[In The Works] Sounds of Skyrim

[Cliffworms]

Sounds of Skyrim

 

 

What does it do?

 

Like my Oblivion project, Sounds of Cyrodiil, Sounds of Skyrim adds around 450+ sound effects to the game that are played from thousands of hand-placed sound emission points. Sounds of Skyrim affects most cells and regions. From Civilization to the Dungeons; From the Wilds to Special Events, all situations will benefit from sound additions. The time of day gives you a different atmosphere. So when walking in the city streets during the day, you’ll hear the echo of people shouting in the distance, doors opening and closing, workers hammering roofs. While at night, cats fight for territory, dogs bark, drunkards yell.

 

In dungeons, the enemy type that lives in them will make itself heard. In an undead infested dungeon, zombies moan and spirits shriek. In Dwemer Ruins inhabited by the Falmer, their screams alert you of their presence. Like most sound effects, there is a random delay between each sound and a random direction when it happens so you can never guess what sound will play next, when and where it will come from. Thus, keeping you on the edge in dungeons and creating a nice audio environment in civilized areas.

 

The other main feature is being able to hear the outside from the inside. If you get close to windows inside buildings, you’ll hear what’s going on outside. If you’re in a wilderness cabin, you’ll hear the nature sounds around you. If you’re in the entrance of a cave and look outside, you’ll hear the birds and other animals going about their lives. If you're in your house and you look outside, you'll hear what's going in the street. If it's raining, you'll hear the ripples hit the windows and if there's a thunderstorm raging outside, you'll hear the occasional lightning strike.

 

In taverns, patrons chat, yell they want more wine, burp, cough or laugh out loud. When wandering on the city streets in the evening, walk by a tavern and you'll hear the activity from outside.

 

In the Wilds, climb mountains and hear a monster's screaming echo or a far away avalanche. Take a walk in the forest and hear small mammals running from you in the bushes and grass.

 

In Special Events, certain quests or events will have received some audio goodness/additions. For instance, when a dragon flies above a town, you'll hear the soldiers sounding the battle horn and the villagers screaming for their lives.

 

 

Sounds of Skyrim is about overhauling your Skyrim audio experience. It's about making the game pretty for your ears.

 

 

For your ears' pleasure

 

Civilization Sounds Samples

Dungeon Sounds Samples

Special Events Samples

As the sounds get designed and edited, I will be adding them to a setlist on Sounds of Skyrim's SoundCloud page. You can easily select which sound compilation you want to listen to on the same page. Enjoy!

 

 

Trailers

 

 

 

Detailed Soundlist

Most of the sounds included in the list can be heard from inside if you’re in a building where you can hear them. For instance, if you’re in a farmhouse that has cows nearby at night, you’ll hear wolves howling, owls, crickets and the cows.

 

Have a suggestion? Share it. If it's about a quest, please put in spoiler tags. ;)

 

Click the Spoiler Button to unleash the list.

 

The Wilds

 

• Around 20-25 new bird sounds; including crows and ravens.
  
• Insects flying-by your character’s ears.
  
• 6 short gusts of cold wind heard from the inside of buildings where a snowstorm happens.
  
• Rare occurance of hearing an avalanche happening or a strange creature’s scream echo in the mountains.
  
• Rodents running in the grass at night.
  
• Water waves’ impact on small embarkations and docks.
  
• Wolves howling in the distance.
  
• Coyotes howling at night.
  
• Bats flapping-by at night.
  
• More types of owls at night.
  
• Rope bridges’ supports and railing squeaking/being unstable.
  
• Bee nests sound on the nests.
  
• Ice sheets creak when you walk-by.
  
• Distant sabercat, deer, goats and foxes sounds.
  

 

 

The Dungeons

 

There’s a standard sound set for each type of dungeon: Cave, Dwemer Ruins, Forts/Burrows, Sewers and Mines. These sounds play in these dungeons regardless of who or what lives in it. To spice it up, dungeons inhabited by Daedras or the Undead have their own sound sets in addition to the standard ones. Undead dungeons have zombies and wraiths screaming or moaning. Daedric dungeons have demonic voices or daedras screaming.

