EAX reverb strength

[vlad54rus]

While dhewm3 provides support for EAX, some reverb zones in Doom 3 have stupidly high reverb strength. Creating alsoft.ini file with the following content reduces it to a more acceptable levels:

[reverb]
boost=-7

Can you consider supplying this file with the release builds?

[dezo2]

Thanks for the tip, I didn't know this can be adjusted using local ini file.
The default amount of reverb is indeed ridiculous.

[DanielGibson]

I'll try to create a cvar to set this, apparently something similar to that boost setting can be done with alAuxiliaryEffectslotf(slot, AL_EFFECTSLOT_GAIN, gain); where gain is a value between 0 and 1 (1 by default; 0.5 should be similar to boost=-7).

I was also told that there's openal warnings when quitting the game (when setting env var ALSOFT_LOGLEVEL=2 or 3 when starting the game) about effect slots being deleted while there's still sources attached to them - most probably because idSoundWorldLocal::Shutdown() first deletes the listenerSlot and later the emitters which contain the sources.

[DanielGibson]

Hi, can you test if the build linked in #363 (comment) fixes your issues?
Remove the boost setting from your alsoft.ini and in dhewm3 set the s_alReverbGain to 0.5 or whatever sounds best for you:
Open the console (Shift+Esc), enter s_alReverbGain 0.5.

(In case you're not using Windows, check out this branch and compile dhewm3 yourself: https://github.com/DanielGibson/dhewm3/tree/reduce-dependencies)

[nbohr1more]

I locally merged this into The Dark Mod but it doesn't seem to have any affect.
We may have a few local deviations that break compatibility.

That said, when I began looking into this I found that the master volume for all EFX definitions is controlled by the "room" parameter. My plan was to hook into whichever branch accepts that parameter.

[DanielGibson]

No idea about TDM, but in dhewm3 s_alReverbGain 0.5 definitely makes a noticeable difference, 0.1 or 0.0 even more so, of course (if EAX is enabled; 0.0 sounds like when it's disabled).

The "room" parameter sets reverb gain (AL_EAXREVERB_GAIN) for the current area, I think setting AL_EFFECTSLOT_GAIN on the slot should have about the same effect, but for everything that uses the slot (theres one listenerSlot per soundworld, and two soundworlds: one for the menu and one for ingame).
I think setting it on the slot is the cleanest way to do it if you want a global setting, otherwise you'll have to

1. set it for all effects (and change it if the cvar changes!)
2. keep ugly special cases in mind, like "what if the .efx file doesn't set room at all?"

No idea why it doesn't seem to work in TDM, maybe you have more such slots or you just didn't have EAX effects enabled or whatever; it's probably worth debugging

[nbohr1more]

I agree that the slot approach is the best, I really don't want to do this junk:

else if ( token == "room" ) {
efxf(AL_EAXREVERB_GAIN, mB_to_gain( (src.ParseInt() * tdm_offset_junk_int ) , GAIN));

but it should work...

The change takes effect in real-time right ?
The setting also overrides alsoft.ini ?

[DanielGibson]

(src.ParseInt() * tdm_offset_junk_int

you don't want to make it an int but a float, otherwise it can't decrease the value (only to 0) and I have no idea what any number even means there, like, is 0.5 half as strong or what? after all, DB is logarithmic..

The change takes effect in real-time right ?

if you do it my way: yes. if you do it your way: no (the EFX files aren't re-parsed all the time)

The setting also overrides alsoft.ini ?

no, as far as I understand the [reverb] boost=.. setting in alsoft.ini is applied globally on top of whatever gains are set in the applications, like an additional factor or whatever

[vlad54rus]

On the new build EAX is buggy - any changes in EAX zones and cvars only apply when i hit ESC button.

[DanielGibson]

On the new build EAX is buggy - any changes in EAX zones and cvars only apply when i hit ESC button.

interesting. hmm.. might be caused by 13ac657 (but then the code was already pretty broken before and just worked accidentally)

UPDATE: in fact it seems to be caused by the following line (doesn't happen when I comment it out): https://github.com/DanielGibson/dhewm3/blob/55fc1023373b4c7dd50bdbbd70d87febfc0a65dc/neo/sound/snd_world.cpp#L528
Doesn't make much sense to me, I'll ask the openal-soft developer about it.

[DanielGibson]

Hmm seems like this problem only happens in new(er?) versions of OpenAL - 1.21.1 (which is bundled with that test build) has it, 1.19.1 (which was bundled with the official 1.5.0 release binaries) doesn't.
I'll have to investigate.

[DanielGibson]

Ok, this is a bug in openal-soft, their maintainer already found out what causes it.

I'll likely implement a workaround in dhewm3 to make sure this bug won't turn up in linux distros shipping affected openal-soft versions

[DanielGibson]

#363 (comment) has a new testbuild that should fix the issue by working around the openal bug (and, TBH, the code is better now)

[nbohr1more]

We have some divergences but I was able to merge this and get the feature working! THANK YOU!!!