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...]
Audio Implementation Greats #1: Audio Toolsets [Part 1]
After steeping in the current console generation, several examples of best practices in audio implementation have been exposed through articles, exposes, and video examples scattered across the internet. In an attempt to overview some of the forward thinking front runners in the burgeoning field of Technical Sound Design, I've been pulling together examples of inspirational … [Read more...]