More sonar engine sounds?
 

Is there a mod available that will add more different types of engine sounds for various ships, to make identification easier through sonar?

I'm sure in the war many sonar operators could tell what type of ship they were listening to in general and could probably identify it's approximate size by the sound.

Personally i find it hard to tell the difference between a frigate, light or heavy cruiser, battleship or carrier because they all sound so similar.

Merchants/cargo's and tankers also sound similar, though the heavier merchants/cargo's seem to be lacking the little "chink" or "tinkle" and sound a bit deeper.

Could be my inexperience or stupidity but i wondered if there are more varied engine sounds available as a mod anywhere?

Ok, should have done this before posting but i just checked the sound folder and theres seperate -hyd- files for the carrier, king george, and dido, so perhaps i need to get between a carrier and battleship with a cruiser in front or behind and compare.

A different sound for the frigate would still be nice tho, to save me getting my hopes up for nothing.

There's also files for the cargo, liberty ship, oil tanker, passenger ships and subs, but theres so many ships in these groups, mainly the cargo's and oil tankers that if theres more sounds available i'd still want to ty them out.

So the question still stands.

Any info appreciated :)

Each ship don't have different engine sounds.
Each engine has different sounds.
Each engine fits lot of different ships.
So there's a whole bunch of different ships with same engine.
One same engine has same sound.
Lots of merchants, few engines.
Few engines, few sounds.

..it seems a poem.. you can put it in verses! :rotfl: :rotfl:

"... and so it became to past
that the countess, who was
once bathed in the blood
of a hundred virgins,
was buried alive..."

Certainly the same engine will fit different ships, but those engines, even from the same manufacturer, will have different specs as indeed car engines do. Otherwise how does a fast freighter of 12000 tons do 22knots, and a medium cargo 0f 5000 tons does about 16 knots?

The FF has weetabix for breakfast i guess :lol:

Or low compression heads and a turbo

And a frigate sounding like a Battleship? . . . No way

Just look at the performance of these ships in comparison to their size, and the probability that they must have sounded quite individual in many cases seems obvious.
I know some of the performance figures may have been guestimates, but the ship modders here are pretty accurate on things like that in order to avoid complaints, so i reckon the performance figures are generally pretty close to reality.

Get out of that one batman :rotfl:

There were two explanations, I gave just one.

The other one is that this is a game.

I was hoping you'd take my comments in the spirit they were meant, ie- lighthearted.

Doesn't appear that happened.

Of course it is a game, so does that mean that no ideas to improve the gameplay should be aired?

The original question went along the lines of:

Does anyone know if, or where there are more ship hydrophone sounds available for inclusion in SH3?

Any help appreciated.

I wonder why UBI didnt give diffrent ships there own sounds so they sound alittle diffrent.:hmm: (Just change the Bass and rotation frequency,:yep:

All can be done if you want to make it happen. I'm guessing it would take alot of work finding and researching engine sounds of the past and then converting them to a compatible format. Thats the easy part.

Then you have to edit and make new files to work with SH3.. Thats the hard part. :hmm:

I think.

Anything is possible. :rock:

WH

Magic little people granting a wish for wings that will let you fly.:hmm:

I think maybe PT thought i was trying to be smart with him in my response to his original comments, and perhaps i could have worded my own response a bit differently.
No offence intended PT.

Thanks Task Force, i'll have a bash at that :)

According to my system they're .wav files.

Never tried playing with sound files before but if i can alter them the way you suggest, save the alterations as new files and assign them to particular ships, that should do the trick :up:

Just seen the above 2 posts while writing my reply :)

Some may reject different sounds if they don't think they're realistic, but i don't know if the engine sounds already in the game are realistic anyway.

Personally i wouldn't think they had to be, tho obviously it'd be nice if they were.

Just seemed to me that many of the ships hydro sounds were too similar, and i figured quite a few of the ships would sound unique, hence the post.

I'm not expecting miracles fellas, just a bit more individuality in the hydro sounds, and if i can do it myself i'll be happy to upload them so that people can rip me to bits :D

Does it really seem obvious? How many different types of engines were there? Diesel, steam turbine (used by most warships and a lot of merchants), VTE (steam piston, used by all the rest of the merchants). I can't think of much more. While smaller ships will sound different than larger ships using the same type of engine, most merchants will have different sounds based only on propeller size. One big ship will sound pretty much like another, I think.

I've never heard a story in which a soundman says "Captain, that's an American C-3!"

