General script knowledge questions

[Crassus]

First off, I'd like to say thanks to everyone who's posted so far. I hope it keeps up like this. I really enjoy reading everything here.

Questions! Questions! I have so many of them, I don't know whether to break them up into little tiny questions or make one long post. I so much want to get good sounds going. I've already ordered (and am much anticipating the arrival of) a tape player with stereo input to use with a couple mics I've had in my posession for a few years, just never had a reason to use them. I knew eventually they'd come in handy. :)

Question! What are the allowable sound formats for sounds in MSTS? Are there strict guidelines regarding formats and quality? Are we stuck to 11mhz? Can we make CD-quality recordings and expect to retain it or are we forced to reduce the samples? Are MP3s allowable?

Question! Did MS (or any other company) put out any documentation on editing sound files? Any references for syntax and vocab? What LANGUAGE are those files in? What text format are they compatible with to get rid of those darn non-MS line breaks? I drag and drop an .sms file into notepad and it's less than readable to say the least.

Question! How much of the scripting is soft-coded in the scripts rather than hardcoded into the program file? How much tweaking is allowed? For instance, if I had my way, I'd make different effects for different surroundings.. such as a strong reverb inside tunnels, echos off of near buildings, louder outdoor sounds of the engine and the cars and track, additional sounds left out like pop valves, etc. Enviromental sounds like people walking around at the platform. Cued sounds like CB dispatch that not only just squabbles in the background but is cued by actions or events to add realism. I could go on and on but you get the idea. :)

Question! Does anybody think I'm nuts yet??

[timken]

From an earlier post of mine, "It is easiest to just make the mono file, this is the one that will have x_...... as the start of the file name. Make sure it is 16 bit, 11, 025 Hz. Make a copy of it and then use the conversion in your program to make a 2 track (stereo file). The sim uses lower volume in the right channel, but mostly, for the set of inside files you need, it just needs to be stereo." It has to be a wav file.

If you use a different sample rate it will play too low or high pitch, so you could use one, but would have to pitch shift the sample to work right, and would certainly end up with comparable quality!

Search for Mikkox, his posts detail a great deal about steam sms files.

Steve

[Crassus]

But why would the pitch change? I know the sampling rate is different and thus a faster or slower amount of data, but why does MSTS require 11? I wonder if there's a way to change that setting? Perhaps it's required to allow sounds to overlap?

[scefhwil]

Oh that the 'why did MS/Kuju do it this way' questions could be answered. No-one knows, or ever probably will, we simply have to content ourselves at discovering just WHAT they have done.

- .sms files are unicode so use Wordpad.
- It uses a 'language' all of it's own.
- There is no definitely no official documentation.
- This site's forums represent the best unofficial documentation.
- Their are only two formats, one each for mono (external) sounds and stereo (internal) sounds.
- .wav files should be 16bit, PCM format. They are played back at 11025kHz by the sim regardless of their actual frequency.
- Go to the sims Utils/ffedit folder and open loadstr.hdr into WordPad. About 2/3rds through are is a list of all the acceptable commands for .sms files.
- We find out what they mean and how they work simply by trial and error (as with nearly everything else within the sim).
- The only other file that is sms related that I have found is soundcfg.dat in the global folder. But this seems to offer little in terms of tweaking etc.

My opinion on the viability of your ideas (others may disagree) are:-

strong reverb inside tunnels - only for track, using the Track Region sounds
echos off of near buildings - not possible
louder outdoor sounds of the engine and the cars and track - tried adjust the volume levels in the sims main option setup? Some volume adjustment in the .sms can be done, and the actual .wav file volume can be increases using sound editors.
- additional sounds left out like pop valves, etc - could be added to the engine .sms files if 'clean' .wav files can be made.
- enviromental sounds like people walking around at the platform - easliy done by creating Sound Sources
- Cued sounds like CB dispatch that not only just squabbles in the background but is cued by actions or events to add realism - possible to some degree

And finally, yes, if you do intend to take all that on you are NUTS!! :-) I would suggest starting by creating some Sound Sources as these are a good intro and most likely to be successful.