Video Game Audio Prototyping with HalfLife 2 Granulation

Video Game Audio Prototyping with Half-Life 2 : : Granulation Leonard J. Paul Video. Game. Audio. com

Overview of audio for video games Why is audio prototyping important ? Description of system Demonstration Q&A 2

Games Overview Video games are a widespread form of “interactive entertainment” Grand Theft Auto IV $500 million in sales in 24 hrs vs. The Dark Knight's weekend opening of $158 million Games are software with interactive content and require innovative technology to stay current 3

Game Audio Overview Like film audio, game audio is comprised of speech, sound effects and music However, unlike film audio, the audio is interactive and must respond to changes in gameplay Older systems such as the Playstation 2 had little CPU power available to audio, so sample playback was all that was easily possible 4

Old-Gen Game Audio Workflow Conventional methods before the current generation of game consoles (pre-2007) have required recompilation and game coder involvement to hear results which is typically slow: Create Compile Run Game Locate Test 30 mins 5 -30 mins 3 mins 2 -5 mins 5

Next-Gen Game Audio Promises techniques such as wave-tracing reverbs, granulation and physical modeling Game audio becomes a combination of older methods of sampled sound and newer generative sound design methods Sound designer becomes familiar with procedural sound design techniques = scary ? -> 6

Next-Gen Game Audio Workflow Devise a system that doesn't require recompilation of audio behaviours when changing procedural sound design Test design interactively Create Compile Run Game Locate Test 30 mins 5 -30 mins 3 mins 2 -5 mins Interactive 7

Next-Gen Audio Prototyping Allow sound designers to create their procedural sound designs in real-time while the game is running Middleware solutions such as Wwise allow realtime tweaking of parameters, however only for existing patches and basic synthesis unless plugins are used Use of Kismet within Unreal allows for some scripting 8

Game Audio Pipeline 9

Game Parameters to Granulation is a good match for games as it requires many parameters which the game can provide (ex. RPM -> playback rate) Physics allow for continuous control over playback of sample (ex. ragdoll -> foley) Complexity overload Lines of code ? 10

Open Sound Control (OSC) OSC is open-source software that allows communication between the game and PD OSC is included in PD extended and just requires the addition of several C++ modules into the game engine Access to the game events while the game is running 11

Pure Data (PD) Relatively easy to learn open-source interactive audio implementation environment Can integrate directly into game code (as in EA's Spore), but not optimal as it is interpreted Create compiled code from (simple) patches as shown by pd 2 j 2 me 12

Audiomulch Independent audio processing tool that is good for granulation Doesn't support OSC but can receive MIDI control information from PD server Easy to use and quick to prototype real-time adaptive musical ideas 13

Half-Life 2 Half-life 2 is a PC game/XBox that won over 40 “Game of the Year” awards in 2004 and allows users to change the maps and other content of the game using the “Source engine” technology in C++ Left 4 Dead and other games based on Source Hammer editor allows for map editing Make your own too 14

Half-Life 2 Source Mod A mod is a modification of the game that can be quite simple or be advanced enough to create an entirely new game (ie. total conversion) Change code using Microsoft's free compiler Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition Cost for replicating this system is just the cost of the game - $19. 95 15

HL 2 Demonstration 16

Questions ? Leonard J. Paul email: info {at} Video. Game. Audio. com web: Video. Game. Audio. com 17