Environment Generator v3

[Dicemaster Slayer]

Since my recent expansion of effects will be put to use in EGv4, only the Rain/Storm theme of EG3 is available

Because of its use of balloon tips (and no OS checking yet), Environment Generator v3 requires Windows 2000/XP or higher.

Environment Generator is a standalone soundscape program. That is, it makes use of many sound effects to create an atmosphere of sound (the environment) on your computer. This is the third iteration of the project. EG1 was both huge and low-quality. EG2, a set of multiple themes, had better quality sounds, but was even larger, because I kept using the original WAV formats.

EG3 uses only mp3s, and AutoIt's SoundPlay() function to give the highest-quality environment yet. Everything is compressed into one program, which will make itself a little corner in the Temp folder, and whip up a storm, so to speak. On exit, it removes its corner.

Environment Generator's multiple sound channels is accomplished by the use of subprograms for each set of effects. In Rain/Storm, rain is given one program, looping forever. Same for wind. Then there are two channels for thunder, one distant and one nearby. Each randomly plays back a sizable repository of thunder effects.

Because my effect library was limited to rain effects, only one EG3 release is available, that of Rain and Storm. On execution, it will begin with the Rain theme. You can switch the themes via the tray menu or with CTRL+SHIFT+A. Pausing is done by doubleclicking (or open the menu) the tray or CTRL+SHIFT+S. And to exit, use the tray or CTRL+SHIFT+Q. These combinations are listed by going to tray menu -> help. You can also execute Rain with various command switches to start it with storm, or paused on rain or storm (to prevent the sudden burst of sound as everything plays at once to start).

Enough advertising. On to the release!

EG3 consists of 64 files, including scripts and subprograms. The subprograms must be compiled first, followed by the main manager program, obviously with the FileInstall paths corrected. Or just get the compiled program. Same thing.

EGv3 - Rain & Storm Download Here

Source Code + Sounds Download Here

Environment Generator v4 is in planning stages at this time. It will consist of many, many more effects spanning multiple themes, all customizable. We'll try to keep the memory usage to a minimum, but that's probably not easy when you're dealing with many sounds having to play at once, by way of multiple background programs. If anyone has a suggestion on how we could possibly overlay sounds on top of each other (sounds that will loop at different times or play randomly), please do send email.

[RazerM]

Seems like it's more complicated than it needs to be, but creates nice sounds

[Dicemaster Slayer]

oh i'm sure it's way more complex than it has to be, but it works

if i can find a way to reduce mem usage or even get it all down to one program (instead of one program per channel), that'd be greeeat

[therks]

Hey it's me again. I wanted to mention, I know of a DllCall that has allowed me to seamlessly loop audio, the SoundPlay function always has a bit of a pause before it's sound loops. The drawbacks are 1) I haven't been able to figure out how to make it stop looping without playing another sound and 2) it only plays WAV's.

Might be worth giving a try though. I'm including all the constants I've found for the function, maybe someone can find a combination that will stop the looping sound silently.

Func _SoundLoop($sSoundFile, $bLoop = True)
    Local Const $SND_ALIAS = 0x10000
    Local Const $SND_ALIAS_ID = 0x110000
    Local Const $SND_APPLICATION = 0x80
    Local Const $SND_ASYNC = 0x1
    Local Const $SND_FILENAME = 0x20000
    Local Const $SND_LOOP = 0x8
    Local Const $SND_MEMORY = 0x4
    Local Const $SND_NODEFAULT = 0x2
    Local Const $SND_NOSTOP = 0x10
    Local Const $SND_NOWAIT = 0x2000
    Local Const $SND_PURGE = 0x40
    Local Const $SND_RESOURCE = 0x40004
    Local Const $SND_SYNC = 0x0
    
    If $bLoop Then
        DllCall('winmm.dll', 'int', 'PlaySoundA', 'str', $sSoundFile, 'int', 0, 'int', BitOR($SND_ASYNC, $SND_FILENAME, $SND_LOOP))
    Else
        DllCall('winmm.dll', 'int', 'PlaySoundA', 'str', $sSoundFile, 'int', 0, 'int', $SND_FILENAME)
    EndIf
EndFunc

ToolTip('ding, ding, ding...')
_SoundLoop('c:\windows\media\ding.wav')

Sleep(3000)

ToolTip('Silence!')
_SoundLoop('stop', False)

Sleep(2000)

*Edit: Darn "" smiley

Edited September 8, 2007 by Saunders

[therks]

Oh, and I completely forgot about this, you CAN play more than one sound at a time in one script. Have a look at _SoundOpen and _SoundPlay in the Help file.

#include <Sound.au3>
$ding = _SoundOpen('c:\windows\media\ding.wav')
$tada = _SoundOpen('c:\windows\media\tada.wav')

_SoundPlay($tada, 0)
_SoundPlay($ding, 0)
Sleep(3000)

[Dicemaster Slayer]

i'll give those a try, thanks a bunch!

[DirtDBaK]

I really like this program and I think that it is very neat. Thanks for creating it!

[jennico]

hello saunders !

i made an example how to stop your _SoundLoop() !

look here !

j.

[corz]

Thanks Saunders.

;o)

(or

ps. To stop the sound, just do this..

DllCall('winmm.dll', 'int', 'PlaySoundA', 'int', 0, 'int', 0, 'int', BitOR($SND_ASYNC, $SND_PURGE))

(anything after the first null (0) appears to make no difference, but sending a purge feels good. the async is pure voodoo)

http://www.pinvoke.net/default.aspx/winmm/PlaySound.html

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms712879.aspx

Edited April 19, 2009 by corz

[wysocki]

Saunders:

I'm looking for a way to queue up Midi files and have them either loop or play sequentially based upon real time keystrokes so I'm interested in what you guys have done here. The winmm.dll WILL play midi files instead of wav if you change the "PlaySoundA" parameter to "mciExecute". Unfortunately, my test program crashes a few seconds after the midi starts playing and I'm not sure why, but it's a start!

[insignia96]

Your DL link is broken for me.