Re: [Audyssey] Panning stereo sounds, was New Version of Soundscape Explorer
I had actually thought of switching to DX7 for that exact reason. The marching band in mono doesn't sound like much, even with a 3d effect added. It just sounds like a good radio playing the sound. There's no real depth. Then i thought about what i'd lose if I went to DX7. I wouldn't be able to add special effects, such as reverb, chorus, echo and the like. I'd also have to rewrite the whole direct input section. Since I didn't like either of those two ideas, I chose to simply split the stereo sound into two identical wave files, a left mono sound and a right one, and play them simultaneously. If you mess with Soundscape, you'll notice that the marching band is in stereo, just like with DX7--but it's really just two wave files playing. This is all well and good except for two things. First, the waste of CPU resources. This can be negated by checking the player's distance from the object. The sound of the right channel could be stopped until the player is a certain distance from the object. Then, you get the play position of the first file, play the second starting at that position, and move the sounds over to the minimum width and maximum width. I'm not sure how all this would sound, and right now it's purely theoretical. I do intend to give it a go eventually. The other, and more serious problem in our time, since we have a lot more CPU resources than ever, is the doppler problem. With doppler turned on, one of the stereo files is sure to get out of sync with the other, and all you have left is an echo effect. I suppose that in the main program loop I could always get the position of the left channel and reset the right channel accordingly, but I'm still hoping to find a good alternative. Ken --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Panning stereo sounds, was New Version of Soundscape Explorer
Couldn't you just edit your file and add those effects manually? - Original Message - From: Ken The PionEar kenwdow...@me.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Date sent: Mon, 29 Apr 2013 03:36:17 -0400 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Panning stereo sounds,was New Version of Soundscape Explorer I had actually thought of switching to DX7 for that exact reason. The marching band in mono doesn't sound like much, even with a 3d effect added. It just sounds like a good radio playing the sound. There's no real depth. Then i thought about what i'd lose if I went to DX7. I wouldn't be able to add special effects, such as reverb, chorus, echo and the like. I'd also have to rewrite the whole direct input section. Since I didn't like either of those two ideas, I chose to simply split the stereo sound into two identical wave files, a left mono sound and a right one, and play them simultaneously. If you mess with Soundscape, you'll notice that the marching band is in stereo, just like with DX7--but it's really just two wave files playing. This is all well and good except for two things. First, the waste of CPU resources. This can be negated by checking the player's distance from the object. The sound of the right channel could be stopped until the player is a certain distance from the object. Then, you get the play position of the first file, play the second starting at that position, and move the sounds over to the minimum width and maximum width. I'm not sure how all this would sound, and right now it's purely theoretical. I do intend to give it a go eventually. The other, and more serious problem in our time, since we have a lot more CPU resources than ever, is the doppler problem. With doppler turned on, one of the stereo files is sure to get out of sync with the other, and all you have left is an echo effect. I suppose that in the main program loop I could always get the position of the left channel and reset the right channel accordingly, but I'm still hoping to find a good alternative. Ken --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Panning stereo sounds, was New Version of Soundscape Explorer
Hi Ken, I tried something like that with the Sarah game update. I had 2 mono files of crickets chirping to simulate an open window. If I put them at the same location however they sounded like putting both stereo speakers together, no separation. I had to separate the left and right channel mono sound by a ten foot cell before getting real stereo from two mono sources. However this was a static object and not a moving one so with a marching band you would need four mono sounds, front back and left and right to simulate stereo on a moving object, and the location of each would have to be adjusted as the band moved on the map to keep the ten foot spacing between the band object and the four sound locations. Phil - Original Message - From: Ken The PionEar kenwdow...@me.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Monday, April 29, 2013 3:36 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Panning stereo sounds, was New Version of Soundscape Explorer I had actually thought of switching to DX7 for that exact reason. The marching band in mono doesn't sound like much, even with a 3d effect added. It just sounds like a good radio playing the sound. There's no real depth. Then i thought about what i'd lose if I went to DX7. I wouldn't be able to add special effects, such as reverb, chorus, echo and the like. I'd also have to rewrite the whole direct input section. Since I didn't like either of those two ideas, I chose to simply split the stereo sound into two identical wave files, a left mono sound and a right one, and play them simultaneously. If you mess with Soundscape, you'll notice that the marching band is in stereo, just like with DX7--but it's really just two wave files playing. This is all well and good except for two things. First, the waste of CPU resources. This can be negated by checking the player's distance from the object. The sound of the right channel could be stopped until the player