nuclide/Documentation/Sound/SoundDefs.md

Sound: soundDef

Nuclide mimics the sound defintion spec from idTech 4 somewhat, albeit with some changes/enhancements. We call them soundDefs.

The elevator pitch: To allow for more control over the sounds than what was previously allowed in idTech engines we also allow designers to drop sounds into the game without having to set some common parameters every time.

Instead of directly calling which .wav or .ogg file to play, we tell it to play the single name of a sound def. For example: c1_sentry_loader_in which can be located in any text file ending with the .sndshd file extension inside the sound/ directory.

  c1_sentry_loader_in
  {
    dist_min	10
    dist_max	25
  
    no_occlusion
    volume	0.25
  
    sample sound/movers/comm1/sentry_loader_in.wav
  }

• dist_min / dist_max sets the radius where the sound fades out. The sound is at maximum volume inside 'dist_min' radius, and it completely silent after 'dist_max' radius.
• The no_occlusion key tells the engine not to take level geometry in to account when calculating volume.
• 'volume' is the volume inside the inner radius of the sound.
• The last line sets the actual sound file to play.

Let's take a look at another one:

  emetal_impacts
  {
    dist_min	5
    dist_max	45
    volume	0.5
  
    sample sound/impact/ambient_impacts/emetal_01.wav
    sample sound/impact/ambient_impacts/emetal_02.wav
    sample sound/impact/ambient_impacts/emetal_03.wav
    sample sound/impact/ambient_impacts/emetal_04.wav
    sample sound/impact/ambient_impacts/emetal_05.wav
  }

This one has multiple sound files specified, which means that Nuclide will randomly choose one to play.

Commands

Key	Value	Description
attenuation	idle/static/none/normal	Changes the sound's attenuation, aka playback radius/distance. This essentially just changes dist_max.
dist_min		Sets the minimum playback distance in quake units.
dist_max		Sets the maximum playback distance in quake units.
volume		Sets the playback volume. 0.0 - 1.0 range.
shakes		Will shake the screen with an intensity specified. Play around with this, 256 is a good starting value.
pitch		Will set a specific pitch change. 0.0 - 2.0 range most commonly, but there's wiggle room.
pitch_min		Will set a minimum pitch instead of an exact one. This means it'll play a random pitch between min and max.
pitch_max		Will set a maximum pitch instead of an exact one. This means it'll play a random pitch between min and max.
offset		Sound sample offset in seconds.
looping	none	Sound set to force loop, regardless of sound markers in file.
nodups	none	Don't play duplicate samples in sequence.
global	none	Play samples everywhere.
private	none	Play samples privately onto the entity that it gets played on.
no_reverb	none	Disable any EAX on samples in this def.
omnidirectional	none	Samples won't play from any particular direction.
follow	none	Samples will move alongside the entity it's being played on
footstep	none	Determines sample volume based upon the speed of the entity.
distshader		Which sound def to play to everyone who is out of playback reach of this one.
sample		Adds a sample to play to the list. Will only play one at a time.

Power to the developer

Unlike the implementation in idTech 4, all of the sound defs handling is done in the game-logic and is therefore exposed to all developers. Some mods may want to hook AI callbacks into the system, or create visual effects when commands are called by a sound def. The possibilities are endless!