Sound of rain on canopy over-exaggerated and not realistic in flight

[twistking]

I think sounds are generally in a good spot with DCS, so it's more obvious when something is off.

The sound of rain on canopy seems to be way too loud and it also does not noticeable change with airspeed.

 

I tested this with A-10C II on stable branch.

 

When standing on ramp the sound seems realistic, but already when starting the engines, you realize that it might be a bit too loud compared to the engine sounds. When you accelerate it's more obvious since it's still louder (or more noticeable at least) than the engines on full throttle, but what more importantly the sound feels out of place at higher airspeed, since it does not really change. I don't have real life experience here, but i think it's safe to say that rain on canopy should sound much different when traveling at 300 knots compared to when standing still.

 

Also when flying in the "overcast + rain" presets the sound triggers too early and too often. This issue gets amplified by the problems mentioned above.

[btd]

The main difficulty is in the fact that the sounds of rain are the same for all cockpits, and the frequency spectrum and volume of cockpits of different aircraft can vary greatly. I can agree that the sound in the A-10 is louder than we would like. But we need to strike a balance so that would comfortable not only in the A-10, but also in the Mustang and F-16.
Please try this fix -  sdef.zip  -  with different planes, unzip it to your folder c:\Users\[USERNAME]\Saved Games\DCS\Sounds. It should reduce the volume of the rain a little bit

 

[twistking]

8 hours ago, btd said:

The main difficulty is in the fact that the sounds of rain are the same for all cockpits, and the frequency spectrum and volume of cockpits of different aircraft can vary greatly. I can agree that the sound in the A-10 is louder than we would like. But we need to strike a balance so that would comfortable not only in the A-10, but also in the Mustang and F-16.
Please try this fix -  sdef.zip  -  with different planes, unzip it to your folder c:\Users\[USERNAME]\Saved Games\DCS\Sounds. It should reduce the volume of the rain a little bit

 

Thanks. I will try it out later.
I understand that it's a difficult balance. Did you also consider changing the sound of rain with different aircraft speed? I think i did only start noticing the balance issue in the A-10c when i started rolling and it became obvious to me, that the sound of rain did not change. I cannot really imagine what it would sound like to blast through rain with 300knots, but from my experience driving the autobahn at reasonable speeds, there should be a clear shift in the sound of rain.

Edited September 6, 2021 by twistking

[btd]

Thanks,

there are 3 sounds that change their volume, pitch and lowpass filter with the speed. Try to listen again, also on different planes. Perhaps on jets, the changes will be more noticeable.

[twistking]

2 quick questions, because the changes are not super obvious to me (but i only tested it very briefly) and i want to make sure that everything is working correctly (with sound i am also a bit vulnerable to placebo effects, i guess)

 

I put the whole folder into "Sounds", not just the two individual files. ( So it is C:\Users\[username]\Saved Games\DCS\Sounds\sdef\[filename].sdef ). Is this correct?

 

Is this intended to work witht eh stable built? (well, because i am on stable...)

 

thanks.

 

*edit* i just realized. the "Woosh" sound that i was expecting from driving a car in rain, is probably to a greater extend the sound from the wheels and water hitting the underbody and not so much rain hitting the windscreen... so maybe not transferable to flying...

Edited September 6, 2021 by twistking

[btd]

11 hours ago, twistking said:

2 quick questions

 

1) yes, correct

2) yea, that should work with any DCS version

[b0bl00i]

I love the rain sounds, they are very atmospheric and DCS greatly benefits from this

 

[fagulha]

37 minutes ago, b0bl00i said:

I love the rain sounds, they are very atmospheric and DCS greatly benefits from this

 

+1!

[twistking]

7 hours ago, btd said:

 

1) yes, correct

2) yea, that should work with any DCS version

 

ok. i tested it with A-10c (2), F-5E and P-51.
With A-10c and F-5 i still think the rain is too loud (technically it's probably more the jet engines being too quiet), with the P-51 i found it to be quite good.

The obvious problem for me judging it is that the only time i have sat in a flying aircrafts cockpit, the sky was blue. I would assume that realistically the rain sounds are still way too loud even in the p-51 (i cannot imagine that you could really hear rain with engine on full power), but i do understand (and appreciate) if sound design takes some small (!) liberties to convey effects and emotions that would otherwise go missing in a digital representation of the simulated event (there are probably many instances of this in dcs (from ordnance drops to clicking switches).

Another problem with DCS at the moment is that rain is not visible in flight (WIP i guess). Maybe this increases the disbelieve for me (no visual clue other than the low vis, but very loud and definite sound clues).

I did notice the change in sound with speed, however when going fast, i'd still expect more change. Again really hard to judge for me, as i never experienced flying through rain while in the cockpit, but for me it still sounds a bit too much like soothing raindrops calmly knocking on the canopy instead of a violent burst of watery midair collisions...

 

Maybe the best course of action would be to wait until weather is more complete visually and then judge again while also chatting with some of the SMEs, about what they feel would be a good representation of the sensation.

 

I just wonder why there is the difference between the p-51 and the jets. Is the P-51 realistically so much louder than a fighter jet, or is it just that the richer soundscape of the p-51 makes the rain sounds stand out less?

[twistking]

 

I found those videos as reference. Obviously the volume of the rain sounds depends very much on where the camera (and mic) is located. I also found videos where the camera was filming from further back in the cockpit and on those the rain was not audible at all...

 

Some take-aways from those.

- The rain is indeed louder than i thought and i'd happily accept that while DCS may still be a bit too loud, it's "close enough" for engines on idle.

- Under full power the engines are so loud, that they absolutely drown the sound of rain

- While moving faster, you loose the individual contact noises and get more of a roaring sound from the rain.

 

- Regarding the voluem balance on idle vs engines on full power, i do wonder now, if maybe DCS hasn't enough dynamic range between idle engines and full power. I understand that it's not desirable to map real world dynamics 1 to 1, but maybe engine volume could need a bit more range (a bit more oomph on full throttle)?

 

*edit* i just realized, that the sound characteristic (individual contact noise, vs roaring sound) is not only dependent on airspeed, but also the density of the rain. Light rain would maybe give you less roar, even at higher speeds. In DCS it is hard to say how heavy the rainfall is, since the rain is invisible atm (WIP), But from the general visibility and look of the clouds, i just assumed that it's supposed to be medium/heavy rainfall...

Edited September 8, 2021 by twistking