Author Topic: FMOD users Q&A thread  (Read 4555 times)

Offline Chalenge

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Re: FMOD users Q&A thread
« Reply #30 on: September 25, 2016, 07:00:21 AM »
I have been looking for that myself (explanations of the ribbons).

To get the information that I have I spoken with Hitech on the phone for about half-an-hour. I had more questions, but they are very busy and I didn't want to waste their time.

I think you need to start over from scratch and go through Hitech's notes step-by-step.

As to the Tags that you have in that last Window? Double-click the tag. I just pasted a sample to the entire Window, but I am going to try making each tag a reference to the original sample, and then use the volume and pitch modifiers to add a changing cadence. I did that with the 30mm and added a sample of the shell casing rattling down the ejection chute for the Me163. It's not perfect, because I was not able to modify the position of the original start tag. I think once I figure that out, then every thing else will be easier (and more functional).

Today I am working on vehicle engines, and tracks, and trying to figure out the surface dependency.
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Offline 8thJinx

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Re: FMOD users Q&A thread
« Reply #31 on: September 25, 2016, 02:06:42 PM »
Chalenge, I shelled for an FMOD training course.  I'll be taking it over the next few days.
Join Date: Nov 2012

B-24H Liberator SN 294837-T, "The Jinx", 848th BS, 490th BG, 8th AF, RAF Station Eye, delivered 1943.  Piloted by Lt. Thomas Keyes, named by by his crew, and adorned with bad luck symbols, the aircraft survived the entire war.

Offline Chalenge

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Re: FMOD users Q&A thread
« Reply #32 on: September 25, 2016, 02:29:59 PM »
Uh, you paid $1400 for their course? That doesn't seem practical.

(EDIT) Well, I see you can take the 101 course for less. I would have exhausted the Help Manual before I paid even the $500.
« Last Edit: September 25, 2016, 02:35:00 PM by Chalenge »
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Offline 8thJinx

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Re: FMOD users Q&A thread
« Reply #33 on: September 25, 2016, 02:41:01 PM »
Uh, you paid $1400 for their course? That doesn't seem practical.

(EDIT) Well, I see you can take the 101 course for less. I would have exhausted the Help Manual before I paid even the $500.

Yes, I'm taking the 101 course, not the Sound Library course.  The 101 course has a ton of info.
Join Date: Nov 2012

B-24H Liberator SN 294837-T, "The Jinx", 848th BS, 490th BG, 8th AF, RAF Station Eye, delivered 1943.  Piloted by Lt. Thomas Keyes, named by by his crew, and adorned with bad luck symbols, the aircraft survived the entire war.

Offline 8thJinx

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Re: FMOD users Q&A thread
« Reply #34 on: September 25, 2016, 02:41:55 PM »
Chalenge, the white, blue, and green markers in the upper ribbon (known as the Logic Track) are called:

White - simple markers, just for reference (i.e. notes).
Blue - loop regions where the sound is looped for as long as a parameter is met.
Green - transition points, which flag the execution of the sound event between the ends of the green marker, based on the value of the parameter involved. The parameter is shown in the lower parameter field if you click on the green marker. 

So in the last image I posted, with the green "To Tail", "To Start", and "Start" markers, the event's logic - as written - says the sound plays whenever the "To Tail" parameter condition is met, whenever the "Start" parameter condition is met, etc, etc.  Pretty neat way of doing it.  I was looking at the whole sound track bar as a linear player, with moving cursor being equal to a play head.  That is not at all how you are supposed to look at it.  It's a program, defining what's to be done with the sound file based on the value state of the parameters. 
Join Date: Nov 2012

B-24H Liberator SN 294837-T, "The Jinx", 848th BS, 490th BG, 8th AF, RAF Station Eye, delivered 1943.  Piloted by Lt. Thomas Keyes, named by by his crew, and adorned with bad luck symbols, the aircraft survived the entire war.

Offline Chalenge

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Re: FMOD users Q&A thread
« Reply #35 on: September 25, 2016, 03:13:12 PM »
Yeah, that much I had figured out, but I don't yet know how to set the logic, or move the simple markers (maybe all you can do is create them, or delete them). Also, does each field have a sample, or is it all one continuous sample? It's still a valid question even knowing that once the program state of "no longer playing" is met (running ends, or is below the .50 mark) that it plays the tail sample. When you double-click those areas it opens up. Why? Can you insert a new sample to each one?

Anyway, I'm just putting into place the various rpm states for the engine and exhaust. I have a few things going around in my head concerning tracks getting shot off while moving, surface types, suspension samples, and it just goes on from there.

