CFS3 ETO Questions

[grover1]

Hi all,

I'm finally back in the saddle with ETO 1.50. Been a very busy and hectic six months for me since I last played ETO.

I've got several questions I'm hoping some of you can answer:

1) Is it possible to add bullet impact sounds? Specifically when a bullet or cannon round strikes water or ground?
I know they did it with WOTR/WOFF and I'm wondering if anyone has ported over those sounds or done something similar.
If so, what would the sounds.xml and guns xdp files entries be?

2) Does anyone know if it's at all possible to port over the WOTR/WOFF mist effects into ETO?
Again, I'm assuming it's possible as as WOFF/WOTR is based on the CFS3 engine.
I'm assuming it would be linked to the effects.xml and d3d8.dll and d3d8.ini files.

3) Has anyone ever added ambient sounds to airfields like birds chirping, troops marching, and so on?
I recall somewhere years ago that someone has, but I can't remember who.

4) Has anyone used WOFF/WOTR's searchlight or other effects with ETO 1.50 or any other install?
Again, I'm thinking it's possible based on WOFF/WOTR using the CFS3 engine.
I'm assuming you would set them up through d3d8.dll and the respective .ini
Same as with the texturemagic.ini files.

5) Would it be possible to add WOTR's Stuka siren sounds to the ETO Stukas as they make their dive bombing runs?
Again, I'm assuming it's possible. But, my concern is how would I link those sounds to the ETO Stukas?
It would really add to the immersion factor if we could add in those sirens as Stukas dive bomb something.

6) Has anyone found a way to convert .m3d files to gmax files?
I'd love to add damage boxes to canopies and all that on Battle of Britain airplanes.
Specifically adding bullet holes or other effects?

I'm assuming if we can port over the terrains and assets from WOFF/WOTR, we should be able to port over other effects and sounds from WOFF/WOTR.
CFS3 ETO is already fantastic, but I'm always looking for ways to improve the game and increase the immersion factor!

Thanks!

Chris

[mongoose]

@#3. Clive did that. I have somewhere.

@#1 you want to hear that when in an aircraft ?

@#6 IIRC; no.

re others and WOTR, I suggest you experiment!

[MajorMagee]

For #1 I did some of that in the all in one effects.xml. It was a bit tricky getting the balance right so you would only hear them when you were very close to the impacts.

[grover1]

For #1 I did some of that in the all in one effects.xml. It was a bit tricky getting the balance right so you would only hear them when you were very close to the impacts.

Been looking for those lines in that effects.xml file. Would you mind pointing me in the right direction?

[MajorMagee]

I had to go back to our development e-mails from over a year ago.

It seems to be controlled by the sounds.xml:

<bullet Random="Yes" MinDistance="25" Looping="No" class="Damage">
<sound file="bulletby01.wav"/>
<sound file="bulletby02.wav"/>
<sound file="bulletby03.wav"/>
<sound file="bulletby04.wav"/>
<sound file="bulletby05.wav"/>
<sound file="bulletby06.wav"/>
</bullet>
<bullet_impact Random="Yes" MinDistance="100" looping="No" class="Damage">
<sound file="xbullethit01.wav"/>
<sound file="xbullethit02.wav"/>
<sound file="xbullethit03.wav"/>
<sound file="xbullethit04.wav"/>
<sound file="xbulletby01.wav"/>
<sound file="xbulletby02.wav"/>
<sound file="xbulletby03.wav"/>
<sound file="xbulletby04.wav"/>
<sound file="xbulletby05.wav"/>
<sound file="xbulletby06.wav"/>
</bullet_impact>

It took me a while to understand the circumstances that make this happen.

The weapons ExplodeEffect="fx_bltpln_m" entry


calls for


<fx_bltpln_m ClassName="GroupEffect" Effect0="SmokeTrail_Bullet_burst_l1" Effect1="Air_Bullet_sparks_L1" Effect2="Air_Bullet_firball_M1" Effect3="DebrisAir_cannon_Med" Effect4="DebrisAir_LRG1_small" Effect5="DebrisAir_LRG2_small" Effect6="Air_Bullet_sparks_L2" Effect7="Air_Bullet_sparks_L3" Effect8="DebrisAir_LRG1a_Small" Effect9="A_Smoke_puff_small1" Effect10="Light_mghit_s" Effect11="snd_blt_hit" Effect12="G_Heave_bullet"/>


that uses


<snd_blt_hit ClassName="SoundEffect" Sound="impact" InitialDelay="1" MinDistance="1" MaxDistance="100" Volume="100" Loop="0" OneShot="1"/>


Bullets striking the ground, trees, most buildings, or water do not trigger the Explode effect, only the ones striking objects that can take damage.


