This months Audio Implementation Greats series returns with the overarching goal of broadening the understanding of Procedural Audio and how it can be used to further interactivity in game audio. While not specifically directed at any one game or technology, the potential of procedural technology in games has been gaining traction lately with high profile uses such as the Spore … [Read more...]
Audio Implementation Greats #7: Physics Audio [Part 2]
In Part One we took a look at some of the fundamentals involved with orchestrating the sounds of destruction. We continue with another physics system design presented at last years Austin Game Developers Conference and then take a brief look towards where these techniques may be headed. UNLEASH THE KRAKEN In Star Wars: The Force Unleashed we were working with two physics … [Read more...]
Audio Implementation Greats #6: Physics Audio [Part 1]
In part one of a two part series on physic sounds in games we'll look at some of the fundamental considerations when designing a system to play back different types of physics sounds. With the help of Kate Nelson from Volition, we'll dig deeper into the way Red Faction Guerrilla handed the needs of their GeoMod 2.0 destruction system and peek behind the curtain of their … [Read more...]
Audio Implementation Greats #5: Ambient – The Hills are Alive
In a continued attempt to shed light on some of the best examples of Technical Sound Design in the current generation, I'd like to call attention to several titles that have pushed the envelope when it comes to the art of ambience. The all encompassing experience of “being there” in a game, where the sense of place is encapsulated in the sound of the environment. Stepping … [Read more...]
Audio Implementation Greats #4: De' Bug and the Tale of the DSP Sound-Bomb
At the Game Developers Conference Audio Boot Camp in 2006 Scott Selfon, Senior Audio Specialist at Microsoft, peeled back the layers of the onion for game audio newbies and exposed those in attendance to a Project Gotham Racing 3 debug build which allowed audio designers to visualize the parameters of sound propagation emanating from various points on the vehicle. If you can … [Read more...]
Audio Implementation Greats #3: Crackdown – Realtime Worlds
One area that has been gaining ground since the early days of EAX on the PC platform, and more recently it's omnipresence in audio middleware toolsets, is Reverb. With the ability to enhance the sounds playing back in the game with reverberant information from the surrounding space, you can effectively communicate to the player a truer approximation of “being there” and help to … [Read more...]
Audio Implementation Greats #2: Audio Toolsets [Part 2]
Developer created proprietary toolsets continue to provide a vital form of audio integration in the industry, especially in cases where the gameplay specific features need to be exposed and interacted with at a deeper level than what comes “out of the box” with most middleware. In the days before robust audio middleware toolsets this may have been the only way to get past the … [Read more...]