Asteroid ring sound effects

I’ve just been watching Bluedrake’s awesome stream again and noticed that there’s potential to substantially increase immersion when inside planet rings. What’s needed when flying through the rings is looping or procedurally applied sound effects of micro meteors hitting the hull of the ship. This would certainly increase the tension of flying through an asteroid field at high speed.

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And something along the lines of a massive “thud” when you hit *something* bigger.

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Could be nice. Maybe it could sound like rain.

Gentle or not depending on how fast you’re going.

Hail would be a good reference point for that.

Some background “white noise” effects would go a long way. Same with the atmospheric flight.
A muffled rush of air like this mixed with typical rushing sound you hear in an aircraft.

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Agreed,This was just what I was thinking of. I also noticed some of the smaller asteroids sailing away when hit IIRC. Would be nice to hear a couple of bumps whilst hitting them :smile:

Maybe it could sound like rain.

I’m thinking more like hail

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I imagine something close to this:

“Nothing but the rain”

Probably not quite as intense though, unless you are flying through a debris field of some recently exploded starship.

So, back in 2004 the Cassini spacecraft actually did pass through Saturn’s rings (TWICE!). There’s no microphone on board Cassini, so this isn’t an audio recording, but it gives you an idea of what flying through the rings of a planet may actually sound like:

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/PIA06410-Sounds-movie.mov
http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/PIA06410-Sounds-movie.mov

What you’re hearing are grains of dust (on the order of the same size as cigarette smoke particles) crashing into the probe at a speed of 20 km/s (which is comparable to what we’re seeing in those prototype videos) and subsequently ionizing. When they ionize, they give off little bursts of radio waves which were picked up by the instruments on Cassini as bursts of static.

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Not a bad idea, probably a cinch to implement. Static stuff for tiny stuff, hail for small stuff, explosions for big stuff.

I’m sure stuff like this is already on the list :smiley:

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Also a reflective skip sound as asteroids zip past you, similar to when you’re driving when you pass by a bunch of pillars, like “woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh” like this:

I expect you’re right, the team have already demonstrated their competence and attention to detail. I only posted in case it hadn’t made it on to their todo list yet.

And that was the gap in the rings too.