Game Audio Rewind: 2010

Now that 2010 is closed out, I just wanted to take a second and round up a batch of links to various projects that I was involved with and get them all lumped into a 'splosion of game audio. Every single one of them was made better by the involvement of others, and for that I am thankful.

It is truly a beautiful thing to work along side such creative individuals and to be able to share the common goal of engaging people in the art of sound. I hope that the new year comes with new prospect, and that you will all continue to shape and inform the future of interactive sound to the fullest.

Best to all in 2011!


Audio Implementation Greats
Audio Implementation Greats #10: Made for the Metronome
Audio Implementation Greats #9: GRAW 2 MP: Dynamic Wind System
Audio Implementation Greats #8: Procedural Audio Now
Audio Implementation Greats #7: Physics Audio [Part 2]
Audio Implementation Greats #6: Physics Audio [Part 1]
Audio Implementation Greats #5: Ambient – The Hills are Alive
Audio Implementation Greats #4: De’ Bug and the DSP Sound-Bomb
Audio Implementation Greats #3: Crackdown – Realtime Worlds
Audio Implementation Greats #2: Audio Toolsets [Part 2]
Audio Implementation Greats #1: Audio Toolsets [Part 1]

Game Audio Podcast
Game Audio Podcast #7: Mushroom Men - Made for the Metronome
Game Audio Podcast #6: Independent Sound Libraries
Game Audio Podcast #5: Mini-Episode
Game Audio Podcast #4: Procedural Game Audio
Game Audio Podcast #3: Interactive & Dynamic Music
Game Audio Podcast #2: Footsteps & Foley, Design & Integration
Game Audio Podcast #1: Ready, Set, GO!


Lost Chocolate Blog
AES 2010: game Audio Track Wrap
Procedural Sound Now [LINKS]
Content is King - Rise of the Independent Sound Library
“Game Audio Basics” March Issue of Mix Magazine
Footsteps – Informal Game Sound Study
The Next Big Steps In Game Sound Design - Gamasutra
Conan - Melee System Overview

Game Audio Relevance
Game Audio Relevance 005
Game Audio Relevance 004
Game Audio Relevance 003
Game Audio Relevance 002
Game Audio Relevance 001


(I kindof felt like I was busy this year, but the above only represents my un-billable hours)

Games Shipped
Back to the Future: Episode 1
Poker Night at the Inventory
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
Sam & Max: Devil's Playhouse
Puzzle Agent
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Deadly Intent

Wow, just wow.

Future
GDC 2011 Speaker: Footsteps - Informal Sound Study

Hope to see you soon! 
-lcl

Procedural Sound Now! [LINKS]

Procedural Sound is a topic that I feel has a great potential to solve some of the challenges facing game audio. Whether it's the dynamic composition of music in real-time, geometric sound propagation modeling , or harnessing already available simulations to create approximations of sound using synthesis, there exists a tremendous amount of solutions to the problems of how to make our virtual worlds more directly reactive and immersive. It's with optimism that I set upon trying to raise awareness of some of these techniques and technologies available outside the confines of console specific runtimes. It's my hope that by looking outside of our industry we can catch a glimpse of the future for game audio, and set our sights on some new ways to provide engaging, dynamically reactive, and emotionally resonating interactive sound.

In a companion article entitled "Procedural Sound Now!" at DesigningSound.org as part of the Audio Implementation Greats series, I've made a case for a return to the formative years of game audio with an eye towards new developments in synthesis and procedural. The article wraps with a QA with three audio professionals working with procedural sound in some capacity.

This post is an attempt to round up the cadre of links I was able to unearth in relation to the article. You'll get a bit of sound modeling, some procedural, a bit of music, white papers, and research materials. Keep an eye on this space over time, as I hope to keep adding to this list as a resource for people who are interested in new developments and articles. Please send along any further suggestions or post below in the comments section.

Additionally we have released Game Audio Podcast Episode 4: Procedural Game Audio  - Head over and subscribe via iTunes and give it a listen!

It's taken the help of many dedicated sound professionals to bring to light and assemble the different pieces of the puzzle. My deepest thanks and gratitude go to: Anton Woldhek, Karen Collins, Andy Farnell, David Thall, Mads Lykke, Francois Thibault, and all of the inspirational audio futurists pushing the envelope.

