Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
11.6 WHERE TO OBTAIN SOUND FOR YOUR 3D SPACES
You have built your beautiful house, car, or fountain now, and you need to give it an audio presence. Where
do you obtain sound for your 3D spaces? Basically, you have two options: (1) download sound from sites
on the Internet under varying license requirements, such as Freesound.org (http://www.freesound.org) and
Soundsnap.com (http://www.soundsnap.com); or (2) make and record your own sound.
If you go with option 1, remember to check the licensing and permissions for use of the sounds you down-
load and follow the guidelines.
If you go with option 2, your life is about to become more interesting. Recording your own sound, doing
voice-overs, making sound effects, and even composing music for your virtual builds is creatively rewarding.
Perhaps you have a secret talent as a Foley (sound effects) artist and can ind ways to utilize the everyday
objects in your household for making special effect sounds. Maybe your reading voice is pleasant to listen to,
or your voice sounds great as the talking computer in your science iction adventure build. You might even be
a good musician and now have discovered that scoring music for the theme of your build in a virtual world has
its own rewards. With readily available and affordable recording devices like the Zoom recorder (H series)
(http://www.zoom.co.jp), you can record sound easily. There probably are many items you already own that
will create the sounds you need for your soundscape. The key to making creative Foley sound is to listen to the
sound the object makes without looking at it. Take a piece of plastic wrap, crumple it up, and roll it around in
your hands beside your ear. It sounds like rainfall. Shake a piece of thin sheet metal, and you have the sound
of thunder. All around you are objects that make interesting sounds if you shake, drop, squeeze, bend, or walk
on them. It all starts in your imagination.
11.7
HOW TO EDIT THE SOUND FOR YOUR VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT
Editing sound, like Foley work, is part art, part science. Sometimes you just need a simple ile converter, and
sometimes you need to bring out the heavy artillery. There are many good sound editors, and they range in
price. A list of free downloads for Voxengo is available (http://www.dontcrack.com/freeware/audio-software.
php/id/10753/downloads/Voxengo/). Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) is a popular freeware pro-
gram that runs on most platforms and has loads of features. FMod (http://fmod.org/) is free to use if you are
editing the sounds for noncommercial purposes and provides very high end features and functionality. For
people who like to work in the Adobe Creative Suite, Adobe Soundbooth (also known as Adobe Audition)
has good interconnected functionality with Adobe Premiere and Adobe Photoshop, but this program is in the
higher end of the price range. FMod under the pro license would fall into the superheavy artillery category
in both cost and functionality. You may ind yourself utilizing several sound editors depending on what your
needs are for the project at hand.
In the edit phase, you should start to think about how your ultimate sound plan will come together. Most
sound-editing programs give you the capacity to make stacked audio tracks. Just as you discovered in the very
irst part of this chapter, no environment (except an anechoic chamber) is without sound relection and under-
lying ambiance, so you will be utilizing these audio tracks to create layers of sound for the visitor in your virtual
world to discover. It is time to start thinking about the 10-second sound-layered plan for your environment.
11.7.1
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Let us break down a soundscape step by step. Where do you start to build your sound design, what layer goes
irst, and how do you organize a soundscape? In general, you can rely on the following list of the ive basic
layers of sound to help you get started:
