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    Default Car Sounds

    I was messing with a couple of different cars this morning (new downloads I was testing out) and noticed different sounds coming from them while running. I had a string of about 10 boxcars, all of which appeared to have the stupid default squeak sound. On the end I had the Seaboard Crane from the A Line and I noticed it had a nice sound- -a deep boom that appeared to happen randomly like the squeak of the other cars. I liked that sound better than the squeak, so that got me digging around in the sms files in an attempt to associate other cars with the booming sound. I noticed that part of the crane car points to GenPassWagModern.sms while another part points to genpasswagsteam.sms. So I opened both of those, but found no sound pointing to the squeak or boom. I ended up opening the sound folder and playing a bunch of the sounds in there, but I couldn't find the boom or the squeak (it should be noted that I didn't play all of the sounds). Did I just miss these sounds in there, or are they found someplace else? Also, the sms files point to other sounds which I never hear in the game. Do these sounds get played and I'm just missing them, or what?

    One thing I did notice was that there are LOTS of cool sounds in the sound folder. Joints being hit at different speeds, screeching of heavy loads going around sharp curves, and various booming, thumping, and creaking of cars. How in the heck do I get these sounds to play with the cars? I figure some of them are associated with the track (which is COOL, I think. Being able to associate a joint sound with one spot on the track and screeching of heavy loads going around a sharp curve with a different point of the track is ingenious. It just appears that nobody from MS/Kuju carried through with the idea and actually associated the sounds with any place on the track! I'm sure not hearing any of them, anyway.) Others appear to be associated with the cars themselves, i.e. uncoupling sounds, and the various boomings, screechings, and thumpings. How do we get these sounds to work, or do we? Up to this point I've mostly been working on the eye candy part of this game, but the EAR candy is beginning to interest me more.

    Clayton



    #2
    RE: Default Car Sounds

    [font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON May-26-02 AT 12:22PM (EDT)[/font][p]After doing considerable browsing in the various folders which contain "*.wav" files, I have found the apparently random clicks, creaks and booms are just that. In the sim directory "TRAINS\TRAINSET", each car and engine has its own folder, containing its respective "*.wag" or "*.eng" files which are viewable in "WordPad". For example, the "USCHEMICAR" folder has "us2chemicar.wag", which includes a pointer:

    Sound ( "GenFreightWag2.sms" )

    I used the "find" function in WindowsExplorer to search the "MSTrnSim" directory and subdirectories, which led me to that file (and others like it) located in the main directory "Sound". (That seems reasonable.) This directory contains all of the generic "*.sms" and "*.wav" files used to generate sounds for the sim, regardless of what continent, etc., the 'game' is running on. Although pretty thick with programmer language, the various files do reveal the source of the sounds which get played when that unit is running. Each of the engine folders includes a subdirectory, "Sound", which contains "*.wav" and "*.sms" files. The "*.wav" files, as you have found, can be played; the "*.sms" files contain additional instructions, which indicate when and how specific sounds are generated. In some of these files are controls which allow you to modify the volume of the specific sounds, as follows:

    Volume_Min_Max ( 0.5 1.0 ) can be changed to ( 0.1 0.5 ) ;

    which significantly lowers the volume of that particular sound whenever it is played. Unfortunately, you can't increase the volume past "1.0", i.e., 100%. However, among other things, I was not real happy with the volume balance of certain sounds, such as the weak engine sound in the cab of the Dash9, or the excessively loud compressor sound, or the unrealistically loud track noises, in general. Guess what; its all adjustable.

    The other day, someone suggested you might be able to increase the volume of the diesel sound in the Dash9 cab by copying it and re-recording it, at a higher volume, somehow. Well, last night I found the somehow. I have Creative Labs "SoundblasterLiveValue" on my PC. Included with this package is a lovely sound editor which allows you to open a "*.wav" file, among others, and raise or lower the volume of that particular recording, using a slider which shows you the percentage of the volume your result will be. Once you have used this, all subsequent files can be altered by the same process without having to reset the slider, until you want a different result. This feature permitted me to raise the volume of all of the Dash9 diesel sounds (in the cab and external) to 123% of the original (a net increase of 23%) without changing any of the balance. Then, I raised the top three notches progressively, such that at full throttle, it really POUNDS. Having also lowered both compressor and generic track noise, I achieved significant improvement. Its still not TrainMaster quality, but I'll take it. Ain't life grand!

    I'm a new member and contributor, but I've been hacking at this by myself since the sim came out (well, almost). I hope this helps you out. Next, I plan to use my newly discovered sound editor to modify the texture of specific sounds, e.g., I would like to add a little 'vibrating sheet metal' to the engine sounds. I will post more, when I know more.

    James
    jwtitus@dslextreme.com

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      #3
      RE: Default Car Sounds

      There are many good ways to edit wav files. CoolEdit is pretty good too. It's what I prefer.

      Keep in mind that the Dash9 is supposed to be that quiet. Many have an isolated cab that prevents engine noise/vibration from reaching the cabin.

      [Link Expired]
      Pete Willard

      http://www.railsimstuff.com
      Just Blender now, 3DCrafter only when I have to.
      formerly The Keystone Works (All Permissions Granted)
      https://github.com/pwillard/MSTS-replacement
      sigpic

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        #4
        RE: Default Car Sounds

        Pete,
        I thought about that, but to my ear the overall balance between engine presence and track sounds was plain out of whack. My tweak didn't make a "loud" engine sound but rebalanced the sound such that the random track sound is well below the primary sound which is the engine.

        I acknowledge never having been inside a Dash9; however, I sat in the dark on a "PFE" ice dock many nights waiting while a 100+ car "fruit" train pulled in to be iced. I will never forget the presence of what were then new engines. I worked out of Yuma, Colton and Fresno, one summer between college terms, the last year before the mechanical refrigerator cars replaced all of the older ice cooled "reefers" (1964, I think).

        Now my sim engines are audible from a distance, such that I can cearly hear throttle and dynamic brake changes, from the rear of my 60-car test consist. Besides, my suggestion is for those of us who want to be able to make changes, for better or worse, just to see what improvements, if any, may result. Thanks for the tip, though.

        James - Busy fixing what's broke and breaking what's not.
        jwtitus@dslextreme.com

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