7 ms·

Engine Simulator: produce realistic sounds from various engine parameters

90 points by dtjohnnyb 4y ago

Cloudef 4y ago
Wish I was doing something interesting like this for a work, instead of working on boring SAAS stuff
blt 4y ago
This is so cool. It makes me wonder what kind of amazing simulation software is behind closed doors in car companies.
deburo 4y ago
Absolutely amazing. I wonder, do games like GTA simulate those sounds as well, or is it pre-baked somehow?
- cammikebrown 4y ago
  GTA used a combination of pre-recorded real life audio and their own granular synthesis engine. (Granular synthesis uses sampling, but cuts up the samples into tiny pieces and processes them in various ways.)
- avereveard 4y ago
  Automation Game (car tycoon) features engine design and stimulates sounds from a combination of individual parts snippets iirc as you move around you can hear the valve train clicking or the cylinder firing
- mhh__ 4y ago
  In games you get a better result for the cycles by cheating rather than doing a physical simulation. Live for speed IIRC did have a fully synthesized engine sound but most games now have samples and some clever interpolation / synthesis as mentioned by others.
  - ehnto 4y ago
    Live For Speed also sounded pretty average, although it was still highly appreciated that they simulated it instead of fauxing give the type of game it was.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
jb_s 4y ago
This is great, I'm watching the video on YouTube now... Are exhausts/mufflers modelled? For ages I've wanted to simulate different designs for exhaust headers and systems, to be able to possibly create different/interesting sounds from certain engines - i.e. can you add some additional headers with a different length and make an I4 sound like an I6?
- tonmoy 4y ago
  If I recall correctly he modeled the acoustics of the exhaust using equalizers and filters, so not really simulated
  - Cloudef 4y ago
    Could use convolution with recorded impulse response (IR) files to achieve realistic results for different exhausts.
    - tonmoy 4y ago
      Not sure how one would be able to obtain impulse response of the exhaust system
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
      - userbinator 4y ago
        You can model it as a series of tubes of different diameters. Look up "digital waveguide" for some more details. This technique is mostly used in speech synthesis, where it can make pretty realistic human-speech-like sounds by modelling the vocal tract, but there's no reason it can't be applied to a car exhaust system.
        ynniv 4y ago
        The better car simulators already do this: “Physically informed car engine sound synthesis for virtual and augmented environments” https://air.iuav.it/bitstream/11578/264484/1/SIVE15_submission_4.pdf https://air.iuav.it/bitstream/11578/264484/1/SIVE15_submissi...
blt 4y ago
FYI, this software is Windows-only for now, but there appears to be an active effort to make it cross-platform: https://github.com/ange-yaghi/engine-sim/issues/2#issuecomment-1211928610 https://github.com/ange-yaghi/engine-sim/issues/2#issuecomme...
_qua 4y ago
This is so cool and it's amazing to me that a single programmer was able to do this as a hobby project. (To me it's magic, I know to some this a just a big project).
samtimalsina 4y ago
I wonder if this could be converted into a web application, maybe using WASM? I'm sure a lot of people here want to try it out on their own, but for me the build process is daunting as I haven't written C++ since college days. A web application would be very accessible.
ResNet 4y ago
YouTube Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKT-sKtR970 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKT-sKtR970
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
acutesoftware 4y ago
The sounds generated by this are very impressive - it is an actual simulation of the entire combustion process. Best parts are the engine sound under load, slight delay when opening throttle and changing down a gear to force engine braking.
npteljes 4y ago
Further discussion: "Simulating an Entire Car Engine (yes, it makes noise)" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32367979 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32367979
6510 4y ago
It would be epic to make something for this guy. https://www.instagram.com/foton_automotive/ https://www.instagram.com/foton_automotive/

90 points by dtjohnnyb 4y ago

Cloudef 4y ago

Wish I was doing something interesting like this for a work, instead of working on boring SAAS stuff

blt 4y ago

This is so cool. It makes me wonder what kind of amazing simulation software is behind closed doors in car companies.

deburo 4y ago

Absolutely amazing. I wonder, do games like GTA simulate those sounds as well, or is it pre-baked somehow?

cammikebrown 4y ago
GTA used a combination of pre-recorded real life audio and their own granular synthesis engine. (Granular synthesis uses sampling, but cuts up the samples into tiny pieces and processes them in various ways.)
avereveard 4y ago
Automation Game (car tycoon) features engine design and stimulates sounds from a combination of individual parts snippets iirc as you move around you can hear the valve train clicking or the cylinder firing
mhh__ 4y ago
In games you get a better result for the cycles by cheating rather than doing a physical simulation. Live for speed IIRC did have a fully synthesized engine sound but most games now have samples and some clever interpolation / synthesis as mentioned by others.
- ehnto 4y ago
  Live For Speed also sounded pretty average, although it was still highly appreciated that they simulated it instead of fauxing give the type of game it was.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

jb_s 4y ago

This is great, I'm watching the video on YouTube now... Are exhausts/mufflers modelled? For ages I've wanted to simulate different designs for exhaust headers and systems, to be able to possibly create different/interesting sounds from certain engines - i.e. can you add some additional headers with a different length and make an I4 sound like an I6?

tonmoy 4y ago
If I recall correctly he modeled the acoustics of the exhaust using equalizers and filters, so not really simulated
- Cloudef 4y ago
  Could use convolution with recorded impulse response (IR) files to achieve realistic results for different exhausts.
  - tonmoy 4y ago
    Not sure how one would be able to obtain impulse response of the exhaust system
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - userbinator 4y ago
      You can model it as a series of tubes of different diameters. Look up "digital waveguide" for some more details. This technique is mostly used in speech synthesis, where it can make pretty realistic human-speech-like sounds by modelling the vocal tract, but there's no reason it can't be applied to a car exhaust system.
      - ynniv 4y ago
        The better car simulators already do this: “Physically informed car engine sound synthesis for virtual and augmented environments” https://air.iuav.it/bitstream/11578/264484/1/SIVE15_submission_4.pdf https://air.iuav.it/bitstream/11578/264484/1/SIVE15_submissi...

blt 4y ago

FYI, this software is Windows-only for now, but there appears to be an active effort to make it cross-platform: https://github.com/ange-yaghi/engine-sim/issues/2#issuecomment-1211928610 https://github.com/ange-yaghi/engine-sim/issues/2#issuecomme...

_qua 4y ago

This is so cool and it's amazing to me that a single programmer was able to do this as a hobby project. (To me it's magic, I know to some this a just a big project).

samtimalsina 4y ago

I wonder if this could be converted into a web application, maybe using WASM? I'm sure a lot of people here want to try it out on their own, but for me the build process is daunting as I haven't written C++ since college days. A web application would be very accessible.

ResNet 4y ago

YouTube Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKT-sKtR970 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKT-sKtR970

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

acutesoftware 4y ago

The sounds generated by this are very impressive - it is an actual simulation of the entire combustion process. Best parts are the engine sound under load, slight delay when opening throttle and changing down a gear to force engine braking.

npteljes 4y ago

Further discussion: "Simulating an Entire Car Engine (yes, it makes noise)" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32367979 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32367979

6510 4y ago

It would be epic to make something for this guy. https://www.instagram.com/foton_automotive/ https://www.instagram.com/foton_automotive/