I don't know if it's already on your to-do list, but it would be nice if the your pit crew would "shut up" if you watch other cars. I am always told to refuel, because they lack fuel information But maybe that exactly is the point where you could distinguish between the player car and the other cars. If fuel=0 (or whatever OutGauge gives for fuel information on other cars) ShutUp(PitCrew)

The only way the program knows who to watch is by reading off LFS' report of the currently selected player, but your suggestion gives me a better idea of setting up the player to watch in the front end (leaving in place an 'auto' option).

Thank you Becky!!!

I asked for help creating a program to do this exact thing not very long ago (see thread here: http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=9169). I can't wait to get home and give this a shot. I assume once you're done with the UI that we'll be able to enable/disable each warning individually, correct? Are you planning to make any sort of "roll your own" event trigger? For instance, will we be able to play a sound file when we reach lap X (for instance, I'd like to hear "You're halfway done. Keep pushing" or something like that on lap 25 of a 50 lap race)? Will we be able to have a "This is the final lap!" trigger? Stuff like that.

One bit of constructive criticism if you don't mind: you appear to be using all .wav files. If you change these to .mp3, .ogg, etc you can save yourself a TON of disk space and make the downloads of additional voice packs much, much smaller.

And just to make sure i'm not the "sound engineer" you were talking about, once you're satisfied with the tool and have a v1.0 I may be able to make an "American" voice pack. Perhaps you could make a list of the sound file names, a description, and what triggers them? This could be helpful if people want to make voice packs in the future.

Edit: Looks like you've already got messages for last lap, 2, 5, 10, 20, 30, and 40 laps remaining. So nevermind that request.

Lap reports are already in, but it's not possible to trigger sounds with a scripting system. I thought about doing it that way as before I started this project I was already knee deep in a script compiler (even handles variables but I digress...), but because everything needed requires extraction from different LFS data structs I figured the resulting scripts would probably end up even more complex than just coding stuff. However, in Scawen style I am willing to add triggers I think are a good idea and are plausable.

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enable/disable each warning individually

In groups yes

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If you change these to .mp3, .ogg

Yah, I really didn't think about sound format at all. I guess it would not be hard to convert to .wav with an .mp3 codec but if it goes over 5,000 downloads I would have to pay the £20,000 license fee. .ogg is free of licenses but i'd need some kind of 3rd party .dll driver for it as i'm curry puckered if i'm going to write a decoding kernel. People keep telling me one to use, and I keep never getting around to looking at it.

Quote from Becky Rose :

However, in Scawen style I am willing to add triggers I think are a good idea and are plausable.

I'd like to request a "halfway done" lap notification if possible.

I haven't had the chance to try it since I'm at work, but if you start a 20 lap race do you get the "20 laps left" notification as soon as the race starts? What happens if you've got 10 laps left, and you're down to X% on fuel, and you just set a best lap, and there's a driver closing, etc. How do you handle that stuff? Is there some sort of priority given to the sounds? Is there ever a case where you would not hear one sound because another is overwriting it? I can see this being a possible issue, especially if you have a "halfway done" sound file and a "10 laps left" sound file both triggering at the same time.

Also, your first post mentions crowd noise, but I don't see any sound files for it. It also says surround sound is required, but LFS doesn't support surround sound. Is crowd noise included right now or on the to-do list? Can you give details about what triggers the crowd and how it's implemented? Just curious.

Edit: One small "bug" to report. You have several behindLooseX.wav files in the pit/male/relative directory. These should really be behindLoseX.wav (one "o"). Just a typo, but easier to fix in the earlier stages, i'd surmise.

Current lap triggers are 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 5, 2, and 1. It triggers when the leader crosses the line to start the nth lap to go. I will add a half distance notification.

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you start a 20 lap race do you get the "20 laps left" notification as soon as the race starts?

I think this is one of the glitches I need to remove. Also after the race the notifications go crazy as everyone piles up after the line, i've culled a few, but there's more to do here.

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Is there some sort of priority given to the sounds? Is there ever a case where you would not hear one sound because another is overwriting it?

There is a sound que so when a new sound is needed it is added to the que, likewise if there is a sound in que the radio is not re-keyed, instead the channel stays open until all messages are played and then you get the radio close sound.

As it can take quite a while to play the full que when things are busy there is a check to ensure that two messages of the same type are not played, so if there is a message in the que for "P8" and your position updates to "P7", only "P7" would be played.

Quote from Cue-Ball :

I'd like to request a "halfway done" lap notification if possible.

