Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
1990s and even beforehand. These were custom made and proprietary
tools; game companies kept the software in-house for their own use. In
many cases, middleware was developed by audio folks and programmers
working together to solve workl ow issues and smooth out production
cycles. As these tools became sought after, third-party developers started to
produce them and make them available to the general public.
Why was middleware needed? Well, music and sound designers
and programmers developed middleware so that the designers and
composers could gain more control over how their audio was used
in games. Programs such as FMOD, Wwise, Miles, and xACT provide
graphical interfaces and suites of interactive audio tools directly to music
and sound professionals. Middleware is based on the idea that the video
game is an interactive medium, so all audio elements within the game
should be interactive as well.
Just for fun, let's set the clock around 2002. We've got high-end consoles
like the Playstation 2 and the Microsoft Xbox that feature staggeringly
Popular middleware Apps. Left: Wwise (WaveWorks Interactive Sound Engine). Right: FMOD Studio,
newest version of FMOD.
Credit:
Jeremy Engel.
impressive graphics, fast CDs and DVDs streaming multiple high quality
audio and music tracks. Composers and sound designers working
for AAA studios create their assets in Digital Audio Workstations and
integrate these assets using custom tools written for them by in-house
programmers. The workl ow is demanding, but the act of creation
seemingly comes with little regard for limitations, and basically, the sky's
the limit. Sounds like a cool situation, right?