 

 

Standard Caves

• Rats squeaking about
  
• Bats flapping-by
  

 

Standard Dwemer Ruins

• Mechanical "bangs" and machinery.
  

 

Standard Forts/Burrows

• Rats squeaking about
  
• Stone impact echo
  
• Doors being opened/slided/closed
  

 

Sewers

• Rats squeaking about
  
• Screeching Gates opened/closed
  

 

Mines

• Creaking wood supports
  

 

 

Civilization

 

• Hear the rain from the inside of buildings. (Near windows, entrances and wooden rooftops)
  
• Hear the impact of rain on tents and wooden structures.
  
• Horses snort and neigh in stables
  
• Hear cows and goats from a distance or from inside.
  
• Hens clucking at dawn.
  
• Around 60 SFX for city streets. People shout, dogs bark, cats fight, doors open and close, children play.
  
• A looped city chatter background for the walled cities. (Possible to disable it or enable in all cities in the in-game config.)
  
• Listen to the taverns' activity from the doorstep.
  
• Around 40 SFX for taverns. People burp, shout, laugh, cough, break bottles or pull chairs.
  
• Looped tavern chatter to fill the place. (Possible to disable it from in-game config)
  
• Hear what's going on on the taverns' or factions' headquarters first floor if you're in the basement. People walking over your head, chairs being pulled, thing falling on the floor or the front door being opened and closed during the tavern's busy hours
  
• Cold wind whistling through the windows from inside buildings in the northern regions.
  
• An echoed, looped ambience for castles.
  
• Chants and godly sound atmospheres for temples. (Can be disabled in the in-game config)
  
• On rainy days, listen to the rain hit the windows inside buildings.
  
• On rainy days, listen to the rain's impact when it lands on tents.
  
• Hear the blacksmith at work from the street if you pass by his front door or windows during opening hours. (If his forge is inside)
  
• Snoring sound effects for many NPCs.
  
• Potions boil where NPCs brew potions. Notably in alchemy shops, dungeons or College of Winterhold.
  
• Military horns and soldiers marching heard from Solitude's Castle Dour Courtyard when the player is far from it. (And from the inside of buildings)
  

 

 

Special Events

 

• People scream in horror and panic when a dragon hovers above a town.
  
• A horn is sounded when a dragon flies above a town.
  
• At the beginning of the game, the Imperial officer from the other carriage calls the names of the other prisoners.
  
• Hercine's Daedric Quest:
  The hunted werewolf growls and howls during the Hunt.
   
  
• Vaermina's Daedric Quest:
  The sounds of battle in Nightcaller Temple are heard in the corridors during the Dreamwalk.
   
  
• Molag Bal's Daedric Quest:
  When you have killed Vigilant Tynarus, you'll hear a distant choir of agonizing humans and a creepy atmosphere from below. As you go down the basement and get closer to Molag Bal's shrine, the choir gets more and more creepier.
   
  
• Civil War Quests:
  Sounds of warfare during the sieges and fort assaults. Arrows fly-by, men scream while storming Whiterun, battle horns are sounded.
   
  

 

 

You have sound addition ideas, suggestions and comments? I'm all ears. :foodndrink:

Edited January 4, 2012 by Cliffworms

[darthsloth74]

Sounds like a really good mod. I personally thought Skyrim did pretty well with its ambient sounds but far more of them is never a bad thing and increases immersion. I will look forward to the release of this mod.

[CampanaAliquanta]

I like the idea of being able to hear things on the other side of a door or window. Will keep an eye out for this one :)

[SkyrimeisterSam]

How about enemies yelling in pain when you hit them? Or how about a combat section where numerous sounds can be added to the combat? Maybe bones crunching with maces?

[Mechanorm]

If you'd like anyone to help with voices I'd gladly take part.

[Cliffworms]

A somewhat big update, considering that I haven't given updates yet!

