I was wondering what could be an optimal and eficient solution for adding 3D sound to the shores of an island or a beach.
I’m a programmer and I know too little about the ue4 audio system, right now the only soultions that comes to my mind is to add 3D audios along the shore, which is not very efficient with work-time on big landscapes, or create a class that uses a spline that surrounds the landscape and makes the audio follow along in relation to the closest point of the player. I’m a little conscern about the performance and optimization of this two ideas, that’s why I’m asking if there’s another way to work this out.
Hi, IMHO the spline way is perfect for that use case, placed fairly away from the shoreline and set to a wide stereo spread, to make its movement less apparent.
Also adjust attenuation parameters (in distance and air absorption) to better fit the scenery.
I don’t know how sound-active your world is, but it’s usually a good idea to support the spline sound with some more ambient actors - for example a non-spatialized sound placed outside an audio volume that covers the land area, so that it’s heard only when exiting the volume twards the beach. this helps masking the spline sound’s directionality. another way to acheive that could be placing sound actors underwater, with attenuation occlusion (visibility) enabled, so they can be seen and heard from the beach but not from inland.
In addition, you may concider enriching the soundscape, by adding localized sounds such as seagulls or lapping waves, which get randomally triggered when the listener approaches.
Good Luck
Thank you for your response, the spline way seems to be working very good, it only took a few minutes to set it up and it’s flexible enough to fit in all my landscapes. I appreciate your suggestions, I may start working on those too. So far I made an actor that x time spawns random environmental sounds (birds mostly) close enough to the player yet sutile to enrich the experience like you said.
Your spline-based approach sounds great! For better optimization, you could try zone-based audio triggers or adaptive sound blending to adjust wave intensity dynamically. If you need real-world inspiration, check out Argan Albida’a Resort in Kuwait—its beachfront ambiance is perfect for reference!
