xvart
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Posts posted by xvart
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One thing I don't tend to like is "distant murmuring crowds" effects, since most of the time they sound too artificial/busy, as well as repetitive. It's ok in short bursts like in some medieval strategy games, but generally, don't like. eg, stuff like this:
I agree, you see 4-5 people (NPC) making noises like there is whole crowded bazaar there... But I like the ****tail party effect that is in some of those scenes (no particular example right now)
I remember Limbo from the games i have played lately as an interesting example of using sound (we can argue that it is a different game (camera, mechanics, etc...)).
I have always loved the music (soundscape) of Fallout and Fallout 2. The action-sounds (with the action depending on the location) in the tracks were well placed density-wise, not to regular or sparse depending on the location.
Another example that comes to my mind is MDK (though I have not played it in a long time so speaking through memories), again MDK had a certain style of world and the sound effects were also reflecting that but the effects were not created to represent a realistic quality but they were consonant with the music.
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I was away for couple of days and there is a new page in the thread... nice to see Bell responding to the thread... (and the general loudness-wars discussions)...
We have all seen games with creepily silent environments or the constantly loud or the same 30-second song looping for the 13131231231231231231 time
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As I said it is a simple function, but it really helps as an option.
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Avoid excessive compression.
The Loudness War is bad enough in music without it spoiling games' soundtracks as well. There is absolutely no good reason for overcompression to be used, ever, under any circumstances. If you want things to sound good, you must leave their full dynamic range untouched. Let the music explode in our face in the most epic moments, and fighters' blows to sound different in intensity from one another (a person would never strike with the exact same intensity twice in a fight). Spell effects would benefit from great dynamics even more.
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Avoid mp3 as though it was pest (which it is).
Mp3 sounds bad and it can't be helped: Its compression algorithm just isn't good.
If Project: Eternity's audio needs be lossy for space-saving purposes (which aren't urgent as they used to be in the past, anyway), by all means go with OGG Vorbis. It is free (contrary to mp3) and sounds significantly better. Q10 OGG Vorbis would already be a treat compared to what most games currently offer.
However, if you wanted to bring the game's audio to the next level and make it really shine, go FLAC all the way. It is free, and it is lossless. Pure aural bliss.
I second that also especially the over compression. MP3 made sense when the stuff needed to fit into CD/CDs.
Again, it's not (just) positioning that I'm talking about. Thank you for mentioning Unity, because my current example of a good game with poorly implemented sound, Endless Space, is based on Unity. Just serves to intensify my plea to the devs not to neglect sound
Should not there be no sound in (an endless) space?
The thing is that for most people it is easy to consider sound as throw-in... and when they do that the product is just bad (for those who uses ears). You know that Unity is not the culprit there... -
Avoid excessive compression.
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I wonder how well features like echoes would work given the 2D nature of the graphics? Shrug.
Well, you can still put an echo/reverb filter in the caves, closed areas/maps. It also reduces the size of the game/amount of assets (with the cost of processing on the client side) yet space limit is not a that much of a problem anymore. On the other hand, for something non-interactive, I would rather use a commercial echo virtual effect like from Waves...
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Unity has fmod integrated, yet not everything is open/available as it is more like a black box. Things like 3D sound is there by default as the listener is usually attached to the camera/player and each source of sound originate from where they are put by the level designer etc...
I have used the sound part of Unity intensively (multiple sources with multiple sound effects) and to my experience it never forced the 5-6 year old computer I was testing with but on the other hand those games had very simple and plain graphics.
Here are couple of links for the interested:
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It helps with immersion too.
I do not like that word but what I hinted with the Irenicus-style was that...
It 'should' not be hard to implement (I also do not like to talk for other people) but in Unity it is easy to hide the UI.
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In BG2 there was an option to hide UI by pressing 'h'. The UI would comeback when you press 'h' again or pause the game. I really liked the way the game look like that as it gave me the feeling of the in-game cutscenes with Irenicus (importance?). It also provided a larger screen when exploring a city...
