54 replies to this topic

[Lee200]

I've rewritten my old TrackSounds program so that it works and sounds much better.

TrackSounds is an external program that plays sounds as the player drives along the track.  It works during training, qualification, and race modes for all mods, all country .exes, and all tracks.

TrackSounds hooks into the running GPL .exe and reads vital information such as where the player car is on the track.  It then plays sound files from the TrackSounds directory based on the settings in the TrackSounds.ini file.  The GPL .exe does not have to be patched and doesn't even know that TrackSounds is active in the background.

The program has been tested by the '55 Mod team...there are still a few bugs, but it works very well and is developed about as far as I can go with it.

Be sure to read the Read Me as it explains how use the program.  Basically, it's simple...copy the TrackSounds directory to your hard drive and start it up.  Then start GPL.

I've include demo sounds and settings for a few tracks such as Monaco and Monza.  For example, you should hear an echo as you drive through the tunnel at Monaco.  Greg has made settings for some other tracks too.  Neither of us are sound makers so we'll leave it up to you to make or acquire sounds and settings for other tracks.

You can download Tracksounds from my website located here:

http://gplmotorworks.gplworld.de

Enjoy!  

Lee

[gliebzeit]

An extremely easy program to use and a beautiful way to add track sounds that are independent of the announcer and crowd.  Great job, Lee!!  

[db312]

It's wonderful Lee !!!

A notable improvement furthermore for GPL !!!

Bravissimo !!!

[Gartner]

Thanks!

[GPLaps]

Very giddy at the idea of hearing some tunnel sounds at monaco! Will definitely try this out.

[Michkov]

Gartner, on May 12 2017 - 11:44 AM, said:

Thanks!

ROFL

[gliebzeit]

New challenge.... mix together the tunnel, rooster, cat, dog and donkey sounds.  

[Bo Bruce]

thanks for expanding the joy of the GPL experience~

[Roo]

Thanks Lee, yet another excellent addition to the GPL arsenal

[PTRACER]

Look forward to trying this next week!


By the way Lee, I was going to ask - is there any way to program transmission whine into the code? The 1950s cars, and definitely the 1937s, had a pretty whiny transmission.

I've been listening to onboards from the 1990s BTCC cars, which also screamed a lot, and the "tone" seems to be linked with car speed. One car didn't whine until it reached 2nd gear, the others seemed to have a separate tone for 1st gear, which became constant after 2nd gear. I guess the former would be easier to program than the latter.

Edited by PTRACER, May 13 2017 - 07:05 AM.

[Lord]

Well, I'm afraid I'll have to be the party-pooper here, sadly. Nothing personal, Lee.

I've tried the program, it's definitely a great idea, but as of now it's still too spartan. For example:

- Sounds samples are... way off place, in my opinion: barking sounds at the start/finish straight in monaco in eerie silence, loud as hell pachinko sounds near the Casino (which isn't the reality at all) and that off-putting reverbered sound under every thing even resembling an arch (on the Portier bend, for example) spoil the potential this program has. Down in the list I'll try to suggest ways to fix it.
- Not compatible with GEM+2 at all (at least on my end).
- Needs some more advanced functions to really make it a great hit.

For the sound samples, I'd suggest to use some High-Quality Youtube samples or, if you/somebody has the ability and resources to do it, record it live with decent quality.
The position-based trick is really clever, but it'd work best if you could implement some sort of coded and adjustable Doppler effect into it: in this way, the sounds on track will be way more realistic: I don't know if GPL also recognizes the width of the track, but if it does it would be way better. Personally I'd imagine the line to be something like this:

<sound>.mp3,<DLong_start>, <DLong_stop>, <DLat_source_position>, <Doppler_growing_ratio>, <Doppler_falling_ratio>, <Audio_channel>

For tunnels, I'd suggest a routine that automatically picks up the car's engine sound and reverberates it accoringly with the tunnel DLong settings for the track.

Please, don't get any of this as a personal attack, it's just that this program has really lots of potential and I had a couple of ideas for fixing some issues (although I don't know how to code them at all) and how they might be implemented

Edited by Lord, May 13 2017 - 06:49 AM.

[MECH]

You are judging the tool for the accompanied sounds and settings.
The point is that you provide your own ini and sound files.

[Lord]

MECH, on May 13 2017 - 12:22 PM, said:

You are judging the tool for the accompanied sounds and settings.
The point is that you provide your own ini and sound files.

Mech, I think you missed the point of my comment: I was giving some ideas that Lee will or won't use to better his program: I'm not an authority in coding or anything, just giving my two cents on the program.
Also yes, you can bring your own sounds and settings, but if there are some settings that are missing from the coding itself the result won't be as impactful as it can be: as I told before, this is a great tool, but too spartan for now IMHO.

