Sound in Space Enhancement

[NAKEDnick]

So sound in space is one of those comments that comes up from time to time here with regard to this being a "realistic" space sim. It's usually chalked up to no sound in space would be a bit boring from a gameplay perspective. I won't at all challenge that sentiment. However, I really do think it would be nice to have an option to select your preferred sound type: Realistic or Theatric.

Theatric would of course be what we have now, while Realistic would cut external sound in zero atmosphere and muffle it in tenuous atmosphere. This would leave only the internal sounds on the ship that you would hear. Granted, I would suspect this would require remapping some sounds that exist such as hardpoints firing to make them sound different depending on the setting.

EDIT
1.) I was educated about the lore surrounding external sound emulation via speakers in the ship's cockpit
2.) I should have clarified that I meant "sound waves do not ravel through the vacuum of space."

 

[varonica]

So sound in space is one of those comments that comes up from time to time here with regard to this being a "realistic" space sim. It's usually chalked up to no sound in space would be a bit boring from a gameplay perspective. I won't at all challenge that sentiment. However, I really do think it would be nice to have an option to select your preferred sound type: Realistic or Theatric.

The explanation is the sound is generated by your ship interface and sent to the cabin through speakers, it's not just magic.

In fact once the canopy is gone and the cockpit is airless you will no longer hear sounds except for the sound of your own breathing!

Sound​

Sound requires solids, liquids, or gasses to travel through. Since space is a vacuum, there is no matter through which sound can travel. The speaker array inside the cockpit of a ship simulates all audio activity outside the ship in real-time, thus creating the illusion that the pilot can hear sounds in space. When the canopy breaks and vents atmosphere, sound no longer has any air to resonate with, rendering the speakers useless. At this point, the pilot can only hear themselves breathe in their suit until they repair their canopy.

 

[Sethioz]

So sound in space is one of those comments that comes up from time to time here with regard to this being a "realistic" space sim. It's usually chalked up to no sound in space would be a bit boring from a gameplay perspective. I won't at all challenge that sentiment. However, I really do think it would be nice to have an option to select your preferred sound type: Realistic or Theatric.

Theatric would of course be what we have now, while Realistic would cut external sound in zero atmosphere and muffle it in tenuous atmosphere. This would leave only the internal sounds on the ship that you would hear. Granted, I would suspect this would require remapping some sounds that exist such as hardpoints firing to make them sound different depending on the setting.

Yet another misconception, there IS sound in space .. I don't know why people keep thinking that there's no sound in space? THERE IS .. look it up and do some research.
There are lot of NASA documentaries where they record various sounds in space and I believe ED is replicating some of them, like when you woosh past a planet, they make sounds. This is exactly what happens in real life. NASA has lot of audio files available that have been recorded in space.

gravitational waves, visible light and radiation (such as elecromagnetic radiation) can also carry sound. It would probably not sound like in atmosphere, but it would still be sound.

For example there's something called "laser microphone", which you can probably buy on ebay. You point it onto something and it transmits audio via focused light (laser). Ofcourse sound has to exist in that point to begin with, but my point is that such laser microphones can be used to carry sound thru vacuum of space. Who says that ED ships don't use such tech for audio? After all ED is in 3000+ year, all ships could be equipped with 360x360 laser mics that record audio from all around.
If you have 2 people in a spaceship talking, then you can point the laser at their ship's window and you can hear them just like having a normal microphone in their ship (this is by using current real life tech).

Don't get me wrong, if you'd be in space, audio would be very muffled and different (if you have no suit and able to survive), but if you have suit on and someone points laser mic at your helmet, they can hear you perfectly fine. Also don't forget that radios work just fine in space, how else do you think astronauts can hear eachother and talk to mission control back on earth (talking about real life)?

I think sounds are fine as it is, just imagine that all ships are equipped with advanced 360x360 light-based microphones. Even with our current tech, that's already possible.

 

[bruce1337]

Yet another misconception, there IS sound in space .. I don't know why people keep thinking that there's no sound in space? THERE IS .. look it up and do some research.
There are lot of NASA documentaries where they record various sounds in space and I believe ED is replicating some of them, like when you woosh past a planet, they make sounds. This is exactly what happens in real life. NASA has lot of audio files available that have been recorded in space.

Merriam-Webster about "sound": "mechanical radiant energy that is transmitted by longitudinal pressure waves in a material medium (such as air) and is the objective cause of hearing."

