This is an interesting broadcast on game audio and why it is so important in games. The broadcast contains interviews with programmers, a really good voice actor and audio director. The interesting stuff starts from around 02:46 - Enjoy!
Archive for the 'Audio Software & Hardware' Category
Audio can be a very abstract world to describe in words. A games tester once told me - that he could not always describe what was happening in the ‘aural environments’ of the games he was testing. When he found a bug he could hear that something was wrong, but found it difficult to describe in words.
I believe it is important to make focused testing on audio design and audio implementation. Games testers with a keen interest and ‘ear’ for audio and music should focus on how well the musical context and sound design work in game.
There are many questions to consider when testing audio design. Apart from testing on many different hardwares and systems - it is important to prepare a thorough testprocedure for the actual in-game audio.
In my experience the testprocedure can roughly be divided into 5 categories for each scene and level:
- Music
- Sound Design
- Ambience
- Dialogue
- System performance
The above categories 1-4 are then extended with subcategories - examples of subcategories are:
- Characters
- Enemies
- UI sounds
- Feedback sounds
- HUD sounds
- Collision sounds for each character, enemy and etc
- Interactive objects
- Idle sounds for each character, enemy and etc
- Gadgets
- Weapons
For each sound effect, music theme, ambience and dialogue - the following parameters need to be tested:
- Volume
- Execution
- Position
- Timing
- Variations
As a games tester it is important to listen for problems like: delay, distortion, noise, phase, compression problems, clipping, echo, missing sounds, dynamics and latency.
System performance, which is mentioned above as category 5, requires a different setup of testprocedures, which will need a seperate discussion. BUT some of the questions that are important having in mind, in general regarding audio testing of hardware, are according to Alexander Brandon*:
- CPU performance:
- Too many audio files playing simultaneously?
- Sluggish performance?
- Need to find a more reliable audio file format?
- Optimisation of code?
- Too many audio files playing simultaneously?
- Limits testing - finding the limits of audio design and system:
- How many audio files can be played at the same time?
- What if the same audio file is played by multiple sources simultaneously?
- What if audio is turned off and on again?
- Relevancy:
- Which areas are important to focus on from a programming point of view?
- Will the coding make an aesthetic difference for game play?
- Will the coding make a qualitative difference for game play?
The above categories and subcategories can be extended, depending on the project and technology used in development.
The testprocedures above cover most areas of audio design, but they are tested with visuals. A different approach will be needed to test the actual music design - meaning the relationship between music, sound design and dialogue. A solution to testing the music design is the blindfold testing, which will be covered in my next post.
Audio testing is an area that definitely needs to be taken seriously when improving interactive audio design and audio quality in games. The development team should hear to the ‘noise’ in the QA Department!
My next post will be on the blindfold test - a procedure to test the relationship between music, sound design and dialogue.
*See posts ‘Game Audio: Interactive Audio Design’ & ‘Game Audio: Improving Interactive Audio In Games’
This post is a summary on methods to improve audio design in games.
As Alexander Brandon points out in the article series ‘Aural Fixation’, published on previous issues of Game Developers Magazine - some of the methods to overcome the challenges in interactive audio design are to use minimal themes and ambient tracks as a part of the music design.
Here is a summary on some of the methods:
- Minimal themes: Minor musical themes that indicate that the player is closer to a ‘treasure’ or an ‘enemy’. For instance if the game player meets a peaceful character - the music can indicate a ‘neutral’ emotional feeling. If the player then meets an enemy, who is slightly dangerous, but not lethal - then the music could indicate a ’small tension’. The music score can then be developed into different types of situations like: neutral, low tension, small tension and high tension.
- Ambient tracks: A room can have a ‘feeling’. When listening to ambient music tracks you can choose whether you want to listen ‘actively’ or ‘passively’. It can give a virtual environment character and thereby add a feeling to the visual gaming experience. An ambient soundtrack can also blend with the environmental sound design.
- More than one soundtrack: A solution to avoid repetitiveness could be the use of more than one soundtrack. This could be done by composing variations to each music or ambience piece that could change over time. Meaning that, if the player has been on the same sequence more than 10 minutes the music could slowly transform into a new piece. But this issue can be discussed much further - In my own experience the music should evolve into a different piece after only 5 minutes.
- Interactive music scoring: Difficult part in interactive music is to enhance the perceived drama of game player. A solution to this could be to trigger new themes, instruments and scales every time the player interacts with an asset that is going to have an importance for the players mission.
- Silence: Not being afraid of using ’silence’ - Silence meaning the use of pure sound effects during game play. This can be a very powerful technique.
- Close acoustic link: Create a close link between the graphics and the perceived acoustics of audio.
- Audio testing: Focused game testing on interactive audio design and audio implementation. Games testers with a keen interest and ‘ear’ for audio and music should focus on how well the musical context and sound effects work in game.
The above methods require a close collaboration with audio programmers and more innovative ways of audio integration. It is especially important to consider the newest audio technologies in the fields of:
- 3D audio positioning
- DSP
- Filtering
- Propagation simulation
- Reverberation simulation
To improve interactive audio design in games it is also crucial to exceed the existing implementation options by integrating other game engines such as:
- Physics
- Geometry
- AI
Interactive music scoring and integrating the methods mentioned are some of the solutions to improve game players audio experience. BUT it is also of great importance to implement the newest audio technology and thereby create an exceptional gaming experience for player.
My next post will be on audio testing and test procedures.
Just signed up for the Nordic Game Jam 2008 at the IT University in Copenhagen! Looking forward to it!
Just got the latest version of Reason from Propellerhead Software - cool sounds and cool effects!
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