feature request: specific sounds for certain traps

Made a pack that makes Armagetron sound like a rock concert? Hook us up!
Word
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feature request: specific sounds for certain traps

Post by Word »

I'm going to add a detailed description later, here's a video I quickly put together. Yes, it's crappy...and the idea is probably unrealistic, but I didn't like to withheld it. Thanks to vov for helping me to get this finished fast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6b9kGUnJp0
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sinewav
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Re: feature request: specific sounds for certain traps

Post by sinewav »

I'm sorry Word, but this is pretty stupid. Now, I know there is room to assign different sounds to events like "team kill" and "suicide", but you want Arma to keep track of the number and timing of turns you make, and the position of other players, and decide a sound event for each situation? There are just too many possibilities and I hardly think it would be useful to anyone.
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Re: feature request: specific sounds for certain traps

Post by Zimblunk »

From a player's perspective, that idea sounds awesome. And the video was hilarious!

From a programmer's perspective, implementing this would be a nightmare. :P
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Re: feature request: specific sounds for certain traps

Post by Word »

sinewav wrote:I'm sorry Word, but this is pretty stupid. Now, I know there is room to assign different sounds to events like "team kill" and "suicide", but you want Arma to keep track of the number and timing of turns you make, and the position of other players, and decide a sound event for each situation? There are just too many possibilities and I hardly think it would be useful to anyone.

OK, I didn't add a description yet because it was 3 AM when the video was finally uploaded, so here goes:

The point of this isn't to be "useful" like the sounds we have, which notify you if an enemy comes near or explodes, and let you estimate someone's speed. I'd like to keep those, I just don't play with them. That's the only reason they aren't in the video. I also don't want an extra sound for every single variation there is - no hard drive would be large enough for that. I just thought of general situations, like the following ones, where it's easier (at least I thought that) to recognize what a player is going to do and to fade out the sound at any time. Rather, they just make players reflect what they just did and are part of the atmosphere. I think it could enrich the experience.

I wouldn't decide if a player should hear his own as well as everyone else's sounds, or just his own ones, or only the ones that are on his screen. That would need testing. I also wouldn't use any of the sounds that I've put in the video. None of that sounds really like Tron.



(And how does Arma work without keeping track of the players' positions?)
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Z-Man
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Re: feature request: specific sounds for certain traps

Post by Z-Man »

How would one distinguish between A, E and F at the time the sound is supposed to start?
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Re: feature request: specific sounds for certain traps

Post by Word »

A: An oppoent is following you, you are clearly ahead and can box him. If you turn a little more after already having made a box, the sound is activated.

E: You are about to finish the first "square" of a spiral, you're going further inside, and the distance between your cycle and trail gets bigger and bigger. Sound is faded out as you go back or get closer to the "older" parts of your trail.

F: You are outside or inside of a half-open box, but you don't leave a narrow radius around the trail end. Sound is faded out as you go back or leave this radius in any way.
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sinewav
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Re: feature request: specific sounds for certain traps

Post by sinewav »

Hmph. Now wait a second, there might be a compromise in here somewhere. Arma knows whose walls you are drawing influence from with the CYCLE_ACCEL family of settings. The only thing I can imagine is somehow creating a sound event for each influence (enemy, rim, self, slingshot, team, tunnel). Though I'm imagining some harmonics that get added to the engine sound, not something unique and crazy like in that video. That might give the user some useful feedback, especially since ACCEL and WALL_NEAR play a part in ENEMY_CURRENTTIME_INFLUENCE, right? The user would be able to guess a little better how his death would register. Am I wrong? I don't know the details.
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Re: feature request: specific sounds for certain traps

Post by Word »

Though I'm imagining some harmonics that get added to the engine sound, not something unique and crazy like in that video.
Yes, I just don't happen to have a synthesizer at home. :P
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Re: feature request: specific sounds for certain traps

Post by nux »

Word wrote:to recognize what a player is going to do
Theres the problem.
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Re: feature request: specific sounds for certain traps

Post by Word »

Would you care to elaborate?

.......................................
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Re: feature request: specific sounds for certain traps

Post by nux »

You just cant successfully predict what a player will do. Theres just no (viable) chance.

ninja edit: added (viable)
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Re: feature request: specific sounds for certain traps

Post by Word »

Well, it's not impossible to predict an action while 1/3 of it is finished.
I'm unable to translate this to mathematical language but here's another image to help me to describe what I meant with that.

As I imagine it, Armagetron would need to know a number of patterns (the black path in the image is an example) and then arbitrate if the player sticks to this route or not, and classify the divergences from that path (no sound = not sticking to the path, sound = following it). Here you already have more than half of the pattern completed so it's obvious what the player is going to do/try next. If he doesn't, the sound that slowly faded in just fades out again.

Maybe Z-Man or someone else have a better idea though.


(in the situation shown in the image you'd also need to differ between outside and inside player)
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Phytotron
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Re: feature request: specific sounds for certain traps

Post by Phytotron »

Traps? What? You're either in an inescapable box or you're not. You either get cut off by a wall or you don't.
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Re: feature request: specific sounds for certain traps

Post by Word »

Yeah but most of this is about your way before you get cut off or escape (except conquering zones), the processes of getting there. The title is probably misleading, because I included other stuff like mazing etc.

I don't disagree - in situation C you have no rubber left, the exits are closed and it's clear that you die because the walls around you won't go away in time. There are more such situations I suppose. The others I have categorized offer one or more exits and possible alternative outcomes, but I thought it was still possible to determine there if a sound can be played at a certain time.
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Re: feature request: specific sounds for certain traps

Post by Lucifer »

Ok, so, a spammer brought this thread to my attention, but while reading it, I have to admit finding it amusing.

First, there's a basis for this sort of thing. Mortal Kombat's infamous "Finish him!" voice being the one that comes to mind. In Borderlands, the various targets say different things depending on the situation. So, the request, at the heart of it, is pretty reasonable, and last I checked, was on the list of sound effects to make (all the obvious ones, of course, which also includes things like "Your zone has been compromised" and "Quit camping!" and stuff like that, which could be sound effects instead of voices).

Second, I actually proposed a musical version of this some time ago, where the game would try to determine the way the round was going and select music based on that. Again, there's something of a history of this sort of thing in other games, but I proposed something really advanced that would mix various tracks in realtime to generate the overall music track. It's an awesome idea, but would ultimately hit the same problem as Word's suggestion, and also requires a great deal of CPU time to do the mixing, which would take CPU time away from the game.

The problem: How does the game tell what's going on? I have a path to a solution, but it's riddled with potholes and speed bumps, and there's a speed limit. And, dare I say, it's better to offload this into a scripting engine, anyway.
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