Hopefully, Waffle will find some time this week to share more.
If you like the Sick Puppy Custom Sound Pack the please consider contributing for future updates by sending a months dues to Hitech Creations for account "Chalenge." Every little bit helps.

Offline 8thJinx

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Re: FMOD users Q&A thread
« Reply #36 on: September 25, 2016, 03:36:38 PM »
Yeah, that much I had figured out, but I don't yet know how to set the logic, or move the simple markers (maybe all you can do is create them, or delete them). Also, does each field have a sample, or is it all one continuous sample? It's still a valid question even knowing that once the program state of "no longer playing" is met (running ends, or is below the .50 mark) that it plays the tail sample. When you double-click those areas it opens up. Why? Can you insert a new sample to each one?

Anyway, I'm just putting into place the various rpm states for the engine and exhaust. I have a few things going around in my head concerning tracks getting shot off while moving, surface types, suspension samples, and it just goes on from there.

Hopefully, Waffle will find some time this week to share more.

Does each field have a sample, or is it all one continuous sample?
You mean the darker blue field beneath the logic track boundaries that got copied over from HTCEvents?  To see what it does, just highlight that box in the track, then down below you'll see an empty field that says something like "Drop sound asset here." Then just drag a wav asset from Assets into that spot, and the track field above will populate with the sound.  That's the easiest way I found to do it.  But the length of the event doesn't always match up.  It seems like a track row that lacks a valid wav file asset will default to some length of about 3.5 seconds.  Example: I set up the 20 mm burst, dragged my wav file in, assigned the right bank, built it, but when I started the game, the 20mm sound kept going boom-boom-boom long after I let off the trigger.  So I shortened that wav asset field in the track to a much shorter length, and now it works great.  But again, I don't know yet that this is the correct way.  I just know that I got it to work.

Did you see that you could modulate the sound level by distance over multiple events, just by highlighting a bunch of events?  I was able to turn down the volume of the planes flying overhead by doing this.

Also, to set the logic, you right click in the Logic Track field.  The 2-hour FMOD Studio 101 training video series was only $25 on Macprovideo.com (well, at least only $25/month), and it explained in detail how to set the logic and parameter values. But you need to actually know the names of the parameters that the game uses, and the range of the values (0 to 1, 0 to 10,000, etc) in order for the sound to work.  To me, it looks like all of the available parameters and values are baked into the HTCEvents file.  We just need to populate that out for each vehicle or effect.

And I did finally get the 20 mm burst effect to work.  I didn't have the correct Bank names set up. 

Haven't started on engines yet, though.  You're way ahead of me.  But at least now I know how the process works, so I'll try to catch up some.   
 
« Last Edit: September 25, 2016, 03:43:10 PM by 8thJinx »
Join Date: Nov 2012

B-24H Liberator SN 294837-T, "The Jinx", 848th BS, 490th BG, 8th AF, RAF Station Eye, delivered 1943.  Piloted by Lt. Thomas Keyes, named by by his crew, and adorned with bad luck symbols, the aircraft survived the entire war.

Offline 8thJinx

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Re: FMOD users Q&A thread
« Reply #37 on: September 25, 2016, 03:54:09 PM »
Also, I thought I posted this, but I recall you saying you wanted to add the sound effect of the shell casing rattling through the chute, right?  After each round was fired?  What I would do is append the wav file file of the round firing with the shell sound at the end, outside of FMOD.  I suppose you could just drop the shell casing wav file right after the round burst wav file in the track line, but I haven't tried that yet.  But by now my guess is you already have that figured out.
Join Date: Nov 2012

B-24H Liberator SN 294837-T, "The Jinx", 848th BS, 490th BG, 8th AF, RAF Station Eye, delivered 1943.  Piloted by Lt. Thomas Keyes, named by by his crew, and adorned with bad luck symbols, the aircraft survived the entire war.

Offline Chalenge

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Re: FMOD users Q&A thread
« Reply #38 on: September 25, 2016, 04:00:19 PM »
Does each field have a sample, or is it all one continuous sample?
You mean the darker blue field beneath the logic track boundaries that got copied over from HTCEvents?  To see what it does, just highlight that box in the track, then down below you'll see an empty field that says something like "Drop sound asset here." Then just drag a wav asset from Assets into that spot, and the track field above will populate with the sound.  That's the easiest way I found to do it.  But the length of the event doesn't always match up.  It seems like a track row that lacks a valid wav file asset will default to some length of about 3.5 seconds.  Example: I set up the 20 mm burst, dragged my wav file in, assigned the right bank, built it, but when I started the game, the 20mm sound kept going boom-boom-boom long after I let off the trigger.  So I shortened that wav asset field in the track to a much shorter length, and now it works great.  But again, I don't know yet that this is the correct way.  I just know that I got it to work.

