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Sound Effects

docs/source/reference/modding/sound-effects.rst

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############# Sound Effects #############

Every game needs sound effects to create the best possible player experience. Audio files are played during a variety of in-game situations and this is how they are set up in OpenMW. Some are user-definable, while a lot of them are hardcoded to specific names.

Supported Formats

OpenMW uses FFmpeg <https://ffmpeg.org/>_ and thus supports many formats. For sound effects we suggest using 16-bit .wav files.

Sound File, Sound, Sound Gen

  • Sound File record in OpenMW-CS is the audio file on the disk. When files are placed in data/sound and its subfolders, OpenMW-CS will list them in a table. Sound File records aren't used directly in OpenMW-CS but must first be assigned to a Sound record.
  • Sound is the record that can be assigned to other records in OpenMW-CS. It needs a Sound File assigned, has volume, min range, and max range properties.
  • Sound Generator record is used for creature animation events (groan, get hit, die, footsteps). It takes the Sound record and defines what creature uses this effect and when.

.. note:: Newly created Sound records in OpenMW-CS have their Max Range value set to 255. This can cause the sound to not be audible in-game. To fix this, set the mentioned value to 0.

Hardcoded Effects

The following sound effects are hardcoded. They require a properly named Sound record and will then be used in their relevant in-game situations.

Ambient

.. list-table:: :widths: 35 65 :header-rows: 1

    • Sound name
    • Situation used
    • ashstorm
    • During an ash storm
    • blight
    • During the red blight storm
    • blizzard
    • During a blizzard
    • rain
    • During rainy weather
    • rain heavy
    • During stormy weather
    • thunder0
    • Played randomly during stormy weather
    • thunder1
    • Played randomly during stormy weather
    • thunder2
    • Played randomly during stormy weather
    • thunder3
    • Played randomly during stormy weather
    • underwater
    • When the camera is under the water level
    • water layer
    • When the player is near the water level

.. note:: Names for these sounds can be changed in openmw.cfg but we strongly suggest they stay the same. Another issue is with ashstorm, blight, blizzard which have missing or erroneous fallback lines, unless they were imported from Morrowind. These will be fixed with the planned dehardcoding of weather types and using Lua.

Equiping items and weapons

Sound names in this category follow a pattern.

  • Each name contains the type of object this sound applies to.
  • Names ending with up are used when the item type is picked up, equiped, readied, or grabbed in the inventory.
  • Names ending with down are used when the item type is dropped, unequiped, put away, or released in the inventory.

.. list-table:: :widths: 35 :header-rows: 1

    • Sound name
    • item ammo up
    • item ammo down
    • item apparatus up
    • item apparatus down
    • item armor heavy up
    • item armor heavy down
    • item armor light up
    • item armor light down
    • item armor medium up
    • item armor medium down
    • item bodypart up
    • item bodypart down
    • item book up
    • item book down
    • item clothes up
    • item clothes down
    • item gold up
    • item gold down
    • item ingredient up
    • item ingredient down
    • item lockpick up
    • item lockpick down
    • item misc up
    • item misc down
    • item potion up
    • item potion down
    • item probe up
    • item probe down
    • item repair up
    • item repair down
    • item ring up
    • item ring down
    • item weapon blunt up
    • item weapon blunt down
    • item weapon bow up
    • item weapon bow down
    • item weapon crossbow up
    • item weapon crossbow down
    • item weapon longblade up
    • item weapon longblade down
    • item weapon shortblade up
    • item weapon shortblade down
    • item weapon spear up
    • item weapon spear down

Combat

.. list-table:: :widths: 35 65 :header-rows: 1

    • Sound name
    • Situation used
    • bowpull
    • Start of a bow attack
    • bowshoot
    • A bow is released and fires an arrow
    • critical damage
    • Critial damage is dealt
    • crossbowpull
    • Start of a crossbow attack
    • crossbowshoot
    • A crossbow is released and fires a bolt
    • hand to hand hit
    • Hitting a valid target with fists
    • hand to hand hit 2
    • Hitting a valid target with fists
    • heavy armor hit
    • A character wearing heavy armour is hit
    • light armor hit
    • A character wearing light armor is hit
    • medium armor hit
    • A character wearing medium armor is hit
    • miss
    • An attack misses
    • weapon swish
    • Melee or thrown weapon attack. The sound is modulated based on attack strength.

