This document describes the sound support for Crossfire, and how the client should handle the commands it receives.

Client-side support

Sound support is activated by issuing a 'setup sound2 x' command, with x a combination of:

1 for sounds
2 for background music

When sound is activated, the server will send 'sound2' commands to client.

The format of the command is: sound2 <x><y><dir><volume><type><len of action>action<len of name>name

with

'x' and 'y' are bytes, position of the sound relative to the player.
'dir' is a byte from 0 to 8, the direction the sound is moving to.
'volume' is a byte from 1 to 100, arbitrary intensity of the sound.
'type' is a byte, the major sound type.
'len of action' is a byte, length of action.
'action' is a string, specifying an arbitrary filename.
'len of name' is a byte, length of name.
'name' is the name of the sound emitter, that can be used to find a specific sound.

Using the type, action and name, the client can determine what sound to play:

'type' gives a base directory
'action' is the actual sound to play, without the extension
'name' specifies a subdirectory in type's directory, in which client should first search

If no sound can be found in 'name', client should search in the base directory.

This enables to override sounds for specific monsters or races.

'type' can be:

1: living sound (moving, dying, ...)
2: spell casting sound
3: item sound (potion, weapon ...)
4: ground sound (door, trap opening, ...)
5: hit something
6: hit by something

Each type will have an associated subdirectory, in which will be the sound files.

Examples: (<x> indicates a byte of value x)

sound2 <3><2><5><40><1><8>fireball<4>wand Something cast (<1>) a spell from a 'wand', at position (3,2) relative to the player, in direction south (<5>). The spell is a 'fireball'. Client will first look for a 'cast/wand/fireball' file. If not found, it will look for 'cast/fireball'.

sound2 <0><0><0><80><2><5>apply<17>potion player applies a potion of something. Client should first look for 'item/apply/potion', then 'item/apply'.

Conventions for 'action' field

For living sounds, the 'action' will be things like 'move', 'death', ...

For spell casting, 'action' will be the spell name. This enables to have spell-specific sounds.

For item sounds, 'action' will be things like 'apply', 'burn' and such.

Ground sounds will have actions like 'hole open', 'trap spring' and such.

For 'hit' and 'hit by' types, the 'action' will be the skill name used to attack.

Name meaning

Name will be the base name of the emitter, so 'wand', 'mouse', 'door'.

For players, it will be the player's race.

Server-side support

Objects have a 'sound_chance' field, 0 to 100, that is the probability of sending a sound.

The volume will be randomly determined at each sound for more variability.

Players receive a maximum of MAX_SOUNDS_TICK sounds per tick, to not send too many.

Server doesn't really care of the actions, that are arbitrary.

Existing sounds

Please update this section as you add sounds.

living:

push: something is pushed
death: something dies

spell:

fumble: spell failure
learn: learnt a spell

item:

explode
evaporate
fire: arrow or equivalent is fired
poof: wand has no more charges
tick: clock sound
turn handle: handle is activated
apply

ground

open: door opens
fall hole: something falls in a hole
poison: someone drank poison

hit something:

one attack skill
low: inflict low damage
medium: inflict medium damage
high: inflict high damage
kill: killed something

hit by something:

one per attack skill
low: took low damage
medium: took medium damage
high: took high damage