Something that's always forgotten about in Rolling Line... audio!
I've been meaning to put some time towards the audio system in the game for ages, and that time has finally come! This includes:
- Customize the overall ambient audio for your layout
- Create "Audio regions" where different ambient audio plays (e.g. different locations in your layout, like cities and deserts)
- Create "Audio sources" which play sounds from a specific point in your layout in 3D space
- Import your own audio clips to use for both ambiance and audio sources
- Share your modded audio on the workshop and package it in your layouts
No longer are you bound to the default ambient birds (that have become synonymous with Rolling Line) you can now have ambiance like city streets, industrial factories, windy grasslands, seaside towns, etc...
You can also use the new "Audio sources" to place specific sounds around your layout.
For example, a river that makes rushing water sounds, or a power station with an electrical hum.
And of course you can use the modding system to import your own Mp3 files for all of these features!
Plus I've also made a bunch of improvements to some of the official layouts, like skyboxes, powerlines and full custom audio!
(More info on that later in the news post)
Ambient audio
On the wall next to all the other map customization options there is now an "audio options" panel you can open:
On this panel you can easily choose which ambient audio you want from a list of pre-packaged options. Simply choose the one you want and it will replace the default ambiance, and will be included in your save file.
Modded (either created yourself or downloaded from the Steam Workshop) will show up in this list, but more info on that later in the news post.
The main chosen ambiance will play everywhere, regardless of where you are on the layout. But you can also create "Ambient regions" which will play specific ambiance when in specific locations.
Ambient regions
From this menu you can choose to spawn in a new ambient region.
Clicking this will give you a little speaker prop which you can then place on the ground.
Once placed on the ground, use the "Edit Options" popup to set it up:
From here you can set up all the options for the audio region.
Firstly you can choose which audio clip it will play, and you can set whether it is "high priority" or not. High priority regions will be chosen over others if they overlap.
Next you can use the "add bounds box" button to start setting up the area where this audio will be used. Just like with the skyboxes regions, you use cubes as "bounds boxes" to define the area.
Whenever the player is inside one of these "bounds boxes" the ambient audio will be replaced with the one chosen for this region.
Ambient sources
You can also create simple "audio sources" which will emit a looping sound from a specific point.
You can spawn these from the audio menu on the wall, just like the audio regions.
Place the speaker prop on the ground and edit the options using the popup options menu.
You can change things like the audio clip, volume, and range (how far away you will be able to hear this audio source in 3D space).
These little speaker icons are only visible when you have the audio options menu open. Simply click the "Apply and hide audio icons" button on the wall menu to stop editing them.
You can simply open the wall menu again to make them visible again.
Importing your own audio files
You can add your own audio clips using mods!
Just like with prop mods, open the modding manager (from the pause menu) and change the category to "Audio clip".
From here you can create a new Audio Clip mod, which only contains a single audio file (Mp3).
Just like with all mods, you need to place the assets you want to use (in this case an Mp3 file) in the "Rolling Line -> modding -> custom assets" folder.
Then after you have saved the new mod, the audio clip will show up as an option in any audio choices list (ambient and sources).
If you download an audio clip mod off the workshop, it will also appear in the audio choices list.
Audio mods on the workshop
There is now a new main category on the Steam Workshop for "Audio clips"
As a little example, I've made a quick Far Cry 2 diorama!
This layout uses modded audio to add ambiance and music from the game.
You can find this example layout here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2484509554
The modded audio clips are already packaged inside the map, but you can also find the individual audio mods here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2484506598
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2484507196
New skyboxes and audio in official maps!
As part of this update I've "remastered" a few of the official layouts to include new features.
Most of all the Miami shelf layout now has a full skybox, plus custom audio and also makes use of the new powerlines:
The Hanmer Springs map also now has a full skybox and custom audio too:
And lastly, the Hallowed Cove layout also has an extended skybox and custom spooky audio.
The "Halloween sky" is also now stored inside save files! so this means that if you set the sky to use the special Halloween sky, it will be saved in the save file.
When you load the Hallowed Cove map, it will now automatically enable the Halloween sky!
Other features
Lastly, this update also includes a few other things.
There are now a bunch of mountain peak props:
(You can find them in the terrain drawer)
There are also now a bunch of painters which you can use to switch props over to different skybox layers manually. e.g. if you want to move a prop into the "miniature only" layer without re-placing it. Keep in mind you need to save and re-load your layout for these changes to take effect!
The sky also no longer dims while the weather is set to stormy or heavy cloud in large scale. Previously the room would go a bit darker to reflect the weather, but this feature has been removed. So the room will stay at full brightness regardless of weather.
And thats everything!
Lots of stuff in this update, and I really hope you have a look at the newly updated maps (Miami Shelf, Hanmer Springs and the Hallowed Cove) because the new skyboxes and audio make a world of difference.
Enjoy!