Localized "Random()"?

[Ghost_Fang]

I have an observation followed by a question. My friend had made me some zombie sounds, a few for each action, sight, idle, attack, etc. And i thought it would be really simple to make it random for each sound to be played. so i did the correct random code an stuff and it worked great. Until i tested it with a horde, turns out that "random()" is global? Is that correct? If 3 or 4 zombies attacked at the same, it played the same sound. If there was a group and they saw you ALL of them played the same sight sound.

If (random() == global) (lol)
{
How do i make it per enitity? Is it possible? Or at least what can i do to make it different enough to that any sound initiated at the same time wont be the same?
};

[Urre]

I've never experienced the problem you're describing. If you show us some code, we might be able to help track down the problem more easily!

Yours sincerely

Bananas

[r00k]

GLOBAL as in attenuation?

example:

Code: Select all

   rs = rint((random() * 5) + 1);

   self.noise = "";
   if (rs == 1)
      self.noise = "player/pain1.wav";
   else if (rs == 2)
      self.noise = "player/pain2.wav";
   else if (rs == 3)
      self.noise = "player/pain3.wav";
   else if (rs == 4)
      self.noise = "player/pain4.wav";
   else if (rs == 5)
      self.noise = "player/pain5.wav";
   else
      self.noise = "player/pain6.wav";

   sound (self, CHAN_VOICE, self.noise, 1, ATTN_NORM);


ATTN_NORM makes it not a global sound

[Spike]

random will return a different value each time its called. it has nothing to do with the entity that is currently set to self.
You're just being unlucky, or you're swamping the client with too many sounds for it to play them all at once, or something. Or maybe the one that you do hear is just a little louder.

[r00k]

Oops! Late night->morning post i misread his situation.
Though, if the channel is GLOBAL then only one sound will be heard.

A method to possibly hear each zombie "moan" individually,
without overlapping could be to stagger the time when they make
the noise. This way as one sound is ending another sound can use that channel.
Yet this may sound like a "left-to-right" crowd cheering

His problem is not unlike the start of e1m3, with a high skill value,
when there are 3 or more zombies, moan same sound, and when u gib them with the GL, they make the same noise at the same time...

[frag.machine]

If you want to ensure every zombie plays a different sound from the other, don't use random(). Keep the last played sight sound index as a global var and refer to it, updating when using the value:

Code: Select all

float sight_sound;

string () nextZombieSightSound =
{
  sight_sound = sight_sound + 1;
  if ((sight_sound > MAX_SIGHT_SOUNDS) || (!sight_sound))
  {
    sight_sound = 1;
  }

  if (sight_sound == 1)
  {
    return ("zombie/sight1.wav");
  }
  else if (sight_sound == 2)
  {
    return ("zombie/sight2.wav");
  }
  // (...)
  else
  {
    return ("zombie/sightN.wav");
  }
};


[Ghost_Fang]

This is basically what I was doing to try to randomize sounds:

Code: Select all

void()   knight_runatk1   =[   $runattack1,      knight_runatk2   ]
{
if (random() < 0.4)
   sound (self, CHAN_WEAPON, "knight/attack1.wav", 1, ATTN_NORM);
else if (random() > 0.7)
   sound (self, CHAN_WEAPON, "knight/attack3.wav", 1, ATTN_NORM);
else
   sound (self, CHAN_WEAPON, "knight/attack2.wav", 1, ATTN_NORM);
ai_charge(20);
};


It worked well with one zombie, but in hordes, some zombies attacked at the same time playing the same sound, and it gets kind of annoying when 3 or 4 zombies are making the same exact sounds 90% of the time.

But I used frag.machine's method and it seemed to randomize it a bit more. I only did it to sight and attack. Those were the only 2 real problems.

[r00k]

It might be a bit confusing since you are using knight animation frames with the zombie?

Also you only have 0.2 chance of playing one of 3 sounds.
Try, < 0.33 >0.66 else...

[Ghost_Fang]

how many digits does random() do? i thought it was only to the tenth decimal (0.X) it does it to the hundredth? If i would have known i would have done that.

This is what i was thinking:

< 0.4 would be 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3.
> 0.7 would be 0.8, 0.9, and 1.0
else would be 0.4, 0.5, and 0.6

This was when i thought random() only did tenth decimal.

[Spike]

the 'spec' doesn't mention a precision anywhere. Which can change depending on platform anyway..
Its a number between 0 and 1.
There's generally more than 1k graduations.

[hondobondo]

This is basically what I was doing to try to randomize sounds:

Code: Select all

void()   knight_runatk1   =[   $runattack1,      knight_runatk2   ]
{
if (random() < 0.4)
   sound (self, CHAN_WEAPON, "knight/attack1.wav", 1, ATTN_NORM);
else if (random() > 0.7)
   sound (self, CHAN_WEAPON, "knight/attack3.wav", 1, ATTN_NORM);
else
   sound (self, CHAN_WEAPON, "knight/attack2.wav", 1, ATTN_NORM);
ai_charge(20);
};


It worked well with one zombie, but in hordes, some zombies attacked at the same time playing the same sound, and it gets kind of annoying when 3 or 4 zombies are making the same exact sounds 90% of the time.

But I used frag.machine's method and it seemed to randomize it a bit more. I only did it to sight and attack. Those were the only 2 real problems.

you will get better results the more sounds you have to choose from. also maybe some sounds are louder than others? this will affect your perception of what sounds are being used

[Ghost_Fang]

Yea, the more the better would make it even more random, and they are all about the same volume. And they are very distinctive between each other so i would be able to tell regardless.