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How to turn down vatsim aircraft sounds


Antonio Palmieri
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Antonio Palmieri
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Hi.

Whenever I am at an airport that has other traffic near me, FSX plays an engine sound [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ociated with the other (multiplayer) aircraft.

I want to turn that sound down, or off.

I use vPilot. I seem to remember that I got the same sound when I used SB4 or FsInn.

When I disconnect from the network, the sound disappears.

Can you help?

Is it a sound played by vpilot? By FSX?

 

Many thanks

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Ross Carlson
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The nearby aircraft sounds come from FSX. I think you can lower the volume using the "Environment" slider in the sound settings, but I'm not sure. I'm not near my FSX machine at the moment to test.

Developer: vPilot, VRC, vSTARS, vERAM, VAT-Spy

Senior Controller, Boston Virtual ARTCC

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Antonio Palmieri
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The nearby aircraft sounds come from FSX. I think you can lower the volume using the "Environment" slider in the sound settings, but I'm not sure. I'm not near my FSX machine at the moment to test.
Hi Ross. I thought so too but it's not the case. I disabled (unchecked) the Environment sound altogether and it makes no difference.
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Antonio Palmieri
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I've done some more investigating and this is what I've come up with. If you folks know this already, well, apologies (and it'd have been nice to hear from you before my investigating)

If anyone can add any useful info or correct what's below please do so.

 

AIRCRAFT SOUND HEARD WHEN YOU CONNECT TO VATSIM

 

FSX plays a certain set of Multiplayer WAV files the moment VATSIM traffic is injected into FSX.

These sounds are not controllable by the Environment option in the FSX Sound menu. (I read that perhaps turning off the Engines option in the Sound menu may have an impact, but of course it would kill your own engine sound too. I have not checked this)

 

To change the volume of the VATSIM multiplayer traffic sound one has to edit and reduce the volume of the WAV file itself. Audacity is a simple program that does such a job.

 

Which WAV files?

 

Option A

If the folder of the VATSIM multiplayer (AI) aircraft determined by your model matching rules contains a folder named "soundai", the soundai.cfg file in such folder points to the location of the WAV files in use.

Example: ..\SimObjects\Airplanes\WoA_AIA_B717\soundai\soundai.cfg

It's often an alias pointing to another (default) folder.

Most of my WOAI aircrafts that have a "soundai" folder all point to ..\Airplanes\B737_800\soundai.

In the ..\Airplanes\B737_800\soundai folder, there are several files:

- files that start with a number are used while in Virtual cockpit (or 2D) view. Example: 7x7_n11.wav

- files starting with the letter "x" are used while in an external view. Example: x7x7_n11.wav

 

Option B

If the folder of the VATSIM multiplayer (AI) aircraft determined by your model matching rules does not contain a folder named "soundai", the WAV files being used are located in the main FSX /Sound folder. They are:

ai_lgjet01.wav

ai_lgjet01.wav

ai_lgjet01.wav

(play the first file and see if it sounds familiar)

 

 

Personally I don't mind hearing other traffic when I am in external view. But when I am in the flight deck preparing for a flight it's both annoying and unrealistic to hear such loud engines from traffic parked nearby - or even far away!

 

On a different note, I now realise that it's possible in the VATSIM world to have the 747 parked on your left sound like a 747 while the turboprop on your right sound like a turboprop.

In theory, FSX could reproduce the correct sound for each aircraft by simply placing the correct soudai.cfg in the model matching "soundai" folder. In practise, I will never have the time to do such a job, but one day someone could.

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