Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Gillette Stadium, Section 309, Row 12, Seat 24
Age: 33
Posts: 8,008
|
In-game Audio - Interview with Kaos' Audio Director Matthew Harwood
Being a bit of an audiophile, I found this interview pretty interesting. I don't have an X-fi card, so I'm not really sure what all those sexy EAX acronyms and technologies are - someone wanna fill me in?
Highlights:
Quote:
Interview with Matthew Harwood
1. What is your role within Kaos Studios?
I am the Audio Director here at Kaos. I oversee, create, implement, fix, compose, find, build, discuss, decide, and manage all things audio within Kaos.
2. What did you previously do before joining Kaos Studios?
I was a freelance composer and sound designer for TV, film, games, and websites. Anybody who knows about freelance knows that it’s feast or famine. I was getting tired of the instability especially as my wife and I were starting to have a family. Two years ago I saw Kaos in an online ad and sent my reel. I applied with the idea that they may need freelance help. They however were looking for a full time help. This was my chance, and I had so much anxiety before they offered me the job. When they offered me the position, I was in a studio running the postproduction on an audio book. I freaked out. I started to break dance. That’s a 6-foot-4, 270 pound guy dancing and convulsing. The fit at Kaos is perfect, I have never looked back, and working here is awesome!
<snip>
5. Will Frontlines: Fuel of War take advantage of X-Fi technology?
That answer is a bit complex so I had a programmer help me with it. The game supports OpenAL, which can take advantage of X-Fi features. Specifically, for altering your speaker set ups - 5.1, 4 speaker, 2 speaker, or headphones or whatever your hardware supports. Also, make sure that you are in Game mode. This is required to get EAX 4+, MacroFX, and ElevationFilter. For 2 or 4 speakers, make sure you are sitting in the sweet spot in order to get the correct HRTF effects.
CMSS-3D, MacroFX, and ElevationFilter, is irrelevant for OpenAL games when you have 5.1 or more speakers. Unfortunately, this also means that you don't get MacroFX or ElevationFilter effects with 5.1 or more speakers. If you have 5.1 speakers, I'd suggest trying a OpenAL game in both 4.1 and 5.1 mode to see which you like best. You won't be able to get MacroFX and ElevationFilter with 5.1, but the sweet spot may be more forgiving due to lack of HRTF with 5.1 or more speakers. Also you still get reverb and other effects from software rendering. Hardware just gives you the multiple speaker output (more then stereo) and the other post processing effects that your hardware supports like EQ etc. Again, you have to experiment with what you like best.
6. We have heard that Frontlines: Fuel of War will feature delayed sounds of explosions, gun fire, etc. Can you go more in-depth as to what is expected?
Delay and distance sounds or Level of Detail (L.O.D.) is what I am most excited about with the sound in our game. It’s something that no other game is doing to this extent. The delay of gun fire and explosions is simple. When you see the flash of an explosion in the distance you will not hear it right away. There is a delay based on distance, the farther away the longer the delay. We originally did the math at 769mph or 1128ft/s (the speed of sound). You would be surprised how long of a delay at such short distances this math provides. So we speed up the delay system so you can hear the audio sooner and get the feedback, it is definitely noticeable and very fun.
The other aspect is the distance sounds and this feature is what I am really excited about. Each weapon and vehicle weapon (some vehicle engines - jets and helicopters) and explosions has unique sounds based on the distance and location from the player. So weapons have three distinct sounds. When firing from your perspective (in the first person), you hear a fat, stereo-widened image of the sound. This sound has the most detail and clarity. When you are close to the weapon firing (the weapon in the third person), you will hear a mono positional sound with slightly less detail then the first version. Then there is the distant sound that you hear when the weapon is fired far away from you. The blast of a close tank shell, thumps at distance. The roar of the mini-gun growls with mechanized terror when close, but fizzles and roars from far away. Explosions blast with dirt and debris partials when close, and they pop and rumble at a distance.
I worked very hard to give each weapon a distinct feel and sound. If you spawn into a multiplayer match and stand there for a sec, you should be able to tell which weapon loadout the enemy is firing at you. The truly awesome result from this system, is now the entire battle field is generating the ambiance of war, naturally, produced by the players. The players are the ones creating the soundscape. You’re not only affecting the gameplay with your loadout and roll choices but are also actively changing the way the game sounds.
<snip>
10. How did you record the samples for the gun sounds? Did you record them yourself?
Recording weapons is something I can do, but it takes so much time, effort, money, safety, and a crew of guys, that I decided to search for pre-recorded materials. One thing I need to make very clear is that each of these weapons (and 98% of the sound in the game) is NOT simply pulled from a library. I take great care in making these weapons there own unique creations. One weapon may have three or four different samples of varying weapons aside from the tons of other layers that make up the result. For example the Red Star stationary automatic rifle has four different pre-recorded weapons in there for the base fire sound. Each of those weapons were cut to match the fire rate specified by the design, and each were toyed with so much that they barely sound like the original recording. I also used different sized chains running over a metallic pulley, a hammer hitting an anvil, paper being ripped (heavily compressed) and a few other strange things like that to make up the overall design of that example. Then like all of the other sounds I take the sum and mix it out to a stereo wav file and continue to tweak it.
<snip>
13. What was one of the most difficult things to create?
That’s a tough question. The entire package of audio for the game is nothing short of giving birth. But if I absolutely had to choose one thing, it was the "light armor". Long ago, when the game was a zygote, the light armor was Frank’s love affair and has since moved from designer to designer. It was never just right and we have been adjusting that thing from day one and are still tweaking it. Everything about that vehicle has been overhauled many, many times. We need to get things right, and so there are revisions, but light armor = chafing, heh.
<snip>
16. Most games out in the market contain errors when the character speaks a different language other than English. What steps do you take to ensure that the Russian and Chinese speaking soldiers are speaking accurately?
THQ has a localization team especially for this. That team is made up of a slew of people who translate, record, post-process and test for quality and accuracy.
<snip>
|
The bit about the delay between seeing a distant explosion and hearing it? tasty! |
01-25-2008, 01:24 PM
..
<=Awesomeness ribbon
