Problem with radio playback overlap!

CCIP · 03-26-07, 12:29 AM

Guys, it's great to see a lot of these radio mods and I'm thoroughly enjoying the 80+ hours of radio material on my boat, but...

I'm not the first, but I'm noting a tendency of radio programs from the scripted and randomized batches to overlap while playing back, normally with the result that I can't hear the scripted radio events. You literally get two audio files playing back at the same time.

1) Is anyone aware of a fix?

2) If not, my suggestion is: keep random radio programs and scripted event programs on separate radio stations.

tedhealy · 03-26-07, 12:39 AM

Yup, it shouldn't work like this, but it does. Any files placed in the folder above the events folder will always be played on the radio as background noise. Events in the event folder will play over that.

So if you are playing scripted events from /data/sound/radio sound mod/events/

and you have sound files in /data/sound/radio sound mod/

then they will overlap. This makes making a random music station with scripted news audio impossible more or less until this can be fixed. If you want scripted news events and music, you'll you have to script them both for now it would seem. Or just turn the music into a grammophone pack.

I suggest putting the grammophone static sound in the /data/sound/radio sound mod/ folder. It's just loud enough to let you know you are actually tuned into a station, but it won't be loud enough to drown out scripted audio.

There's another bug with the way the radio stations work for modders. The international date line is one big radio wave blocker. Basically stations made on one side cannot be heard on the other side of the dateline unless you make the station so powerful that the range goes all the way around the world in the other direction and hits the date line from the other side. Which is the way radio washington works with a power of 100000 in the antenna=line.

edit: the international date line thing may not be a bug as I've just now tested a station on the opposite side and I could pick it up at pearl. Very odd.

CCIP · 03-26-07, 12:42 AM

Yes, have already done so...

Ah well. I just moved all our unscheduled entertainment to the Radio Honolulu frequency :p

Grammy would do just as well, though I think I'm quite fine with one entertainment-oriented device for these functions.

CCIP · 03-26-07, 12:55 AM

Hmm, another interesting thing - Radio Honolulu seems to be engaged in some sort of struggle with Hollywood radio and is winning (that is, the two overlap in Honolulu's favour, despite me setting both on global ranges).

My suspicion is that their frequencies are close, and therefore the nearer station ends up conflicting with the further station.

I'll try to space them further apart on the band and see what happens...

[edit]

Another possible reason is that maybe I set them out of order in my config - perhaps they have to be ordered by frequency, hmm...

tedhealy · 03-26-07, 01:01 AM

I do remember some odd results when the stations were not ordered by frequency. It was more along the lines of radio stations not even showing up though. Definitely something we need to know though - how far apart should frequencies be?

tedhealy · 03-26-07, 01:06 AM

Just a quick thought, maybe the "radio realism" option in the radio.ini has something to do with it. Where as you say, stations with frequencies that are close will overlap.

This wouldn't be that big a deal considering we have 1 to 1000 in frequency numbers. We would just need to get an idea of how far apart they need to be.

edit: It seems like stations shoule have at least 6 empty frequencies between them. When tuning in a station I think I can start to hear it at about +/- 3 frequencies away.

03-26-07, 12:29 AM	#1
CCIP Navy Seal Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Waterloo, Canada Posts: 8,700 Downloads: 29 Uploads: 2	Problem with radio playback overlap! Guys, it's great to see a lot of these radio mods and I'm thoroughly enjoying the 80+ hours of radio material on my boat, but... I'm not the first, but I'm noting a tendency of radio programs from the scripted and randomized batches to overlap while playing back, normally with the result that I can't hear the scripted radio events. You literally get two audio files playing back at the same time. 1) Is anyone aware of a fix? 2) If not, my suggestion is: keep random radio programs and scripted event programs on separate radio stations. __________________ There are only forty people in the world and five of them are hamburgers. -Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart)

03-26-07, 12:39 AM	#2
tedhealy Grey Wolf Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: St. Louis, MO, USA Posts: 772 Downloads: 13 Uploads: 0	Yup, it shouldn't work like this, but it does. Any files placed in the folder above the events folder will always be played on the radio as background noise. Events in the event folder will play over that. So if you are playing scripted events from /data/sound/radio sound mod/events/ and you have sound files in /data/sound/radio sound mod/ then they will overlap. This makes making a random music station with scripted news audio impossible more or less until this can be fixed. If you want scripted news events and music, you'll you have to script them both for now it would seem. Or just turn the music into a grammophone pack. I suggest putting the grammophone static sound in the /data/sound/radio sound mod/ folder. It's just loud enough to let you know you are actually tuned into a station, but it won't be loud enough to drown out scripted audio. There's another bug with the way the radio stations work for modders. The international date line is one big radio wave blocker. Basically stations made on one side cannot be heard on the other side of the dateline unless you make the station so powerful that the range goes all the way around the world in the other direction and hits the date line from the other side. Which is the way radio washington works with a power of 100000 in the antenna=line. edit: the international date line thing may not be a bug as I've just now tested a station on the opposite side and I could pick it up at pearl. Very odd. Last edited by tedhealy; 03-26-07 at 01:48 AM.

03-26-07, 12:42 AM	#3
CCIP Navy Seal Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Waterloo, Canada Posts: 8,700 Downloads: 29 Uploads: 2	Yes, have already done so... Ah well. I just moved all our unscheduled entertainment to the Radio Honolulu frequency :p Grammy would do just as well, though I think I'm quite fine with one entertainment-oriented device for these functions. __________________ There are only forty people in the world and five of them are hamburgers. -Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart)

03-26-07, 12:55 AM	#4
CCIP Navy Seal Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Waterloo, Canada Posts: 8,700 Downloads: 29 Uploads: 2	Hmm, another interesting thing - Radio Honolulu seems to be engaged in some sort of struggle with Hollywood radio and is winning (that is, the two overlap in Honolulu's favour, despite me setting both on global ranges). My suspicion is that their frequencies are close, and therefore the nearer station ends up conflicting with the further station. I'll try to space them further apart on the band and see what happens... [edit] Another possible reason is that maybe I set them out of order in my config - perhaps they have to be ordered by frequency, hmm... __________________ There are only forty people in the world and five of them are hamburgers. -Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart)

03-26-07, 01:06 AM	#6
tedhealy Grey Wolf Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: St. Louis, MO, USA Posts: 772 Downloads: 13 Uploads: 0	Just a quick thought, maybe the "radio realism" option in the radio.ini has something to do with it. Where as you say, stations with frequencies that are close will overlap. This wouldn't be that big a deal considering we have 1 to 1000 in frequency numbers. We would just need to get an idea of how far apart they need to be. edit: It seems like stations shoule have at least 6 empty frequencies between them. When tuning in a station I think I can start to hear it at about +/- 3 frequencies away. Last edited by tedhealy; 03-26-07 at 02:17 AM.

03-26-07, 01:01 AM	#5
tedhealy Grey Wolf Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: St. Louis, MO, USA Posts: 772 Downloads: 13 Uploads: 0	I do remember some odd results when the stations were not ordered by frequency. It was more along the lines of radio stations not even showing up though. Definitely something we need to know though - how far apart should frequencies be?