[Lee200]

Lord, apparently I missed the point of your Post #11 too.  I don't think it is a language issue as your English is excellent.  

Apparently you didn't read the last paragraph in my Post #1 which says that I've provided DEMO sounds and settings to demonstrate to YOU how the program works.  Then it's up to YOU to get sounds and track settings that YOU want to use.  It's ridiculously easy to do and I look forward to any sounds and track settings that YOU may provide us.

The current version uses Window's MCI .dll to play the sounds.  MCI does not support the doppler effect.  My older program used DirectSound and used the doppler effect; however, I found that the sounds were often scratchy and garbled so that is why I changed to MCI because the sounds are much clearer.

Thanks for the feedback.  

Edited by Lee200, May 13 2017 - 03:08 PM.

[Lord]

Lee200, on May 13 2017 - 03:02 PM, said:

Lord, apparently I missed the point of your Post #11 too.  I don't think it is a language issue as your English is excellent.  

Apparently you didn't read the last paragraph in my Post #1 which says that I've provided DEMO sounds and settings to demonstrate to YOU how the program works.  Then it's up to YOU to get sounds and track settings that YOU want to use.  It's ridiculously easy to do and I look forward to any sounds and track settings that YOU may provide us.

The current version uses Window's MCI .dll to play the sounds.  MCI does not support the doppler effect.  My older program used DirectSound and used the doppler effect; however, I found that the sounds were often scratchy and garbled so that is why I changed to MCI because the sounds are much clearer.

Thanks for the feedback.  

I'm sorry for coming forward as a bit of an entitled little c*nt in that post, in hindsight I really think I should've handled that much better.

For the sounds aspect: again, I know it's ridiculously easy to do (it's an MP3 file after all), but there's always the problem of the Doppler effect: the sound can be 100% realistic, but without the doppler effect it can be felt like something splatted onto the game without an afterthought. It does disrupt the immersion, in a sense.

So, you said that DirectSound caused garbled output to be heard: after a quick search, it seems that the problem might actually be the combo "Windows Enhancements + Audio drivers" most of the time. But I assume you've already tried that before changing library altogether :/

[Lee200]

No problem Lord and yes, I've tried many different ways of making the sounds clearer.  This current version of TrackSounds is the best I can do given that it works for all mods and Windows operating systems.

The old TrackSounds used Microsoft's DirectSound system and didn't work at all well with GPL running on Windows XP.  So to avoid that mess, I'm now using Microsoft's MCI code which not only seems to work OK, but is included with all Windows versions.  MCI is ancient compared to today's versions of DirectSound, but at least it works.

I didn't intend to sound harsh, but TrackSounds is one program where the end user, the GPL community, can easily modify it for each individual's desires.  After years of making patches and programs, I've given up on trying to please everyone; especially since very few here are willing to contribute anything in return.

[Lord]

Lee200, on May 13 2017 - 05:02 PM, said:

No problem Lord and yes, I've tried many different ways of making the sounds clearer.  This current version of TrackSounds is the best I can do given that it works for all mods and Windows operating systems.

The old TrackSounds used Microsoft's DirectSound system and didn't work at all well with GPL running on Windows XP.  So to avoid that mess, I'm now using Microsoft's MCI code which not only seems to work OK, but is included with all Windows versions.  MCI is ancient compared to today's versions of DirectSound, but at least it works.

I didn't intend to sound harsh, but TrackSounds is one program where the end user, the GPL community, can easily modify it for each individual's desires.  After years of making patches and programs, I've given up on trying to please everyone; especially since very few here are willing to contribute anything in return.

Don't worry man, no harm no foul

Mh... Have you tried OpenAL? Some tout it to be the best alternative to Directsound and it's cross-platform: maybe it's worth a shot. From the looks of it, sounds like an OpenGL, but for audio

[Lee200]

Yes, I tried OpenAL too...it didn't sound any better than DirectSound.  

I consider TrackSounds done as there is no point in making further enhancements to it unless the GPL community likes it and starts making their own track sounds.  So far, no one has posted any new sounds or settings.

Will wait and see...

[gliebzeit]

Heh!!  Lee, how about the pit (knockoff hammer & fueling), horse, owl, golf, and the startup music sound from the 1955 movie 'The Racers' that I made?  

Edited by gliebzeit, May 14 2017 - 07:52 AM.

[Lee200]

Greg, I was talking about sounds and settings from others here at SRMZ.  I didn't mean to slight your contributions that are already included with the patch.