Video Game

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

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

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Games Overview

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

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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

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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 30 mins
Compile 5-30 mins
Run Game 3 mins
Locate 2-5 mins
Test 5 mins
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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 ? -gt

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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 30 mins
Compile 5-30 mins
Run Game 3 mins
Locate 2-5 mins
Test Interactive
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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
  real-time tweaking of parameters, however only
  for existing patches and basic synthesis unless
  plugins are used
• Use of Kismet within Unreal
  allows for some scripting

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Game Audio Pipeline
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Game Parameters to Granulation

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

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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

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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 pd2j2me

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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

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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

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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

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HL2 Demonstration
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Questions ?
Leonard J. Paul email info
at VideoGameAudio.com web
VideoGameAudio.com