UI

.. list-table:: :widths: 35 65 :header-rows: 1

    • Sound name
    • Situation used
    • book close
    • A book or journal is closed
    • book open
    • A book or journal is opened
    • book page
    • Go to the previous page of a book or journal
    • book page2
    • Go to the next page of a book or journal
    • menu click
    • Mouse click on a button
    • scroll
    • book object of a scroll type is opened or closed

Movement

Movement sounds apply to the player and NPCs, together reffered to as characters. Each sound is played in a specific in-game situation and requires a textkey.

  • When the sound name ends in left it plays when soundgen: left occurs.
  • When the sound name ends in right it plays when soundgen: right occurs.
  • Landing requires soundgen: land

.. list-table:: :widths: 25 75 :header-rows: 1

    • Sound name
    • Situation used
    • defaultland
    • When a character lands on the ground
    • defaultlandwater
    • When a character lands in water
    • footbareleft
    • While walking, running, or sneaking on land and not wearing armour
    • footbareright
    • While walking, running, or sneaking on land and not wearing armour
    • footheavyleft
    • While walking, running, or sneaking on land and wearing heavy armour boots
    • footheavyright
    • While walking, running, or sneaking on land and wearing heavy armour boots
    • footlightleft
    • While walking, running, or sneaking on land and wearing light armour boots
    • footlightright
    • While walking, running, or sneaking on land and wearing light armour boots
    • footmedleft
    • While walking, running, or sneaking on land and wearing medium armour boots
    • footmedright
    • While walking, running, or sneaking on land and wearing medium armour boots
    • footwaterleft
    • While walking, running, or sneaking in shallow water
    • footwaterright
    • While walking, running, or sneaking in shallow water
    • swim left
    • When swimming
    • swim right
    • When swimming

Interactions

.. list-table:: :widths: 35 65 :header-rows: 1

    • Sound name
    • Situation used
    • disarm trap
    • A trap is successfully disarmed
    • disarm trap fail
    • Attempt to disarm a trap is unsuccessful
    • enchant fail
    • Enchanting or recharging an item fails
    • enchant success
    • Enchanting or recharging an item is successful
    • lockedchest
    • Trying to open a locked chest
    • lockeddoor
    • Trying to open locked doors
    • open lock
    • Unlock attempt succeeds
    • open lock fail
    • Unlock attempt fails
    • potion fail
    • Brewing a potion fails
    • potion success
    • Brewing a potion succeeds
    • repair
    • Repair of an item is successful
    • repair fail
    • Repair attempt of an item fails
    • spellmake fail
    • Attempt at creating a new spell fails
    • spellmake success
    • Creating a new spell is successful

Misc

.. list-table:: :widths: 35 65 :header-rows: 1

    • Sound name
    • Situation used
    • drink
    • The player consumes a potion
    • drown
    • Looping while the player is underwater and out of breath
    • health damage
    • When a character or creature takes damage
    • skillraise
    • When a skill is raised
    • swallow
    • The player consumes an ingredient
    • torch out
    • When the currently equipped torch is extinguished

User-defined Sound Effects

Lights

Objects of Light type can be assigned a sound record that will be played repeatedly.

Activators

Activators can play a sound effect through their assigned script. This method
can be used to place unique, localized sound effects in the world.

Doors

Objects of Door type can be assigned two sounds. One is played when the door is used or opened. The other is played when the door is closed. Locked door sound is hardcoded and listed in a prior table.

Magic effects

Each Magic Effect has four slots where sounds are assigned.

  • Casting Sound - when the spell with this magic effect is cast
  • Hit Sound - when the spell hits a target
  • Area Sound - when the spell hits an area target
  • Bolt Sound - projectile from this magic effect

Regions

A Region has a Sounds table where it can be assigned any number of sounds. These are played while the player is in this region and are given a chance how often they will be heard.

NPCs speaking

NPCs can utter a Sound in specific in-game situations. These are assigned through Topic Infos and occur depending on the Topic in use.

  • Alarm
  • Attack
  • Flee
  • Hello
  • Hit
  • Idle
  • Intruder
  • Thief

Creatures

Creatures get sound effects through Sound Generator records. A Sound Generator is assigned a creature it will affect and set a type.

  • Land
  • Left Foot
  • Moan
  • Right Foot
  • Roar
  • Scream
  • Swim Left
  • Swim Right

Each type relates to a specific in-game event or an event defined in the creature's animation textkey file.