cross platform sound design on

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the many ways to go Bang
cross platform sound design on PC, PS2, Xbox and
Gamcube
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the design
The overall vision of what the player will
experience should be consistent from platform to
platform. Only when completely impossible or
impractical should the design be forced to
compensate.
A player does not understand or care about the
hardware limitations of the console they own.
(and nor should they have to) It is a developers
job to ensure that the gaming experience is as
consistent as possible across all SKUs
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the experience
The player wants to experience the features they
have paid for
Always work upwards. Try to make the limited
consoles sound as close to the top end as possible
Many limitations can be worked around, efficient
design is important
Prioritise features so that the most important
things are always included
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the limitations
Different memory capacities, storage mediums,
graphical and sound capabilities and control
interfaces all contribute to making the
developers job difficult.
Ensure the design does not include essential
functionality that is poorly supported on any
platform.
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good habits
Raw material should always be of the highest
quality possible.
Always keep your development projects at that
highest quality.
Always keep the source of every FX project no
mater how minor it may seem.
Formatting and down sampling should be the final
step.
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bad habits
Developing on the lowest end platform and
directly porting up the chain
Simply deleting features until everything fits.
Simply down sampling until everything fits
Blaming the platform for its limitations.
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simple solutions
Pools of random sounds can be smaller on low
resource platforms.
Sample rates for entire sound environment can be
reduced.
Complex multi sample audio environments can be
simplified.
Channel prioritising for all sounds is a good
habit for all projects regardless of platform
limitations.
Remember, try not to change the gaming experience.
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complex solutions
Long sound files such as ambient sound may need
to be constructed differently
The audio design may need to be altered for some
areas
Complex character dialogue may require heavy
editing
Multiple streaming solutions could solve
problems, but may create new ones
Individual tweaking per SKU may be unavoidable
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big files, big issues
The lack of a hard drive on some consoles can
make the utilising of long streaming files
difficult .
Most games will have music at regular intervals
throughout the game, this combined with the need
to retrieve data from a disk makes the streaming
of environmental sounds as well as any music
difficult or impossible. As a result
environmental sounds may need to be played from
available memory. In this case they will need to
be much shorter in length than if they were
streamed.
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issues with loops
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sample rate
44k
44k
22k
22k
11k
11k
8k
16k
6k
8k
6k
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cross platform balancing act
PC small desktop speakers, up to surround sound
system
PS2 small mono television up to home theatre
Dolby PL2
XBox small mono television up to home theatre
Dolby 5.1
Game Cube small mono television up to Stereo
system
Average film will go through 6 to 8 mixes to
cover everything from full cinema surround to
cinema stereo then down to home theatre surround
and television mono
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movies
Movies generally have sound and music
Movies , like audio consist of large data files
Movies come in a variety of formats dependant on
platform, game engine and design requirements
Movies often dealt with be audio team
Be aware of time line and format issues
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maybe useful
Pitch shifting is your friend
Nature is chaotic, a little randomness goes along
way
Most natural sounds are basically noise
The best piece of equipment you have is stuck to
either side of your head
Always ask others to listen for you, but dont
always act on their feedback
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planning
in depth awareness of the project
clear understanding of timeline
understanding of expectations
plan early and thoroughly
produce late and efficiently
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game industry contacts
www.gamasutra.com
www.gameindustry.biz
www.bigkid.com.au
www.agdc.com.au
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