Scattered Sound Module Random Panning?

FMOD Studio
1

Is there a way to turn this off with the scatterer sound?

I ask because I still would still like some 3D panning on my sound in-game, handled by FMOD’s 3D Panner effect, but I dont want random panning on the objects inside the scatterer module, I’m only trying to use it to introduce a delay time before the sound retriggers again.

Thanks all! :slight_smile:

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There are two ways to disable the random spatialization applied by a scatterer sound module.

The first is to set the scatterer sound module’s Min & Max scatter distance to 0. This prevents the scatterer sound module from adding 3D spatialization to the sounds it spawns.

The second is to replace the single sound modules in your scatterer sound module’s playlist with an event sound module, then place inside the nested event a multi sound module whose playlist contains the single sound modules that you want the scatterer sound module to play. Scatterer sound modules only automatically add 3D panner effects to single sound modules in their playlists, so wrapping those single sound modules in nested events prevents spatialization from being applied.

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3

Excellent, perfect! Just what I needed, thank you sir. :smiley:

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Thanks for your answer Joseph. I just stumbled upon this behaviour and I’m struggling with the logic a bit.

Setting the Min&Max Scatter Distance to 0 results in all sounds being equally loud, coming from no direction or distance at all. Correct? So it’s not really scattered anymore, but just a sophisticated sound spawner.

I read in the doc that single sounds in a scatterer container have a falloff of 20 (if I remember correctly). Wouldn’t this mean that setting the Max Distance to anything above 20 would mean that I’m not hearing those sounds anymore? It doesn’t make sense to have Min or Max Distance set to anything above 20 with single sounds and indeed, the scatterer sound is mostly silent in this case.

What would be the way to configure a scatterer sound. I would like to place it somewhere in my level, it’s a 2D sound, I would like the sound to be heard everywhere in the level, but with various distance. It should sound closer or farther away, from left and right, at random. But anywhere in the level, not just in a specific place. A 2D sound, heard everywhere, with the scattered component. Basically it would be as if the scatterer sound would be attached to the player character and moving with it. Is there a setting for that or do I literally need to attach it to the player?

Thanks
Chris

5

@Christoph Polus

Setting a scatterer instrument’s min and max distance to 0 prevents 3D Panners being automatically added to instances of single instruments spawned by that scatterer instrument, meaning that those single instruments will not be subject to 3D panning or distance attenuation unless it is applied by some other source.

It’s true that an instance that’s located more distance units away from the listener than that instance’s max falloff distance will be inaudible. However, that does not mean that instances of single instruments spawned by a scatterer instrument will always be inaudible if that scatterer insturment’s max distance is set to more than 20, for two reasons:

  • The random positions assigned by a scatterer are offsets from the position of the event emitter, not the listener; A spawn that’s far from the emitter could still be very close to the listener, and vice versa.
  • The max distance is the maximum distance a spawn may be from the event emitter. A spawn could easily be closer to the emitter than that, though it cannot be closer than the scatterer’s min distance.

The definition of a 3D sound in FMOD Studio is “a sound whose behavior changes depending on its position relative to the listener in 3D space.” As such, if you want to create a sound that sounds different depending on its distance and/or direction from the listener, that sound is by definition 3D.

If you want a scatterer instrument to spawn audio at random places near the listener, attaching the event emitter to the listener is probably the best option.

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Got it. Thank you Joseph! So ideally, if I want a scatterer sound to cover a bigger area, I need to up the spawn rate, so it’s statistically enough to hear some of those scatterer sounds somewhere in that area. OK!

And if I want a different falloff, I need to first create single instruments with different 3D settings and then add those into the scatterer instrument.

The thing that then doesn‘t make sense is a scatterer sound that is a 3D sound, right? Because the 3D setting works against / adds to the 3D attenuation of the scatterer sounds if I understand correctly?

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@ChristophPolus I’m afraid I don’t understand your final question. As I mentioned earlier, a 3D sound is defined as one whose behavior changes depending on the emitter’s position relative to the listener; there is no feature of a scatterer instrument that is incompatible with this definition.

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