sounds. not working for clients

[poseyjmac]

sounds work fine on my server, but my client says he can't hear anything. is this a bug or has anyone experienced this? my level would seem so empty without the ambiencesounds i have set.

 

[NoisyMonk]

uh oh.. I hope this isn't a bug.. my map really depends on it too. I'll have to get my friend to help me test it out.

 

[poseyjmac]

yeah

although i didn't test non-looping sounds. but all looping sounds weren't played.

 

[NoisyMonk]

/me hopes that this is a random bug that can be fixed... or that the people you tested with just had their sound to low!

Did you try letting them host it, and you being the client?

 

[poseyjmac]

i was on the phone with the guy at the time, and could hear everything coming out of his speakers, except the sounds i placed.

due to circumstances he can't open up ports to host, but i have access to another steam account that i can try. ill probably do some testing later tonight. ill post my findings then

 

[DjBourgeoisie]

If you are using custom sounds, you have to put them in your cstrike/sound folder and distribute them along with the bsp. Setup a trigger at one teams spawn that turns all looping sounds on when they touch the trigger. I do that for my maps and there are no problems.

 

[poseyjmac]

cool. ill try that

 

[Viceman]

Hey, can you tell me exactly how did you placed your sounds?

 

[poseyjmac]

i just placed an ambient_generic and selected the sound file. although since im making the map for hl2dm, i would have to put triggers on every start point to play the ambience. so then, whenever people respawn, wouldn't the sound be skipping all the time? gotta find a more effective way

 

[AcousticToad]

Have you tried making a custom soundscape? You can have it playing looping without the need for triggers.

 

[poseyjmac]

can't make custom anything because this map is also going into the contest

 

[Viceman]

Well, when i placed a ambient_generic sound.. i dont hear it even myself!! and that pisses me off!

 

[poseyjmac]

some sounds are very silent, so you gotta turn up the volume really high. or if its a loopable sound, have to make it looping in the flags. and turn up the hearing distance.

 

[DjBourgeoisie]

guys, make sure your sounds are in the correct format if using custom ones. 44khz 16 bit stereo wav or mp3. You cannot loop mp3s, at least i have not had any success. Trigger them at roundstart, check flags start silent, and not looped etc unless it is a looped wav. Ive had no problems getting my sounds working at all, I guess you just need to experiment a bit more.

 

[poseyjmac]

<- mapping for hl2dm, there is no roundstart, which is why its a bit more complicated.

 

[DjBourgeoisie]

Its not any different, you just need to create a giant trigger brush activated on touch that triggers your sounds.

 

[poseyjmac]

but heres the thing though. if i do that. then everytime someone respawns the ambience will cut off, and start over.

 

[DjBourgeoisie]

not if you set to fire once

 

[poseyjmac]

but if it fires once. then what if a client joins the game, and spawns. he won't trigger the sound to play, so it won't play right? im going to be able to test this soon, but i can't yet

 

[Viperidae]

Whoa whoa, you're making it way too complicated. Just have an ambient_generic with both 'start silent' and 'does no loop' not checked, and it will start with the map start. Also, looping noises do not stop when a client dies.

If you want to have something trigger automatically, just put a logic_auto entity, which gets triggered by the map starting.

 

[poseyjmac]

Whoa whoa, you're making it way too complicated. Just have an ambient_generic with both 'start silent' and 'does no loop' not checked, and it will start with the map start. Also, looping noises do not stop when a client dies.

If you want to have something trigger automatically, just put a logic_auto entity, which gets triggered by the map starting.

if i set the flag 'does not loop' then the ambience isn't going to loop period. so i need to have that flag set.

ive tried placing a logic_auto which forcespawns a point_template which has 3 ambient sounds that loop. yet no sound plays still, for clients.

 

[poseyjmac]

someones had to have figured this out. i have another machine next to me with another steam account that i can test stuff with if anyone has an idea that might work. so far none of what was said here does.

i would think that this is important to those submitting a map for the contest, to have looping ambience that works for clients. valve pulled it off in overwatch, with the use of triggers somehow, but they may have used soundscapes, and there is no list of usable soundscapes that i can find.

if an ambient_generic is already playing, and a client connects and can't hear it. even if he triggers a trigger_multiple to play that same sound, it won't play because its already playing, so the client can never hear it unless the file stops and plays. this obviously won't work very smoothly, and would actually cause small stutters everytime a client respawns, or enters a spawn trigger.

 

[Viperidae]

I understand what you're saying. There is a kind of crude way around this. First time (as precise as you can) your sound, then make a logic_timer that is not random, and has a refire interval of the same time as your sound. Now make an output so OnTimer will PlaySound for the ambient_generic. I haven't tested this thoroughtly, but it appears to work.

 

[poseyjmac]

tried it. down to one hundreth of a second, but sounds like outside ambience where they are constant just don't work without you hearing a click. i don't think the input/output timers are accurate enough to make it seamless. it does however work for other ambient looping sounds that aren't constant(like war sounds loop). this is good enough though.

 

[poseyjmac]

ive finally found a solution.

changing the volume on any looping sound will make it kick in for clients and be hearable. so all you have to do is get a logic_timer to change the volume from x to x.01, every few seconds, and clients will be able to hear them.

 

[NoisyMonk]

I'm having the same problem with clients not being able to hear sounds. However, mine is for CS.. since people won't be re-spawning after they die, would I only need to change the volume once? OR does the timer not reset when the round does? in which case I would need to make it change like yours?

 

[poseyjmac]

i haven't tested it in CS:S i dont really know

 

[NoisyMonk]

alright, I'll have to experiment.

 

[chestburster]

found it at verc:

clients missing sounds? before joining a newly downloaded map there´s need to create a server with it. that will produce the necessary sound cache for the map.

 

[poseyjmac]

yeah heh. i actually made a newer thread about this explaining that