Master volume slider?

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Nash
 
 
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Master volume slider?

Post by Nash »

Can we have a master volume slider so that we can adjust the overall master mix of ZDoom's sound output? I want to use this to alter the volume of the game without disturbing the relative levels between the sound/menu/music sliders.

And no, my speaker's volume knob won't do - there are legitimate reasons why I'd sometimes need an in-game master volume slider - let's say I'm on an IM program, and I want to run a fullscreen game while waiting for responses in the IM. Most of the time, ZDoom's output is just WAY too loud (even with freshly generated INIs) which would drown out any new IM message audio queues. So if I had a volume slider, I can temporarily turn down the game's volume.
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Average
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Re: Master volume slider?

Post by Average »

+1 :)
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Re: Master volume slider?

Post by Project Shadowcat »

+1 here as well. I could also be on a voice conference over Mumble or Skype.
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Zippy
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Re: Master volume slider?

Post by Zippy »

If you're on Vista or Win7, you can already control the total application volume separately through the system sound mixer. Would still be nice to have it in application though.
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Re: Master volume slider?

Post by CommanderZ »

+1 as well. I'm constantly switching game sounds on and off (depending on whether I have a movie playing o the other screen) :)
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Re: Master volume slider?

Post by Jimmy »

I'm all in favor of this, but when this sort of thing happens, I adjust the volume mixer on my taskbar. :P
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Nash
 
 
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Re: Master volume slider?

Post by Nash »

Well, I'd rather not touch the Windows mixer...
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Zippy
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Re: Master volume slider?

Post by Zippy »

Nash wrote:Well, I'd rather not touch the Windows mixer...
Interesting... because?
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Re: Master volume slider?

Post by Gez »

Nash wrote:let's say I'm on an IM program, and [...] ZDoom's output [...] would drown out any new IM message audio queues
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Nash
 
 
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Re: Master volume slider?

Post by Nash »

The same reason why some people have a certain way they arrange their icons on their OS desktop, how some users have a preference when it comes to file display settings, window positions, etc.

I posted this suggestion hoping that there's a chance that it's very easy to reroute the entire audio signal to just one more slider. It's also much convenient to have this setting in-game, and also saved into the INI.
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Re: Master volume slider?

Post by Zippy »

Gez wrote:
Nash wrote:let's say I'm on an IM program, and [...] ZDoom's output [...] would drown out any new IM message audio queues
But that's the point of Vista and Win7's audio mixer. It separates the audio level for each application, so you can individually lower ZDoom's output without affecting other programs (like a messenger.) You can do exactly as the original post suggests, with the only difference being the slider is located outside of ZDoom. I've done that very thing before, when I didn't want ZDoom's audio drowning out a messenger application; lowered ZDoom's audio in the sound mixer while leaving the messenger's untouched.
Nash wrote:The same reason why some people have a certain way they arrange their icons on their OS desktop, how some users have a preference when it comes to file display settings, window positions, etc.
I don't know. That still just sounds weird to me. Like, "just because!". The feature is there specifically to solve the problem that brought you to make this feature suggestion in the first place. You're just not using that solution because... ... ? I don't know why.

I mess with the sliders in the sound mixer all the time, and it's not truly some "that's the way I like it" thing... it's just that some applications are louder than others. My preference for the way things work or are organized on my computer can be considered "that's the way I like", but it's the way I like it because it solves whatever organizational or display problem I am having. If you're having a problem with volume, the solution is right there, waiting to be used.

And again, for the record, it would be nice to have a master volume CVar in ZDoom itself so I'm not against that. I'm just pointing out that for some of the common modern OSs that ZDoom is built to run on, it's a superfluous solution.
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Re: Master volume slider?

Post by Xaser »

I'm going to ask the obvious question on the off-chance that Nash is unspokenly concerned about it: Do the Windows sound mixer settings get saved between different application runs? If the assumption is that it doesn't, then yeah, I'd shy away from it too. :P

[EDIT] A quick test shows that the settings are indeed saved, and are relative to the master volume slider (in a way). Seems pretty useful, as such, and I've never actually messed with it (or even known it existed) until now. Neat. :)
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Re: Master volume slider?

Post by randi »

I think Nash in on XP, though, in which case not touching the Windows mixer is a valid concern.

A global volume slider is easy to do and I've already considered it and put it off as low priority before. Since Vista and up have OS support for this sort of thing, would it be reasonable to have ZDoom hook into that for those operating systems but do it itself for older operating systems?

(Do note that my posting here doesn't mean it's going to get done any time soon, no matter how easy it is to do, what with the flood and all.)
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Re: Master volume slider?

Post by Blzut3 »

randy wrote:Since Vista and up have OS support for this sort of thing,
In addition any Linux distro using PulseAudio has a similar feature.
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Re: Master volume slider?

Post by randi »

Too bad ZDoom doesn't support PulseAudio...

The closest you'll get is the ALSA->PulseAudio redirection. Unless SDL has Pulse support now... Of course, we could always write another output plugin for PulseAudio, too.

And what about OSS4? Does that also have per-application volume levels?
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