So, one of the ideas I’ve been mulling around has been creating a custom sound board. This means creating a lot of sound effects from scratch and building a library that can be indexed logically for quick reference. Especially on the fly, during a game session. I’m creating this journal entry as sort of a waypoint for that process, and a working sketch of the idea as it develops, so expect lots of edits.
Once I have a decent library built-up, I’d like to develop some sort of packaged onboarding to manage and create and save custom sound boards. Right now I’m leaning towards the idea of writing an HTML file that can be packaged with the audio files. Utilizing client-side JavaScript to build the entire interface so that the package works locally as long as the original directory structure is maintained.
My Loose Concept for the Interface:
• Local HTML file in a defined directory (/PTASFX/). This way the soundboards can be used whether on line or not. All you need is the HTML, soundfiles, and sound pack txt files.
• Client-side JavaScript checks local directory for text files (PTASFX-00x.txt)
• Each text file includes the HTML output to display sound effects, CSS will allow filter/sort on client display.
• Thinking back to the old "drop file" method used for BBS doors, every "sound pack" of new sound effects I release will include a PTASFX txt for the sounds included in that pack. the interface will see that text and integrate the sounds into the library automatically. Adding a sound pack will be as easy as placing the contents of a sound pack ZIP into the /PTASFX/ local directory.
• Will account a check for 999 sounds packs (that should be more than I'll ever be able to make. This means not all sound packs have to be added, each is optional.
• Using class and id value, the div ouput for each sound will be able to be sorted and filtered via the local HTML interface.
• Add to the interface an ability to create specific soundboards, and bookmark them in the browser. This will be handled via querystring. The custom boards won't be actual data saved via the interface but a complex querystring passed to the interface to switch to "custom board" mode and load the sounds added according to the querystring variables.
• I will maintain a hosted version of this via the apps.pathstoadventure.com subdomain, but should function 100% offline using the local HTML file in a browser.
First things first, though. Sound effects. Lots of them. Don’t need the interface until we have something for it to play! I’ll add new sound effects below as I create the library, and once I feel like there’s enough for the “initial” launch, I’ll dive into the sound board interface.
I have also setup a SoundCloud account for when I dive into this.