This much I got working. But I think when I can get back to playing with it I will know more. Thank you for sharing, anyway.

I think Hitech said that external sounds for distance are fixed, so probably (not sure) even if you change them they will not work in the game that way.

I can tell you that 'Running' is a range from 0 to 1. If it is something like rapid fire then any value above 0.5 will be rapid fire and anything lower will be single shot. For things like surface that have five values, it will probably be broken up into values between 0 and 0.2, 0.21 and 0.4, 0.41 and 0.6, and so on. Throttle will probably be between 0 and 1.5, with 1.0 being full military, and anything above 1.0 being WEP. RPM levels will be, . . . well you can check the airplane for their operating ranges, and the same for speed (MPH).

I'll check the Macprovideo site I guess.

Quote
Also, I thought I posted this, but I recall you saying you wanted to add the sound effect of the shell casing rattling through the chute, right?  After each round was fired?  What I would do is append the wav file file of the round firing with the shell sound at the end, outside of FMOD.  I suppose you could just drop the shell casing wav file right after the round burst wav file in the track line, but I haven't tried that yet.  But by now my guess is you already have that figured out.

Yes, what you said is what I have already accomplished, but now I want to do it another way, so that the polyphony system can make it more random.
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Offline 8thJinx

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Re: FMOD users Q&A thread
« Reply #39 on: September 25, 2016, 04:15:11 PM »

I think Hitech said that external sounds for distance are fixed, so probably (not sure) even if you change them they will not work in the game that way.



I actually got really worried for a few minutes before I read this post:  someone lacking scruples could turn down the engine and wind sounds to zero, and basically fly over GV's and listen to them roll through the trees. 
Join Date: Nov 2012

B-24H Liberator SN 294837-T, "The Jinx", 848th BS, 490th BG, 8th AF, RAF Station Eye, delivered 1943.  Piloted by Lt. Thomas Keyes, named by by his crew, and adorned with bad luck symbols, the aircraft survived the entire war.

Offline Chalenge

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Re: FMOD users Q&A thread
« Reply #40 on: September 25, 2016, 04:29:51 PM »
Maybe there is a way for Hitech to only allow 'official' packs to be loaded? Don't know.
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Offline Chalenge

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Re: FMOD users Q&A thread
« Reply #41 on: September 25, 2016, 04:33:11 PM »
Just got an email from my school advisor. They will be adding FMOD Studio 101 to our course access this coming quarter.
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Offline Chalenge

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Re: FMOD users Q&A thread
« Reply #42 on: September 26, 2016, 11:31:04 AM »
I have moved the track/tread loop out of "move" and into the "engine" loop as a second logical track. I may do the same with the idler and volute springs for the suspension, but with some silent regions added so that the polyphony isn't quite so obvious. This seems to work well.
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Offline 8thJinx

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Re: FMOD users Q&A thread
« Reply #43 on: September 26, 2016, 12:33:11 PM »
Hey that's cool.  I guess there's a way to turn down the track sound real low with low or zero rpm, then ramp it up, all the while giving it randomness?  I bet you could do some cool things with a damaged plane engine too.  Do you know if there's a health parameter for a wounded pilot?
Join Date: Nov 2012

B-24H Liberator SN 294837-T, "The Jinx", 848th BS, 490th BG, 8th AF, RAF Station Eye, delivered 1943.  Piloted by Lt. Thomas Keyes, named by by his crew, and adorned with bad luck symbols, the aircraft survived the entire war.

Offline Chalenge

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Re: FMOD users Q&A thread
« Reply #44 on: September 26, 2016, 12:42:19 PM »
What I did was record the tracks and then modify the tempo so that I have a handful of rpm levels, same as the engines and wheels. Then as the tank speed up the engine keeps pace from idle on up, but the track, or tread has to get it into gear quicker. I'm not sure that this is going to work, because the engine can idle at 850 rpm and nothing moves, but the tracks have a zero rpm idle. I will have to read up more on that.

Nothing on pilot wounds, except there are two states. One light hit and one hard hit.

(EDIT): DOH! Just offset the track sample to the right for a delayed start and shorten the region. Simple answer.
« Last Edit: September 26, 2016, 03:29:26 PM by Chalenge »
If you like the Sick Puppy Custom Sound Pack the please consider contributing for future updates by sending a months dues to Hitech Creations for account "Chalenge." Every little bit helps.