Having gotten several requests from multiple members of the community, I decided to look into the practicality of disabling the processing effects applied to voice chat while underwater. It turns out that I can't directly disable them because the DSP effects are in the engine code, but I can just tell the engine that the player is never underwater for the purposes of applying audio effects. The upside to this is that there wouldn't be any effects applied to voice chat while underwater, which I know would be very helpful with the low-quality microphones common in Empires. The obvious downside is that there'd be no effects applied to all sounds. I did some POC stuff and it feels a bit weird to hear a grenade go off underwater and sound the same on land. After some fishing for opinions, I decided to make a thread about it. So I pose the question, should I remove all underwater audio effects?
Huh. It is quite annoying not being able to hear people, but... Is it possible to only remove the underwater effects when you're dead?
Yes please... some times in spec I might fly underwater and the underwater effects stick even when I come out. Even then... I find it useless.
There are more pressing issues with this game than an effect that could last at most the max amount of time before drowning starts. In a game where the majority of the maps don't have water or water at a level where one can be submerged fully. It would also be tremendously silly, which is a reason not to have it.
The problem is, you can die underwater, not have an available spawnpoint from other causes, and be stuck with not understanding what others are saying for a considerable portion of the game. I know, right?
Exactly what would be silly? If you mean not having the sound be distorted, having any sound at all while uderwater except for loud and deep BANGs is in itself completely silly to begin with.
Don't be silly, it's what humans expect it to sound like is what matters, not what humans actually hear. Someone will expect to hear such distortions when submerged, whether or not those distortions happen in real life. If you didn't do the distortions, it would seem uncanny and people would find it strange.
I already did the proof of concept. Implementing this wouldn't take time away from working on anything else. I wouldn't say "silly" as much as I would say "unnatural" or "unsettling". It didn't feel silly when I tested it, just "off". The major emphasis of a change like this is to make voice chat clearer. I know I've had multiple situations where I couldn't make out an important thing being said because I was underwater.
but guuuiiiseeee mah immersion If this does get removed, I most likely won't even notice it because its such a nitpick thing. Like there is other stuff more important than distorted mic sounds in water.
I should start writing a blog where I count every fallacy commited on emp forums. And that developmental stuff is not even handled by one person, so you cant claim "development time waste". Its a small thing that can be fixed. Its just that. Also candles fixes stuff on impulse basis anyway.
Not really, I talked to C about it and if im not misremembering, the code is all valve, so we cant really change that without making a replacement, but its possible to trick it into thinking you are never in water. Ideally, the normal sounds would stay the same, just the game would never ever do anything with voip, but it is what it is.
Iam pretty sure I would just leave the game instantly, if I was a newbie and gone underwater and the sound would be normal. if its only voice its ok, but if all sounds then not I definitely think its not worth it. btw if you get underwater sound effect stuck just type snd_restart
You poor thing, what ever shall you do when you start swimming on the many maps that feature water. Because when I think of empires I think of water, swimming and boats. Empires is the modern day water world. Mr. I know better.
Now I must make a water-based map. The whole thing will be underwater, which will make combat work completely correctly.
I had an idea for a map where people fight in domes and its underwater, and you close off tunnels and flood them.
