Thruster Sounds [examples included]

[mindlord0013]

So, I've been thinking: ships should make sounds when they're moving. I know it's "unrealistic" for ships to be heard in deep space, but I think it would make the universe seem a little more lively (especially since there is no music as of yet). My suggestion will come in a number of parts, including fine details in the implementation.

The first part is how a ship sounds. Since people probably wouldn't want all the ships in the universe to sound the same, there could be 3 options (picked from a drop-down menu in the "thruster" tab). The pitch and speed of the sound selection is dependant on the overall mass of the ship. I've made 3 sound examples, with variations each for small, medium, and large ships. They could use some work, but they give you an idea of what they sound like.

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Schinetech Engine

The default thruster noise, I was going for "clean/standard sci-fi". I literally couldn't come up with a better name, so I thought I would name it after the devs.


Lore: "The Schinetech Engine is a high-tech thruster model that uses pure energy to charge deep-space particles, turning them into Schine-Promesberger ions. These ions create an area of positive energy, propelling the ship in the desired direction."

Small ship example
Medium ship example
Large ship example

Impulse Thruster

To put it in two words: "space diesel". Dirty, lived in, well used, hardy.

Lore: "Impulse Thrusters work by creating electromagnetic-gravity fields, which fluctuate at ultra-low frequency. These fields create areas of negative energy, propelling the ship in the desired direction."

Small ship example
https://soundcloud.com/mindlord0013/impulse-small
Medium ship example
Large ship example
https://soundcloud.com/mindlord0013/impulse-large
Rocket Propulsion

Does this really need explanation? Please note there is a clicking issue with these sounds, which I now know how to resolve. These will need to be redone eventually.

Lore: "The oldest form of space travel, using solid fuel synthesised from pure energy."

Small ship example
https://soundcloud.com/mindlord0013/rocket-small
Medium ship example
Large ship example
https://soundcloud.com/mindlord0013/rocket-large

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The easiest part of the sounds are the volume, which is based on current speed compared to the ship's max speed. Silent when not moving, whilst loud when reached it's max possible speed (even if it isn't accelerating).

Ships would also create a sort of "bubble of sound". the example I have isn't the best scale (obviously the radius of the "sound bubble" would be much, much larger relative to the size of the ship). This sound bubble is easiest to base off the ships centre of mass, and modulates volume based off the proximity to that point. A player standing right at the centre of mass could hear the engines, but it would be relatively quiet. A certain distance away and it would be at it's loudest, before getting gradually quieter as you get further away from that point.

This example was a poor scale, but you get the idea. The sphere would be of a size relative to the mass of the ship (or the dimensions, or both), so a ship with a larger mass would have a larger bubble of sound.

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That's all I can think of for the moment regarding this situation. I'll add anything that comes to mind later below.

Due to media limit constraints, I'm just putting links to the small and large sounds here. I'll do a post for the small ship sounds, and another for the large ship sounds in new posts.

 

[mindlord0013]

Impulse Engine Small
Impulse Engine Large

Rocket Propulsion Small
Rocket Propulsion Large

 

[canadianbacon]

Those schine engines are pure earrape.

This is fine, but I don't expect anything like this until beta.

 

[SuperWookie]

The only decent sounding engines there were the rocket propulsion's, the rest either hurt my ears or sounded like someone banging a drum. I'm all for cool sound effects in space though, such as explosions and thrusters. Sure sound in space is unrealistic, but so are space whales :P

 

[Benevolent27]

I like the idea to have sounds on ships and to make them different. You're right, the world is pretty dead feeling due to the lack of sound.

To add to this, why not make it so the person has a slider bar to change the tone, frequency, speed, etc. for their ship? Maybe they could overlap a few sounds. There could be presets, which would sound similar to your examples. This would allow for more variability.

Also, I liked the sounds you gave as examples. Though, with the first set, the engine whine was a bit much; it kind of hurt my ears a little. But I was impressed with the rest of them.

 

[jayman38]

I would like to see different thruster groups to have different sounds, so that the sound can change as you move from one part of the ship to another. Then you can place different thruster groups near different "subsystems", which then inherit the sound of the nearby thruster groups, if only to improve RP.

(Maybe something similar for shield blocks, so that you can put different soundscapes throughout the ship.)

When quarters/rooms are introduced, they should have a sound-dampening option, to simulate different levels of insulation and "quiet" for different rooms. ("Enter the cone of silence!")

 

[NeonSturm]

Impulse Engine Large

With a singer and another instrument, you get music from your Large Impulse-Engine sound :D​

I don't agree with it playing near top-speed.

To make these sounds interesting, you need randomisation of replay-speed and volume.
Related : The Ability to Upload, Create, or Select Custom Noises for Individual Ships