Making Sounds Sound Underwater?

English Mobster

L6: Sharp Member
Jul 10, 2011
355
299
My second thread in as many days!
Basically, you know how if you're underwater, you get treated to a nice "dampening" (no pun intended) effect on sounds? They sound a little more muted (even voice chat).
Because the map is set in space, I wanted a "space" area of my map to have that "underwater" sound, although those areas of the map aren't underwater themselves.
I attempted to use a custom soundscape and the DSP set to "water." I tried all 3 of the DSP settings for water (14-16), and none of them seemed to have any effect on the sounds, although it's apparent the soundscape was working, as the sounds that I wanted to play were working.
I would use an invisible water texture and actually have the area in question underwater, if not for a few things:

  1. I don't want to have the "swimming" mechanic, as it would require probably some helpful trigger_pushes to "guide" players out of the reaches of my skybox.
  2. I would also like to get away from the "drowning" effect water has. For one, it's ugly, and although it isn't a huge area and players aren't going to stay in it for long, I'd still rather have them not take damage.
  3. There's all sorts of debris that I haven't figured out how to remove (I'm probably missing something on the wiki). I can get rid of the fog just fine, but this debris kinda sits there.
  4. When I enter the "water," the skybox is no longer rendered. Being as the effect is to achieve a sort of spacial "free floating" effect, this is somewhat important.
  5. Hitscan weapons don't go into the water brush, while rockets and other projectile weapons can.
If it weren't for those aspects, I'd be perfectly fine with just using an invisible water texture. It'd make sense, after all: flamethrowers wouldn't work due to no oxygen to burn, so players would have an area to throw themselves at if they're on fire. But being able to swim and drown (drowning moreso than swimming; I can fix swimming with some trigger_push brushes, I don't know how to fix drowning).
So if someone knows how to get rid of either of those mechanics or of a way to emulate water's effect on sound in an area, please do. Thanks. <3
 
Last edited:

Jeremy

L11: Posh Member
Oct 24, 2010
829
299
But if there's no oxygen, wouldn't everyone be unable to breathe anyway?
 

English Mobster

L6: Sharp Member
Jul 10, 2011
355
299
But if there's no oxygen, wouldn't everyone be unable to breathe anyway?
SHH.
No, it's not so much that mechanic I don't like, but it's poorly executed, IMO. It feels kinda half-assed (classes don't even have unique drowning sounds) and is just ugly in general.