Wednesday, 12 November 2008
Been a while (meeting with Dr. Henry Fortuna)
October 27th - 30th
Been a while since I've really written or posted anything. Until today I was very much still in between whether to concentrate on adaptive audio or music. Thankfully a meeting with Henry Fortuna, my technical supervisor, really helped sort my head out.
I have finally decided to take the much welcome trek down the environmental audio side of adaptive and interactive audio in games. The topic is still Audio and i still plan to use the FMOD API to create an adaptive audio sound manager, the only difference now is I have finally narrowed my topic down to be able to hopefully construct a decent question.
This decision could not have come at a better time as we have also been told this week to start preparing for a presentation we have to give on the 17th of November about our proposed projects.
Been a while since I've really written or posted anything. Until today I was very much still in between whether to concentrate on adaptive audio or music. Thankfully a meeting with Henry Fortuna, my technical supervisor, really helped sort my head out.
I have finally decided to take the much welcome trek down the environmental audio side of adaptive and interactive audio in games. The topic is still Audio and i still plan to use the FMOD API to create an adaptive audio sound manager, the only difference now is I have finally narrowed my topic down to be able to hopefully construct a decent question.
This decision could not have come at a better time as we have also been told this week to start preparing for a presentation we have to give on the 17th of November about our proposed projects.
Meeting with Dr. Kenneth McAlpine
October 15th
Today I finally manged to get round to meeting up with a Lecturer that i believe can really help me narrow my project subject and question down, Dr. Kenneth McAlpine. In my opinion this man is probably one of the most valuable members of staff on the roll at Abertay, and definitely the person to go see about anything audio related.
During this meeting we discussed my views on adaptive audio and music and what would be the best route for me to travel down. Dr. McAlpine brought up a lot of points that i had already been researching into such as the Lucas Art's action adventure "Monkey Island" and it's use of audio with their own IMuse engine. This game is probably one of the reasons why I am so interested in the audio side of games.
After a lot of deliberation about what I already knew and what I didn't (which turned out o be a fair bit, I am afraid to say). We reached the conclusion that I would not be able to narrow down my topic any further from adaptive audio until I had thoroughly read up on the subject material.
Today I finally manged to get round to meeting up with a Lecturer that i believe can really help me narrow my project subject and question down, Dr. Kenneth McAlpine. In my opinion this man is probably one of the most valuable members of staff on the roll at Abertay, and definitely the person to go see about anything audio related.
During this meeting we discussed my views on adaptive audio and music and what would be the best route for me to travel down. Dr. McAlpine brought up a lot of points that i had already been researching into such as the Lucas Art's action adventure "Monkey Island" and it's use of audio with their own IMuse engine. This game is probably one of the reasons why I am so interested in the audio side of games.
After a lot of deliberation about what I already knew and what I didn't (which turned out o be a fair bit, I am afraid to say). We reached the conclusion that I would not be able to narrow down my topic any further from adaptive audio until I had thoroughly read up on the subject material.
Settled.....I think.....
October 10th
Well our worksheet No.2 has to be done by this Sunday and I am starting to feel a bit overwhelmed at the fact that I have still not settled back on another project. I am now almost certain that i would like to head down the the adaptive music side of the audio topic. As such i have created my worksheet No.2 around it.
Well our worksheet No.2 has to be done by this Sunday and I am starting to feel a bit overwhelmed at the fact that I have still not settled back on another project. I am now almost certain that i would like to head down the the adaptive music side of the audio topic. As such i have created my worksheet No.2 around it.
Honours project planning and development
Worksheet 2
1. Research into adaptive and interactive audio within an gaming environment and how to best go about creating a sound manager that can be applied realistically to today's overall gaming immersion experience.
2a. The focus of the project would be on adaptive and interactive audio within a gaming environment. Discovering how it should and does work within games already, finding the best way(s) of implementing changes within the audio as a visual on screen event warrants. Also as an extension of this, looking at what the framework can do for the audio before it is delivered to a visual plane e.g. Editing and attributes.
b. I would need to find out as much information about the framework(s) in question as possible, so as to be able to use it/them properly within the project.
As an extension of the above, I would also need to look into audio and music creation so as to be able to use it within the framework(s) e.g. Bitrate, frequency, ect.
How interactive and adaptive audio has been created within past gaming environments. Perhaps a little look into the history of this subject would be helpful also.
Creating an audio manager that implements everything that a game would need it do;
Play background music
Change BG music to adapt to the situation when needed.
Play any SFX or or respective audio in respect to what is happening within the game environment.
Adapt and edit the audio as needed before delivered to the visual plane.
The details above would allow myself to understand why audio engineers/programmers in industry create adaptive audio in the way that they do and also will give myself enough insight from this as well as researching framework(s) to create my own version of their already used sound managers.
Bit of Back Tracking I'm Afraid....
October 6th
Well I was afraid i would come to this junction in my planning stage and so it has happened. I am no longer happy with the project I am planning. So now I am stuck for ideas and looking all over the place at random papers and journals that have anything whatsoever to do with adaptive audio/music. It was not any longer than say 3 days ago that i decided this, but at least on the upside I am changing the question now and not half through building my application.
