AI sounds

[johnhinson]

When I was using FS2004 I was very frustrated with the AI sounds, the default sounds were pretty poor but aircraft like the Vickers Viscount with high-pitched Rolls Royce engines just sounded ridiculous to me.

I have discovered that all AI aircraft can have thir sounds customised in FSX, and have had some reasonable results. There seems to be very little discussed about it elsewhere on the web (and some of what does exist is innacurate or misleading) so if anybody would like me to run through how it is done, please shout.

John

[Tom/CalClassic]

I did it with a friend for some jets long, long ago but have since forgotten how to do it. We just downloaded some that others had done and modified them to our liking.

[Deleted]

For the Viscounts I use the 'xai_twinturbo01.wav' included in folder 'AI files eleven' available at AI Aircraft Downloads here. It reproduces a quite acceptable strident sound. You might try 'vc8snd2.zip' too, but the files should be renamed correctly.

Bernard

[johnhinson]

If anybody wants to try this, this is what you do:

Firstly, check your fsx.cfg file for the following entry under [SOUND]:
SOUND_LOD=0

On some FSX versions this is apparently set by default but in FSX-SE you need to change it from SOUND_LOD=1 . It tells FSX to look for custom AI sounds, and if they exist for a particular aircraft it will use them. If they don't exist for any particular aircraft, you still hear the ordinary one-note basic sounds.

Now take a look at your default DC-3 file structure. In there will be the expected sound directory, but you will also see a directory named soundai. Inside that directory are some sound files and a soundai.cfg file. Remember those names, they are critical thoughout. If you use California Classic AI traffic, the default DC-3 doesn't get used as AI so you won't be hearing the benefit of this.

As an example exercies, copy the soundai directory and its contents to your CC AI DC-3 file structure. The CC DC-3s will now use the advanced sounds.

You can alias other aircraft to these sounds, just as you can with flyable aircraft. Look at the default Boeing 747's soundai directory (it is aliased to the 737-800) to see an example.

Any aircraft configured that way should now use the advanced sounds, which include startup, shutdown and ground roll noises etc. What is interesting is that you can use any sound set, including those for flyable aircraft (but remember to change the file names!). You do need to experiment a bit, some work a lot better than others. I did try using a proper set of Viscount sounds but wasn't over-impressed and instead now use a Rolls Royce Tyne set which open up with a splendid wail as the aircraft sets off down the runway.

You may be wondering what effect this has on memory resources etc. My setup was generally using between 1.3 and 1.5 GB RAM during flights. I did my tests at EGLL so that there were plenty of aircraft to listen to. I would have expected it to be at the high end of those figures anyway, but the new sounds had it running at around 1.6. So it doesn't seem to cause a major dent in resource usage.

And remember, you can easily turn the lot off and revert to the basic sounds by adjusting the FSX.cfg file back to SOUND_LOD=1 .

Best regards,

John

[Tom/CalClassic]

Actually the default DC-3 is used in the CalClassic GA traffic.

But the rest of the advice is great, thanks for helping.

[johnhinson]

Just an update, based on time and experience.

It seems that startup and shutdown sounds, although configured in the sound files, are not used in FSX - maybe they were built in and intended for a later version of FS that never came, of course. But the aircraft definitely power up their sounds when they hurtle down the runway, and today I heard an AI DC-3 landing and it shut off power just before touch-down.

There is a site (search for "FSX AI sounds") which offers specialised sound sets for modern aircraft, and I tried their Boeing 747 sounds and Dash 8 sounds but to be honest whilst these sound impressive for plane-spotting at the end of the runway (per their videos), for general use they are far too loud and produce sudden scary sounds if there is an aircraft queuing for take-off while you are landing. Its just a case of finding a mid-range sound set for your aircraft - I'm just using a small selection for commercial craft (small piston airliners, such as DC-3, large piston (e.g. DC-6, Constellation), turboprop (Electra, Britannia) and of course the various Dart-powered ones like the Viscount.

Other benefits of the change in the fsx.cfg file, which those not on the Steam version probably kalready now but new to me are general airport ambience sounds (which seem to detect the size of airport you are at) and, when all is quiet, you can even hear those little airport trucks chugging around.

These might not suit everybody but I am well happy.

Best regards,

John

[Tom/CalClassic]

Glad to hear you found a reasonable compromise.