Music and sounds

[Kiwi2703]

Hello there
I'd like to ask you a general question about using music and sounds in custom stories, because this is the only area of interest left that I am not really sure of.
What's the best way to create (put in the story): 1) general music, 2) sectional music, 3) occasional sound effects?
I mean - should I place the fancy speaker icon in level editor with some music in it above the area to create general music for the area? Or should I script it directly into the player's ears?
Because music is half of the atmosphere of the game, I would really like to know the best way of placing and using it in my custom stories.
Thanks for any responses and solutions!

[Adny]

Most of the sounds will be placed via scripting; there are a few situations where you would want to place a sound using the sound tool in the level editor.

-General Music can be used with the function PlayMusic.

-Event music can be played, just make sure the priority (int alPrio) is higher than your ambient music, and make sure looping isn't activated. If done properly, the music should naturally return back to the ambient music.

-For most looping ambient sounds I use PlayGuiSound (there are some exceptions, but I'll get into those later). PlayGuiSound can support multiple sounds at once (if you want to combine ambiences), and you can adjust the volume unlike PlaySoundAtEntity.

-The sound tool can be used for placing isolated looping sounds in a level. Any sound you use that has something like "no3d" in the name means no matter where you are in the level, you can hear it. I prefer not to use the sound tool for sounds the player is meant to hear from anywhere in the level because if the player looks around, the volume pan will change, and that annoys me.

-You can loop and randomize sounds that aren't meant to loop; it takes some scripting, but can really add to the atmosphere.

In my opinion, there should never be complete silence; either event music, normal music or ambient sounds should be heard at all times. Sound is one of the most powerful parts of creating Amnesia's atmosphere, and is terribly underused in many mods.

[Kiwi2703]

Thank you very much for response!