Game audio implementation: a practical guide using the unreal engine

486 Pages·2016·35.348 MB·English

by  Raybould, Dave, Stevens, Richard

Game Audio Implementation
Game Audio Implementation off ers a unique practical approach to learning all about game audio. If
you’ve always wanted to hear your sound or music in a real game then this is the book for you. Each
chapter is accompanied by its own game level where you can see the techniques and theories in
action before working through over 70 exercises to develop your own demo level. Taking you all the
way from fi rst principles to complex interactive systems in the industry standard Unreal Engine©,
you’ll gain the skills to implement your sound and music along with a deep transferable knowledge of
the principles you can apply across a range of other game development tools.
The accompanying website (www.gameaudioimplementation.com) includes:
•
12 downloadable demonstration games;
•
A unique exercise level for you to develop for your portfolio;
•
An up-to-date online bibliography with further reading for each chapter;
•
A free sound library with hundreds of game sound eff ects.
Richard Stevens leads the Masters in Sound and Music for Interactive Games program at Leeds
Beckett University, and promotes the games audio education and research through international
conference talks, publications, panels, and workshops.
Dave Raybould is Senior Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University where he teaches games audio, sound
design, and synthesis. In his time off he likes to relax by being chased and bitten by police dogs.
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Game Audio Implementation
A Practical Guide Using the Unreal Engine
Richard Stevens and Dave Raybould
First Published in 2016
by Focal Press
70 Blanchard Road, Suite 402, Burlington, MA 01803
and by Focal Press
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Focal Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Taylor & Francis
The right of Richard Stevens and Dave Raybould to be identifi ed as authors of this work has been asserted
by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by
any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent to infringe.
Unreal Engine 4 images provided courtesy of Epic Games, Inc., © 2015, but the contents of this book are
not endorsed by Epic Games, Inc.
Epic, Epic Games, Unreal, Unreal Engine, and UE4 are trademarks or registered trademarks of Epic
Games, Inc. in the United States of America and elsewhere.
L ibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stevens, Richard, 1971–
Game audio implementation : a practical guide using the unreal engine / Richard Stevens
and Dave Raybould.
pages cm
1 . Sound—Recording and reproducing—Digital techniques. 2. Computer games—
Programming. I. Raybould, Dave. II. Title.
TK7881.4.S75 2015
794.8165—dc23
2015010904
ISBN: 978-1-138-77724-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-77278-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Myriad Pro
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Acknowledgements xv
Introduction xvi
Approaches to the Book xviii
0 0 Loading Sequence: Quick Start 1
Setting up the Demo Projects 1
Navigation of the Game World 2
Version Control and Auto-saves 3
Looking and Moving 4
Views 4
Bookmarks 5
Moving/Looking 6
In-game Actors: Finding and Changing Your First Sound 6
Navigating the Assets and the Content Browser 7
Filtering Results 8
Navigating the Game System: Blueprints 10
Preparing Assets for Import 11
Editing 12
Sample Rates and File Formats 12
Looping 13
Importing Assets 16
Folder Structures and Naming Conventions 17
Conclusion 20
0 1 Sound Part A: Ambience and Environment 23
Introduction 23
Ambience 24
v
Contents
Types of Sound 25
Area Loops 26
Source Loops 31
Filter over Distance 32
Area Loops and Source Loops: Attention to Detail 33
Sound Cues 35
Adding Sounds to Sound Cues 36
Source One-shots 37
Polyphonic or Overlapping One-shots 40
Player-oriented One-shots 41
One-shots: Sourcing and Masking 44