 

All sounds have been found, edited and are ready to be put in the game once the CK is released. SoS will add around 470 sound effects to all areas of the game. Here are the links to samples from the Dungeons, Civilization and Special Events sound sets:

 

The Dungeons

Civilization

Special Events

 

About the project's distribution....Sounds of Skyrim will be released in modular form and a Full version. There will be a module for Civilization, The Wilds, The Dungeons and Special Events so the users will be able to install the module they are interested in. The Full version is simply all modules put together.

 

Sounds of Skyrim will come with an in-game config with which the user can enable/disable certain sound effects such as looped chatter in cities or taverns. The folder structure also allows the user to remove or add his own sound effects so they can be played in Skyrim. For example, a user can record himself shouting insults and place it in the "CitySoundsReverb" folder to hear his voice in the game's cities. :P

 

How about enemies yelling in pain when you hit them? Or how about a combat section where numerous sounds can be added to the combat? Maybe bones crunching with maces?

 

At the moment and I am not changing the game's sound effects. Sounds of Skyrim is a sound addition. A project like Oblivion's Symphony of Violence would be great. :D

 

If you'd like anyone to help with voices I'd gladly take part.

 

Thank you for the suggestion. At the moment everything's fine and dandy. I'll keep you in mind for future projects though!

[Hoptic]

Oh yeah, I had seen this for Oblivion.

Though I've never download it. You see, I'm afraid about all the "randomness" of the sounds. I mean, in a dungeon I pay attention to sounds to spot ennemies (I have a mod to remove the GPS so I don't have the godlike radar to spot ennemies, and another mod that removes ambiant light from dungeons meaning no light unless near a torch).

 

Problem is, if a random sound plays ahead of me but I find no enemy, well it sucks.

If I hear a shriek after having cleared a dungeon, I'll just go where the sound was and I'll be like, wtf, there's nobody there.

 

Is it really how it is? Because, maaaan this game could use some cool sounds, and your work sounds awesome :)

[Cliffworms]

Oh yeah, I had seen this for Oblivion.

Though I've never download it. You see, I'm afraid about all the "randomness" of the sounds. I mean, in a dungeon I pay attention to sounds to spot ennemies (I have a mod to remove the GPS so I don't have the godlike radar to spot ennemies, and another mod that removes ambiant light from dungeons meaning no light unless near a torch).

 

Problem is, if a random sound plays ahead of me but I find no enemy, well it sucks.

If I hear a shriek after having cleared a dungeon, I'll just go where the sound was and I'll be like, wtf, there's nobody there.

 

Is it really how it is? Because, maaaan this game could use some cool sounds, and your work sounds awesome :)

 

The monster sounds played in dungeons indeed play randomly. But there might be a way to disable them once a dungeon is cleared. When the CK will be released, I will verify how the game can state that a dungeon has been cleared (Like when you look at your minimap). If it checks if no enemies remain in the dungeon, this will mean that it's possible to remove every monster-related sound once you've cleared it out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. :thumbsup:

 

For the cities, the sounds also play randomly. For instance, you'll never see the far away person who has just shouted "I won't pay money for that...it's garbage!!". Or there are even cats, while not present in the game, they are present in the cities in the world's lore and books.

 

This said, Sounds of Skyrim can be customized so you can remove sounds you don't want to hear. For example, if you want to remove the dungeon's monster sounds you can replace them with a silent file that comes with the mod. It's a good way to keep only what you want in your game. :)

Sounds of Skyrim will also come in a modular form; should you prefer to use the Wilds and Special Events sounds but not Civilization and the Dungeons for instance.

[Hoptic]

That's great, I'll give it a go some time.

 

As for the "cleared" state, I've noticed recently that a sound is played towards the end of a dungeon, and I thought that might be the signal that indicates that the dungeon enters the "cleared" state. I'll try to pinpoint exactly when it plays, next time I'm in a dungeon. But I don't think it's enemy-related, probably more boss-related or "geographically"-related.

[DominusMalum]

Will Def be keeping an eye on this mod. Been following you since elder scrolls.