2012-02-24 22:08:05

Yos and heys.

I threw this together in a few minutes, so how it works probably needs refining. I wanted to see if I'm going in the right direction, though, and if anyone has any ideas for improvement:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16520690/ambpath.zip

Something I've been wanting to do in Audio games for years and years is to try and simulate realistic cane-free navigation. I really don't think this does it, but it's kind of an offshoot of my main idea in that direction.
Instead of having objects make sound, the idea is that barriers break sound. In this case, the position of the ambience indicates how much space there is in a given direction.
This doesn't work so well for narrow spaces, so I also have it adjust the pitch based on how much overall space there is. The lower the pitch, the narrower the passage that you're in.
So if the sound is loud,  centered, and at the original pitch, then you have the same amount of space in all directions, and it's reasonably large.
If it's quiet, off to the right and slightly low-pitched, then you're probably in the northwest corner of an area.

Good luck, and be sure to punch Daredevil in the face for that rain myth.

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2012-02-24 22:54:37

Hi,

To be fair, it confused me at first. However, I think I somehow got the hang of it. big_smile

Next thing to do is let you be able to get those items again. You know, that iPhone did cost quite a lot of money. Same for the PSP. Dunno why I carried it around. Lol

--
Talon
Wanna play my Games? Listen to my Music? Follow me on Twitter, and say hi~
Code is poetry.

2012-02-24 23:19:34

Hi. hmm i don't get it. do you senter the rain and follow it?
it seams like a good thing to use in games but i don't understand how it works.
oh well lol.

I'm gone for real :)

2012-02-24 23:42:12 (edited by CAE_Jones 2012-02-24 23:43:16)

The rain doesn't tell where to go, so much as where you can! go. It's supposed to give you an idea of the shape of the room, and where you are therein. You'd have to move around a bit to be able to use it to pick up where the path changes.
Basically, it's a big maze, and the rain is supposed to help you make sense of the layout.

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2012-02-26 15:09:28

It really confused me in the beginning but i think i sort of got the hang of it.  It doesn't seem to be a very effective way to navigate yet, but i can see it being useful in games.  Its hard for me to get a picture of the map only based on the sound of the rain, but maybe that's just me.  When the sound is centred it is hard to tell where you can go since i still ran into walls.  It was most useful to tell when a path opens to your left or right, but for going forward and backwards it didn't seem to help me that much.  I wouldn't have found the southeast corner if i didn't use my usual method of bumping along walls to find my way.  Just my thoughts.  Maybe i just need some practice to get it right.

2012-02-26 15:56:40

Front and back is definitely where things are hardest. If something easier to understand can be made of this, I'd like to apply it to more complicated environments, but the issues with this one need to be figured out first...
Actually, this is one of the things I was trying to get a better idea of how to use with those recordings I made using my headphones... but I think I kinda got distracted by the sounds and the 3d effects. And my headphones are starting to short out on one side, so I'm not sure if they can survive me doing more tests like that. (Really need to find another pair like this. They've lasted about three years and can take a lot of punishment...).

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2012-02-26 21:16:45

Hi.
i have a pare of beat headphones and i keap dropping them lol and they haven't broken ye... crash! ahh! erm yeah well looks like they might have broken now. lol joking but there really good for bass and i hope they last me a long time.

I'm gone for real :)

2012-02-27 09:16:49

Hmm... I got inside, but I didn't get the point. As said before, it's easiest to hear when you  can go left or right.
Any way, I find it very interesting.

To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower.
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.
William Blake - Auguries of Innocence, line 1 to 4

2012-02-27 15:40:01

Hi,
Indeed it is. My problem is that this approach ruins realism.
If I had to simulate a rainy map, I'd use various sound sources, or raindrops, as you move along. They would not be realistic still, but imho it'd be a bit more realistic than what you have now.
Though, this approach would work very nicely in Japanese anime-style games.

Just my opinion smile
Rob

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Robjoy, AKA Erion
Visit my site for all the things I do and to contact me.
You can also stop by for a slice of Pi

2012-02-27 16:19:46

Well, naturally the most realistic way would be to simulate either every rain drop, or at least quite a few small affected areas, which would require quite a lot of processing power. Ur, and patience on the programmer's part, heh.
And really, that would result in a lot of noise that would make it harder to navigate, unless it's a very light rain.

The rain was really just the ambience I wound up going with because it was the easiest to use for this test. That it lent itself to little story blurbs was just a happy coincidence.

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2012-02-27 20:39:51

Hi,
Ah I see. Well, if you are indoors and you have, let's say, a huge and noisy machine in the same room or corridor, it could work. The problem with rain is that it is supposed to be a global ambience, but I think I see your point now.

Rob

----------
Robjoy, AKA Erion
Visit my site for all the things I do and to contact me.
You can also stop by for a slice of Pi