XR2 Public Release Candidate Testing

[dbeachy1]

I should have seen this coming...Doug, I'm fairly certain you misinterpreted my post.

And...have a cookie.

If you really do apologize, please don't patronize me twice in the same post; once is quite enough.

Those are some sexy exhaust textures!

Yes, they're the best I've ever seen -- Steve is a genius!

Hey Doug, do you think you could add an option in the config file to enable or disable the particle effects?

Already in place, mate: there is a checkbox in the Orbiter launchpad under the ''Visual Effects" tab you can use to enable/disable particle effects.

Damn...have been out of town for work over the last few days...will get testing over the weekend. Sorry for my silence over the last week!

Cheers,

Cale

Welcome back!

 

[willy88]

It would be nice if the XR2 had custom thrust or cabin sounds (if it doesn't already). I don't think the default sounds would do it justice.

 

[Coolhand]

It has a new Scram sound effect that i created, its a bit different to the original, i added some extra modulated noise and tones and filtered it as if you were in a more heavily furnished cabin, so it's not quite as deafening as the XR1's shrieking scrams, more bassy and soothing. I was going to continue and totally redo all the sounds to make a unique audio environment for it, but i ran into some problems to do with orbitersound, so at this point it'll sound pretty much like the others but i had entirely new engine and RCS fx for it. Maybe i'll pick that up again sometime and try and resolve those issues.

 

[dbeachy1]

It would be nice if the XR2 had custom thrust or cabin sounds (if it doesn't already). I don't think the default sounds would do it justice.

I agree! And actually, Steve created new sound effects for the main engines and the SCRAM engines. Those new effects (and Steve's new exhaust textures) are Ravenstar-only and will not be in the next versions of the XR1 and XR5.

In addition, if any of you sound wizards out there come up with some custom sound effects, feel free to drop me a PM or email and I'll integrate them into the build and credit you in the docs. :speakcool:

 

[Coolhand]

what doug means is if any of you sound gurus would like to drop me a line and tell me how to get some of the ones i've already done to work properly...

 

[C3PO]

what doug means is if any of you sound gurus would like to drop me a line and tell me how to get some of the ones i've already done to work properly...

Do you have any idea what the problem is? What are the "symptoms"?

 

[dbeachy1]

For some reason the new RCS sounds that Steve created sounded great in Media Player but were really quiet in Orbiter -- so quiet that they were barely audible. It was weird... I really liked the new RCS effects, too!

 

[C3PO]

Can you send me an example? I'd like to have a looksee.

 

[eveningsky339]

Since Beta 1 is over, I can pose this question again.

Would it be unethical to kidnap an existing Beta member and pretend to be him or her in order to fly the XR-2? Usually it's wrong to kidnap people but I think this particular situation warrants it. :beach:

 

[willy88]

For some reason the new RCS sounds that Steve created sounded great in Media Player but were really quiet in Orbiter -- so quiet that they were barely audible. It was weird... I really liked the new RCS effects, too!

It could be that the RCS thrusters are too weak for the sound to be played at adequate volume, or maybe the sound itself is too quiet.

 

[Coolhand]

It could be that the RCS thrusters are too weak for the sound to be played at adequate volume, or maybe the sound itself is too quiet.

Why would they be really loud in one app, and quiet in another? they were plenty loud, compared to the others, you can even see how loud they are in the waveform, even when i boosted it way over peak they were quiet.

Btw Doug, i don't think the 'rocketmain.wav' that i made, thats in the ravenstar sound folder with the current build is actually being used in the sim. could you confirm that?

 

[C3PO]

Looking through the XR2's sound folder I noticed that the files have very different 'gain' settings. Most of them are set fairly low. (-6 dB)

'rocketmain.wav' however is badly distorted. Almost every wave is 'clipped'

What kind of editor are you guys using? Wavosaur is a nice freeware editor.

 

[dbeachy1]

Btw Doug, i don't think the 'rocketmain.wav' that i made, thats in the ravenstar sound folder with the current build is actually being used in the sim. could you confirm that?

Argh! You're right, mate! I forgot to add code to use the new engine sound. I'm adding it now; it will be in Beta-1c.

