Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Apocalypse Now
exhibits the genius of Walter Murch, who created a whole palette of helicopter sounds and
used them for the “musique concrète” or “electronic music out of real sounds” for that ilm.
As you start your soundscape design, ask yourself these questions: What is the aural structure of the sound
environment? Are there some “building blocks” of sound clips that can support your visual theme, just as the
various helicopter sounds enhanced the surrealism and hyperrealism of
Apocalypse Now
? What sounds will
support the “sense of space” as well as the emotion of the environment? What is the order of presentation for
your sound clips to the visitor?
11.2 JUST A BIT OF SOUND THEORY TO DEEPEN YOUR UNDERSTANDING
The IEZA framework by Sander Huiberts and Richard van Tol at the Utrecht School of the Arts (2003-2008)
is a useful structure to analyze and plan sound for virtual environments [5]. They divided all the game/virtual
space audio into four major categories: (1) Diegetic, or sound coming from within the virtual environment,
such as your player's footsteps; (2) Nondiegetic, or sound from a source outside the virtual environment, such
as a musical score; (3) Setting, which includes things like surf sounds at an ocean beach; and (4) Activity,
for sounds that are related to what is happening. Within these four categories, they deined four domains:
Interface (I), Effect (E), Zone (Z), and Affect (A). While there is no speciic recipe for creating the sound-
scape structure of a given virtual environment, this framework can be a valuable tool to help you analyze
your audio plans. For instance, let's take a look at the sounds from the Alchemy/Particles story sim region
using this framework.
11.2.1 a
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ims
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ToryTelling
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When the Alchemy Sims build group created the Alchemy/Particles region in Second Life, they built an
environment that would tell the visitor in sound and note cards the historic tale of an imaginary popula-
tion that once lived there. It was the tale of a native population who was contacted, modernized, and then
abandoned by an alien race that they called the Alchemists. The terrain of that region was subdivided and
developed visually into areas that deined an “age” or era in the history of the now-vanished civilization.
In Figure 11.2, you can see how a storytelling soundscape was laid out across the region of Alchemy.
Essentially, the environs broke out into these four main areas: (1) Earthquake Dome, (2) Active Volcano,
(3) Volcano Engine, and (4) Bathing Pool. Notice in Figure 11.2 how the various regions were deined
by their sounds, shifting about on the IEZA scale from place to place. As you plan your soundscape on
the IEZA grid, think about what kind of virtual environment you want to develop and how that would
be balanced across the framework. For example, would the sound design of a virtual nightclub with live
musical acts appear only in the Interface zone, or can it have some action in the Affect area? Does a “God
game” environment with your avatar ruling over all creation and destruction represent itself mostly in the
Affect zone? Would getting a large roar from the dragon in your cave when you poke him draw too much
focus away from all the dripping and slithering sounds going on around you? Think in terms of how you
want to balance the soundscape of your environment; one large Interface sound effect might be enough to
counterweigh a whole collection of Zone-type effects, or perhaps you would like to balance Affect with
Effect sounds. These choices are up to you.
11.3 BASIC QUALITIES OF SOUND IN A VIRTUAL WORLD
Sound, like light in a virtual environment, is digital information instantiated, modiied, and controlled by the
underlying game engine with its coded laws of physics and physical world qualities. In a virtual world, you
