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Lesson 3

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Switching Volcanic Boulder Sounds

From the top of the volcanic mountain, fiery boulders spew into the desert fields. They drop widespread, near and far, and there’s no place where the Adventurer is safe from potential impact. - You’ll now learn how to utilize LOD with a Switch and multiple layers of impact sounds.

To give an impression of how harmful the boulders are, a proven approach is to separate the close impact boulders into multiple layers with variations of explosions and debris. At farther distances, we can use a single sound, maybe more compressed, to save the number of active voices generated by the volcano. In order to switch between these levels of details, you’ll now learn how to set a Switch Container up with an RTPC.

  1. In the Project Explorer, expand the Actor-Mixer Hierarchy > Default Work Unit > World > Objects > Objects > Object_Destruction > Object_Destruction > Destruction_VolcanicBoulder Switch Container.

    The Switch Container contains two audio objects.

    While there is no distance to player switch calls from the game, the Distance_to_Player Switch has been mapped to certain ranges of the Distance_to_Player Game Parameter. Let's have a look at it.

  2. In the Project Explorer's Game Syncs tab, select Switches > General > Distance_to_Player.

    In the Switch Group Property Editor, you will see the Switch values mapped on the Distance_to_Player Game Parameter. When the Distance_to_Player Game Parameter is changed from the game, the Switch will also be adjusted according to this.
    [Note]

    By mapping a Switch to an game parameter you are no longer able to change the switch in the transport control as it’ll be controlled by the game parameter instead.

  3. Go back to the Destruction_VolcanicBoulder Switch container, and in the Switch Group box, from the Selector, select General > Distance_to_Player Switch.

    This Switch Group has three Switches: Close, Far, and Medium.

  4. In the Contents Editor, drag the Boulder_Near into the Close Switch.

  5. Now drag the Boulder_Far into both the Far and Medium Switch.

    Before proceeding to the next step, make sure you have the Destruction_VolcanicBoulder Switch Container selected.

  6. In the Transport Control, drag the Distance_to_Player RTPC slider, then press Play; try multiple times with different slider values.

    By using a Switch to control the Destruction_VolcanicBoulder, you preserve a simple overview of adding or removing a certain container from a segmented range in the Distance_to_Player parameter.

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