Adding Footstep Sounds

Footstep sounds are one of the audio elements that adds extra depth to both the atmosphere and game play for your level. Having a variety and appropriate footstep sounds will help the player believe they are fighting in a world instead of a map.  For game play, it allows a player that pays attention, an slight edge in being able to hear where his opponent is from time to time.

This tutorial presumes you have a good understanding of the editor and the material editor.  By default, many of the stock materials and static meshes have appropriate footstep sounds assigned to them. Terrain, at the time of writing this, can only have the default sound associated with terrain. This tutorial will allow you to enable footstep sounds for the other materials and static meshes that don’t have them.  It will also allow you to enable them for your custom content.

Static Meshes

This option is best for any stock static mesh that doesn’t have proper footstep sounds associated with it. If you have a custom static mesh, the default footstep sound will be determined by the material/s that is being used by the mesh.

1. Place and position the static mesh into your level.

2. Select the level and open it’s properties by...

a. Pressing the F4 key

b. Press the right mouse button and choose “StaticMeshActor Properties (1 Selected).

3. In the static meshes properties box, expand the “Collision” section, the expand “CollisionComponent”, then expand the “Physics” section.

4. Open the Generic Browser and and scroll down the list of packages on the lower left side. Locate the “PhysicalMaterials” package (which may be grayed out). Select it, press the right mouse button, select “Fully Load” in the menu.  This will show you all of the available physical materials.

Note: You need the “Physical Material” or “Show All Resource Types” checked in the upper left section of the generic browser. You may also need to left mouse click in a blank area of the generic browser to refresh it.

5. Select the appropriate physical material that matches the type of sound you want to be heard.

6. Go back to your static mesh property box, in the Physics section, locate the “PhysMaterialOverride” field and select the green arrow button.  This will insert what you have selected in the generic browser.

7. You are ready to go.  Keep in mind that a mesh needs to be set to collide with players in order for the player to walk on it and hear the foot step sound.

Materials

This option is best for your own custom materials or an Epic material that you have “duplicated” by copying and pasting the nodes in the Material Editor into your own package.  This should be done if you are going to drastically change the material beyond any parameters that can’t be changed in a Material Instance Constant.

1. Open up the material in the material editor by...

a. Double clicking the icon in the generic browser.

b. Selecting the icon, right mouse button, then selecting “Material Editor” in the menu.

2. Open the Generic Browser and and scroll down the list of packages on the lower left side. Locate the “PhysicalMaterials” package (which may be grayed out). Select it, press the right mouse button, select “Fully Load” in the menu.  This will show you all of the available physical materials.

Note: You need the “Physical Material” or “Show All Resource Types” checked in the upper left section of the generic browser. You may also need to left mouse click in a blank area of the generic browser to refresh it.

3. Select the appropriate physical material that matches the type of sound you want to be heard.

4. Go back to the material editor, select the “PreviewMaterial” node, locate the “PhysMaterial” field and select the green arrow button.  This will insert what you have selected in the generic browser.

5. Select the left green check mark icon on the top of the material editor to save the changes.

6. Apply the material to a BSP or static mesh.

Materials

This option is best if you just want to take an existing material and change it’s foot step sounds.  This is more efficient that duplicating the entire material and adding it to your level.

1. Open the Generic Browser, right mouse click on a blank area, and select “New MaterialInstanceConstant”.

2. In the “New” dialog box, you need to either select your map or package from the drop down menu in the “Package” field.

a. If you are making a map, be sure to add it to your level as this will conserve space. You will have to use the asset before you save your map.  If you don’t the editor will get rid of it because it thinks you don’t want it.

b. If you are making a mod, then using a separate .upk file can be beneficial.

3. If you want, fill out a “Group” name, though this is optional.  You will need to enter an unique name that doesn’t have any spaces or weird characters. When everything is filled out, select the “OK” button.

4. Select the appropriate map or file name in the generic browser and locate the MIC you just created.

Note: You need the “Material Instance Constant” or “Show All Resource Types” checked in the upper left section of the generic browser. You may also need to left mouse click in a blank area of the generic browser to refresh it.

5. Open up the material instance constant in the material editor by...

a. Double clicking the icon in the generic browser.

b. Selecting the icon, right mouse button, then selecting “Material Editor” in the menu.

6. If needed, expand the “FontparamerterValues” section, you will have to fill out two fields.

7. For the “Parent” field, select the original material in the generic browser and select the green arrow button.  This will insert what you have selected in the generic browser.

8. For the “PhysMaterial” field, open the Generic Browser and and scroll down the list of packages on the lower left side.  Locate the “PhysicalMaterials” package (which may be grayed out). Select it, press the right mouse button, select “Fully Load” in the menu. This will show you all of the available physical materials.

Note: You need the “Physical Material” or “Show All Resource Types” checked in the upper left section of the generic browser. You may also need to left mouse click in a blank area of the generic browser to refresh it.

a. Select the appropriate physical material that matches the type of sound you want to be heard.

b. Go back to the material editor and select the green arrow button in the PhysMaterial field. This will insert what you have selected in the generic browser.

9. Apply the material instance constant to a BSP or static mesh.

Written by Odedge.

Click here to download an unpublished map that contains each footstep sound and examples of what is covered in this tutorial.  Feel free to contact me with feedback.

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