Sounds, footsteps and surfaces¶

Every sound in the template is a Sound Cue that carries its own Sound Class, and every sound heard from a place in the world also carries its own attenuation. Footsteps come from one component you can put on any pawn, and they pick a sound from the surface under the foot.

The sounds: Content/MPFriendslop/Audios/
The footstep component: Content/MPFriendslop/Blueprints/ActorComponents/BP_FootstepComponent
The footstep notify: Content/MPFriendslop/Blueprints/AnimNotifies/BP_FootstepNotify

Add a sound¶

Import your wave into the folder that fits: Audios/Effects/, Audios/Widgets/ or Audios/Footsteps/<Surface>/.
Right click the wave, then Create Cue. Name it CUE_<Name>.
Open the cue. In its Details panel, set Sound Class: SCLS_Effects for anything heard in the world, SCLS_UI for menus, SCLS_Music for music.
For a sound heard in the world, set Attenuation Settings to one of the ATT_ assets below.
Save, and play the cue from your Blueprint. Leave the attenuation pin of the play node empty: a value there replaces the one on the cue.

Attenuation	Used by
`ATT_Footstep`	Player footsteps
`ATT_Impact`	Loot impacts, breaks, melee swings and hits, the flashlight switch
`ATT_Weapon_Fire`	The shotgun
`ATT_Warden_Footstep`	The Warden's stomps
`ATT_Warden_Laser`	The Warden's laser loop

Warning

A cue with no Sound Class still plays, but the volume sliders of the settings menu never touch it. A world cue with no Attenuation Settings plays flat in both ears at full volume, wherever it comes from. Neither case logs anything.

The sliders and the classes they drive are on Settings and volume sliders.

How footsteps are played¶

BP_FootstepComponent sits on the player character. It traces straight down from where the step happens, reads the surface it hits, and plays the matching sound attached to the pawn.

Two sources call it:

Your own steps follow the camera stride of BP_ViewMotionComponent, so you hear yourself in every gait, walking, running and crouching. The stride is tuned on Movement, stamina and the camera.
Everyone else's steps come from BP_FootstepNotify on the animations. A pawn with no BP_ViewMotionComponent, such as an enemy or your own third person character, always uses the notifies. There is nothing to switch.

The landing goes through the same component, and Land Montage plays on every machine. You hear your own landing as a step played by BP_ViewMotionComponent, at its Landing Volume Scale (1.8, in Settings|Footsteps). Everyone else hears the landing notify of the animation.

Field	What it does	Shipped
`Footstep Default`	Played when the floor has no surface	`CUE_Footstep_Concrete`
`Footstep Concrete`	Surface `Concrete`	`CUE_Footstep_Concrete`
`Footstep Ground`	Surface `Ground`	`CUE_Footstep_Ground`
`Footstep Metal`	Surface `Metal`	`CUE_Footstep_Metal`
`Footstep Water`	Surface `Water`	`CUE_Footstep_Water`
`Footstep Wood`	Surface `Wood`	`CUE_Footstep_Wood`
`Footstep Volume`	Volume of every step, multiplied by the notify's `Volume Scale`	`1.0`
`Footstep Trace Cm`	How far down the trace looks for a floor	`120`
`Land Montage`	Played on landing, on every machine	`AM_Land`

All of them are in Settings|Footsteps. Leaving a sound empty is allowed and simply means that surface is silent.

Give a floor a surface¶

The project declares five surfaces: Concrete, Ground, Metal, Water and Wood. A floor only sounds like one of them once it has a Physical Material that says so. The template ships one per surface, in Content/MPFriendslop/Materials/Environments/PhysicalMaterials/:

Physical Material	Surface Type
`PM_Concrete`	`Concrete`
`PM_Ground`	`Ground`
`PM_Metal`	`Metal`
`PM_Water`	`Water`
`PM_Wood`	`Wood`

The floors of the modular kit, SM_Mod_Floor_*, already use PM_Metal. To give your own floor a surface:

Open the floor's Static Mesh, for example SM_Mod_Floor_400, and set Simple Collision Physical Material to the PM_ of its surface. Every copy of that mesh in every level now sounds like it.
For one placed floor only, select it in the level and set Phys Material Override on its component instead.

The footstep trace hits the simple collision, so the Physical Material has to be on the collision, as in steps 1 and 2. A floor with none plays Footstep Default.

Put footsteps on your own animations¶

Open your walk or run cycle.
On a notify track, at the frame where a foot touches the ground, right click, then Add Notify, then BP_FootstepNotify.
Set Foot Socket to the bone or socket of that foot: foot_l or foot_r.
Repeat for every contact of the cycle.

Field	What it does	Default
`Foot Socket`	Where the trace starts and where the sound is heard	`foot_l`
`Volume Scale`	Multiplies `Footstep Volume` for this step only	`1`

The notify looks for BP_FootstepComponent on the pawn playing the animation. A pawn without the component stays silent. The shipped walk and run cycles AS_Robot_Walk_* and AS_Robot_Run_* in Demo/Animations/Robot/Standing/ and AS_Robot_Land in Demo/Animations/Robot/Airborne/ are a ready example to copy the contact frames from. The first notify of AS_Robot_Land uses a Volume Scale of 1.8.

React to a step¶

BP_FootstepComponent calls OnFootstep on every audible step. Bind it for dust, decals or a camera shake.

Dispatcher	Gives	Fires on
`OnFootstep`	`Surface`, `Location`	every player

Footstep sounds are not what enemies hear. The Warden listens to BP_NoiseComponent, which counts distance on the server. See How the enemy AI works.

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