Using the Update component in a non-aircraft simobject

[Dimus]

Hello to all!

I am trying to accomplish what seems like a simple task but failing so far.

I have a static simobject (Landmark) to which I would like to assign sounds to be played at specific time of day. Local Time is an E: (Environment variable) and so far I've managed to use it to trigger animations or effects. Sound however needs SimVars, or alternatively Lvars.

So I thought, why not define an Lvar and use it to grab the value of E: LOCAL TIME in it and use it as the simulation variable to trigger the sound in the sound.xml.

Searching the known sites I found a suggestion to use the update component in the Behaviors. So my code looks like this:

<Behaviors>

<Include ModelBehaviorFile="Asobo\Generic\FX.xml"/>
<Include Path="Asobo\Generic.xml"/>

<!--Setting sound Lvar-->
<Component ID="GRAB_LOCAL_TIME">
<UseTemplate Name="ASOBO_GT_Update">
<FREQUENCY>18</FREQUENCY>
<UPDATE_CODE>
(E:LOCAL TIME, Seconds) (&gt;L:Sound1)
</UPDATE_CODE>
</UseTemplate>
</Component>

and the sound.xml entry like this:

<SimVarSounds>
<Sound WwiseData="true" WwiseEvent="eng_intake_whistle" Continuous="true" LocalVar="Sound1">
<Range LowerBound="84600" UpperBound="84840"/>
</Sound>
</SimVarSounds>

Normally this would trigger the sound at 23:30 and play it for 4 minutes. This never happens. Using the "Behavior" tool in the sim dev mode I check the value of the Lvar and it is always 0. If I manually set it to 84600 in the tool the sound does trigger.

The model is for 2024 and I understand that the above shows 2020 templates but they should normally work. I have tried also with the 2024 update template "Asobo_Update_Template" instead of "ASOBO_GT_Update" and it did not make a difference. I need to stick to 2020 templates as I am using some 2020 effects templates too.

I have seen the "ASOBO_GT_Update" used in modelbehavior files of aircraft cockpits so I'm starting to think it may not work in a "Landmark" simobject, but that would be strange.

Any help or suggestion would be deeply appreciated.

 

[Dimus]

I see no reply yet. I wonder if anybody has tried triggering sounds in a simobject using the Local Time variable and if there is an alternative method to the one I am trying here.

 

[Dimus]

Just in case anyone has the same issue, I got a great pointer from a kind soul Rotornut44 at the MSFS Dev forum. It seems that the update loop works only in aircraft cockpits to monitor interactions. The trick for other simobjects is to use a worldscript. Details here: https://devsupport.flightsimulator....raft-simobject-trigger-sound-using-lvar/16902

My worldscript looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<SimBase.Document Type="MissionFile" version="1,0" id="{19d1e6bc-a7ea-4f47-abaa-62622430969a}">
<Title>Engine Sound Controller</Title>
<Filename>SR_Sound_WS.xml</Filename>

<WorldBase.Flight>
<SimMission.Calculator InstanceId="{7df8e00d-ba56-4552-a381-d4dc234dc33b}" id="ESD_CTRL">
<CalculatorActions>

<!-- Grabbing Local time value at Lvar EngSound1 -->
<CalculatorAction>
<CalculatorFormula>
(E:LOCAL TIME, Seconds) (&gt;L:EngSound1)
</CalculatorFormula>
</CalculatorAction>

</CalculatorActions>
</SimMission.Calculator>
</WorldBase.Flight>
</SimBase.Document>

The sound.xml entry is still the same but now works!