Transcript GUNS HAVE WHEELS Chris Sweetman Audio Director, Splash Damage [email protected] SOURCE IS KING  Good quality source is important  Three main avenues for this: –

GUNS HAVE WHEELS
Chris Sweetman
Audio Director, Splash Damage
[email protected]
SOURCE IS KING
 Good quality source is important
 Three main avenues for this:
– Commercial audio libraries
– Licensing from third-parties
– Field recording
COMMERCIAL LIBRARIES
 Pros:
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Fairly cheap
Easy to use
Embedded metadata
Pre-edited
 Cons:
– Often overused
– Generally not
comprehensive enough
LICENSING FROM THIRD PARTIES
 Pros:
– Offers full range of
recordings
 Cons:
– Relatively expensive
– Don’t own the material
for future titles
FIELD RECORDING
 Pros:
– Tailored to your
production needs
– You own it
– Material can be re-used
for future titles
 Cons:
– Expensive
– Need to spend time
editing and mastering
THE PROBLEM
 Several enemies firing at the same time result
in audio clutter
 Player can’t pin-point specific enemies
MY SOLUTION
 “Choir of Guns”: Create variations of the
weapon with different timbres
 Work with designers to give enemies different
weapons
 Can design slightly different sounds for each
team in multiplayer
SOUND DESIGN
 Recreate your mental picture of the sound
 Texture is important
 3 degrees: Create distinct sounds for close, medium, and
long distance
 Plug-ins can easily change sound characteristics, such as
McDSP, Waves EQ
THE TRADITIONAL APPROACH
 Single shots
– Too staccato and not realistic enough
 Loops
– Firing sound is the same every time
– Limit “sweeteners” that can be added
GO GO GRANULAR
 Split your sounds and recombine them dynamically
 Add “sweeteners” to your base template to easily
create variation
 Not locked to frame rate, so no chugging sounds
WHERE ARE WE GOING?
 Evolve sounds to match the player’s experience
– Reflect gameplay devices
– Match player & story progression
 Adapt weapon sounds to different
environments
– Accurate reflections
THANKS FOR COMING!
 Presentation will be available online at
www.splashdamage.com/publications
 Additional questions or comments?
E-mail [email protected]