Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Proi le the Audio in Real Time
This allows developers to monitor levels, performance, and resource usage live. It provides a live visual
representation of both the computer's processor and memory usage as the game is played, as well as
displaying the signal routing within the sound engine—this is especially useful when debugging and
optimizing your game audio. Proi ling the audio performance of a game in real time is vitally important
to making your audio system conform within specii c limits, which is quite common on all platforms.
Create 3D Audio Environments
Supply 3D positions for the sound source and listener and automatically apply volume, i ltering, surround
panning and Doppler ef ect to mono, stereo and even multi-channel samples. Some packages even
include an
HRTF
(head-related transfer function) mode to provide 3D realism through headphones. More
on the specii cs of 3D Audio later on.
Generate Sound Banks for Games
This feature allows the audio designer to create unique banks of sound that can be formatted in a
number of dif erent ways. The resulting i le can take up much less space in the game, tax the processor
less, and open up the use of modern day sampling technology. By developing high quality audio banks,
designers can create hours of sound for a game, all within a relatively small footprint.
Deploy Sound for Multiple Platforms and Markets
At the touch of a button, most middleware can easily support a huge variety of desktop and mobile
audio formats such as: Windows (32-bit and 64-bit) and Windows Mobile, Apple Macintosh and iOS, Linux
(32-bit and 64-bit) and Android, Sony PS2, PS3, PS4 and PSP, Microsoft Xbox and Xbox 360, XBOX One,
Nintendo Wii, Wii U and DS.
Compress Sounds in Various Ways
By supporting a multitude of audio-compression schemes such as: ADPCM, MP3, OGG, Opus, VAG (Sony's
format for PS3 audio), and XMA (for Xbox), to name just a few, middleware provides a quick and easy way
to export sound i les to a variety of dif erent gaming platforms.
Work With Various Game Engines
. . . such as CryENGINE, Unity, UDK/Unreal, BigWorld, Vision Engine and Scaleform, plus many many others.
It's really important to note here that a lot of this information is a moving
target—implementation and functionality of audio middleware between
game engines and even dif erent versions of the same engine may vary
greatly from platform to platform. When dealing with these various
