Stereo sound compiler for ETS2?

[HJALMAR]

Hi there.

Me and heavy machinery go along a long way now. I've been recreating some of the most iconic Scandinavian diesel engines and in the last months I've gotten even more annoyed about the current state of audio and engine sound producing inside ETS2 in particular.

I understand that the devs think that positional audio is a must but why does it have to be on the expense of stereo engine sounds?

Please, the development course of Euro Truck Simulator has been mind blowing in some aspects. I value the updates highly. But instead of another DLC or new vehicles being added, can we have proper, high quality stereo audio finally?

Watch on YouTube

I mean I want to make something truly great for ETS but currently I cannot..

[pigbrother]

Stereo engine sound? Your engine makes noise from two different spatial points? And no, I'm not talking about the noises made by different parts (pistons, turbine and so on).

Almost every sound in the real world is a point source. The stereophony was invented to replicate the real acoustic environment created by multiple sources, but most of those sources can be considered punctiform.

[JeeF]

Comes from 3 points: the engine and both exhausts.

[Leen]

Engine sound comes from below you even the tire rumble, exhaust sound you can't localize because the exhaust pipes are on the outside, ask yourself can you localize ever single sound in your private car? I can't.

[room217au]

Engine sounds are mono because it's much easier to manipulate mono source in a stereo environment. eg. Turn your head outside the driver's window.. slowly.. at some point the outside sounds will become louder, but only in your left ear.

[pigbrother]

It's called attenuantion, the waves reaching your left ear are not blocked by the windshield, hence they are louder. This thing doesn't make the engine sound to be stereophonic, only the audio environment.

Any instrument from an orchestra is monofonic, but the positioning and the different volume levels make it stereophonic. And even quadrophonic if you sit in the middle because the ears are more capable than left/right.

A fly is o monophonic source. But its flight creates a 3D audio environment.

But don't mistake the sound source(s) with the audio environment.

[room217au]

but with a stereo file you always have L and R. The individual file(s) need to be manipulated in game to achieve attentuation between channels in that file.
Using mono means separate files - and therefore separate levels - can be fed to L and R channels at will.

[pigbrother]

Actually, no, that's not how a 3D audio engine works.

The monophonic sound source can be positioned when and where is needed and creates a stereo or multi-channel environment. The special effects like attenuation, reflections, reverberations or echoes are created by the interaction of the sound waves with 3D models with special tags meaningful for the 3D audio engine. It's basically how raytracing works for light in 3D graphics engines, but now you work with sound waves. It's difficult and CPU intensive if you want to make it right, but the latter is less of a problem for ten years or so.

That's how A3D, EAX, Sensaura and OpenAL work or worked. And if you are going to dig into the specs of different 3D audio engines, you will find that most (in not all) of them cannot process stereo sounds and do 3D positioning in the same time.

[Drive Safely]

@HJALMAR - Hey, welcome to ETS2 sound modding. Great to see you doing sound modding for this game (your previous work in OMSI 2 is very nice)!
And I agree it would be nice if SCS could make some improvements.