is a certain distance from the object. Then, you get the play position of the first file, play the second starting at that position, and move the sounds over to the minimum width and maximum width. I'm not sure how all this would sound, and right now it's purely theoretical. I do intend to give it a go eventually. The other, and more serious problem in our time, since we have a lot more CPU resources than ever, is the doppler problem. With doppler turned on, one of the stereo files is sure to get out of sync with the other, and all you have left is an echo effect. I suppose that in the main program loop I could always get the position of the left channel and reset the right channel accordingly, but I'm still hoping to find a good alternative. Ken --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. - No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1432 / Virus Database: 3162/5780 - Release Date: 04/28/13 --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Panning stereo sounds, was New Version of Soundscape Explorer
Hi Ken, It sounds to me like what you need here is XAudio2. XAudio2 was designed to handle issues precisely like this situation without wasting CPU power or memory in the process. What you would do in XAudio2 to resolve this particular problem is declare a source voice for the marching band, that is kind of like the DirectSound SecondaryBuffer, and then you would pass the source voice to one ore more submix voices. What makes XAudio2 superior to DirectSound in this situation is you can independently control the volumes for each channel for front left, rear left, front right,rear right, and center speakers independently from each other all using the same source voice. So if you want to have a decent stereo sound while the player is facing the marching band you can make the center, front left, and front right volumes equal giving it a stereo type effect. As the player moves into and passed the band you can slowly increase the volume of the rear speakers while reducing the volume to the front and center speakers. So from a purely technical point of view I don't see any good reason to go back to DirectX 7. XAudio2 which is the new API for 9, 10, and11 is far superior when it comes to 3d audio than DirectSound, and I think would do what you want regarding something that sounds like a stereo sound without actually using stereo sounds or wasting memory etc needlessly. Cheers! On 4/29/13, Ken The PionEar kenwdow...@me.com wrote: I had actually thought of switching to DX7 for that exact reason. The marching band in mono doesn't sound like much, even with a 3d effect added. It just sounds like a good radio playing the sound. There's no real depth. Then i thought about what i'd lose if I went to DX7. I wouldn't be able to add special effects, such as reverb, chorus, echo and the like. I'd also have to rewrite the whole direct input section. Since I didn't like either of those two ideas, I chose to simply split the stereo sound into two identical wave files, a left mono sound and a right one, and play them simultaneously. If you mess with Soundscape, you'll notice that the marching band is in stereo, just like with DX7--but it's really just two wave files playing. This is all well and good except for two things. First, the waste of CPU resources. This can be negated by checking the player's distance from the object. The sound of the right channel could be stopped until the player is a certain distance from the object. Then, you get the play position of the first file, play the second starting at that position, and move the sounds over to the minimum width and maximum width. I'm not sure how all this would sound, and right now it's purely theoretical. I do intend to give it a go eventually. The other, and more serious problem in our time, since we have a lot more CPU resources than ever, is the doppler problem. With doppler turned on, one of the stereo files is sure to get out of sync with the other, and all you have left is an echo effect. I suppose that in the main program loop I could always get the position of the left channel and reset the right channel accordingly, but I'm still hoping to find a good alternative. Ken --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Panning stereo sounds, was New Version of Soundscape Explorer
Hi Phil, You can still pan stereo sounds in DirectX 8 as well. However, the issue isn't stereo panning but using virtual 3d buffers which is a totally different thing altogether. If you want to pan a sound left or right it doesn't really matter if the sound is stereo or mono because all it does is adjust the balance between the left and right channels .IE. simple stereo panning. However, with virtual 3d buffers it does far more than adjust the balance between the left and right speakers. With a very basic surround sound setup you have at a minimum front left, rear left, front right, rear right, and a center speaker. I.E. a total of five channels. Possibly more if you are using 7.1 surround sound systems. Its much easier to move a mono sound around using five or more channels than it is to do it with a stereo sound. That is why APIs like XAudio2 really use mono sounds for virtual 3d instead of stereo. Cheers! On 4/28/13, Phil Vlasak phi...@bex.net wrote: Hi Thomas, Back in the good old days of DirectX 6 or 7 you could pan a stereo sound. That is how the GMA engine played sounds. David had all the sounds of Shades of Doom and Loan Wolf in mono but for Pacman I had them all stereo. True when you panned the sound too much you lost the stereo effect, but when the thing got closer you could here the stereo effect so creatures close to you sounded more realistic. In Pacman and Sarah I had to switch from panning mono files to static stereo files when a creature or ghost touched you. Now the stereo file can have the creature zoom around you but it is an effect of the file and not the creature's placement in the map. Phil --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
