Soundscape

A soundscape is a type of audio script used to add ambience to maps. It can be used in any number of maps, requires only a single entity to implement, and does not generate any network traffic. Soundscapes use a mixture of looped and randomly played sounds, all of which have the option to be emitted from one of eight assignable target locations; DSP and Soundmixer profiles can also be enforced.

Only one soundscape can be active at any given time, and the individual sounds used within it cannot be controlled via inputs. When another soundscape is activated, the game will cross fade from one to the other.

Tip:Cross fade time is defined by the convar soundscape_fadetime.

Note:Mp3 looping doesn't work.

Browsing Soundscapes

Soundscapes are often stored across multiple text files, making it difficult to locate and test them. However, they are usually all listed in the <game>/scripts/soundscapes_manifest.txt file.

At the bottom of this article you will find links to lists of soundscapes for individual games, along with attempts at describing them.

You can browse through all the available soundscapes in a current game first hand, using the in-game console command PlaySoundscape. After typing in the first letter as the commands parameter, the auto-complete feature will list them as suggestions. You can then scroll through this list using the arrow keys.

Configuring Soundscapes

Soundscapes can only be configured through these entities:

• env_soundscape
• env_soundscape_triggerable

There are other entities which can activate the soundscape, but these are the only entities which actually define soundscape properties. The other entities will point to these and use them as masters to remotely trigger the soundscape.

Whenever these entities activate a soundscape, any positional audio will originate from the targets defined under their properties.

Tip: Many soundscapes define positions for sounds to emanate from, so it is always a good idea to peek into the soundscape entry and get a feel for what you can do. Most entries are found in the text files listed in the <game>/scripts/soundscapes_manifest.txt file. To better understand soundscape entries, see below.

Activating Soundscapes

Any soundscape entity that is enabled and becomes triggered by the player, activates its - or its master's - specified soundscape. Soundscapes remain active until a map change occurs, or another soundscape is activated, even if the entity that originally activated it becomes disabled.

Tip:The soundscape_flush console command will cancel an active soundscape.

Soundscape entities

Soundscapes can be activated by any of the following entities:

• env_soundscape
• env_soundscape_triggerable (in turn typically activated by a trigger_soundscape.)
• env_soundscape_proxy (in turn activated by a env_soundscape or an env_soundscape_triggerable.)

Soundscape entities are themselves point-based, but trigger when the player enters their specified radius and the entity has a line of sight to him.

The two exceptions to this are env_soundscape_proxy (that is triggered through an env_soundscape or an env_soundscape_triggerable), and env_soundscape_triggerable (that is typically set to also be triggered by a trigger_soundscape).

As only one soundscape can be active at any one time, if one or more soundscape entities are triggered simultaneously, the closest one is given precedence. (The radius of soundscape entities always take precedence over trigger_soundscape brushes.)

Note that a soundscape will not stop playing just because a player exits its radius or it loses line of sight to him.

Tip:Use the convar soundscape_debug to examine which entity is active and why.

Soundscape Placement

At first, a good rule is to place only as many soundscapes as you absolutely need. Try to choose from a similar set of soundscapes to be played, and then pick one that will be your primary soundscape. After that, place your secondary soundscapes at every contrasting location (e.g. house, generator room). Make sure that every location with localized sound effects has its own master soundscape that is tied to the proper targets.

Once you've gotten a general idea of where your soundscapes will be located, you'll then be able to start adding/configuring the entities that will trigger your soundscapes and create a kind of blueprint for how soundscapes will flow from one to another. In many cases, you'll be placing entities that block off all exits from your contrasting locations with triggers to your primary soundscapes. Basically, the goal is to anticipate the player's movement throughout the map, and to block off each area in such a way that it will always have the proper soundscape activated.

After your flow is organized, you'll be able to specialize your soundscapes/triggers to behave in complex ways (e.g responding to game events).

Creating Soundscapes

Soundscape scripts are very similar to soundscripts, but still remain entirely different things. Soundscapes require a few of their own rules, and are placed in plain text files that are separate from normal soundscript files. A typical soundscape file might be named soundscape_mall.txt and may contain anywhere from 5-30 different soundscapes that take on the following format...

<name>
{
	<rule>
	{
		<keyvalue>
		...
	}

	...
}

Common keyvalues

wave <string>

The path and filename of the sound to play, relative to game\sound\.

volume <normal>

1 is full power, 0 is silent.

pitch <integer>

Percentage value. +/-30 is the useful range.

position <0-7>

One of eight locations in the world (defined by the mapper) from which a sound can be emitted.

position random

As above, but the sound emits from a completely random location near the player.

attenuation <float>

How quickly the sound's volume drops as the camera moves away from it. Only relevant with a position specified.

