Location: Digipen Intitute of Technology, Redmond WA USA & online via Zoom
Moderated by: Greg Dixon
Speaker(s): Ian Shores, Highwire Games, Dan Mortensen & Lawrence Schwedler, AES PNW Section
Join us for our first in-person meeting since the start of the pandemic at DigiPen Redmond, or online in a special hybrid in-person/online meeting of the AES PNW Section.
Sound designer Ian Shores will share his knowledge of game audio spatialization while we try to equalize the local with the remote using in-person video, audio, and the internet via Zoom.
N.B. If you plan to attend in person, you must be vaccinated or tested, and you must wear a mask while on the DigiPen Premises. This is in accord with current DigiPen Policy. More details can be found at the AESPNW Website.
In three-dimensional video games, audio spatialization is a key factor for driving immersion and player feedback. In this newest wave of virtual reality audio, the ostentatious audio designer speaks of techniques like ambisonics and HRTF filters. No doubt they are powerful techniques, but perhaps they receive too much credit. Realistic audio spatialization is a complex and holistic experience, and many techniques must be employed to create true spatial fidelity. ‹ AAA is an informal classification used for games produced and distributed by a mid-sized or major publisher, which typically have higher development and marketing budgets than other tiers of games. ›
One such set of techniques-transmission and portalling, i.e., how sound travels between spaces-is often overlooked, but not for good reason. Some AAA audio teams have quietly employed this technique for much longer than many may realize, and recent advancements in game audio middleware have made the tools and techniques available to a wider group of audio designers.
This talk will cover several common techniques for defining spatial audio transmission in games, explaining relatively basic concepts such as occlusion and reverb zones, as well as more advanced techniques like portals and diffraction, discussing the benefits and drawbacks of each technique. Besides the theoretical, there will be practical examples of complex transmission and portalling demonstrated using Unreal Engine 4 and Wwise.
First, all in-person attendees and participants must show proof of full vaccination, per Digipen's rules, and masks are required to be worn throughout the time in the building. No one will be admitted who does not agree to abide by these rules. Refreshments, which are normally part of our meetings, will be served if allowed at that time. Online participants can do as they please.
One of the great things about the last year and a half has been our Section's ability to reach out to people all over the world and have them be part of the meetings and respond positively and appreciatively. We want to sustain that mutual positivity. This meeting will be an exploration of how to do that.
Our goal is to give online participants equal participation to those in the room, and let those in the room see and hear all that's going on in the meeting, including what remote attendees have to contribute.
Co-Presenter and Committee member Dan Mortensen has been actively exploring the possibilities of online interaction through his weekly Tea Time Topics mini-meetings that actually have turned out to be pretty maxi-, in that they allow people with like interests from all over the world to really dig into a topic to the depth that people who are really into it (like us, with audio) want to spend on it. This has evolved to the meetings routinely lasting 3.5 to 4 hours, with the record being over 6 hours (yesterday, as this is written, with Matthew Lutthans showing his mastering studio tools, tricks, and techniques). The achievable level of engagement is incredible, with people always wanting to make one more comment and then someone else wants to respond to that, and then one more again.
Dan also presented our first on-line meeting about mixing concerts on iPads using a mixing console with no physical controls, which showed us how strong the online meetings could be, and we are looking forward to see what he comes up with to make this hybrid meeting work. (He wrote this part, as he's eager to see what he comes up with, too.)
He has been consulting with Lawrence, Gary Louie, Rick Chinn, and Gordon McGregor about it and he hopes he's learned something that he can implement.
For his part, Lawrence Schwedler has also been trying to maximize the online experience for his students at DigiPen, and as the Co-Chair of the first-ever Virtual (attendance via avatars) Conference about Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality (AVAR) in 2020 and the next AVAR in 2022.
They will briefly talk about putting this together and eagerly listen to your thoughts about how it worked/didn't work for you, and how it could be better.
Directions to the DigiPen Campus, the Eventbrite link for online Zoom link, presenter's bios, and more at the AESPNW website: https://www.aes.org/sections/pnw/
Other Business: Save the date: December 7th, 2021. Time TBD Sylvia Massy's Mind-Blowing Microphone Museum, PART 2 ZOOM only. https://www.aes.org/sections/pnw/ for details once everything is set.
Posted: Tuesday, November 16, 2021
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