Sound
ID: The name of the sound. Sounds can be directly associated with some object types, such as containers, doors, creatures, and Magic Effects, using TESCS. They can also be indirectly associated with some objects via the mesh file (some meshes have a sound associated with a certain material name or animation state). The Sound ID is also used when compiling scripts that play a sound (i.e., using PlaySound).
To change a sound that's linked via a mesh animation, you'll need a tool like NifSkope. Open the animation .kf file (e.g., idle.kf) or in some cases the mesh itself (if the animation is embedded in the .nif) and look for a NiTextKeyExtraData node. In it you'll find a list of strings associated with time values. Look for entries containing 'Sound: SoundID' (e.g., Sound: ENDDragonWingFlap01). These entries make the game play that Sound ID at the specified time in the animation cycle.
Add Sound File: Click this button in order to select the file that this sound will point to (the file that will be played when this sound is called in the game).
- Like most dialogs in the Construction Set, in order to use the "Add Sound File" button, a familiar directory hierarchy must exist relative to the Master file. To add new sounds, they must reside under the "Oblivion\Data\Sound\fx" directory. This directory must exist before the Open File dialog will appear.
- Although you may select any file from the open dialog, only wave files are valid.
- The selected WAV file must be saved in Mono format unless the 2D box is checked below.
- You may select a directory instead of a single file. In this case a random file within that directory will be played; files in sub-directories will be ignored.
Play: Plays the current sound file if one is being pointed to. This only works if you apply your changes by hitting OK and then opening the sound object again. You must have your Sounds BSA file unpacked to use this.
Stop: Stops playback of any currently playing sound.
Minimum Attenuation Distance (units): Defines the sound's inner radius, measured in game units. The inner radius is the distance from the sound source at which the player will hear the sound at it's maximum defined volume, or static attenuation (see below). Between the inner and outer radius there is a logarithmic volume falloff curve. (In order to use dynamic attenuation the sound must be in mono, and the PlaySound3D function must be used).
Maximum Attenuation Distance (units): Defines the sound's outer radius, measured in game units. The outer radius is the distance fromthe sound source at which the player will hear the sound at its minimum volume, just before it can no longer be heard (playback ceases). Between the inner and outer radius there is a logarithmic volume falloff curve. (In order to use dynamic attenuation the sound must be in mono, and the PlaySound3D function must be used).
Static Attenuation (dB): Defines how much a sound's volume is attenuated from that of the source sound file itself. For that reason, you should always endeavor to author sound files normalized to or close to 0dBFS (dB full scale), and then use this fader to attenuate from there. Note that while the values of this fader do not display logarithmically, the perception of the sound in the game will be. For all practical purposes 0dB(FS) is maximum volume relative to the source file, and -96dB(FS) is considered completely silent.
Frequency Adjustment (%): Static adjustment of sound's frequency, positive or negative.
Random Frequency Shift: Toggles Frequency Adjustment to function as Frequency Variance. This variable will now affect how much frequency (pitch) shifting is performed upon each instance of playback of the sound.
Play At Random: <not currently supported>
Random Location: <not currently supported>
Loop: Indicates that the sound is set to loop. This will cause the playback of this sound to loop regardless of whether the source file is authored to loop or not (using markers, loop regions, or any other type of metadata within the audio file).
Menu Sound: <not currently supported>
Environment Ignored: <not currently supported>
2D: Indicates that a sound file is stereo/2D, and thus any radius settings are irrelevant as the sound will have no specific point of origin.
360 LFE: Indicates that any qualifying audio data from the sound (low end information) can be sent to the LFE channel on the Xbox360's audio output. When left unchecked, no audio data will make it to the Xbox360's LFE channel.
Starts at: Indicates the starting time of the range in time at which this sound will be able to play. This is used to restrict times of day for playback of a particular sound.*
Ends at: Indicates the finishing time of the range in time at which this sound will be able to play. This is used to restrict times of day for playback of a particular sound.*
- Setting the starting and finishing time to the same time of day will cause any time restrictions to be ignored. In other words, leaving both set to their default 'Midnight' means that the sound can play all twenty-four hours of the day.