Looking through the XR2's sound folder I noticed that the files have very different 'gain' settings. Most of them are set fairly low. (-6 dB)

Yes, that's true. I did experiment with normalizing the callouts, but that resulted in very uneven volume levels for different callouts depending on the words being spoken because of the way different words peak. It surprised me, actually.

'rocketmain.wav' however is badly distorted. Almost every wave is 'clipped'

What kind of editor are you guys using? Wavosaur is a nice freeware editor.

Are you sure it's actually distorting? I am looking at it here in Cooledit, and although it does go to 100% it doesn't sound distorted to me. I don't know what editor Steve uses, but I use Cooledit and Nero Wav Editor.

 

[Coolhand]

I've had nothing to do with the other samples, i think they're mostly DG stock sounds. the distortion is intentional btw, its a very low bassy distortion. since it's a rocket engine and not a delicate piano concerto i think it works well. i prefer it over the standard effect, it's bassier, less scratchy, the old one is distorted too btw and my new effect is higher quality. There's just no way to make a satisfying rocket engine noise without distortion imho

Doug, cheers mate. BTW, are you using the RCS i made in the current beta? the RCS is nearly inaudible, i haven't noticed because due to complaints from mrs coolhand i've been testing with the audio off - wish there was a master vol in orbiter sound!

 

[dbeachy1]

Hmm...no, I'm not using the new RCS sound effects. Maybe OrbiterSound just plays the RCS effect at a lower volume rather than having a lower-gain wav file? That would explain why the new RCS effects are so quiet.

 

[Coolhand]

when i made them, the old and the new RCS was exactly the same volume though.

btw, whats happening now is XR2 specific, the XR1's rcs is fine.

 

[eveningsky339]

Perhaps I am consulting the wrong ethicists.

Does the XR2 have a similar scram ascent profile as the XR1 and XR5?

 

[Coolhand]

Are you sure it's actually distorting? I am looking at it here in Cooledit, and although it does go to 100% it doesn't sound distorted to me. I don't know what editor Steve uses, but I use Cooledit and Nero Wav Editor.

Missed that the first time, the reason why it works is because the sound is filtered, it only distorts on the low level sounds so its a very big warm noise the higher tones in the effect are quieter, it's a very careful mixture of layers of noise generators from software synths, fed through filters and boosters. Again though, if you want a rocket to sound loud, to have real room shaking presence, as it should, you need distortion... sometimes fellas, distortion is your friend, you just have to be careful how you control it.

btw, The 'editor' i use is called fruityloops, which despite the name is a very good music production tool - it's like the musical/audio equivalent of 3d studio or photoshop. It has lots of generators, soft synths, filters processors, samplers and sample edit tools and is great for combining sounds to create sound effects as well as music.

 

[dbeachy1]

when i made them, the old and the new RCS was exactly the same volume though.

btw, whats happening now is XR2 specific, the XR1's rcs is fine.

Hmm, that is odd -- from retesting here just now, the RCS sound effects sound exactly the same on the default DG and the XR2. 3PO, does the RCS sound different for you between the XR2 and the default DG? Something odd is going on...

Also, I have been testing the new main engine sound, but it also sounds really quiet in Orbiter even though it sounds normal outside of Orbiter. This is using the ReplaceStockSound3 API call in the OrbiterSound SDK. I suspect there is a bug in the ReplaceStockSound3 that doesn't set the volume based on the type of sound being replaced. For example, REPLACE_MAIN_THRUST should be at 100% volume, whereas REPLACE_COCKPIT_AMBIENCE_1 and most other sounds would be a much lower volume level. What I will do is write code to play the new engine sound manually and see how that works: my guess is that will fix the problem. This would also explain why the new SCRAM engine sound effects sound fine: I already play that sound manually.

Assuming this works I can also write code to play the RCS sounds manually as well, so don't give up hope on the new sounds just yet.

 

[Coolhand]

hmm, that might be the problem now... but what i was doing to test them was to simply replace the existing sound... i think that was how you tested the RCS sound too, when i first mentioned the problem, months and months ago and you confirmed it. I don't see how that bug is affecting a 1 to 1 replacement... the rocket effect i made played just fine with that method, i remember that being nice and loud, it was just the RCS that was quiet. I still think it's perhaps something to do with bitrate or something thats actually not related to volume directly. Did you ever try saving it out in from your editor with a lower bitrate or something?