Making AI traffic at an airport actually SOUND like an airport

[greengriffon 51]

Hi everyone,

 

For FS9, I bought a product called (if I remember correctly) FSHotSFX. It completely changed the way that AI aircraft sounded, and you could hear airliners from a fair distance away. They had a suitable roar on takeoff, and it was such a nice upgrade that I used to sit in my aircraft on the grass at a busy airport, and just watch/listen to the AI traffic come and go.

 

Now in FSX, I have Ultimate Traffic 2, and all that's really missing from my FSX AI traffic experience is.....SOUND! You have to be sitting right on top of an aircraft to hear anything, and even then, it's an anemic whine at best. The fact that a 747 sounds like a blow dryer really kills the "you are there" feeling for me. From years of addons and tweaks, I have everything else nailed in FSX, except this one (albeit major) issue.

 

Any suggestions on how to make my airports actually sound like airports?

 

Thanks,

GG

[CoolP 283]

There's a good thing, perhaps a bit on the pricey side when looking first. http://www.flight1.c...roduct=audioenv

 

It offers sound sets from TSS for all the big planes and also supports the major AI packages. Then there's some dll taking control of e.g. startup sounds and things. Since the sets are well done, you can also use those for your default planes or even replace some addon sound sets, which is what I did on my 737 Classic for example.

 

it's sold via the F1 system, so you can try it and get a 30 day money back guarantee.

[Drumcode 1,893]

There's a good thing, perhaps a bit on the pricey side when looking first. http://www.flight1.c...roduct=audioenv

 

It offers sound sets from TSS for all the big planes and also supports the major AI packages. Then there's some dll taking control of e.g. startup sounds and things. Since the sets are well done, you can also use those for your default planes or even replace some addon sound sets, which is what I did on my 737 Classic for example.

 

it's sold via the F1 system, so you can try it and get a 30 day money back guarantee.

 

I might shell out for this tonight. Do you own it Cool?

[Clutch Cargo 384]

I have been messing around with AI sound lately and discovered it is actually quite easy and sounds better than our FS9 counterpart. FSX has the capability built in and ready to be implemented. How?

 

I have been using the sounds from my other aircraft or have d/l sounds out there in the FS libraries. In a nutshell:

 

1. In your AI aircraft folder create a folder and call it SoundAI.

2. Copy over the sound files from your fav aircraft and include the sound.cfg file as well.

3. Rename that sound.cfg file to soundai.cfg.

 

Off the top of my head I think that's it (please correct me if I am wrong). Go out to an airport where you know that AI aircraft flies and do a little plane spotting to see if you hear it. Because there are more intricate sound files you will hear possible subtle changes that sound more realistic than the old FShotSFX way - what, they supplied three sound files. True, AI aircraft won't use all the sound files in the folder... I just don't want to take the time to figure exactly which files are not used and delete them. I have got the HD space so it's not a concern for me.

 

After you see how the basics are laid out you can get more fancy and efficient. Adding complete sound folders for every AI aircraft could quickly fill up your hard disk so that's where you want to start to "alias" your files. I've created a separate sound folder just for all my different aircraft with their sounds and copies of the alias soundai.cfg. Takes time to set it up but now I can quickly add ai planes and drop in the proper alias soundai.cfg file. Probably done several hundred by now.

 

Talk about getting a realistic sound environment. You hear engines spooling up, props spinning up on take off, cool taxi sounds, etc. One thing I should point out. Not all sounds are equal. By that I mean what sounds great for one of you flying aircraft may sound not so good as sound for it's ai counterpart.

Certain sounds (or should I say frequencies) may sound great if you our outside your aircraft and the AI roars by but if you go inside you may barely hear the sound or not at all. So it can take some trial and error or even replacing some files that you can hear better. Just depends how in-depth you want to go with this.

 

Hope that helps,

 

 

Clutch

[greengriffon 51]

Sorry, I completely missed your replies to my post. That's an awesome tip Clutch, I'm going to give that a try this week!

 

Thanks for the help guys.

[Mork 34]

I have bought the TSS package and have used the TrafficX update (i run TrafficX for my AI) and i think the airport sounds are still to low on volume. When i park my plane right next to the runway ,and a 737/747/Airbus is departing, i want a much louder roar than i hear now.

 

The TSS sound package is great, because it has realistic sounds, but the volume in the cockpit or outside is way to low!!

 

I read a lot of the same problems, but also ppl that complain about the noises being too loud?!

 

Another weird thing is that sometimes when i fly at about 8000 or 10.000 ft or something, i can here an AI engine spool up (probably flying over an airport?)

because the engine sounds at startup i can hear well, but the ROARRRRR sounds are way too soft for me.

[Johan_Dees 84]

Set sound lod to zero, see if that helps.

[Mork 34]

Set sound lod to zero, see if that helps.

Yea, that's a good tip. SOUND_LOD=0 is for telling FSX that you want to use the sound files in the AI aircraft\soundsai folder and not the default sounds that FSX provides.

 

So if you, like me, use TSS audio files and you put them in the SoundAI folder (or you only put a soundai.cfg with an alias directory there) at AI aircraft, than you have to set Sound_Lod to zero.

[jymp 168]

I agree FS9 and FSX need better AI sounds, especially on takeoffs, these tips are great.

[CoolP 283]

Do you own it Cool?

Oops, I've missed that question. Yes. And that sound LOD setting is vital, otherwise my AI sounds don't come up at all.

[FlyAndFight 37]

Excellent question, Green Griffon. Lots of good information in this thread.

 

Clutch, thanks for your info, in particular. This is something that I will experiment with.

[VeryBumpy 272]

So were there any results that worked in this thread? Airports are way too quiet, especially in outside views.

[cptrobie 2]

Newbee to adding sound here...

 

So how does each AI acft know if there is a "new" soundfile to use, does an entry in the AI aircraft.cfg file need to be made pointing to the files in this folder or perhaps that's what the sound.cfg file is for - please advise as I would like to "understand" how this works?

[cptrobie 2]

I have another question

 

CAVEAT: I don't have Audio Environment yet...

 

But after you purchase & install, can you add more TSS sound files for other aircraft (not included in software app install)?

Like say I purchase a TSS sound file for the Tupalov 154M from Simmarket - its not included in the app.

Of course this is assuming I had T 154M's used somewhere in UT2 :huh: