Adding Water Sounds To Planes Version 2

O

OBIO

Retired SOH Admin
A while back I did a thread on adding water sounds to float/amphib planes by using the fuselage scrape sound call to play the water sounds. Well, I have discovered an even better way to do it....a way that still gives you the regular scrape sounds when crashing on soil. Here's the new way:

Go to the contact point section of what ever float or amphib plane you want to add water sounds to: Find the contact point info for the floats....they are type 4, as seen in the line below. Then go the the third number from the end and change it to 7....which is the Auxillary Scrape 1 setting.

point.X = 4, 10, -3.5, -8.4, 3600, 1, 0, 0, 1.25, 1.5, 0.65, 0, 0, 7, 0, 0

Now, go to the sound pack that you want to use on the amphib/float plane and add this section way down toward the bottom....where the rest of the environmental sounds (landing gear, scrapes, wind, etc) are found:

[Aux1_SCRAPE]
filename=xwaterloop
minimum_speed=20
maximum_speed=100
minimum_rate=0.5
maximum_rate=2.0

The xwaterloop is a stock sound file....and is found in the main SOUND folder of FS9....it does not need to be in the sound pack that you want to use it with. You may need to adjust the minimum speed and maximum speed values to better reflect the plane you are doing the sound pack tweak for.

Easy, Peasy, Lemon Squeezy.

OBIO
 
Interesting approach, OBIO.

Take a look at the default C208 sound and aircraft configuration files. I think you will find it interesting as to the approach Microsoft tackled this same subject.

You have 2 default water sound files, waterloop and xwaterloop.
The "x" in xwaterloop stands for external sound.
viewpoint=1 tells the sim it is an internal sound
viewpoint=2 tells the sim it is an external sound
flags=8 tells the sim it is water

These two sounds can be activated via the sound.cfg by continuing the string of [Ground_Roll] headings.

For example, if the last [Ground_Roll] entry is [GROUND_ROLL6], then at the bottom of that entry you would "link" it to the next entry with "link=GROUND_ROLL7", and then add in the new entry to call the first of the two water sounds... and so on and so forth until you've reached the end.

EXAMPLE:
[GROUND_ROLL6] ////<----let's say this section is the last ground roll entry
filename=cnroll6
flags=131072
viewpoint=1
link=GROUND_ROLL7 ////<----we add this line to continue the ground roll sounds

[GROUND_ROLL7] ////<----then add our "internal" waterloop sound segment
filename=waterloop
flags=8 ////<----(flag 8 tells the sim it is water)
viewpoint=1 ////<----(viewpoint 1 tells the sim it is an internal sound)
link=GROUND_ROLL8 ////<----again, link to the next sound segment

[GROUND_ROLL8] ////<----add this segment for "external" sounds
filename=xwaterloop
flags=8
viewpoint=2 ////<----(viewpoint 2 tells the sim it is an "external" sound)

//====================================//

Without all the mess it would look like this:

[GROUND_ROLL6]
filename=cnroll6
flags=131072
viewpoint=1
link=GROUND_ROLL7

[GROUND_ROLL7]
filename=waterloop
flags=8
viewpoint=1
link=GROUND_ROLL8

[GROUND_ROLL8]
filename=xwaterloop
flags=8
viewpoint=2
//=========================================//

The sim will detect the type of "ground" the aircraft touches down on and play the appropriate sound file.
You could also add in the speed and rate lines to the sound calls if desired.

The short version: in most cases, the two ground_roll entries in the sound.cfg will be sufficient to activate the water sounds.
 
Dognot

I tried the flag method...but had mixed results. I want a method that works the first time every time without having to figure out and remember what flag is for what surface. By using the Auxillary Scrape call sounds....there is little to forget....works like a charm. Simple is better in most cases....at least for me.

OBIO
 
OBIO said:
Dognot

I tried the flag method...but had mixed results. I want a method that works the first time every time without having to figure out and remember what flag is for what surface. By using the Auxillary Scrape call sounds....there is little to forget....works like a charm. Simple is better in most cases....at least for me.