I tried making the max distance small as you suggested, but it made no difference.


I looked at my original effects.xml and for most of the installs the snd_blt_hit entry is not there at all, but it is in the Firepower and plain vanilla CFS3 ones. In your original merged and sorted it's there but the fx entries that called for it have it commented it out as *snd_blt_hit. Perhaps this has been an unresolved problem for a long time.


The root cause seems to be with the Impact sound effect in the sounds.xml. Specifically the bullethit01.wav through bullethit04.wav entries.


I created a new section for the sounds.xml


<bullet_impact Random="Yes" MinDistance="100" looping="No" class="Damage">
<sound file="xbullethit01.wav"/>
<sound file="xbullethit02.wav"/>
<sound file="xbullethit03.wav"/>
<sound file="xbullethit04.wav"/>
<sound file="xbulletby01.wav"/>
<sound file="xbulletby02.wav"/>
<sound file="xbulletby03.wav"/>
<sound file="xbulletby04.wav"/>
<sound file="xbulletby05.wav"/>
<sound file="xbulletby06.wav"/>
</bullet_impact>


that can be placed immediately following the original Impact entry.


This is a mixture of random impact and ricochet sounds that starts about 100m away and gets louder as you approach.





Then the effects.xml sound entries become


<snd_blt_hit ClassName="SoundEffect" Sound="bullet_impact" InitialDelay="1" MinDistance="1" MaxDistance="100" Volume="100" Loop="0" OneShot="1"/>
<snd_blt_hit ClassName="SoundEffect" Sound="bullet_impact" InitialDelay="1" MinDistance="1" MaxDistance="100" Volume="100" Loop="0" OneShot="1"/>
<snd_cannon_gnd_hit1 ClassName="SoundEffect" Sound="bullet_impact" InitialDelay="1" MinDistance="1" MaxDistance="5000" Volume="15" Loop="0" OneShot="1"/>
<snd_cannon_gnd_hit2 ClassName="SoundEffect" Sound="bullet_impact" InitialDelay="1" MinDistance="1" MaxDistance="5000" Volume="100" Loop="0" OneShot="1"/>
<snd_cannon_hit1 ClassName="SoundEffect" Sound="bullet_impact" InitialDelay="1" MinDistance="1" MaxDistance="5000" Volume="100" Loop="0" OneShot="1"/>
<snd_cannon_hit2 ClassName="SoundEffect" Sound="bullet_impact" InitialDelay="1" MinDistance="1" MaxDistance="5000" Volume="50" Loop="0" OneShot="1"/>







I attached the sounds.xml from my ETO install, and it may not be correct for other installs or if new aircraft specific sounds were added to your versions. It's just so you can see where I inserted the new sound effect.





Andy

also

<!-- Revised Flak Environment --> <flak Random="Yes" MinDistance="400" Looping="No" Static="Yes" Atten="2">
<sound file="flak.wav"/>
<sound file="flak1.wav"/>
<sound file="flak2.wav"/>
<sound file="flak3.wav"/>
<sound file="flak4.wav"/>
<sound file="flak5.wav"/>
<sound file="flak6.wav"/>
<sound file="flak7.wav"/>
<sound file="flak8.wav"/>
<sound file="flak9.wav"/>
<sound file="flak10.wav"/>
<sound file="flak_general.wav"/>
</flak>



Like what we found with the bullet_impact sounds setting the MinDistance with no MaxDistance seems to determine how far out you start to hear the effect, and the sound grows in loudness as you get closer to it. The attenuation term seems to help with enhancing the fall-off with distance. For a sky full of flak this sounds pretty good with a nice mix of volumes.







This version gives you audible explosions out to 1/4 mile, which from personal experience with artillery landing nearby is about right. Actually you can hear it from a lot farther away than that, but it starts to become more like background noise than distinct events you pay attention too. The game really doesn't account for the flash-to-bang time that at 1/4 mile would be slightly over 1 sec, but we can't have everything now can we?