Armstrong Powerhouse - Sound distance fading improved

[marcsharp82]

After installing the updates, I find the sound to be worse. For example outside view of the cab facing forwards then You go to facing rearwards the sound stops briefly then returns , also it sounds the the external sounds are to based into the centre of the model , if you was to do a 360 swoop over the top of the model, the sound drops and comes back far to much for my liking. I understand my explanations don’t make much sense! But for me the quality of the sounds is still good , if a little more quiet now in the cab ( esp 158) , the way the sound is distributed around is very poor, it doesn’t fade gently, just drops off and comes back. Anyone else find this ?

[markpullinger]

Hi, might be worth checking your sound card control panel to make sure you have the right number of speakers set - and if you have a creative product that surround is actually turned on if you are using it. Caught me out.

[Springer6]

After installing the updates, I find the sound to be worse. For example outside view of the cab facing forwards then You go to facing rearwards the sound stops briefly then returns , also it sounds the the external sounds are to based into the centre of the model , if you was to do a 360 swoop over the top of the model, the sound drops and comes back far to much for my liking. I understand my explanations don’t make much sense! But for me the quality of the sounds is still good , if a little more quiet now in the cab ( esp 158) , the way the sound is distributed around is very poor, it doesn’t fade gently, just drops off and comes back. Anyone else find this ?

Yes and I think I know why this has changed.

I expect that these sound fading improvements are more realistic in many ways, i.e. the sound fades more as a train goes away from you for example. So for realism AP are to be commended. I don't intend my comments to be a criticism of these updates, just something people need to be aware of.

There does seem to be a problem if, like me, you like to use outside or "helicopter view" when driving. I do like to hear the train as well when driving in that view.

Yes I know that's really unrealistic, if you've ever flown in a helicopter at low level, you can't hear anything on the ground, even something as noisy as a train at speed !

After the "fading mods" are installed the trains seem very much quieter when in outside/helicopter view, but significantly not in "Head out" view.

I think this is because, as well as other things, in the new audio files, the Engine .Proxybin and .Proxxml files have been modified. For example, in the Class 66 enhancement pack, the "AttenuationStartDistance for many of the outside engine sounds has been reduced from 7200 to 7. The "NoFurtherAttenuationDist" remains unchanged at 7225.

I may be wrong, but I think that this means that the outside engine sounds will start to drop off at about 7 metres from the center of the loco, whereas before they would only drop off at a much greater distance. This explains why in "Head out" view the engine sounds remain loud ( you are still within 7 metres of the loco centre), whilst in outside/helicopter view they appear much quieter than before ( you can't really approach to within 7 metres when in outside view).

In the past I have modified the "AttenuationStartDistance" in .proxyxml files so that such things as a DSD alarm can be heard at some distance (300 metres) from a loco. see http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... D&start=15 (third post from bottom)
so I know that the attenuation distance does have this effect.

As I said, this is not a criticism of the new fading updates, they probably are more realistic for passing trains in world view. However it is something to be aware of before installing them, if you do like to drive in outside view.

[scefhwil]

I think this is because, as well as other things, in the new audio files, the Engine .Proxybin and .Proxxml files have been modified. For example, in the Class 66 enhancement pack, the "AttenuationStartDistance for many of the outside engine sounds has been reduced from 7200 to 7. The "NoFurtherAttenuationDist" remains unchanged at 7225.

With respect to the above take a look here:-

https://sites.google.com/a/railsimdev.c ... em-Changes

What AP were doing is explained in my post dated 08 June 2010 here:-

http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 0&t=106552

So what they have now done is not really a "mod" but rather an "un-mod" as they have finally gotten around to stopping using manual distance fade effects and instead letting TS's corrected OpenAL setup do it.

[Springer6]

I think this is because, as well as other things, in the new audio files, the Engine .Proxybin and .Proxxml files have been modified. For example, in the Class 66 enhancement pack, the "AttenuationStartDistance for many of the outside engine sounds has been reduced from 7200 to 7. The "NoFurtherAttenuationDist" remains unchanged at 7225.

With respect to the above take a look here:-

https://sites.google.com/a/railsimdev.c ... em-Changes

What AP were doing is explained in my post dated 08 June 2010 here:-

http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 0&t=106552

So what they have now done is not really a "mod" but rather an "un-mod" as they have finally gotten around to stopping using manual distance fade effects and instead letting TS's corrected OpenAL setup do it.

Well that is very complex stuff and you have obviously done a great deal of research. I find it a bit hard to understand , but it looks very good indeed.

However the problems experienced by marcsharp82 and also by myself, primarily concern the sounds heard from outside the cab, which in some updated AP stock now sounds a lot lower and variable in volume (even when stationary) than they did before. I needed a practical solution to an obvious practical problem.

Since my previous post, I have done a little trial experimentation with the .proxyxml and .proxybin files for the Class 37 Mirrlees loco that seemed to me to be particularly quiet outside the cab. I used the method devised by "JustRight" described in the post linked from my post above. After carefully backing up the originals, I increased the "AttenuationStartDistances" for most of the engine sounds from 7 to 27 and the cab sounds from 7 to 17. The sander sound was also set at 17. These values were found by guesswork and then adjusted by trial and error. Although far from perfect, these changes now give a Class 37/9 with that great engine sound easily audible at a realistic distance when in "helicopter view", but still fading correctly with increasing distance . The cab engine sounds are still very very quiet, so they probably require more work. Oh, and the outside engine sounds are now at a similar volume to the "Head out" sounds when at a reasonable distance from the loco ( they were much quieter before ).
I've just done the supplied scenario with the 37/9 pulling a heavy load on the Bristol-Exeter route and those excellent AP Mirrlees sounds are fantastic even when heard now from 50 metres or so outside the cab.

[Deano55]

Has it made any really grand difference that was instantly noticeable the moment TS was re-started with the updates or did some of you not notice any difference?
I'm just trying to decide if it's worth my while going through the very long process of updating all the AP products again.
All views, reviews welcome. Ta.

Personally, it depends how much of a sound geek you are and whether you are bothered about directional sound (stereo/surround).

Thanks for the reply.
Yes i do have a top end sound card and always have done with matching 5:1 Creative speakers. I like my sounds to sound good, but no way am I a geek . None the less I am convinced that it will be worth my while, even though you may be a little biased.

[rededge]

I have re-downloaded the Wherry Lines as it was updated on the 22/08/18 for sound distance fading improvements but I have this artifact at Lowestoft- I can send a support request to AP but I can't see how I can include screenies to show what / where the problem is?

So, just wondering if anyone (with an updated version of this route) would be kind enough to check if they have the same please?

it looks like a huge box like thing, maybe alien.

[emrhd01]

No I'm not seeing that Black box from the same position at Lowestoft as your screenshot shows, I believe that is often caused by a corrupted Asset in the location (but I could be wrong).

[rededge]

OK, thanks for checking and replying to me, I will re-install the route from a backup.

Cheers