[Suggestion] Sound Blocks (Music Blocks)

[Admiral_Kirk]

Hello, I posted here today to mention a great Suggestion for that many people would love and could be used for many things. This suggestion is on Sound Blocks or could be called Music Blocks. This block could be used as with logic and lights or just by its self.

It could be used with logic and lights for example a Red Alert system from Star Trek. So when the inner ship remote is pressed while flying the ship the Red Lights will flash and the sound block would play a Star Trek Red Alert sound, which is nice for roleplaying.

This block could also be used for Theme Songs, for faction stations. I mean of this is that for example say you have a Deep Space Nine Station from Star Trek Deep Space Nine and I wish I could play the Theme Song of the show while flying to Deep Space Nine this would be a good example of a Theme Song used for a Faction Station.

But that's not all, You could then also have 2 more blocks associated with this Sound Block so for example one of those blocks could be used as a spot limiter, so say again you have a Deep Space Nine Station, I only want the Theme Song Music to play outside of the station instead of inside. Plus I want a different music inside of the station such as the Star Trek Earth Space Dock Station interior noise from Star Trek Online. That block could then limit to which sound goes where, so it would separate the areas it plays in.

The third block could be amplifier or volume changer / enhancer for the sound that comes from the Music Block / Sound Block.

< Well, that is mostly my proposal, sorry it isn't much formal. Please take this into consideration. I will also post this on the starmadedocks.net >

 

[Sgtwisky]

Ive thought this myself. I never could get into using note blocks in Minecraft due to the large number needed for most projects. But if we could select some sounds from the game itself. Like what you said about a red alert sound, maybe door sounds and other in game sounds as well as sound tracks and some unique to the blocks themselves it would be a great addition.

 

[NeonSturm]

We have display blocks and if you know programms like fruity-loops (proprietary) or rosegarden (free and for gnu/linux), you know that it doesn't need much information to define sound.

But you need to know that "frequencies interact"!

9 hertz and 6 hertz create a 3 hertz wave too, because 3 is the highest common frequency.

Additionally the 9 and 6 hertz may be reflected by a wall and spawn 18 and 12 hertz waves when the wall is at 1.5, 2.5, … times the wave length. It may spawn 27 and 18 hertz too, for example when the wall is at 1.333 distance and it bounces off again at a 1.3333 distance.
Because 18 is spawned twice, it does very unlikely spawn a sine-wave, more likely it overlaps one 18 hertz with a delayed 18 hertz and create M-shaped waves or a double-frequency 36 hertz wave.
Additionally to what happens in the instrument, especially cheap speakers can create some of these effects too.

That's why a guitar has such a complex sound pattern which is hard to reproduce by software.

​

If you didn't read all the technobabble above, just know that 1 cannon might sound nice and 4 cannons may create a noise you don't like.

That's why it is important to be able to choose the firing pattern of your broadside turrets when sound is added.
Example: Fire 1, 0.5 delay, Fire 2, 0.25 delay, Fire 3, 0.125 delay, Fire 4.
The delay needs to be adjusted to the sound-wave-pattern you are using for one weapon (or just try a few settings until you are happy).

If all weapons fire in a pattern, the whole pattern can be compiled into a new audio track and optimize cpu usage.
​

 

[Admiral_Kirk]

We have display blocks and if you know programms like fruity-loops (proprietary) or rosegarden (free and for gnu/linux), you know that it doesn't need much information to define sound.

But you need to know that "frequencies interact"!

9 hertz and 6 hertz create a 3 hertz wave too, because 3 is the highest common frequency.

Additionally the 9 and 6 hertz may be reflected by a wall and spawn 18 and 12 hertz waves when the wall is at 1.5, 2.5, … times the wave length. It may spawn 27 and 18 hertz too, for example when the wall is at 1.333 distance and it bounces off again at a 1.3333 distance.
Because 18 is spawned twice, it does very unlikely spawn a sine-wave, more likely it overlaps one 18 hertz with a delayed 18 hertz and create M-shaped waves or a double-frequency 36 hertz wave.
Additionally to what happens in the instrument, especially cheap speakers can create some of these effects too.

That's why a guitar has such a complex sound pattern which is hard to reproduce by software.

​

If you didn't read all the technobabble above, just know that 1 cannon might sound nice and 4 cannons may create a noise you don't like.

That's why it is important to be able to choose the firing pattern of your broadside turrets when sound is added.
Example: Fire 1, 0.5 delay, Fire 2, 0.25 delay, Fire 3, 0.125 delay, Fire 4.
The delay needs to be adjusted to the sound-wave-pattern you are using for one weapon (or just try a few settings until you are happy).

If all weapons fire in a pattern, the whole pattern can be compiled into a new audio track and optimize cpu usage.​

I did not think of that, but great to know for if they do decide to add sound blocks, which I think would be a great addition to the game.
I also have to say I didn't know that guitars have a complex sound pattern, I know how to play it my self but I never knew that which is really cool.

Like some people say, you learn things mostly everyday. This is one thing I learned today.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Could be useful for atmosphere, e.g.;

• out door sounds on planets and in bio-domes
• running river/water sounds.
• Pumping sounds
• Door sounds

So many uses, but would it be streamed or downloaded to a cache of some sort? Cache could get quote bulky.

 

[NeonSturm]

So many uses, but would it be streamed or downloaded to a cache of some sort? Cache could get quote bulky.

We don't store 64x64*32bit colour pixel for each block. We only use 12bit (or whatever) for the block's ID

The same could be true for sound. If we have as many sounds as we have blocks, this could be manageable.
Look for rosegarden and fruity-loops.​

 

[Snowtiger256]

I agree with this, a decent sound system in general could help immersion and make the player experience much better, and I'm not talking about just having sound blocks for ambience, we need a whole sound system rebuild. As with so many things in SM, the current sound system in game is largely just a placeholder system until the devs can get other stuff done, an it has been on the back burner for a long while. Until the sound system can be revamped, all things relating to sound are on hold, while the fevs work on other things.

I don't see the point of adding stuff like sound blocks or note blocks into the game, when the in-game sound system isn't even finished or being worked on actively by the devs.