I have such a love for audio in computer games and how it goes from development, composition, programming and finally to completion, that I do not think i would be happy with simply looking at the technical side. I would really rather get more involved in the creative side as well as the technical programming side. I'll keep this updated as i come accross ideas.
Well I was afraid i would come to this junction in my planning stage and so it has happened. I am no longer happy with the project I am planning. So now I am stuck for ideas and looking all over the place at random papers and journals that have anything whatsoever to do with adaptive audio/music. It was not any longer than say 3 days ago that i decided this, but at least on the upside I am changing the question now and not half through building my application.
I have such a love for audio in computer games and how it goes from development, composition, programming and finally to completion, that I do not think i would be happy with simply looking at the technical side. I would really rather get more involved in the creative side as well as the technical programming side. I'll keep this updated as i come accross ideas.
September 25th - October 2nd
First week in and we have been told to get some preliminary ideas going with our worksheet 1. Here's what I came up with ( it has been annotated by Phillip Wharton);
To get this level of feedback at this early stage has really spurred me on to get some more research done into the area.
First week in and we have been told to get some preliminary ideas going with our worksheet 1. Here's what I came up with ( it has been annotated by Phillip Wharton);
Honours Project
Worksheet No.1
It is not a subeject I have any expertise in but I know this has been attempted several times before with various degrees of success. Please talk to H Fortuna before you complete your ws 2
Topic Of Interest:
Audio
Investigation
- I would like to investigate which audio framework would be best to use for interactive and adaptive audio within a computer games environment. In other words a comparative study between the two frameworks of Direct Sound and FMOD.
- Note that compared to the FMOD library, DirectSound is considered to be a low level API, and thus you may have trouble comparing the two, perhaps look at OpenAL (free, cross-platform Audio API) and XACT (from Microsoft which is replacing DirectSound) as well/instead.
Initial Ideas
I would like to come up with a game idea that would require interactive and adaptive audio (possibly even create a very simplistic representation of this game).
Then using this idea either by myself or work with someone else to create the audio necessary for this game.
Then use the game idea and audio to create a two working frameworks (specified in the fields above), in order to find out which one is optimum to use within a working game environment.
What is your definition of optimum here? For programming consider: Ease of use, API functionality (i.e. What level of audio processing is available?), dependencies on platforms (e.g. DirectSound on Windows), use of hardware acceleration (See DirectSound3D on Vista), and ease of integration. For the end-user consider: Level of realism, clarity, output formats (2.0, 5.1 etc.) and reliance on hardware.
Overall, interesting idea which with further development may lead to a more immersive gaming experience for the end user (which is always a plus).
Annotated by Philip Wharton 0502636
To get this level of feedback at this early stage has really spurred me on to get some more research done into the area.
Preliminary ideas
This has taken a lot longer than expected to get up and running, mainly due to the fact that i have been using a hard back diary to keep all my records in check. Not really any excuse, but at least I have been keep a log. As such although it will obviously be dated on here as i post, I will include dated headlines so you can all keep keep up to date with my ideas.
September 22nd - 30th
My name is Stuart Wright and I am in my 4th year of Studying B.Sc. Computer Games Technology at Abertay University of Dundee. As part of this year I have to write a Dissertation on a topic of my own choice in which you are required to research entirely off your own back and write up our findings and conclusions.
The reason for this Blog that I have set up is to help myself, and anyone else that has any interest in my 4th year Honours Dissertation, keep track of my studies, research and findings over the next few months.
Now the subject matter and topic that I am most interested in is audio. All types of game audio from music and sound effects to scripted vocalization and environmental audio. I am a strong believer in the idea that audio can make or break an amazing game idea, just as in cinema. As such I am pretty certain that I am going to go down the path of doing something in the area of Adaptive and interactive audio/music within computer games.
From some preliminary reading that has been done over the summer I may try to go down a technical comparative road. The idea would be to compare two audio API's that are already widely used within industry e.g. FMOD, Direct Sound, OpenAL, XACT, to name but a few. I am not sure how feasible this is within the time scale or if I woudl even be happy concentrating on the more technical side rather than the creative for 7 months, only time will tell i guess.
September 22nd - 30th
My name is Stuart Wright and I am in my 4th year of Studying B.Sc. Computer Games Technology at Abertay University of Dundee. As part of this year I have to write a Dissertation on a topic of my own choice in which you are required to research entirely off your own back and write up our findings and conclusions.
The reason for this Blog that I have set up is to help myself, and anyone else that has any interest in my 4th year Honours Dissertation, keep track of my studies, research and findings over the next few months.
Now the subject matter and topic that I am most interested in is audio. All types of game audio from music and sound effects to scripted vocalization and environmental audio. I am a strong believer in the idea that audio can make or break an amazing game idea, just as in cinema. As such I am pretty certain that I am going to go down the path of doing something in the area of Adaptive and interactive audio/music within computer games.
From some preliminary reading that has been done over the summer I may try to go down a technical comparative road. The idea would be to compare two audio API's that are already widely used within industry e.g. FMOD, Direct Sound, OpenAL, XACT, to name but a few. I am not sure how feasible this is within the time scale or if I woudl even be happy concentrating on the more technical side rather than the creative for 7 months, only time will tell i guess.
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