I dont think PT took you that way roadhogg.;)

There are 2 kind sound: engine sound and propeller sound. If someone can got sound recording from modern submarine hydrophone, that will be easy. And if SH3 allow extend number of engine type, that will be not difficult to add it.

Guys, guys, guys!

What the sonarman hears by the hydrophone is NOT the engine sound. This is impossible! Only modern LOFAR procedures can create a frequency pattern of an engine, but certainly NOT an acoustic effect. The only case is if you are 10 meters UNDER the target or something like that!

What a sonarman listens are:

1st: Flow noise. This is the passing of the hull through the water. This has to do with the shape-speed-clariy of the hull-waves. This coases the initial contact and usually warships have a more clear hull and they are more slimm lined (cruisers-destroyers) and they are distincted. I don't know about battleships......

2nd: Propeller sound. This can be distinctive form great distances but maybe not as well. This has to do with the number of propellers, the shape/size and the RPM. The sonarmen should be able to distinct a merchant from a warship by the propeller sound. Counting the beats of the propeller and knowing the TPK could determine the speed or reverse. They determined the speed by plotting, the sonarman counted the beats and thus prodused the TPK for that specific class of target and could use it for future speed calculations when they met that class of target again!

I doupt that any sonarman ever heard engine sound itself!

What should have been done in SH3 which is realistik is the distinction of fishimg boats and the rest junk! The sonarman should be able to identify a fishing boat and prevent you from spending 2 hours approaching just to realise that this is a fishing boat!

So I think a more reasonable classification would be:

1. Merchant Big
2. Merchant Small
3. Warship Big
4. Warship Small
5. Fishing boat/trawler

Based on what geosub says, my reasoning tells me that the hull on a battleship is much wider and flatter than that of a frigate. Also, it'll have bigger and possibly more props (not got time to load the museum atm cos i work nights at the weekends).
Both instances tell me the sound of the above 2 ships will be markedly different.

I agree completely with your fishing boat comments.

I wonder though, if the sonar won't pick up the mechanical noise of the engines if it's capable of picking up the tap of a metal object on a hull?

The engines in these ships are BIG diesels, in metal hulls.

I have to admit i've never heard the RL feedback from sonar, and from a submarines perspective in my life, so i'll have to leave that debate to better informed people.

I do drive articulated lorries for a living tho, and they don't all sound the same.
Water transmits sound and vibration further than air or solid ground i believe?

So . .IF . . mechanical noise can be distinguished an experienced sonar operator may even be able to distinguish between a WW1 era merchant/cargo and a WW2 one, if the older one sounds coarser or has more rattles lol.

The prop and hull configurations alone suggest to me there would be more variation in the hydro sounds than exist in SH3 currently.
It wouldn't surprise me if the sounds were done like so many things in stock SH3, as a rush job in order to meet a deadline. So what we have is the most basic set of hydro sounds, that can be improved upon.
Even so, based on what they've included in stock we already have different sounds for Tankers compared to merchant/cargos.
Destroyers and frigates.
Battleships and carriers ( the carrier has a kind of rattle in the sound, and i think a slightly more meshy sound, distinguishing it from a battleship).
Plus there's the passenger ship hydro, of similar size, hull dimensions, prop numbers and performance to the BB's and AC's, yet different.

Large merchant/cargos and smaller ones.

Excepting the latter group, each group is mostly of similar size, hull dimensions and performance to each other, yet they have different sounds.


Sailor Steve i wasn't thinking of quite that much individuality m8 :D

Just more than exists at present ;)


And thanks again Task Force, i hope you're right.

Specially since PT's good with sound files :D

1. It is exactly as above water. Have you ever heard the engine of a ship underway when you are on the deck of a liner (if you have travelled with a ship f course)? Ceratinly NOT! You can only hear the passing of ship through the water. Only in small/very small ships you can hear the engine! The same happens underwater but because of the greater density of water mass the sound travels at greater distances!

2. NOOOO! At 50% of the merchants the engines are old styled steam cylinder engines (triple exhaustion/expantion or something like that). At 20% of the merchants the engines are diesels (motorships) and at 30% are steam turbines. As for warships: At 95% their engine is steam turbine, at 4% diesels (e.g. GRAF SPEE), at 1% old style steam cylinder (WW1 era e.g. AVEROF)

3. The capability of a sonarman to distinguish something is a matter of skill/knowledge/experience/sound propagation.

4. In the game the individual sounds can made very distinguishing of course, but again the report will remain the same "WARSHIP" or "MERCHANT" as it is once again hardcoded matter...You have to identify it by yourself!

Roadhogg, mind beta-testing some new hydrophone sounds for the sound pack V4 for me?