OBIO
Click to expand...

OBIO

I sure didn't intend to step on any toes, OBIO. I did find your approach useful and interesting. Whether a "flag" is used in the sound.cfg or in the aircraft.cfg (i.e. Sound Type 7 in the contact points string), it's still a flag. If you're having better results with that method, that's great.

There is little to forget with the simple insertion of the two Ground_Roll segments into the sound.cfg. If a user is not a note-taker/saver, the format is already saved for them within the default C208 sound config. There is also a continuity, for the various users, that has been in use since the introduction of Flight Simulator 2002 aka FS8 (released in October 2001).

For me, that is simpler.
(I'm not at all inferring that one is right and the other wrong....just interesting the many approaches to the same end result)
 
dogknot said:
I sure didn't intend to step on any toes, OBIO.
Click to expand...

No toes stepped on. This is just another example of why tweaking flight sim stuff can become so confusing for some people...there is more than 1 way to do the same thing. Using the Ground_Roll and Flags or using the Auxillary Scrape sound call...both ways give the same results...water sounds when a plane lands on water. I have done flight dynamics tweaks using methods that differ from the way others have done them...but the same results were achieved. This "multiplicity" can confuse the heck out of some people...but I like it. It allows a person to find a methodology that works best for him/her.

OBIO
 
Using my new method for adding water sounds, I am now able to use one sound pack for wheeled and float/amphib planes....were as before I had a dedicated sound pack for wheeled versions and float versions....a sound pack for the wheeled Bobcat and another for the float version. I just went through part of my sound pack library and dumped 14 float specific sound packs....and opened up nearly 150 meg of HD space. Have another 20 to 25 float/amphib sound packs to dump still. This is going to save a great deal of space on C drive and on my external back up drive.

OBIO
 
Thanks Tim & Brent,

I wish David and I knew this when we made our T4M and Gee Bee Model A.

I know we will have use for this information in the future.
 
I have spent a chunk of time today archiving some files to DVD, clearing out unused or little used files and generally giving my HDs a cleaning and reorganizing. Part of that is eliminating sound packs that I really don't need....all those sound packs I made just to use on float/amphib aircraft. And I have taken a good look at how the stock Cessna 208 sound pack was set up to handle land and water landings....and I must say:

DOGKNOT, YOU WERE RIGHT!

Using the Ground Roll section from the C208 sound pack and replacing the Ground Roll sections in my other sound folders is far simpler than adding the Aux1_Scrape section to the sound.cfg then having to go in and modify the contact points to get the float points to call up the Aux1_Scrape sounds. A simple copy and paste, a quick save...bingo bango...done. And with the new C208 Ground Roll section in place, any sound pack can be used for wheeled or float/amphib plane that uses that motor. My R-1340 sound pack can now be used for the wheeled and float version of the Norseman without having to change a thing in the files of either plane.

So, here's the bestest and easiestest way to add water sounds to your planes. Open the sound.cfg of the sound pack you want to use for that plane, find the Ground Roll sections, highlight them and paste the following lines in their place (would be a good idea to save these lines as a text file for future use):

[GROUND_ROLL]
filename=bnroll
flags=125218
viewpoint=1
minimum_volume=6000
maximum_volume=9600
minimum_speed=3
maximum_speed=25
minimum_rate=0.80
maximum_rate=0.95
link=GROUND_ROLL1

[GROUND_ROLL1]
filename=bnroll2
flags=135380
viewpoint=1
link=GROUND_ROLL2

[GROUND_ROLL2]
filename=waterloop
flags=8
viewpoint=1
link=GROUND_ROLL3

[GROUND_ROLL3]
filename=xwaterloop
flags=8
viewpoint=2

There it is folks...the final word on adding water sounds to any aircraft or sound pack....and it was there all along in the stock C208 sound package...and thankfully we had Dogknot to show us the way.

OBIO
 
Thanks Tim! :ernae:

This is one of the things I really appreciate about the Outhouse; stuff like this that we'd never learn anywhere else!
 
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