Oolite Bulletins

Hail spacers,

Just a thought - one of the things that most annoys me about sci-fi films is when they persist in populating vacuum with sound - explosions, jet thrust, motors and sirens etc. There is nothing more effective in my opinion than deftly using the sound of a space craft interior with its pumps and motors, indicators and associated noises in deafeningly silent contrast to the exterior of hard cold vacuum.

I suspect that it just costs them too much in explosions and booster sounds and other excitement generating devices to bother. Nothing annoys me more than a sci-fi that starts out so well, with such well developed models, lighting, texturing, impression of scale and realism only to have the sound of a craft docking - when viewed externally with a clink/chunk/whirr.

I beleive that good use of music is absolutely fine as it doesn't break the suspension of disbelief - being as it is an overlay to the immediately present physical dimensions of a scene in a film.

Of course we have the right to do this is our imagination when reading and with the exception of 2001 there are few examples I can think of where hard vacuum is honored.

Anyway, let me say that I have never had a problem with the sounds in Oolite!

Given that virtually all of the action is engaged from within the cockpit of the ship the sound of lasers generating their burst, vibration and transmission of sound from missile tubes expelling any ambient gas/air on launch, shield generators reacting to energy ablation (and or systems generating sounds to add aural context to events within the ship for the pilot) are all fine.

What I am thinking of is a soundset that actually takes this another step forward and tries to imagine the sounds that the ship would make when in the raw context of hard vacuum.

Those of you familiar with Orbiter would know that there is a good sound set that is really only background machinery quietly doing its job of keeping the crew alive and going where they want to.

Just some thoughts - have no experience in writing OXPs and maybe I haven't thought this right through or tried all the sound sets but whilst I love flying to music I wondered if this was something that had been discussed.

\\'

I guess that a lot of sci-fi films have used a Naval 'big ship' model for how sirens and internal sounds work.

I also think you're spot on with explosions, clearly you shouldn't hear anything in the vacuum of space from a distance.

However, aboard ship, I think you'd hear quite a lot.

Missiles would probably make somekind of mechanical clonk as they departed (perhaps their exhaust might briefly make a sound against your hull), you'd hear docking latches and pressure equalisation when you docked. Engine whine would travel up through the bulkheads quite happily (unless the engines themselves make no noise or vibration). Lasers might also make a noise when discharging, though you shouldn't hear anything when they hit a target.

Lasers hitting the ship shouldn't make a noise obviously , but the expanding sphere of an explosion might contain enough actual matter to make a noise. If you run into a cargo pod or other solid object that should clearly make some kind of thump audible inside.

Cheers,

Drew.

To do this right you'd need positional audio and fadeIN/Out for music and sounds, ways to check the current playing music tracks and sounds, etc... In BGS and CCL_Music I'm trying to give at least a option to work around the limits, but some things can't be changed within an OXP.

So I'd say good luck with the soundset, but don't be disappointed if you start to notice the limits. And maybe someday we'll get a few more options, who knows .-)

While making sounds for BGS. I imagined that the ship interface would produce the sounds by itself to increase situational awareness.

However it is quite easy to make your own soundset for BGS via the customsound.pllist. Go ahead and make your own original sounds .

drew wrote:

Lasers hitting the ship shouldn't make a noise obviously , but the expanding sphere of an explosion might contain enough actual matter to make a noise. If you run into a cargo pod or other solid object that should clearly make some kind of thump audible inside.

Cheers,

Drew.

Unless a sensor mounted on/above the laser measured a small amount of return from your beam (just how do we negate a perfect reflection by-the-way?) and plays a tone inside the cabin so you know you've made a hit...

As a physicist I know it's the difference between realistic and entertaining. The whoosh->thunderclap that Star Trek ships make as they go to warp (when viewed externally) is not realistic but it is entertaining (just about)

The oolite scales issue alone shows how playability trumps realism. Apply this concept to your sounds. Its all fun and games anyway.