Song entries: main ambients

lynx · February 17, 2019

I've checked all the data files using iesh to get more info. Last research showed it was used in bg1 and not in bg2 and iwd2. Here's the rest and some details.

Structure: https://gibberlings3.github.io/iesdp/file_formats/ie_formats/are_v1.htm#formAREAV1_0_Song_entries

iwd1, iwd2 and pst have no areas with any of those ambient fields set.

bg2 does have a few, mostly inns, probably copies of areas in bg1:

Spoiler

None of those sound files are present, but I didn't check if adding them makes a difference.

bg1 of course has a long bunch

Spoiler

If volume isn't printed, it's 100. There's a few cases where it differs between day and night, usually being louder in the night.

Almost a hundred use different ambients for the two fields (eg. two entries for day: : AMB_E19L and AMB_E19N). Don't know when this "extended" second field is supposed to come into play. Might be they're all longer and weren't used in low memory situations / settings. Bit 5 of the flags is supposed to toggle something like this, but I haven't checked.

EDIT: with 183 vs 1, the size hypothesis is confirmed. I checked the uncompressed sizes, which is not the same as length, but close enough. The outlier is amb_m14a vs amb_m14. Stuff for the fixpack, I guess.

Edited February 17, 2019 by lynx

Jarno Mikkola · February 17, 2019

What:

Quote

day: AMB_M09B:AMB_M09B

day: AMB_M09A:AMB_M09A

None of those sound files are present, but I didn't check if adding them makes a difference.

1

There are the amb_m09a.wav and the amb_m09b.wav in the AMBSound.bif -file in my BG2EE game.. assuming the non-EE games have them as well...

Missing ambient sounds have been known to cause a lot of lag. At least in BGT/Tutu related stuff.

lynx · February 17, 2019

I didn't check the EEs, but since they merged both datasets, it is not a surprised that you have them.

skellytz · February 17, 2019

My assumptions:

Main ambient 1 was supposed to be the low settings variant in BG1, but never got implemented. Many main ambient audio files were cut for this purpose and some even end with an "L" (which stands for "low").

Main ambient 2 is the normal settings variant. Since the low audio settings were never coded in BG1, it is the only variant played by default. Some ambient files intended for this variant end with an "N" ("normal").

These sounds are affected by the ambient volume slider in the game options. The volume is also modified by the values set in the songs section and AREA_AMB in SNDCHANN.2da.

In BG2, instead of further improving the songs section playback method, the devs decided to move main ambients from songs to ambients section, which then got working flags for other kinds of settings. That's why main ambients from the songs section aren't affected by "No High Memory Ambient Sounds" or "Disable All Ambient Sounds" -- only sounds from the ambients section support these settings.

Edited February 20, 2019 by skellytz

skellytz · February 18, 2019

A small update regarding SNDCHANN.2da:

- AREA_AMB modifies the volume of main ambients in the ARE songs section (BG1 main ambients), as well as ambients in the ARE ambients section with both looping and ignore radius flags (BG2 main ambients).

- AMBIENTL modifies the volume of ambients in the ARE ambients section with the looping flag.

- AMBIENTN modifies the volume of all other ambients in the ARE ambients section.

Edited February 18, 2019 by skellytz

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Song entries: main ambients

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