Is there such a thing in the plans?
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Ieo, I hear what you are saying and I was just saying there is Union part of Unity...
I still remember the PC version Resident Evil 4... It did not have mouse support! was telling me to press triangle, square etc...
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To me, having hunger as a mechanic needs to be related with the game world and the whole idea. I mean it makes more sense to have "hunger mechanics" in the wasteland deserts of Mojave than the lush landscapes of Sword Coast. If you have played Lone Survivor you will see that it makes sense that there is hunger. Otherwise doing it for the sake of reality does not add to the game much. It just keeps space in inventory and costs you money/gp (which you have like infinite after some time). On the other hand, it was nice the way food was handled in the IE games (buy it for small bonuses and role play).
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"Ports" are never as easy as people think and then the people with some programming language typically lack any higher-order business experience in the global sense.
I see that you already know me...
And it seems that the word 'ideally' might be too subtle for you. But I really forgive your rudeness assuming that you had to give similar answer about ports to all the people. As I said my main intent was about Union and the PlayBook was just an example. But then again the Obsidian people/you have probably already seen Union while you were investigating Unity.
And you can lock the thread if you want, I have no problem with that as we are done with the post.
ps. As a PlayBook use I know and feel how small is the tablet's market.
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I guess it was a mistake to put the BlackBerry PlayBook as the first part of the topic. But the idea with the Union is that Unity makes the port not Obisidian and I am not saying this is good or bad. But it is different. The porting ideally does not use Obsidian's resources. I got happier when Avellone said that he does not want to compromise the game to make console version as computer gamer who has played all those isometric rpgs. Union is something that Unity offers and since the game will be done in Unity why not think about it and it is not going to cost any extra.
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I know I heard/read that all. But Union is a little bit different than making a port. That was my real point...
Anyways, still thanks for the quick reply.
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One of the things that I did not like with the voice acting in Neverwinter Nights 2 was that it was so slow. I understand that you do not expect a dragon to speak as fast as an insurance seller but all of them. Everything was clear to understand always but I read much faster and found my self waiting for the speech to end (because I did not want to cut them).
Also I really like that feeling when you encounter someone (NPC) that has a voice/sound. That made them more important and the encounters/interactions more memorable.
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I know this is really early and people will say why PlayBook instead of iOS or Android... but here is why it might work:
Since it is done in Unity3D it is quite possible for Eternity to exist in BlackBerry AppWorld. Unity people can convert Unity games so that the game work on other platforms (PlayBook, Roku etc...). The catch is that (as far as I remember) they get to keep the 20% and they want the game to be great (which Eternity will surpass)
So here are the games of Unity that exist in PlayBook:
http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/vendor/16944/?lang=EN
Also here is InXile's The Bard's Tale (the most important CRPG in the PlayBook) again in AppWorld:
http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/119547/?lang=en
I also think Obsidan can talk with the people at InXile about the money they make from the AppWorld and see if it makes sense or not...
And here is the specs to the tablet itself:
http://us.blackberry.com/playbook-tablet/tablet-specs.html
I know this is really a short post with not much information but I wanted to see if people (both Obsidian and non-Obsidian) are interested.
ps. this is my first post so don't be harsh.
2nd ps. I was hoping that they were going to use Unity when they first put up the Kickstarter, I have been working with Unity for 2 years on various project and it is great program to work with.
The thing is that for most people it is easy to consider sound as throw-in... and when they do that the product is just bad (for those who uses ears). You know that Unity is not the culprit there...
The importance of sound for atmosphere
in Pillars of Eternity: Characters Builds, Strategies & the Unity Engine (Spoiler Warning!)
Posted
Sadly, we (audio people) must not forget is that a game is sum of many elements...
Having higher sound resolutions cost space (even server space) and computational power and again sadly how much money it would bring...
I am not sure about the numbers but I think the bottom line is the computational power (we still have graphics, physics, game states, smooth UI, memory etc...) now that games do not need to fit into CDs (or even DVDs to some extent).