- v50 information can now be added to pages in the main namespace. v0.47 information can still be found in the DF2014 namespace. See here for more details on the new versioning policy.
- Use this page to report any issues related to the migration.
Utility:SoundSense
SoundSense
Discussion: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=60287.0 Homepage: http://df.zweistein.cz/soundsense/
Known Issues
Moments of Silence
Occationally, the music in SoundSense will stop for a short period (10, 20, or 30 seconds) before resuming. This is not a bug - it is intentional. This was done to let ears rest a bit between tracks. (Research shows that ears which get a rest have time to recover and are less likely to be damaged.) Also, a few tracks have a silent start and, at low volume, may take a minute or longer to become audible. If in doubt, you can see what is currently playing in GUI under the volume slider. During periods of silence, this will typically show "10s silence" or similar.
Game Loads and the Music is Random
When a game is loaded, SoundSense picks a random seasonal music track to play. This is not a bug - it is intentional. There is no way for SoundSense to detect what season it is when a game is loaded, so a random soundtrack is chosen. But when the season next changes, it will choose the correct soundtrack.
Adventure Mode - A Bit Lacking
Adventure Mode kind of works. The battle sounds function quite well because they are mostly the same as those in Fortress Mode. But SoundSense is still a bit lacking in other adventure sounds. The problem is that Adventure Mode does not log many other usefull events. For example, encountering a megabeast or a quest mob is resolved in chat, leaving no message in the game log to trigger SoundSense.
Improvements in how DF handles logging could benfit both SoundSense and DF as a whole. Such suggestions have already been posted in the official Dwarf Fortress forums: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=64834.0
Event Detection: Better Late Than Never?
In some cases, by the time SoundSense detects conditions to trigger an alert, it may be too late to react to the situation. For example, a "Tantrum Spiral" might already be over before the player can be alerted.
Part of this is a balance between detecting too many false positives and ignoring events until it is too late to do anything. For example, a soldier might lose a pet and report feeling like blowing off some steam... but instead of throwing a tantrum they calm down.
Another problem is FPS sensitivity. A specific sequence of events may trigger certain alert sounds in a high FPS situation, but it might not trigger with low FPS. The sequence of events might "time out". Also, pausing the game could cause similar problems.
Compatible With DF Mods - Should Work, But NO PROMISES
SoundSense was mainly designed for "vanilla" (unmodified) Dwarf Fortress. It should work fine with most mods. However, I can not guarantee compatibility. Some mods, especially "major" or "full conversions", may create unusual behavior and involve dangerous events that SoundSense was not designed to detect.
Another words, SoundSense may lack sounds for certain mod-specific events. (E.g.; you should NOT expect SoundSense to include gunshot sounds for mods that add guns! But you CAN modify SoundSense yourself to do this.) Conversely, some events that work normally in vanilla DF may trigger so frequently with a mod as to be very annoying.
Any Other Issues? Post Feedback
There is a thread at the official Dwarf Fortress forums. Feel free to post any issues, suggestions, and contributions there: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=60287.0
When providing feedback about your experience with SoundSense, please specify which mods (if any) you are using. If SoundSense seems to behave weirdly only for you, it just might be from using certain mods.