I was wondering why sound from media players, once turned on, will pass thru walls and everywhere, why not make use of the “FX” Systems so you can adjust where the media player’s audio is going to go?
The media player is a separate system from Unreal’s audio, so unfortunately it’s not possible.
2 Likes
Ignorant layman here. I’m not understanding. Would it be possible to explain it in very simple terms? It seems to me like one of two things must be happening at a conceptual level:
(A) the A/V is being presented to the engine in a manner fundamentally similar to the way my mic audio is presented to the engine/server. In that case, I don’t understand why this limitation exists.
(B) the YT video/Soundcloud is being passed directly to my system ins a manner fundamentally similar to having it playing in a wholly separate window outside of TU. In this case, it would make sense that the TU client might not have direct control over that volume the way it does for mics and environmental audio.
If the latter, would there be some theoretical way of intercepting that audio and passing it through a layer/program that functions something like an EQ checks a table storing my distance from a given audio source in a condo and adjusting the output volume accordingly? Or is something I’m missing about how that YT video (and its audio) is passed through to my TU client and presented to the end user that prevents TU from being able to affect/intercept/modify it? If so, would it be theoretically possible to have some companion program that runs alongside TU, checks such a table (stored and updated in RAM by thew TU client), and then adjusts the volume as it passes through this companion software (TUDynVol.exe or whatever)?
The media player uses a separate process to handle its volume. The volume for the media players don’t pass through to the game audio engine. This basically means the media player browser volume is completely separate from the game’s audio.
We can inform the game to tell the browser to adjust the volume, but we can’t intercept the audio and pass it through to the game’s audio.
Technically, it’s possible to achieve some of the effects you’re wanting, such as walls turning off audio, and volume being adjusted based on distance. However, you could only do that with one media player on at a time. The browser audio is across ALL media players. So, if you adjusted the volume, every media player that’s turned on would also be adjusted as well. There is no work around for this.
4 Likes
Firstly, thank you for taking the time to answer. I imagine it might be annoying when people like myself who know nothing about the technical challenges you face seem like they’re questioning your work. I hope my questions/suggestions/gripes don’t come across the wrong way.
Secondly, I have two follow-up questions based on this answer. Would it be feasible to either:
(A) cause each media player to spawn a new instance of the browser (is this supported by the browser) and then run multiple instances of this solution accordingly
or
(B) (trying to logic this out) implement a “Media Space” item that, when placed in one’s condo, has this effect. There would likely need to be something to prevent putting two in one condo (an error when trying to place a second one) and it would need to be clear in the documentation/description what effect this would have. (“Distance from this screen effects volume of any and all media devices in Condo. Only one may be placed in a condo”). Sure, it would have the limitations you’ve described, but I don’t think I’d be the only one willing to accept that limitation- especially if given the option to set other media devices like computer monitors to “disabled” on their own settings if they’re only intended to serve as static decorations. The end user could then decide whether they wanted to use this to provide the effect described or not place such a device (and activate the related process in condo settings?) and instead make use of the global sound system already implemented.