I haven't had the chance to try it since I'm at work, but if you start a 20 lap race do you get the "20 laps left" notification as soon as the race starts? What happens if you've got 10 laps left, and you're down to X% on fuel, and you just set a best lap, and there's a driver closing, etc. How do you handle that stuff? Is there some sort of priority given to the sounds? Is there ever a case where you would not hear one sound because another is overwriting it? I can see this being a possible issue, especially if you have a "halfway done" sound file and a "10 laps left" sound file both triggering at the same time.

Also, your first post mentions crowd noise, but I don't see any sound files for it. It also says surround sound is required, but LFS doesn't support surround sound. Is crowd noise included right now or on the to-do list? Can you give details about what triggers the crowd and how it's implemented? Just curious.

First of all: Read carefully: Crowd noise is a planned improvement. Moreover Becky's program doesn't use the LFS-Soundengine, so it can use surround-sound on its own.
And from what I found out, the sounds played after each other, e.g. "That's your fastest lap. Only 5 laps left. ..."

edit: bah, beaten...

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Also, your first post mentions crowd noise, but I don't see any sound files for it.

It's on my to do list .

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It says surround sound is required, but LFS doesn't support surround sound.

All sounds from the mod are being played through an independant sound system which duplexes with LFS'. This engine is current stereo (although most sounds are mono) but I will update it to surround sound soon.

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Can you give details about what triggers the crowd and how it's implemented? Just curious.

I havn't found samples yet but i'd like different levels of cheer, clapping and those air horns. The crowd will go into a frenzy when there is an overtake for position, and will be louder the closer to the front it is. I will manually position a sound emitter at all the grandstands on all the tracks. This is a bit of groundwork, but primarily it is dependant on me getting the surround sound system working which requires me to track the camera movement within LFS - this is actually the hard part, as i've done surround sound enough times to do it in my sleep and i'm told it's very good - although I dont actually have a surround sound rig to test with - so i'll be relying on feedback to tweek it - in any case us users with a stereo system will still hear the benefits of it.

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Edit: One small "bug" to report. You have several behindLooseX.wav files in the pit/male/relative directory. These should really be behindLoseX.wav (one "o"). Just a typo, but easier to fix in the earlier stages, i'd surmise.

It's not "lose" as in the word lose, it's actually shorthand for "Losing Over Omega Sound Emit", which is to say, the sound that is played when you lose over the threshold stated.

*chuckle*

EDIT: Also beaten... What a wierd cross post...

Quote from Becky Rose :

It's on my to do list .

I see. Thanks for the clarification. Dunno how I missed that it is forthcoming, not already included.

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It's not "lose" as in the word lose, it's actually shorthand for "Losing Over Omega Sound Emit", which is to say, the sound that is played when you lose over the threshold stated.

Ah, yes. Why hadn't I thought of that?

Look good per the voice example above.I have to install it later today and try in in real conditions.

1)Why the example use WAW.It took ages to load it.MP3 example would be much better.
2) I work for a company where I daily use english to talk to people from various countries speaking their own version of english including english native speakers from UK and US.
Its not that I did not understand what was in the example but for less english experienced people it will be probably impossible to understand.Did you record your own voice?The sound quality could be improved as well.

Quote from DEVIL 007 :

1)Why the example use WAW.It took ages to load it.MP3 example would be much better.

This was already addressed earlier in the thread. You can convert the wavs to mp3 yourself or record your own sounds in mp3 format.

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Its not that I did not understand what was in the example but for less english experienced people it will be probably impossible to understand.Did you record your own voice?The sound quality could be improved as well.

I somehow don't think that voice belongs to someone named "Becky".

You can always record your own voice samples for use in the program. If they're decent, you can release them for the public as well. I plan to do the same in US English. Maybe I'll even have to put together a "Days of Thunder" sound pack.

I can barely speak at the moment because my tonsils are inflamed, but I do plan to release a female voice pack at a later time.

I might surruptisciously recode the .wav's with an .mp3 codec but keep them .wav - then deny all knowledge when the mp3 standards group comes knocking on my door for their license fee - "but they're .wav!" i'll say...

I don't think you have much to worry about on the mp3 front. This is a non-profit program which is only interesting to a very small subset of people. If you're REALLY worried about it, release the program as one download and the sound packs as separate downloads. Then individual users can make their own sound packs and "spread the blame" so to speak.

