hi, i have some questions to ask you guys regarding echo/gunshot power in the game.

here i will provide samples of different gunshot sounds and a list of questions. i want your answers to see what would be best for my mod.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7x8h83dg1bl44 ... s.rar?dl=0

in the link above you will find:

VanillaShot - a control sample of a rifle gunshot from the vanilla Cortex Command, so you can compare.
VanillaShotgun - a control sample of a shotgun gunshot from the vanilla Cortex Command, so you can compare.

Fullshot - a sample of a gunshot sound.
FullshotEcho - a sample of a gunshot sound with added echo.

Shotgunshot - a sample of a shotgun gunshot sound.
ShotgunshotEcho - a sample of a shotgun gunshot sound with added echo.

please do your best to answer for shotguns and rifles separately, and also together, to give me as full a review as possible. here are the questions:

1. assuming one wants to fit in with the vanilla weapons, which option is better? if none, why?
2. if all sounds in the game were changed to be like the modded samples: would they fit with the visuals?
3. what conveys better power, echo or no echo? would you be bothered if it had the same echo outdoors and indoors?
4. which sounds are of higher quality, complexity, depth, sophistication?
5. which set of sounds would you prefer in the game, vanilla or others? why?

thank you for your contribution, this will help me in my attempts to better this game.

Sorry, I downloaded this yesterday and forgot to make a reply.

1. The sounds could be very fitting, however I personally dislike the echo versions because it feels like unnecessary added noise. They could go okay in weapons with low rate of fire since they do have that added power to them.

From the implementation point of view, what happens if you use the echo sound with a high rate of fire or multiple guns with echo firing together? Does it create a lot of noise? Does the overlapping sound bad?

2. They would fit the visuals for some guns and not so much for others (ignoring the echo versions, which would not go with the visuals with most, save for snipers maybe?), since some guns are meant to feel less powerful than others. It'd definitely go better in addition rather than a replacement (for both variety and making the power difference feel more notorious).

3. The echo conveys more power, but it worries me how it'd sound in game with for example multiple guns with the same sound firing or fast rate of fire. Also overusing it makes it lose it's oomph so there's that. Personally it wouldn't bother me for indoors or outdoors.

4. The normal versions of the non vanilla sounds are probably the better ones, they sound less plain and have more to it. The echo ones feel a bit overdone.

5. If all the base game had to have either set I'd stick with the vanilla one mostly because it feels less "distracting" to put it in a way, however I'd argue that using all the sounds for different guns would be more reasonable, since many guns sound too similar.

Hope it helps!

hello thanks for the reply, those are rare to come by nowadays

here is a video i made in response comparing noise levels of vanilla and modded squads



i am unsure what to think and even if i thought something it'd probably be biased. you may notice 2 of the same guns never fire together and this is because i assumed it'd sound terrible just like multiples of vanilla guns firing together does. maybe this was naive and i should've tested for it but whatever.

one thing i noticed was that the total volume definitely increased, but i don't think it's enough to be a bad thing. please give your opinion on this video and how everything sounds if you can/want to, that would be great.

bonus video:

Yeah the sounds are definately sharper and have more power to it. I'm surprised that the echo doesn't sound too unnatural in the game, so that's good.

The volume is definitely much louder so I'd be curious to see how it sounds in an actual skirmish. Generally I wouldn't really mind it being loud, but if it's too much it can get in the way of the subtle confirmation sounds of the menu, the pie menus, things like that, and that'd be fairly annoying, and also if it didn't completely eclipse the sound of less noisy guns (unless they are meant to be silenced or something).

Testing these kinda things definitely require wider feedback, a lot more test scenario and a crapload of fine tuning though, so getting it perfect is pretty hard. I'll probably always be around from time to time to help.

one thing i have noticed is that some sounds like doors/people getting hit get completely removed. not just drowned out, but they cut very short and barely play at all. is this a limitation of the game engine? can it be fixed somehow?

So I didn't really know about this and took a look to the code for wounds as a reference and noticed this:



EmissionSound and EndSound are commented out, with only BurstSound being there. IIRC an emitter bursting is when it releases one large burst of particles (for example when a wound is made) and not when it's normally emitting, that's what EmissionSound would be for. I'm assuming EndSound would be for when the emitter stops emitting particles.

I don't exactly know how this works, but my guess is that BurstSound could get cut short as soon as the burst is over. What I'd try to do instead would be making a new wound and instead use EmissionSound, but change the LoopSetting to another value, or change the amount of emissions to fit the sound length, I don't really know what would exactly work here.

Guys, if u need good sounds for your mods, look at these sites with free stuff: http://99sounds.org/free-sound-effects/ , http://soundimage.org/ , https://www.lucidsamples.com/free-sample-packs/181-free-sound-effects-sfx-pack.html, https://freesound.org/ , https://opengameart.org/art-search?keys=sounds .

dont advertize such crappy sounds on MY thread boy