Sniper's Paradise!
Sound and Music explained
In this tutorial you will learn about sound effects and music. First starting with sound effects and then music.
Sound:
Sound effects should be used to aid the current design and will enhance the playing experience.
The sound effect actors can be located in the actor browser under "KeyPoint". "SpecialEvent" is however a trigger class actor and is located under "Triggers".
Sound Actors
AmbientSound - Play a sound effect, constantly, looping.
DynamicAmbientSound - Randomly play sound effects.
TriggeredAmbientSound - Does not work
Special Event - Special trigger actor to play sound effect, single or ambient.
Sound Actor Properties
AmbientSound - The actual sound effect.
SoundPitch - Pitch (speed) of the sound effect.
SoundRadius - Area affected by the sound effect.
SoundVolume - Base volume of the sound effect.
TransientSoundRadius - This is the default sound radius.
TransientSoundVolume - This is the default sound volume.
Using sound effects:
There are many places you add sounds. Especially movers, ambient sounds and triggered sounds.
If you use ambient sound, which loops, you will only hear the sound as long as you are in the sound radius. Infact, the sound will stop when you are outside this radius and restart when you enter.
Sound is also affected by movement and reverb. Movement is what is known as doppler shifting and is determined from the velocity of the moving actor. (Any actor that have the Sound option can work like an "Ambient Sound" actor).
The last thing that affects sound is hardware support. If you have the ability to set surround and/or EAX (Enviromental Audio) it will make the sound play in different "strengths" for different speakers depending on location.
Sounds are 'placed' in 3D and 'radiate' sound just like a light actor. The sound volume will fade evenly to the edge of the radius.
Ambient Sound:
With the Ambient Sound actor you play a sound effect constantly. If the sound effect isn't looping it will automatically repeat it.
It should be used when you want a certain "background" sound placed near things like machinery, fans, wind, water, water-falls and so on.
It will not "activate" or "deactivate" by a trigger and will play the sound effect as soon as the map is loaded.
Dynamic Ambient Sound:
This is a more advanced version of the regular "Ambient sound" actor. It is used to pool some sounds and randomly play sound effects.
Under "DynamicAmbientSound" the properties window has the following.
bDontRepeat - After it has played the sound effect, it no longer plays.
bInitallyOn - Toggles on/off using a tigger.
maxReCheckTime - Max delay before actor tries a random check.
minReCheckTime - Minimum delay before actor tries a random check.
playProbability - Random chance of actor playing sound, between 0 - 1.
Sounds[] - The slots for sound effects, up 16.
The random is a value between 0 and 1, meaning that 0.5 equals 50%.
Can be used to create more realistic / random sounds like traffic, computers, machinery and much more.
Triggered Ambient Sound: - Does not work in Unreal.
You can use DynamicAmbientSound for this instead. Set bInitallyOn to false, playProbability to 1 and only add one sound. This will ensure that when it's triggered it will play that specific sound.
Special Event:
The special event, a trigger class actor, can be made to play a sound effect when triggered. By setting the correct Inital State you can control how the sound should be played. Please read the detailed description of the "Special Event" in the trigger tutorial.
Special events should not be made to play an ambient sound.
Reverb:
You can use the Reverb properties in a "ZoneInfo" actor to alter the effect of the sound. To create such effects you need to set "bReverbZone" true.
By adding and adjusting the values under Delay[] and Gain[] you can make any sound heard 'different' inside this zone. More hollow, cramped, echo and so on.
Importing / Exporting sound effects:
You can import and export sound effects in the .Wav format. (8 or 16 bits 4kHz - 44kHz wavs are supported).
When importing you will need to enter "Package", "Group" and "Name". The "Package" is what *.uax (file extension for Unreal sound package) it will belong to. By entering "MyLevel" it will be saved along with the map. The "Group" is simply what group inside the package it should belong to. (Default is (All)). The final is "Name" and that is simply the name for the sample.
If you save a sound package it will have the extension *.uax and must be stored under "...Unreal/Sounds/" directory.
If you use custom sound effects in a level and do not import them to the "MyLevel" package, the *.uax package must be included when you distribute the map.
Music:
Music in any level is what set the final touch. It should consist with the current theme and set the mood for players.
Music in Unreal is of 'tracker' format which means that it is sample and pattern based.
A pattern is divided into multiple channels and for each channel you can play a number of samples. All in all, a tracker (or Mod[ule]) is a series of patterns, playing samples in different notes.
This is a very simple and easy to handle as you can create and use what samples you want, in contradiction of MIDI or MP3.
To work and create tracker/mod music you need a tracker program, like Fast Tracker, Impulse Tracker or Pro Tracker. (Most of it available as shareware/freeware).
CD Music:
I must admit that I haven't tested using CD music in a level, but it should work the same way as regular music but using the CD selection options
instead.
Importing music:
Now that you know that UT use tracker format you probably wonder what you need to import music. The music format must be of Tracker type and that would be *.Mod, *.It, *.S3M and alot more. (Might even be able to import tracker music not listed in the file format).
Exporting music:
You can also export music by simply selecting the song and then "Export..." from the file menu. You are only able to export it to the *.S3M format.
(S3M is supported by WinAmp).
Music Events, In-game:
At any stage of the game, you can change the current state of the music. The "MusicEvent", part of the trigger class, can be used to change the song,
turn it off and more.
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