Cool VL Viewer forum

This is my first time post, so please bare with me. I have read the "Rules" and did use the "Search" first to try to find any previous posts, but couldn't find anything similar. If there is already a post, please let me know and I'll delete this one and post there. The issue is with the ambient "wind noise" which is way, way to loud, plays even while I'm walking, not flying and even with "Ambient" sounds completely off, I can unable to hear my avatar (classic) walking on ground, wood, etc., and when they bump into something their bump sound is barely audible. I'm using the newest stable version and have included system info from Cool VL Viewer below. Any help or assistance would be greatly appreciated.



Cool VL Viewer v1.28.2.6, 64 bits, Jan 30 2021 12:57:07
Release Notes

You are at 259722.6, 257681.3, 25.9 in Welcome located at
MSI.carolina.rr.com (192.168.1.144:8004)
OpenSim 0.9.2.0 Yeti Dev (Win/.NET)
Release Notes

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9750H CPU @ 2.60GHz (2591.99 MHz)
Memory: 65377MB
OS version: Microsoft Windows 10 64 bits v10.0 (build 10586.746)
Memory manager: OS native
Graphics card vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics card: GeForce RTX 2060/PCIe/SSE2
Windows graphics driver version: Loading...
OpenGL version: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 460.89
Detected VRAM: 6144MB
J2C decoder: OpenJPEG: 1.4.0.635f
Audio driver: FMOD Studio v2.01.07
Networking backend: libcurl/7.47.0 OpenSSL/1.0.2l zlib/1.2.8
Embedded browser: CEF3 plugin v81.3.10+gb223419+chromium-81.0.4044.138
Packets lost: 0/11235 (0.0%)

Built with: MSVC v1916
Compiler-generated maths: SSE2.

Compile flags used for this build:
/O2 /Oi /MP /DNDEBUG /D_SECURE_SCL=0 /D_HAS_ITERATOR_DEBUGGING=0 /DWIN32 /D_WINDOWS /W3 /GR /EHsc /std:c++14 /Oy- /GS /fp:fast /TP /W2 /Zc:forScope /Zc:wchar_t- /c /nologo /Zc:threadSafeInit- /DLL_WINDOWS=1 /DUNICODE /D_UNICODE /DWINVER=0x0600 /D_WIN32_WINNT=0x0600 /DXML_STATIC /DLL_USE_NETBIOS=1 /DBOOST_ALL_NO_LIB /DLL_FMOD=1 /DAPR_DECLARE_STATIC /DAPU_DECLARE_STATIC /DCURL_STATICLIB=1 /DLIB_NDOF=1

I'm using Linux and OpenAL vs your Windows and FMOD, so my comments may not be relevant. I have my Ambient volume set at half. There is a debug setting for AudioWindLevel (you can access that via Advanced -> Debug Settings). I have mine set at default, which is 0.50. My wind sound is virtually not there while walking and increases when I'm in the air (flying/hovering/falling). Check that debug setting. If all else fails you could try moving your settings file and relaunching the viewer with defaults, to see if anything changes.

Well, for a start, it's not a bug, but the expected behaviour. v1 viewers always play the wind sound, while newer viewers (not sure, but I think they changed it in v3) only play it while you are flying (which "sounds" pretty silly to me)...

If you dislike it, you may reduce the "AudioLevelWind" setting (it defaults to 0.5, but I personally use 0.1), but this won't affect much relative wind when walking/running. You may also remove wind sounds entirely with "Advanced" -> "World" -> "Disable wind audio".

I might add a setting for mimicking v3+ viewers behaviour (i.e. muting wind when not flying).
EDIT: for next release, I simply made it so that the relative wind (the wind resulting from the avatar movements) sound is properly scaled down by AudioLevelWind (which it is not in LL's code, including in newer viewers, i.e. while flying for them).

Thanks Henri for the advice. The problem I'm having isn't that the wind is blowing, but that first it flows louder as I walk, as if I was flying in the air! The second is I have no foot step sounds at all, no matter what I am walking on (i.e., grass, wood, metal, or through water, etc.,). I like the idea of hearing the wind, but it's more like a hurricane/gale blasting at me, then the wind whipping by. I'll try out the instructions and see if it helps. Thanks for the advice.

Thanks ZanZimer, I'll give it a shot!

Please, re-read my message above... I explained that. Expected behaviour.

There's a footstep sound. But it's not very loud (no difference with LL's viewers here).

Thanks again Henri for the assistance. I just started Cool VL Viewer back up and the wind only blows while I'm walking so instead of foot steps I hear the wind. It sounds like I'm flying through the air or if I was the flash. I changed the "AudioLevelWind" from 0.5 to 0.1, which is quieter, but still no foot step sounds. Is it normal that they don't make any sound? I thought they would. If not, I guess I could make a script to add them. Anyway, I do really like the speed and lighting of Cool VL Viewer and glad to see it is updated often. Thanks for all of your help!

Just wait for next release and the AudioLevelWind setting will also affect relative wind. In the mean time, check "Advanced" -> "World" -> "Disable wind audio" (when compared with v3+ viewers you will then only lack the wind sound while flying).

The foot steps are only heard when the feet collide (1) with a surface that got a "material" (2) set (and no, there is no footstep sound for grass or water), just like in LL's viewer !

I don't know if other viewers implemented a different way to play foot step sounds, but if they did, this is a non-standard feature.

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(1) I.e. rarely while simply walking, but almost always when, for example, climbing stairs, always when landing, etc. The sound heard depends on the surface and/or on the material of any shoes your avatar would be wearing.
(2) This is the prim material type (not the texture material), as set in the build floater, "Material" combo. Available materials (and corresponding collision sounds) are "Stone", "Metal", "Glass", "Wood", "Flesh", "Plastic", "Rubber".

Thanks Henri for the update and I am looking forward to it. Other than the wind sound, whenever I walk around, the Cool VL Viewer is the best by far for OpenSims. Seriously. I have spent the last 2 days trying Singularity, and Firestorm (OpenSim version) and both don't come close in performance, visual appeal (i.e., clouds, water, default lighting, etc.,) and getting it to recognize my personal Worldz Dream Server. It's seriously night and day here. I am very grateful for Cool VL to exist, because I was able to get Singularity to at least login to my server, but visually the sky and water were not good. I couldn't tell what Firestorm's sky or water looks, because it wouldn't connect me no matter whether I tried the 172, 192, or 127 addresses. I tried both the Firestorm Second Life Viewer and it's OpenSim viewers and neither worked. Anyway thanks again for all of your assistance with the audio feature and I am looking forward to seeing what Cool VL becomes.