Todo: What are the rules?

soundlevel <string>

Can be used instead of attenuation. Accepts one of the engine's pre-set values.

Warning:Remember to enclose any values with space characters in "quote marks".

Randomized values

Some rules accept 'upper' and 'lower' parameter values. For example:

"pitch"	"80,120"

Whenever the rule is executed the value will be randomly selected within the given range.

Rules

playlooping

Plays a sound constantly. Does not allow random values.

Note:Sound files will not properly loop unless they have a cue point. See Looping a Sound.

"playlooping"
{
	"volume"	"0.98"
	"pitch"		"110"
	"soundlevel"	"SNDLVL_85dB"

	"position"	"0"

	"wave"	"ambient/swamps/water_Lap_loop_st.wav"
}

playrandom

Plays a sound after given number of seconds. Allows random values.

Playrandom requires all wave KVs to be inside rndwave (even if there is only one). A random selection will be made every time the rule is executed.

"playrandom"
{
	"time"		"1,4"
	"volume"	"0.4,1"
	"pitch"		"90,105"
	"soundlevel"	"SNDLVL_85dB"

	"position"	"0"

	"rndwave"
	{
		"wave"	"ambient/wind/wind_med1.wav"
		"wave"	"ambient/wind/wind_hit1.wav"
	}
}

playsoundscape

Plays a complete soundscape. DSP presets in the 'sub-scape' are ignored.

name

Name of the soundscape to play.

position <int>

Offsets each position index of the sub-scape.

Todo: What does that mean?

positionoverride <int>

Forces all positioned sounds in the sub-scape to emit from one location.

ambientpositionoverride <int>

Forces all unpositioned (i.e. ambient) sounds in the sub-scape to emit from one location.

"SubScape"
{ 
	"playsoundscape"
	{ 
		"name"	"GenericIndoor"

		// Overall sub-scape volume to 50% 
		"volume"	"0.5"

		// Emit all positioned sounds from position 0
		"positionoverride"	"0"

		// Emit all ambient sounds from position 1
		"ambientpositionoverride"	"1"
	} 
}

dsp

Overrides the current DSP preset (which would otherwise be derived from the $surfaceprop of nearby materials).

For a list of values, open scripts\dsp_presets.txt. You may need to extract this from the relevant engine GCF with GCFScape. To preview a DSP preset, submit room_type <int> to the console.

Note:Be careful when setting presets in soundscapes that could be used in many different locations.

Note:You can also use dsp_volume to define how loud the dsp effect is.

// Disable DSP and play no ambient sounds 
"Empty"
{ 
	"dsp"	"0"
	"dsp_volume"	"1"
}

soundmixer

Selects a custom soundmixer. Soundmixers manage the priority and volume of groups of sounds; create new ones in scripts\soundmixers.txt (ALWAYS use Default_Mix as a template).

"quiet"
{
	"soundmixer"	"Citadel_Dialog_Only"

	...
}

Example

"swamp.water.slow"
{
	"dsp" "1"

	"playlooping"
	{
		"volume"	"0.98"
		"pitch"		"110"
		"soundlevel"	"SNDLVL_85dB"

		"position"	"0"

		"wave"	"ambient/swamps/water_Lap_loop_st.wav"
	}

	"playrandom"
	{
		"time"		"1,4"
		"volume"	"0.4,1"
		"pitch"		"90,105"
		"soundlevel"	"SNDLVL_85dB"

		"position"	"1"

		"rndwave"
		{
			"wave"	"ambient/wind/wind_med1.wav"
			"wave"	"ambient/wind/wind_hit1.wav"
		}
	}
}

Using custom soundscapes

Todo: An example using the full path of where Hammer and Face Poser can access the file using the default installation location of the Orange Box and SDK would be nice...for example does the file go in:

• C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\{username}\portal\scripts
• C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\{username}\portal\portal\scripts
• C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\{username}\sourcesdk\scripts
• C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\{username}\sourcesdk_content\scripts
• C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\{username}\sourcesdk_content\portal\scripts, or
• C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\{username}\sourcesdk_content\sdk\scripts?

Soundscapes can be stored in two ways:

• In the game specific text files listed in <game>\scripts\soundscapes_manifest.txt.

• In map specific text files. The soundscape name and location should be as following:

    <game>\scripts\soundscapes_<yourmapname>.txt

For example, with a Counter-Strike: Source map called de_kilo2.bsp:

    <game>\scripts\soundscapes_de_kilo2.txt

With proper naming of your soundscape script the game will load it when the map loads.

Note:All soundscape names must be globally unique within a game.

See also

• env_soundscape
• env_soundscape_proxy
• env_soundscape_triggerable
• trigger_soundscape
• Notepad++ VDF languages