Andy Farnell:

Andy Farnell: Audio, code and tutorials on synthesis
(See links section for additional jumps)

Andy Farnell: Synthetic game audio with Puredata
Andy Farnell: An Intro to Procedural Audio in Games
Andy Farnell: Designing Sound

Stefan Bilbao

Stefan Bilbao: Conference Proceedings
Stefan Bilbao: Numerical Sound Synthesis

Kees van den Doel

Kees van den Doel: Publications
Sounds of Shapes

Mark Grimshaw

Mark Grimshaw: Publications
Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments

Dylan Menzies:

Dyland Menzies: Publications

Phya: Physical Audio for Virtual Worlds
 
Phya and VFoley, Physically Motivated Audio for Virtual Environments

General:

Procedural Audio.com Papers

Nicolas Fournell

Leonard Paul: Video Game Audio

Cosyne Synthesis Engine

USO: Generative Music: an interview with Peter Chilvers

Create a scalable and creative audio environment: middleware project PLAY ALL
Procedural Audio for Game using GAF

Master of Sound: Automatic Sound Synthesis from Fluid Simulation

FOLEYAUTOMATIC: Physically-based Sound Effects for Interactive Simulation and Animation 

Audiokinetic: Sound Seed

FMOD Designer

Princeton SoundLab: Publications

Banded Waveguides and Propagation Modeling: Efficient Physical Models of Solid Objects

A Brief Overview of Physical Modeling

Perry Cook: Real Sound Synthesis for Interactive Applications

Procedural Audio in Computer Games by Mads Lykke



Sound Synthesis in Game - MuCell


Realistic Real-Time Sound Re-Synthesis and Processing for Interactive Virtual Worlds

Spore:

Brian Eno with Wright on Spore and Generative Systems


Spore Anthem Creator Tutorial

 
Spore City Music Planner from GDC 08


Aaron Mcleran: Procedural Music for Spore

The Beat Goes on: Dynamic Music in Spore

The Generation of Procedural Generation

Liveblogging Procedual Music in Spore @ GDC08

Audio Interview with Cyril Saint Girons (Audio Engineer)

Brian Eno: Before and After Darwin

Brian Eno: Generative Music

GAMMA:

Geometric Algorithms for Modeling, Motion, and Animation

GAMMA - Projects Overview: Sound Synthesis and Propagation

SIGGRAPH 2009: Interactive Sound Rendering Presentations and Proceedings

Symphony: Interactive Sound Synthesis for Large Scale Environments


Synthesizing Contact Sounds Between Textured Objects


Sounding Liquids: Automatic Sound Synthesis from Fluid Simulation


AD-Frustum: Adaptive Frustum Tracing for Interactive Sound Propagation


Efficient and Accurate Numerical Simulation of Sound Propagation



Precomputed Wave Simulation for Real-Time Sound Propagation of Dynamic Sources in Complex Scenes


Next Generation Virtual Musical Instruments Using Multi-touch Interfaces



Interactive Sound Propagation in Dynamic Scenes Using Frustum Tracing

Fast Edge-Diffraction for Sound Propagation in Complex Virtual Environments

An efficient time-domain solver for the acoustic wave equation on graphics processors

Fast Geometric Sound Propagation with Finite Edge Diffraction

RESound: Interactive Sound Rendering for Dynamic Virtual Environments

Direct-to-Indirect Acoustic Radiance Transfer

Cornell

Sound Rendering for Physically Based Simulation

Rigid-Body Fracture Sound with Precomputed Soundbanks


Harmonic Shells: A Practical Nonlinear Sound Model for Near-Rigid Thin Shells

New Scientist: Virtual crashes and clatters get real 

Crash, bang, rumble! Bringing noise to virtual worlds 


Harmonic Fluids

Other:

Fast Modal Sounds with Scalable Frequency-Domain Synthesis

Precomputed Acoustic Transfer: Output-sensitive, accurate sound generation for geometrically complex vibration sources


I hope that get's you started on the wide world of Procedural Sound and Synthesis.
If you have any additional suggestions for links to interesting materials please drop a line or comment.

Proceduraly yours,
-lcl

Game Audio Podcast Launched!

Anton Woldek and I have recently Launched the Game Audio Podcast.

The general premise of the Game Audio Podcast is to provide an entertaining perspective into our little corner of the world, and shed some light on the challenges we're all facing through discussion topics, industry related news, the game audio showroom, gear news, and special guests.

The idea came from discussions that get started at conventions, in sessions, on forums, and in chat rooms throughout the year. Often we would find ourselves talking with peers about general concepts, techniques, creative solutions to limitations...and we found that, for us, it wasn't enough to just touch base once and awhile and throw around our experiences and opinions.

Our goal is to extend some of those conversations and share the idea’s and thoughts that come from mixing up a diverse group of professionals and engage them in a topical discussion.

Hopefully we will succeed in bringing together some good conversations!

Tune in, and let us know what you think!

-lcl