressing and seeing what the community feedback is like.

 

Second, um, I can't (and don't want to) use the ZDoom forums. Doomworld serves my Dooming needs fine.

[Voros]

6 minutes ago, Blastfrog said:

First of all, these aren't feature requests, let alone for any particular port. They're just ideas I felt like expressing and seeing what the community feedback is like.

Well, they seem like wasted opportunities then. Some of these ideas are pretty cool, and probably would be a good addition to any port.

 

7 minutes ago, Blastfrog said:

Second, um, I can't (and don't want to) use the ZDoom forums. Doomworld serves my Dooming needs fine.

I understand ;)

[Blastfrog]

2 minutes ago, Voros said:

Well, they seem like wasted opportunities then.

Only wasted if I never shared my ideas. By putting them out there, at least people will think and talk about these things, which is better than it remaining as some wish in my head.

 

2 minutes ago, Voros said:

Some of these ideas are pretty cool, and probably would be a good addition to any port.

Thanks, I think my ideas are cool too. ;) Just because I label them as feature "ideas" and while I'm not trying to bug any particular coder to implement them, I obviously want to see them come to fruition.