Attn dynamic range users

[Munger]

I've been asked by PitViper (who released the updated config file for Dynamic Range that made it work with Res) to start a thread asking which sounds anyone would like improving from the existing, default DR pack. Basically this means any sound you either don't like or just want changing to a different one. I know a lot of people complained about the rifle sounds for example, so maybe you could suggest new ones which you like better. The idea of all this is to create the best possible general (as opposed to more specialised, e.g. JAM) soundmod out of every sound we have available between us.

PitViper has told me that depending on interest he will be releasing a final version of Dynamic Range both in original and 'enhanced' formats, and as well as this he will include his much wanted config.cpp file for the pack which will allow anyone who wants to use it to merge the soundpack with their own addon/mod config file, so for example Goldmember's realistic explosions could be combined with DR, or the FDF mod could integrate DR into their own mod.

Anyway, please put forth your suggestions, and if possible be specific about the sounds you would like to see used in the new pack, or even provide links to downloads for these sounds.

Cheers.

[bn880]

I find the AAA sounds pretty strange and weak. AAA guns are terribly loud in real life...

but other than that, maybe someone can look into the CPU usage the DR adds. It has a very significant impact in missons with many units operating. Perhaps it is a different file format? Like ogg?

[Mr Burns]

I would change the AK and M16 sound at first..it was always hard to identitfy from who being shot at because these 2 sounds didn´t differ very much.

For any other sounds i would suggest to get the best possible (near) real life sound ingame, no matter how it sounds...just for the sake of realism

[andersson]

I agree about the vulcan sound. Its too weak.

I love realism but realistic ak and m16 sounds are too weak. You experience it different if you shoot a gun so therefor is it alright to have more powerful sounds. JAM have nice sounds! They give the feeling of punch!

[Munger]

I agree regarding the Vulcan sound (the Shilka sound is very realistic IMO as it is taken from a real ZSU-23-4 firing), however the original readme by Satchel actually states that the Vulcan uses the AH-64's 30mm cannon sound because he couldn't get it to work with it's own sound. I don't know if this could be fixed by PV, but it's worth a try.

The M16/AK rifle sound effects have always been the main problem with the soundpack, not only because they are quite weak and quite similar to each other but also because they are some of the most used sounds when playing, which makes it really noticeable. These will definitely be changed in the new release. My preference would be to use the FDF M16/AK sounds as they are very realistic and also extremely punchy, which makes using the weapons more satisfying. *** ***

Edit: as regards CPU utilisation, to be honest I think this has to be expected as the config allows the game to randomly choose from several effects for multiple events, and with the scale of some of OFP's battles it's not hard to see how this combined randomisation could eat CPU time. Also, the fact that Dynamic Range is completely separate from the main DTA/Sound.pbo file, both in terms of physical file and directory location would probably cause greater memory usage. I doubt there's much that can be done about this problem, short of upgrading. Any thoughts on this?

[bn880]

Yes I think you are correct about the CPU usage, actually I was mistaken as to the actual amount of CPU use it added... so never mind that.

EDIT: And yep, by AAA I meant Vulcan, have not listened to ZSU much.

[Munger]

Yes I think you are correct about the CPU usage, actually I was mistaken as to the actual amount of CPU use it added... ***so never mind that. ***

Actually, having spoken to PitViper about this, it turns out that the main reason CPU usage is so high with DR is because it uses ogg sound files and each one of these have to be decoded every time they are played (thanks to Zayfod for figuring this out). So he created a wss based version as a test and found that CPU load was much less. That's the good news. The bad news is that the pack was much larger because wss files are less compressed than ogg's, which would take up more memory space and also be a larger download for 56k'ers. Still, on balance I'd say it is worth it.

[bn880]

I think there is a slight problem with the .bin of the current DR and 1.92. Or this is normal:

I have been playing a large CoC mission with 1.92 and DR, and it was kind of frame by frame so I decided to save and resume the game with the sound mod unloaded, when I tired to load I got
"no entry (something) cfgWeapons.NSVT"
(something to do with T80 I guess)

next time i saved under DR and 1.92 and then tried loading without DR the game just booted do windows without a message.

I thought that there should be no difference in the savegame since information from config.bin and resource.bin should not have anything to do with content of save. But hmm... so is the cfg file corrupt for DR?

[bn880]

Actually, having spoken to PitViper about this, it turns out that the main reason CPU usage is so high with DR is because it uses ogg sound files and each one of these have to be decoded every time they are played (thanks to Zayfod for figuring this out).

Yeah it's worth it for sure!

hehhe:

but other than that, maybe someone can look into the CPU usage the DR adds. It has a very significant impact in missons with many units operating. Perhaps it is a different file format? Like ogg?

[bn880]

Now that I look at the bin file a little, it seems DR defines it's own special weapons, that could be the reason. I suppose there is no way around it, it's probably done to add more sounds than normal, if not, then it should be fixed.