speed of sound delay

[eman]

I'm not a programmer but I had an idea for an HL2 mod, so I thought I'd register here to see if it's been done at all. I don't think it has, but I'm afraid I can't contribute towards making it happen.

Has anyone considered implementing a speed-of-sound delay for distant sounds? You know, the phenomenon which causes you to hear thunder several seconds after you see the lightning. (And the delay increases with distance.)

As I play through HL2 - specifically the Highway 17 chapter, where you can punt rollermines over a cliff into the sea - I always wonder why the game designers didn't put the delay in there. You SHOULD hear the impact a second or so after you see that roller mine hit the water. (The designers did implement echoes, which are basically the same phenomenon, but they didn't implement the propagation delay for the direct sound itself.)

This mod should put that delay back in where it belongs. It seems to me that it shouldn't be very hard to do. Every sound - explosion, gunshot, and impact alike - should just be delayed by a time equal to the distance divided by the speed of sound. There should also be effects on supersonic bullets - like sniper rounds. They move faster than the speed of sound, so you shouldn't be able to hear them at all until they have flown past you.

(Note that this mod will be purely auditory, with no graphical changes whatsoever.)

 

[Shinobi]

that's actually pretty cool

 

[huntingbear]

jesus how many versions of this thread did you post

 

[SamuraiKenji]

This would be better on something like ModDb not on a forum such as this one you know

 

[Van Kayne]

Personally, I don't really see what such a mod will accomplish.
If an action occurs far enough away that there should be a noticeable delay, then chances are you won't see the action in question, except in really wide open areas (like your rollermine), and thus you won't know there hasn't been a delay.
And frankly, when I was playing, I neither noticed nor cared.

I'm guessing you don't know what is actually required in modding a game. It's one thing to think of and suggest a mod idea, and a totally different thing to actually do it.
The way things are now in the game, you computer's cpu only has to work out how far each hearing entity is from a sound source and attune the volume/pitch to suit. With your suggestion, the cpu not only needs to do that, but work out how far each hearing entity is and delay the sound by some arbitrary amount (or even by a model *shudder*) before playing.
[Ok, so I simplified it a bit]

This might seem like a small step, but once you get into a dense firefight, you get gunshots (multiple sound files in rapid succession from moving sources), entity movement noise, environmental sounds and the like, it all adds processing time, and increases your necessary system specs - all for a rather inconsequential effect.

And Samurai is right, this kind of thing isn't supposed to be in this forum (I think).

 

[Gordon-Shepherd]

This thread only makes me think of coldplay

Ontopic, no. Sorry.