Environment Sounds

Environmental Sounds

There's a handful of ways to generate sound without an avatar in Second Life.

• Sound clips
• a parcel's music stream
• a web page displayed on a prim

You can change all of them using scripting. The latter two depend on the viewer being set properly to allow them to play.

Soundtrack

If your build has a soundtrack or theme music that you want heard clearly across the parcel, consider using streaming music.

You can play a series of sound clips in order, but there's no guarantee that the "song" will be heard as seamless.

Looping sounds

Looping a sound clip can add ambience. Consider it for nighttime bugs by a lake, a crowd murmuring, or the hum of electric signs.

<lsl> default {

   state_entry()
   {
       llLoopSound( llGetInventoryName( INVENTORY_SOUND, 0 ), 0.5 );
   }

} </lsl>

Rhythmic sounds

Ocean surf

Random sounds

Short ambient sounds played randomly can make a space feel more alive.

Some good choices for this would be frogs, underbrush rustles and snaps, a distant car horn or squealing brakes.

Try this random sounds script.

Day/Night detection

Some sounds are best played during certain times of day. Consider birdsong, or bats and owls. If your build is taking advantage of a region's natural day/night cycle, you can alter your ambient sound selection by the time of day your region shows.

<lsl> integer IsSunUp() {

   vector sunPosition = llGetSunDirection();
   return ( sunPosition.z > 0 );

}

integer IsTwilight() {

   vector sunPosition = llGetSunDirection();
   if ( sunPosition.z > 0.0 && sunPosition.z < 0.15 )
       return TRUE;
   return FALSE;

} </lsl>

Wind activated sounds

Do your bushes rustle more or louder when the wind blows? What about wind chimes?

<lsl> float GetWindStrength() {

   return llVecMag(llWind(ZERO_VECTOR));

} </lsl>

Try this wind powered sounds script.

Extremely loud sounds

Using llTriggerSound multiple times in a row can make a sound seem much louder than calling it once. This can be useful for tower bells and explosions. Be careful using this; too many times can cause an unpleasant echo-like effect.

<lsl> integer n; for (n = 0; n < 5; ++n) {

   llTriggerSound(soundname, 1.0);

} </lsl>