PSX reverb

PSX Doom applies reverb to any sound effects when the player is in any sector besides ones that have F_SKY1 as its ceiling. I was wondering, what is the sound formula for the reverb in it?

If I could incorporate it into Perkistan's SFX, I would be be a happy guy.

DoomUK said:

If I could incorporate it into Perkistan's SFX, I would be be a happy guy.

Doomsday offers such a feature; it's called '3D sound' in the control panel.

Vermil said:

Doomsday offers such a feature

Indeed it does, but the effect screws up depending on what kind of surface you're standing on.

Besides that, I find the level of reverb a little obnoxious compared to the subtle effect in PSX Doom.

DoomUK said:

Indeed it does, but the effect screws up depending on what kind of surface you're standing on.

Doomsday calculates it based off the composition of the textures and flats of the sector the player is standing in.

Certinally, that doesn't take into account, say standing on a little sector of grass surrounded by sectors with metal walls and floors.

The reverb type of a texture or flat is defined via ded, so the feature is also not really usuable with mods that come with custom textures and flats.

But then the feature has been around in and hardly touched in Dday almost since the beginning, so it's not that advanced.

DoomUK said:

Besides that, I find the level of reverb a little obnoxious compared to the subtle effect in PSX Doom.

Dday has a slider to control the reverb level.

Vermil said:

Dday has a slider to control the reverb level.

Oh, duh. Don't know how I've never noticed that before.

FWiW, and not surprisingly, Risen3D also has the feature.

Indeed, though Risen3D only looks at the textures and not the flats.

Vermil said:

Indeed, though Risen3D only looks at the textures and not the flats.

That's not actually correct. Risen3D does look at the walls (a metal walled room should have different reverb properties to a wooden walled one) but it does more. It also looks at the dimensions of the space and whether the floor or ceiling uses the sky. Therefore reverb can still be applied to a narrow alleyway even if the ceiling is open to the sky where it wouldn't be in a wide open outdoor space.

Risen3D scripted maps use a different scheme and the reverb of the levels can be set as part of the map editing process.

Enjay said:

That's not actually correct. Risen3D does look at the walls (a metal walled room should have different reverb properties to a wooden walled one) but it does more. It also looks at the dimensions of the space and whether the floor or ceiling uses the sky. Therefore reverb can still be applied to a narrow alleyway even if the ceiling is open to the sky where it wouldn't be in a wide open outdoor space.

Yes, as I stated (well tried to), Dday and Risen3D, by virtue of being based off Dday, both do that.

After Risen3D split from Dday, Dday enhanced the algorithim to also look at the floor and ceiling as well as walls.

Yep, Risen3D's method is basically unchanged from that used by Doomsday at the time it forked.

The whole algorithm is actually rather fundamentally flawed. It is due to be replaced entirely in an upcoming version of Doomsday in fact (probably 1.9.11).

DaniJ said:

Yep, Risen3D's method is basically unchanged from that used by Doomsday at the time it forked.

So, would I be correct in saying that the Risen3D method (and the previous Doomsday one) was Jaakko Keränen's work?

That is indeed correct yes.

I made this thread to ask about how the PSX version of Doom applies reverb to the sound channels, not how Doomsday does it. I'm not interested in the triggering conditions, but rather what the audio effect itself did.

I thought about realistic sound bouncing off walls, with reverb, echos, etc. similar to how Aureal Semiconductor did it. But then I could get sued for patent infringement by Creative (since they lost a patent suit against them, but they went bankrupt from the legal charges, then bought Aureal Semiconductor). They had hardware 3D sound a decade before Creative started to have it (which they shortly thereafter removed and went to a software implementation).

GhostlyDeath said:

how Aureal Semiconductor did it. But then I could get sued for patent infringement by Creative (since they lost a patent suit against them, but they went bankrupt from the legal charges, then bought Aureal Semiconductor)

To make this clear:
1. Creative sued Aureal with bullshit charges of infringement
2. Aureal countersued with valid charges of infringement, since Creative did steal stuff from Aureal
3. Aureal won the trial, as was right and proper, but went bankrupt from the legal charges anyway
4. Creative, ever the horrible flock of vultures, bought Aureal to acquire their patents and therefore clear its cursed name

The moral of the story is that Creative is a bunch of assholes. And I apologize to vultures, who are noble and useful birds filling a necessary niche in the ecosystem, for having compared them to one of the worst computer-related companies.