Footsteps sounds missing

[jens]

It is possible this is a texture not actually used in the game, or used in a way where no footstep sound was needed, so the material configured to the texture links to a sound that does not actually exists.

You can edit the .mat file and set another material for the texture to get sound working.

[WALP]

It is possible this is a texture not actually used in the game, or used in a way where no footstep sound was needed, so the material configured to the texture links to a sound that does not actually exists.

You can edit the .mat file and set another material for the texture to get sound working.

Exactly how does materials pointing towards player footstep sounds even work? I am assuming it uses the name("plastic_hard" fx) because I cant find an option for it in the materials.cfg.
I more or less extracted the footsteps.fsb and found that the sounds the game cannot find are definitely there(fx: walk_default_plastic_hard_small_room_01). From this I can find only 2 possible explanations:

1. The way in which the material points towards the sound is incorrect.

2. Because reverb (small_room fx) is not specified, the game looks for a default file without reverb, but unlike other footstep sound files plastic_hard does not have one(in other words SOMA is looking for a file named walk_default_plastic_hard_01 inside footsteps.fsb, which does not exists).

if this is the case there are 2 fixes.

• We must add default files to the .fsb, either by creating new sounds, or copying the reverb ones and renaming them. I cannot do this step since I am unable to extract the sound files from the .fsb without corrupting them. If I was capable I would then import them(and all other footstep sounds the game uses) into fmod and reexport the player_footsteps.fsb, which I can replace using a mod.
  
  The files might be encrypted though, so maybe only frictional is capable of this, given they can be bothered at all(there is a tediously large amount of footstep sounds so I understand).
  
  This would be the best fix possible though.
  
  
• Alternatively, one can set the reverb settings to something we do have sound files for, like small_room fx, and hopefully SOMA should now be able to find the file. I have no idea how to change the reverb setting though, nor how it functions.
  

[triadtimes]

What Mug said sounds interesting, I was trying to figure out how footsteps were being called too.

That aside, the sounds (at least mine) are used in the game, chapter00. I'm using the wood flooring from the apartment and I have Player_SetFootWear("sneaker"); in my OnEnter, just like 00_01_apartment.hps. I checked both my floor and the apartment floor in the in-editor material editor and couldn't find any differences between them.

[WALP]

I DID IT I DID IT I DID IT! I FIXED IT AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I CARE SO MUCH!

Alright.

Some surfaces only have sounds with reverb available, and no default sound.

This means reverb must be enabled in the area you are in for the sounds to play.

You do this by adding a soundscape area to your map, and sizing it to fit your area. if it does not fit you have the option to use a mesh instead, or make use of multiple identical areas.

Once you have an area you want to go to the reverb tab and select a reverb type, I am not certain which one works best for what but I chose "Room".

After that is the most important part, which will make the area associate with reverb sound files.
Go to SoundPrefix tab and select a Prefix that is on one of the reverb sound files for your material.
If you do not know which one's are available(which 99% wont), then you can use an fsb extractor to get the sound files from the .fsb. They will most likely be corrupted but we just need the names.

If that is too tedious for you then guessing is the way to go I think. I am pretty sure the reverb types small,medium and large room are available for most footstep sounds. I went with "small_room" and I now have working footstep sounds on a plastic_hard floor that was silent before.


...I guess I stepped on that issue...

Spoiler below!

...and now you will step on me for how bad my puns are....gah!

[PathOS]

Congrats Mug! Hopefully someone adds that to the Wiki so others will know what needs to be done

[triadtimes]

Wow, nice find Mug! Yeah, looks like that solved those issues. Just one of those new things in HPL3 that you have to look out for, huh?