I'm asking this here because it was asked to me on an Italian forum:
Will lfs support 5.1 surround audio?
It should be done before S2 final imho.
I thought it was already supported, but i discovered that it wasn't.
Quite all the concorrent products support it, it became a standard.
LFS has cannot use hardware acceleration because of the way it generates its sound so going to to 5.1 is unfeasable either because of the work involved, the subsequent performance drop or it just can't be done with software acceleration. Its been asked many times before and isn't going to happen in S2.
Ah, ok, I didn't realize there was a problem with it. I recall Scawen saying a LONG LONG time ago, (maybe even Pre-S2) that it would not be done but I didn't recall the reason that would be the case.
If there is indeed a hindrance to it, I seriously hope it gets rectified because positional audio is in fact important to racing.
There can't be a "licensing issue", I'm pretty sure everyone is free to write code to use audio hardware.
Is it really that important? Can you really hear the cars around you? I've never noticed it in reality - my own car on a track is too loud (with earplugs), and drowns out every other car. The F1 car might be different, but I certainly wouldn't expect to be able to hear where other cars are around me. You can just here that they are near.
IIRC Scawen said while ago that due to the recent change to DirectSound should make implementing 3D-sound easier. So we might actually see (or rather hear) it at some point.
really? i always thought that the guys who run without spotters or mirrors could only tell if someone was there by sound. now i have no idea how they do it.
off the top of my head i know that sprint cars and modifieds definitely don't have them. i feel like alot of short track racing in general doesn't allow them.
Yes but they're glorified banger racers running AFAIK without spotters and a fairly liberal approach to contact. The issue that we normally talk about is stock cars. Any non-contact formulae that runs a no-mirrors policy is at best able to make the FIA look like an intelligent and honestly run organisation.
have you ever seen these guys race? i don't think i'd want to be banging many people out of the way in an open wheeled sprint car unless i wanted to tear the tires off my car. anyway, off topic.
From the very little I've been bothered to watch of them they seem to have lots of crashes in short races and they seem to be prepared to make decisions that can lead to contact much like karters do despite the fact they may be trying not to in proper motor racing in cars at high speed contact is something that has to be avoided at any cost rather than just simply a bit inconvenient.
EDIT - @UncleBenny - I'm not interested in taking it to PM but I think I should add that firstly I do not believe for a second that sprint cars routinely hit 140mph, unless you've got some actual race trap speeds to prove it.
Oh yes and I don't feel that lasting a short race without a safety car period is anything to be proud of...
Yes you can hear other cars. I'm not saying you can't. But you can't tell where they are from the noise. Obviously on a motorway if a noise gets louder and it's not in front of you (and you don't look in your mirror) you'll know it's coming from behind, but you wouldn't know what side.
Same with racing. You might be able to hear the engine of an approaching car, and when they lift etc, but you wouldn't be able to tell much more than that. I seriously doubt you can hear if they are alongside or not.
Bikes are a bit different, as you don't have bodywork getting in the way in the same way, and I know (from biking) that you can hear where other bikes are reasonably accurately.
I think you're right, I doubt you can get much more information than the current stereo sound provides, because of all the other sounds involved, and the way that exhausts tend to be pointed backwards, which means that not much sound is being fired forwards to your ears - well not enough to drown out your own car's noise crisply (assuming all cars are making the same amount of noise) phew long sentence.
I don't really see what the problem is anyway. Stereo is fine. If the sound is on the left, and you can't see a car in front of you, then it's definitely coming from behind you on the left. There would only be the least bit of value to it in multiple car pack racing, and in those situations I'm even more confident that it would be very hard to distinguish the direction each of the many many sounds is coming from IRL, since the cars in front would be much more audible than the ones behind.
On a bike it very much depends on how loud a noise your own machine is making, and how fast you're going. If there's someone with a loud bike behind you, you can hear them quite accurately (side to side) at lower speeds, but only if they're pretty close, and it's certainly not easy once the speed builds.
the whole can't differentiate from the left to right thing is sorta already in LFS. i honestly can't tell if a car is approaching from the left or right now. but what would be nice would be the back to front noise.
Implementing it should not be hard especially if he uses OPENAL