I've done the first menu screen, here's a sneak peek:



The backfire menu should be pretty quick as it just has on/off and volume so i'll probably get that done tonight. I'll then start work on the relay because when that is in everything that you guys need to use the mod is basically in place and everything else is just lacey underwear.

Quote from Becky Rose :

...I'll then start work on the relay because when that is in everything that you guys need to use the mod is basically in place and everything else is just lacey underwear.

Pics?

Edited my quote to make it a little more...ahem...clear.

There's one right there, does it not show?

Becky.....may I say that you are Brilliant?!Youre getting things done pretty quick,so it can only be a few days for the final version^^Dont want to set you under pressure but i really think you could do that

This mod is great, i didn't know it was possible to do this with LFS, been using it all evening and it sounds like what i'd expect, much more immersive than normal. My only complaint is with the car sounds turned up to 20x so its balanced i get a lot of distortion, so can't wait for the next version so I can turn the volume down and use my normal 12x volume ingame.

Quote from Rtsbasic :

This mod is great, i didn't know it was possible to do this with LFS, been using it all evening and it sounds like what i'd expect, much more immersive than normal. My only complaint is with the car sounds turned up to 20x so its balanced i get a lot of distortion, so can't wait for the next version so I can turn the volume down and use my normal 12x volume ingame.

One thing you can do...if you have two sets of speakers you should be able to assign Becky's mod to one set and turn them down, leaving LFS on the other set running at full volume. My friend does something similar with Ventrilo. He lets LFS run through the speakers, then forces Ventrilo to run through his headset.

Of course, it would be easier to wait for the next release, but it's an option and it might be more immersive to have the pit crew voices coming through the headset while the car voices come through regular speakers.

I've not done the menu's for it yet but the outguage relay just tested fine, the insim relay is a bit more complex though (uni-directional and I have to filter out some stuff).

Thanks for this mod.
I just DL it, but it really sounds great from it options.

Quote from Becky Rose :

I've not done the menu's for it yet but the outguage relay just tested fine,

Sounds like a very good time to release a new version, so we can test it out
(okok, we can´t wait for a relay)

Great Work, keep it on

GREAT MOD!

I plan to do Estonian, but it will take pretty much time. 1. The recording 2. Editing

Yould you please send all the noises etc (backrounds)

I'm right now trying to figure out how to make my voice match the raido.

EDIT: Here is one sample, I need to configure the noise a bit, and the quality too ... http://my.opera.com/Lible/homes/files/fuel1.wav

I'm glad you appreciate it and i'll happily host the Estonian files for download when you are done.

The current files are 44Khz, 16bit, Mono. All "radio static" is added to the sounbds by the program and so your samples should be clear, the only thing you need to remember is to leave a pause long enough for the radio start tones (around 0.5 of a second).

It does not matter if your volume settings are different to the existing profile as the update in the next day or two will give you volume control, BUT all of your own samples should be recorded at the same volume level.

There are a few additional samples which will be needed soon that are currently not in the download, but i'm going to make all sounds fail safe soon so if you dont do a sample then no radio message is played. I'll post details of any new sounds added.

I'm back at work today (although still spluttering), but tonight I will recode the .wav's with an mp3 codec, put in a failsafe for missing samples in 3rd party profiles (so if I add a new sound file to the master set it wont break existing profiles), and i'll sort out the insim relay.

The relay is a lot of work as anyone who has dealt with insim may realise when they get the problem of two independent ISI packets with different settings... illepall so the insim relay might appear in stages with ever increasing compatability with other applications. (TechNote: I use MCI packets, i'll get as much as I can working with NLP packets for those mods that want NLP data, but it will loose a few of the radio warnings if a 3rd party mod only works with NLP packets.)

Pitspotter: The planned release tonight (or tomorrow) with the relay will work with pitspotter, however the two mods will talk over each other. My own version of pitspotter will come at a later time.

I found the time to test it, and i like it.

The PitRadio is really hard to understand, for me. But that´s only a question of the used sound-files, so don´t matter. I get or make SoundFiles i can understand better.

But a bad thing was, that i was on place 1 like 1-2 seconds ahead, and i got the messege i´m on place 2. That really needs to be fixed. It was no LFS-Error, my position-count on the display in LFS was on place 1 too.
I know, this is hard to code, cause those errors are in most Tools. I hope it´s possible to fix that.

Otherwise: Great Work,
and i hope i can test the next version soon.

EDIT: Could you insert an option to change the Audio-Device for the PitRadio?
I would like to get it, into my HeadSet, while i have my LFS-Sound on normal Speakers.