I’ve put an ambient sound in my level for a waterfall. I works great until I look away from it and it just falls to 0 which is stupid. Sounds don’t go away just because you look away.
I can’t find a setting for this in attenuation or anywhere else unless I am misreading them.
Does anyone know how to keep sound attenuation by distance but NOT by sight?
Alright… found my own answer again.
If you turn on override attenutation you need to leave allow spatialization on but in attenutation overrides you need to turn it off.
You need to have spatialization on in order for the waterfall sound to sound like it is originating from the waterfall (localized in the world). Attenuation needs to also be on so that when you move away from it, the volume will decrease naturally. You need to set the radius (where you hear at full volume) and falloff distance (the distance at which the sound will fade out) so that you can hear it from a proper distance. If you turn off attenuation, when you move away from the source of the sound it will be at full volume, then zero volume once you cross the threshold and will sound unnatural. In the picture, the settings are 500 for radius (full volume, about 16 feet or 5 meters), and 1500 falloff (the sound will fade out over the next 49 feet or 15 meters)
Thanks Joey,
That all works EXCEPT for leaving spatialization on under attenuation overrides. If you do it that way when you look away from the source the sound cuts out at above 45 degrees to either side of the sound object. In the case of a waterfall that isn’t going to happen.
Do you happen to have Enable Listener Focus turned on?
Hi Joey,
Where is that parameter set?
Thanks,
Arthur
Listener Focus is off by default, but allows you to change the distance, volume, or priority based on whether you are looking at the object or not. If you do not have this on, there is no reason your waterfall sound should disappear when you turn away from it if you are standing within the radius of the sound. I use sphere radius on waterfalls all the time and they behave as expected. As long as I am standing within range of the sound radius, it is heard, no matter which way I am facing.
][1]
Hi Joey,
I did not have it on. I tested this in the content examples and it was doing the same thing in there. This is all with version 4.12. It is acting as if listener focus is always on.
Can you take the defaults in content examples at 4.12 and see how it acts for you?
Regards,
Arthur
Arthur… I just tested this in 4.12.5 by placing the fire_cue in the level (new 1st person project) and adjusted the attentuation to 600 radius and 1200 falloff distance and the sound behaves normally. Can hear it no matter which direction I am facing as long as I am within the range. Sound does not drop when turning away. Do you have a more specific example that you can share and I can look at it (or your settings)?
Hi Joey,
That is just Bizarre. Like I said I went into the content examples which is totally divorced from my project and had the same thing happen.
You know what… I think I just figured out what is going on. I share speakers between 2 pc’s. My music sound pc is NOT the one I do development on. The one I’m doing game development on has no rear surround sound speakers. I wonder if that is what is going on. I will have to test that.
Thanks for giving me direction!
REgards,
Arthur
It occurs to me I never answered this.
There is some kind of issue with my rear speakers so that’s what this boiled down to. Thanks for your help.
At then end of the day the issue here was my sound card is not driving my rear speakers correctly for some reason.
