Plans to improve Airplane sounds ?

[WildWilly]

I am still facinated with the Variety of this " game "... just amazing. But i am missing a bit more realistic sounds. My Question is : will there be significant improvements ref. sound effects ?  Is it technical possible ?  Just for interest. IMO Sound is one of the core Elements to get a " WHOW " Feeling...  anyway, i enjoy playing, but may be, if you have something good never hesitate to get something excellent ?     best xmas wishes to all 

 

 

[Jade_Monkey]

+1, would also like to see the engine sounds revamped to sound more realistic.

 

I am not expert at this but I know the underlying sound samples the game uses are pretty good. I guess fmod muddles them a lot to make it work with the game (camera movements, different rpms  etc).

 

 

[NiiranenVR]

When im driving my car I can hear whether I'm driving up hill or down hill ...... I don't know wether it's the same in a plane , but I suppose ..... But I can't hear it in the game 

[WildWilly]

I am missing a bit the " massive Deep " in the starting proces, then the  typical idle sounds.  Inside a Cockpit of the WW II Era i guess you should here the different engine situations , climbing, diving, turning… for me Sound is part of the WHOW effect… missing a bit those effects, also with Ground forces

[DBFlyguy]

Agree! Updated sounds across the board would be great!  We got updated DB605 sounds last year, hopefully others are in the works...

[ITAF_Rani]

On 12/20/2020 at 9:42 PM, WildWilly said:

I am missing a bit the " massive Deep " in the starting proces, then the  typical idle sounds.  Inside a Cockpit of the WW II Era i guess you should here the different engine situations , climbing, diving, turning… for me Sound is part of the WHOW effect… missing a bit those effects, also with Ground forces

I agree..

[DJBscout]

On 12/20/2020 at 5:41 AM, J5_NiiranenVR-Gfr said:

When im driving my car I can hear whether I'm driving up hill or down hill ...... I don't know wether it's the same in a plane , but I suppose ..... But I can't hear it in the game 

That's probably gonna be a combined function of varying RPM and load. Simply put, load is how much "strain" the engine is under; the force the engine's power is acting against. In a car, at any given RPM, a wide-open throttle will have the engine at 100% load; the engine is producing all the power it possibly can, and all that power is being used (assuming you have traction and aren't redlining the engine). When you don't need as much power, you're going to back off the throttle; the engine won't be producing as much power, and will thus be under a lower strain/load.

 

When driving uphill, you will need more power to maintain a given speed. Thus, you will probably be a bit heavier on the throttle, and the engine will have a higher load than it would on a downhill. If you suddenly released the throttle while driving uphill, it would sound fairly similar to driving down a hill at zero throttle, so long as you're at the same speed and in the same gear. (It would quickly sound different as you started decelerating instead of accelerating, but at the moment your RPM and load were the same, it would sound identical) Sounds will also change depending on what gear you're in, and an automatic transmission will likely shift gears when going uphill vs downhill (it will take cues to shift based on your throttle position, which will be very different between driving up and down a hill in most cases.) 

 

The relationship is much easier to demonstrate on a manual transmission, where you select one gear. In a set gear, you can easily vary throttle (and thus load) for any given RPM, and leave the transmission out entirely as a factor. (In my experience, the main difference is volume, with high throttle settings simply being a little louder at a given RPM than no throttle at the same RPM. Going from off-throttle to full-throttle as I pass through a curve, the sound is almost exactly the same at the moment I floor it, simply changing from decreasing to increasing in pitch as I go from decelerating to accelerating. The engine note may also become slightly throatier/bassier at that instant, but most of the difference is from RPM. There may also be a slight difference due to the engine intelligently changing the ignition and valve timing, but WWII aero engines had no such systems.) 

 

In a plane, you don't have a transmission in the same sense. You have your throttle and prop RPM settings for allies, and just your throttle for most German aircraft. The way a plane loads is totally different from a car. You have what's called a constant speed prop on most allied aircraft, where you set a desired prop RPM, and the plane will change the prop's angle/"bite" (and thus the load placed on the engine) to whatever will maintain that RPM. In a German aircraft, your throttle setting essentially *also* sets your desired prop RPM. (This latter concept would actually be almost identical to how a CVT would theoretically function, with the RPM selection and throttle both being decided by the throttle position. That being said, most modern cars with CVTs have fake "gears" programmed in to feel more like how the average person "expects" a car to behave)

 

You're right that engines sound different based on the load, but most planes will have the same load on the engine for a given throttle setting. A plane running flat-out on the deck and flat-out in a power climb will sound almost exactly the same, as the prop will be modulating load to maintain the max RPM. (Essentially, your throttle and RPM decide how much power your engine puts out. Your constant speed prop will do its best to turn all the power produced into thrust through the prop, but won't draw more power than you produce, to prevent RPMs from dropping) If you're on the highway and put your foot down to pass a truck at 60mph (~100kph), the engine will sound almost exactly the same, regardless of whether you're going uphill, downhill, or flat. Same with the plane. Max power output is max power output.

 

Planes also have different sounds for different loads (IIRC). If you're at 100% RPM in a Tempest, and take it into a hard climb (100% throttle), then take it into a dive and throttle back to 0%, the engine will sound very different. Some of that is the engine being unable to maintain 100% RPMs. However, IIRC, the same RPM will sound different with higher or lower manifold pressures. I've personally never carefully checked if running different throttle settings at the same RPM sounds different, but my gut says that high and low throttle settings at the same RPM does sound different. I feel like I can hear a difference between cruise, combat, and emergency settings, even if I'm running them at the same RPM. (I'll often run a certain RPM at a lower MAP to extend the engine timer, given how aggressively Allied aircraft can chew through their combat/emergency allotmentment when running "as written" :/) I know for absolute certain it sounds different in a P-38 or P-47, but that could be a function of turbocharger RPM fluctuating to maintain MAP.