Friday Facts #341 - Audio, Artillery, Attenuation

[conn11]

Large artillery pieces usually (exclusively?) use bag charges.

Typically yes, but this is the benefit of a not overtly realistic setup.
A hypothetical more potent chemical propellant could be used, even for lager caliber pieces. Therefore shelled projectiles could enable a better heat management useful for repeated shelling of pescy local beatles.

[Diablo]

And our old robot sounds have come back as additions.

Thank you.

[AndrewIRL]

Therefore shelled projectiles could enable a better heat management

Real world heat management is better with shelled projectiles, that's true, but heat management isn't important for a

not overtly realistic setup.

[bobucles]

Not gonna lie, the old robot sounds were pretty damn cute.

[conn11]

Real world heat management is better with shelled projectiles, that's true, but heat management isn't important for a

not overtly realistic setup.

True, true leaving the matter largely to artistic choice. Of which, IMHO, the updated artillery turret sound, is pretty nice.
As for shelled artillery, typically modern naval guns up to 127mm do have cartridges.

[AndrewIRL]

As for shelled artillery, typically modern naval guns up to 127mm do have cartridges.

Nice video, very clearly shows the empties being ejected, bigger than I thought. Also it looks like they water cool some of the guns in the later part of the video, didn't know that was a thing.

[plepper1]

Great update!

That would be cool. Plenty of times in multiplayer I've been shelled, be cool to hear the whistle.

You never hear the one that gets you!

[RinDiddy]

On the topic of audio there is one feature that I never understood. Why does the volume change based on your zoom distance? I always pretend as though I am the character and not a sound/camera man in a chopper. Perhaps some people like it the way it is. An option to enable/disable this would be nice. I always found myself turning the volume up because most of the time I am zoomed out. Then I zoom in an everything gets loud.

[DoubleThought]

Though you are the character, having the visual and audio parts clash tends to be very disorienting. For example, sounds to the left of the screen come out in the left ear of your headphones (if you have them), even if they are on the right side of the character (the character is facing south). I've experimented with avatar-centric sounds, with sounds following the character's perspective rather than the viewpoint of the player, and it's never worked out well. The zoom distance thing is an extension of this concept. Zooming out is analogous to moving the player's perspective away from the surface of the world, so it's reasonable for the sound to also soften.

Think of it this way: we don't see Nauvis and the factory from the perspective of the Engineer, and likewise, we don't hear Nauvis and the factory from the perspective of the engineer.

[BattleFluffy]

Why does the volume change based on your zoom distance? I always pretend as though I am the character and not a sound/camera man in a chopper.

Zooming out is analogous to moving the player's perspective away from the surface of the world, so it's reasonable for the sound to also soften.

Changing the volume might not be the best way to do it though. If you have music playing, a change in volume can either drown out the music, or be drowned out by it.

A low-pass filter might be better. This low-pass filter effect is already used when viewing things on the map via radar. The same thing could be used - perhaps a more subtle version - for zoom. The zoom level could be tied to the frequency of the filter.

Then the volume would stay consistent, but we still have a sense of the audio becoming more distant as we zoom further out.

[Asterix]

Audio, Artillery, Attenuation. Now that's a Triple-A title.

...I'll see myself out