Therefore: no medium, no sound. What matter happens to float in the vacuum of space still vibrates, but there is nothing to transmit this signal. The "recordings" from NASA are akin to synesthesia, translating radio frequencies to audio. What does a microphone or even laser microphone pick up when pointed towards an ordinary 50 or 60Hz AC line? That's pretty much what you can hear in space...

 

[Sethioz]

Merriam-Webster about "sound": "mechanical radiant energy that is transmitted by longitudinal pressure waves in a material medium (such as air) and is the objective cause of hearing."

Therefore: no medium, no sound. What matter happens to float in the vacuum of space still vibrates, but there is nothing to transmit this signal. The "recordings" from NASA are akin to synesthesia, translating radio frequencies to audio. What does a microphone or even laser microphone pick up when pointed towards an ordinary 50 or 60Hz AC line? That's pretty much what you can hear in space...

no point arguing with someone who just wants to ignore the facts, so i just disable notifications for this topic. clearly you have no idea how sound works. There IS sound in space, carried by other means as I mentioned before. PERIOD.

 

[bruce1337]

Careful not to fall off that high horse of yours. Sound is defined as (material) waves in a pond, so to speak, and yet space is empty, so the (rhetorical...) question is: what waves can you make in an empty pond?

Arbitrarily altering definitions to suit your premise is not too convincing.

 

[Northpin]

gravitational waves, visible light and radiation (such as elecromagnetic radiation) can also carry sound. It would probably not sound like in atmosphere, but it would still be sound.

Your definition of Sound must be very lax if you include in it the entire electromagnetic spectrum and gravitational waves

 

[NAKEDnick]

The explanation is the sound is generated by your ship interface and sent to the cabin through speakers, it's not just magic.

In fact once the canopy is gone and the cockpit is airless you will no longer hear sounds except for the sound of your own breathing!

I was not aware of this detail being covered! That's all the explanation I needed.

 

[NAKEDnick]

Merriam-Webster about "sound": "mechanical radiant energy that is transmitted by longitudinal pressure waves in a material medium (such as air) and is the objective cause of hearing."

Therefore: no medium, no sound. What matter happens to float in the vacuum of space still vibrates, but there is nothing to transmit this signal. The "recordings" from NASA are akin to synesthesia, translating radio frequencies to audio. What does a microphone or even laser microphone pick up when pointed towards an ordinary 50 or 60Hz AC line? That's pretty much what you can hear in space...

I probably could have avoided that spat if I'd clarified that I meant "sound waves do not carry through the vacuum of space." But man, the points being used to challenge my statement were bad.

 

[Makaan]

Yet another misconception, there IS sound in space .. I don't know why people keep thinking that there's no sound in space? THERE IS .. look it up and do some research.
There are lot of NASA documentaries where they record various sounds in space and I believe ED is replicating some of them, like when you woosh past a planet, they make sounds. This is exactly what happens in real life. NASA has lot of audio files available that have been recorded in space.

gravitational waves, visible light and radiation (such as elecromagnetic radiation) can also carry sound. It would probably not sound like in atmosphere, but it would still be sound.

For example there's something called "laser microphone", which you can probably buy on ebay. You point it onto something and it transmits audio via focused light (laser). Ofcourse sound has to exist in that point to begin with, but my point is that such laser microphones can be used to carry sound thru vacuum of space. Who says that ED ships don't use such tech for audio? After all ED is in 3000+ year, all ships could be equipped with 360x360 laser mics that record audio from all around.
If you have 2 people in a spaceship talking, then you can point the laser at their ship's window and you can hear them just like having a normal microphone in their ship (this is by using current real life tech).

Don't get me wrong, if you'd be in space, audio would be very muffled and different (if you have no suit and able to survive), but if you have suit on and someone points laser mic at your helmet, they can hear you perfectly fine. Also don't forget that radios work just fine in space, how else do you think astronauts can hear eachother and talk to mission control back on earth (talking about real life)?

I think sounds are fine as it is, just imagine that all ships are equipped with advanced 360x360 light-based microphones. Even with our current tech, that's already possible.

Sound waves can't travel through space. Anything that causes vibration makes a sound, but those vibrations have to be carried by a medium capable of resonance (which is basically anything tangible, from metal and plastic, to fluids like air and water, but not hard vacuum) in order to be "heard" by either a living ear or a microphone. There would be no muffled sounds of any kind.

This is why astronauts in the vacuum of space must use radios to communicate. No matter how loud one shouts within the suit or how close they are, the other will not hear them.

NASA records magnetic and electric field waves of space events, and planets etc. and they translate this data into an audible range we can hear. You would never hear these sounds in space without this being done.