Comments on: February ‘08 Round Table – UPDATE 2/29

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 02:01:23 +0000

Really interesting ones this month, even the more technical ones (I liked the HL2 use annoyance – yes, it is very annoying and immersion breaking).

I also “fixed” my quiz, it’s on multiple pages, so the errors I kept getting (ie; no sounds playing whatsoever) should be better. It’ll definitely stay on the same pages now at least, if anyone does look at it, although I might mess with the players a bit more again.

By: Corvus

Corvus — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:57:16 +0000

Silly is good! Shoot me an email when it’s done, if you would be so kind.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:03:50 +0000

Okay, I’m still working on mine – and it isn’t on voicework (I wish I had noticed the comment implying it was earlier). It’s not even technically a written piece – it’s silly, almost sorry!

The reason I’m doing a non-written piece (and if I don’t finish it by Friday, I’ll still release it on the web), is I have absolutely no experience to write about such matters, so I went a different direction.

If it doesn’t fit for the roundtable, I don’t really care – it’s fun to do anyway. But it’ll be done tomorrow (GMT time), not today, sorry!

By: Corvus

Corvus — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:48:05 +0000

Peter, even those of us who are far less qualified to speak on the topic undoubtedly will… and at great length too! I’d love it if you turned those thoughts into a full post and submitted it to the Round Table!

By: Peter Crowther

Peter Crowther — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:51:59 +0000

I’m a semi-pro sound engineer, but not a game designer. I’m very sensitive to my soundscape, whether in-game or out of game. A few random thoughts…

- Recordings don’t cut it for ambient sound. Ambient *must not* be repetitive, or you lose immersion. That bird call spooks you the first time, but after you’ve heard the same sample 100 times it gets repetitive. How about some model-based ambient sounds, with variation in the models?

- Why do all wind noises sound like they were generated by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s vintage 1970s wind machine? Wind *doesn’t* sound like that, we have 30 years of new research to go at. Surely there are better models now?

- How to handle changes of ambient sound between locations? A closed door muffles sound, but doesn’t kill it. An open doorway modifies the ambient sound from the other side of the door. Is there enough processing power now available to model this effectively?

All these would add another degree of realism to the background.

By: Corvus

Corvus — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 03:17:45 +0000

Hold onto that voice post there, WM. I suspect Andrew may be on to something.

By: WorldMaker

WorldMaker — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 01:39:13 +0000

Voice Work indeed sounds like a good topic… If Corvus isn’t planning a round table on that specific topic, maybe I’ll just decree that voice work is an important part of game audio and ramble about that this month…

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 21:18:52 +0000

Audio eh? Interesting, I’ll have to delve into it and get some downloads of what I want to write about sorted – something I should have done for my last post.

And I’ve tried an EEE PC since someone here has one – it is damn small I’ll give you that. I must admit I’d be tempted to get one *if* I had the money, and didn’t already have a Macbook

I wonder if March will be about voicework, since we’ve had music and now audio

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 21:10:35 +0000

I’m going on hiatus from the start of GDC for a few weeks break having reached the end of “the Ethics campaign” (as of next Friday), so I might not get in on this Round Table. I’ll try and make sure I at least plug before I take my break, though.

Cheers!