I'm trying to get the entry elevator sound portal_testchmb.entry_elevator_shaft playing when I start a level. I place it where the player is going to touch it when the level starts. And it doesn't play at all. It's not disabled. I've tried explicitly enabling it with no luck. And the next soundscape the player hits plays just fine.

I'm wondering if there's some conflict between env_fade and env_soundscape? I'm fading in at the moment I'm trying to start the soundscape.

Any suggestions on where I should look or what to do?

Thanks.

Well, after fiddling with my entities all of a sudden the env_soundscape works on entry (but the fade is broken... bah).

But now I can't get the elevator soundscape to stop short of starting a new soundscape. Which I don't want to do. I want to play an ambient_generic instead.

Does anyone know how to kill an env_soundscape? Or at least mute one?

You can mute one soundscape by stepping in another one, when necesarry a blank one.

There doesn't appear to be a blank one, looking at the soundscape*.txt files. Does that mean I have to create my own if I want silence after a soundscape?

Create a new env_soundscape, but leave the field "soundscape" empty (the place where you have to enter the name of the soundscape you want to use).

Please note that I am not 100% sure this works.

You might want to check this link out:

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/List_of_Portal_soundscapes

It contains a list of all Portal soundscapes, with their names.

These links might also be of use:

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Env_soundscape
The VDC about the env_soundscape entity

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Soundscapes
The VDC about soundscapes in general

Unfortunately using no soundscape name didn't work.

I have found two ways of killing the soundscape. The first was to use a point_clientcommand and send it a stopsoundscape command.

The second making my own soundscape. I realized there were 3 files described in the soundscapes_manifest.txt, and that one of the files described wasn't there: soundscapes_portal.txt. I created the soundscapes_portal.txt on my system and added a soundscape quiet_time with a dsp set to 0. Dropped that into my map and it perfectly faded out the elevator as it stopped.

So if I want to release a map with the quiet_time soundscape I'll have to make my own custom soundscape file. But at least I have one for general development.

Wow. I have been trying to figure out how to turn soundscapes off on command for weeks. Thanks for the tip, Tigger.