Sounds of Pioneer
Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 11:01 am
I've started to work on some music / sounds for Pioneer and would like to be clear about how the program makes use of sounds.
Basically we can divide all the sounds in game by way how they're used to three groups:
1. seamless looped sounds - sounds, which play continuously until canceled by event (like sounds of engines, ambient sounds or background music)
2. randomly triggered sounds - sounds, which intended to provide aural dynamic and create more 'live' atmosphere for a player (like chatting crew/data transmissions etc. for cockpit)
3. objects sounds - 'hardwired' to the objects sounds (they always the same for current object and triggered when object is used)
Another important matter, connected with the sound is its level. Technically it would be best to have all the sounds 'normalized' (0 db at most loud point - even for sounds which intended to play quietly) and let the program know how loud sound should be played. That way we'll have all the dynamic range available, so sound can be played loud if necessary or played quietly if necessary.
When I started to make some new sounds for cockpit I was curious about how Pioneer will know sound is looped or random?
Ship ambient sound is definitely looped sound, while crew sounds are randomly triggered.
As I see now these sounds are 'hardwired' in codes and adding new sounds is not an easy task.
So, here are some thoughts, sketch...
---------------------------------------------
What if we could have a file (probably lua), like sound mapping where all the sounds will be listed (and new sounds might be added as they come) and every sound will have it's name, way of usage and level (%). For example 'ship_ambient, loop, 60' - means file name is 'ship_ambient', should be played until canceled, loudness is 60%.
Alternatively (and maybe easier) all these parameters could be coded in file name, like 'ship_ambient__loop__60.ogg' or 'ship_ambient__1__60.ogg' where 1 means looped sound, 2 means random etc.
---------------------------------------------
These are just an ideas to make sound usage more flexible and give some strings to sound designers.
What do you think guys?
Basically we can divide all the sounds in game by way how they're used to three groups:
1. seamless looped sounds - sounds, which play continuously until canceled by event (like sounds of engines, ambient sounds or background music)
2. randomly triggered sounds - sounds, which intended to provide aural dynamic and create more 'live' atmosphere for a player (like chatting crew/data transmissions etc. for cockpit)
3. objects sounds - 'hardwired' to the objects sounds (they always the same for current object and triggered when object is used)
Another important matter, connected with the sound is its level. Technically it would be best to have all the sounds 'normalized' (0 db at most loud point - even for sounds which intended to play quietly) and let the program know how loud sound should be played. That way we'll have all the dynamic range available, so sound can be played loud if necessary or played quietly if necessary.
When I started to make some new sounds for cockpit I was curious about how Pioneer will know sound is looped or random?
Ship ambient sound is definitely looped sound, while crew sounds are randomly triggered.
As I see now these sounds are 'hardwired' in codes and adding new sounds is not an easy task.
So, here are some thoughts, sketch...
---------------------------------------------
What if we could have a file (probably lua), like sound mapping where all the sounds will be listed (and new sounds might be added as they come) and every sound will have it's name, way of usage and level (%). For example 'ship_ambient, loop, 60' - means file name is 'ship_ambient', should be played until canceled, loudness is 60%.
Alternatively (and maybe easier) all these parameters could be coded in file name, like 'ship_ambient__loop__60.ogg' or 'ship_ambient__1__60.ogg' where 1 means looped sound, 2 means random etc.
---------------------------------------------
These are just an ideas to make sound usage more flexible and give some strings to sound designers.
What do you think guys?