This module provides accessibility features which can be used by blind players to navigate the game world independently. It is implemented by way of a "virtual actor" system. Virtual actors are spatialized sound sources which can be placed at arbitrary locations in a given scene. They can map directly to real actors or be entirely custom objects which identify a location to the player via sound.
Each virtual actor includes a policy which defines its behaviour (which sound effect it plays, how often, how far away it can be heard from, etc).
This mechanism is almost entirely decoupled from the game; there is just enough boiler plate to allow it to access information about actors and include extra audio in the game's output.
In addition to actors, the module also reports the location of specific terrain features (such as walls, hills, ledges and water), also via the virtual actor system.
Due to the limitations imposed on the number of concurrent sounds supported by the game's sound engine, a custom engine was developed (on top of MiniAudio), as well as a tool which extracts all of the sounds from the game and packs them into a new OTR file. Once extracted, the module can freely render the game's own sound effects without interfering with normal operation. It can also render the game's raw audio samples.
To maximize portability, MiniAudio is heavily stripped down: in particular, its I/O and threading features are excluded. Instead of opening a secondary audio handle, it simply mixes its audio in with the game's own audio output before it is sent out to Libultraship.
At this time, the game is playable up to the end of the Deku Tree using only sounds. Several behaviours have been defined for actors in other areas, however more are required in order to make subsequent content fully playable.
To use this module, do the following:

1. Build as usual.
2. set cvar gA11yAudioInteraction to 1.
3. set gA11yTTS to 1.
4. set gExtractSfx to 1.
5. Close and reopen the game. You'll be asked to please wait as the sound effects are extracted. gExtractSfx will be automatically cleared when the process completes.
6. Once done, close and reopen once more (we're hoping to streamline this in a future update).
7. Load the game. Walk around. You'll hear sounds for many actors and terrain features, positioned relative to Link.
   we decided to make this public now as we have finished the first major hurdle: terrain
   detection. With terrain implemented as well as a powerful framework for defining accessible behaviours for actors, much of the project going forward will be adding definitions to new actors and brainstorming solutions to specific puzzles and minigames which will pose unique challenges.
   If you would like to get involved, please get in touch with us.

Build Artifacts

• soh.otr.zip
• soh-windows.zip