Embedding Source Sounds into Game Actor Blueprints 44
Ambience Recap: An Artist’s Approach 46
Occlusion Issues 46
Triggers and Switching Ambience 46
Reverb 51
Triggering Sounds with Key or Controller Input 53
Trigger Use Events 53
Conclusion 56
0 2 Sound Part B: Procedural Sound Design 59
Introduction 59
Sample Rates and Audio Compression 62
Sample Rates Revisited 62
Audio File Compression 64
Sequenced Variation 65
Time-based Variation 66
Asynchronous Loops 66
Random Time: Blocks 68
Random Time: Fragments 69
Controlling Random Events: Clusters of Activity 70
Concatenation 71
Concatenation for Variation in Loops 72
Layered Concatenation 75
Concatenation for a Chain of Events 76
Concatenate Sample Rates 78
Multiple Start Points 80
Layered Variation 81
Simple Random Combinations 83
vi
Contents
Random Combinations with Individualized Pitch and Delays 84
Deconstructing a Sound for Procedural Use 85
Scalability 88
Modulation/Modifi ers for Variation 90
Pitch 90
Reuse Sounds for Diff erent Sized Sources 90
Transformative Reuse 91
Pitch Envelopes 92
Volume 96
One-shot Volume Envelopes 96
Looping Volume Envelopes 98
Oscillation 100
Wavetables 103
Parameterization = Interactivity 106
Swapping out Sounds with -Branch- 106
Parameters to Pitch with <Set Pitch Multiplier> 110
Parameter-based Crossfades with -Crossfade by Param- 112
Using User-defi ned Curves 116
Monitoring Memory and Level Streaming Approaches 121
Asset Checking 121
Memory Checking 122
Level Streaming 123
Sound Streaming 126
Conclusion 126
0 3 Music Part A: Quick Start 129
Introduction 129
Interactive Music Principles 130
Playlists 133
Level Music, Loops, and Decay Tails 135
Decay Tails 136
Loop with Integrated Decay 136
Play Then Loop 137
Looping Manually 139
Stingers/Ornamental Forms 141
Simple Parallel Forms 143
Simple Transitional Forms 144
Conclusion 146
vii
Contents
0 4 Music Part B: Basics and Parallel Forms 149
Introduction 149
Music Basics 149
Source Music 149
One-shots 150
Music for Timed Events 152
Ornamental Forms/Stingers 154
Parallel Forms 156
Switching or Fading Layers (Parallel Forms for Orientation) 157
Using Variables to Determine Volume (Parallel Forms for Proximity) 159
Linear Variables to Volume 160
Curves to Volume 164
Mix Automation for Parallel Layers 166
Conclusion 171
0 5 Music Part C: Transitional Forms 173
Introduction 173
Clunky Transitions 173
Nasty 173
Crossfades (and When to Use Them) 175
Masking Transitions 177
Musical Transitions 178
Working with Chunks: Measure-based Transitions 181
Decay Tails Revisited 182
Controlling a Switch 183
Transitioning on Measure in Longer Pieces 185
Pre-syncs or Ramps 187
Aligned Transitions 190
Putting It Together 193
A Musical Conclusion 194
0 6 Dialogue 197
Introduction 197
Randomization 198
Better than Random? Randomize without Replacement 200
Dialogue for Advice 201
Timed Help Advice 201
Triggered Advice 202
viii
Contents
Dialogue Interrupts 204
Bad/Better/Better-er 204
Conditions and Dialogue Choices 208
Simple Conditions and Dialogue Choices 208
Counts to Dialogue Choices 210
Tracking Multiple Actions or Inventory for Dialogue Choice 212
Conditions to Sound Cue Branching Choices 216
Branching Dialogue 217
Characters, Contexts, and Dialogue Choices 221
Localization or Localisation? 224
Conclusion 225
0 7 Making It Real 227
Introduction 227
Sound Propagation 227
Reverb: Advanced 227
Nested Reverbs and Prioritization 229
Reverb: Prebake 233
Spatialization 233
Sound Source Types 234
Directional and Diff use Sources 238
Distance Attenuation and Detail over Distance 240
Filter over Distance 244
Detail over Distance 245
Occlusion, Obstruction, and Exclusions 246
Occlusion 246
Ambient Zones 250
Prioritization of Zones 252
Obstructions and Exclusions 253
Dynamic Occlusion 254
Moving Objects and Moving Sounds 256
Sounds That Move 256
Moving Sound Sources with Matinee 257
Creating Movement 258
Moving Objects That Make Sound 260
Rotating Doors 260
Open/Opening Loops 262
Matinee Events for Mechanical Systems 263
Matinee Sound Track 265
ix