{"data":{"id":14853,"title":"Star Citizen Audio Update","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/14853-Star-Citizen-Audio-Update","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/14853","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/14853","channel":"Undefined","category":"Undefined","series":"None","images":[{"id":3793,"name":"Capture1.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/8yunoa10k0pbgr\/source\/Capture1.jpg","alt":"Figure 1: Some screens from the profiler, position editor and mixing layout.  Wwise is very grey, but you get used to that.","size":125438,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2015-07-24T17:59:35+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/3793","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/3793\/similar"},{"id":3794,"name":"Capture2.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/7czk6to0314s3r\/source\/Capture2.jpg","alt":"","size":159950,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2015-07-24T17:59:37+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/3794","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/3794\/similar"}],"images_count":2,"translations":{"en_EN":"Hello everyone!\nWe\u2019re proud to present our first iteration of Wwise audio for Star Citizen. Moving over to Wwise sets us up well to support the expansive scope and scale of our game.\n\nWe\u2019ve spent some months first migrating our content from our previous middleware solution, then refactoring and reengineering how audio is implemented within CryEngine. We\u2019ve mentioned in previous updates what features it lists, but I\u2019ll go over some of the key points here as to what it brings us. (Warning, the list it isn\u2019t all exclusively glamorous features, and there may be use of terms such as \u2018pipeline\u2019, \u2018workflow\u2019 and \u2018iteration\u2019 coming!)\n\nReduced dependency between sound designers and audio programmers is probably our first big win. We still need audio programming resources to integrate our sound in the game, for sure. But there\u2019s a lot you can do within Wwise that previously we\u2019d have to define in relatively hard-to-get-to code.\n\nWithin Wwise we can:\n\nAuthor sound structures, and re-sequence and re-layer sounds to give infinite variability.\n\nThen use simulation tools to prototype how they\u2019ll behave in a game context.\n\nIntegrate those sounds into game-friendly bank structures, set them to stream from disc\/disk or stay resident in main RAM etc.\n\nSet up the event hooks that get converted to CryEngine triggers and parameters.\n\nOnce implemented, we can then connect to and profile the game itself, and monitor how the game audio is behaving, check for bugs or resource spikes. And mix, change properties of the sounds, all in real time.\n\nThat all seems a little dry perhaps, but the more we have this basic pipeline in place and solid, the more time we have to do the something more exciting; like making awesome sounds in the first place, iterating on them, and putting more effort and consideration into how the whole soundscape comes together.\n\nFor a game of the scale of Star Citizen, especially as we move into having the Large World online, this is particularly important. Our base tech is the foundation for everything else we do and we can\u2019t begin to look at the funkier features until we\u2019re 100% happy with this integration.\n\nA lot of this though is standard Wwise goodness. With a toolset like this, as well as migrating our previous audio, we\u2019ve already been prepping hosts of new sounds for modules such as FPS, for the PU, all within Wwise already. Many of these will in turn feed into Squadron 42 as well as the larger universe.\n\nWith an ongoing release cycle, we need to be able to have confidence in our mix as we progress. To this end, Stefan set up what\u2019s called a Soundcaster session \u2013 essentially a pallet of events that one can trigger \u2013 that acts as a reference point for setting relative loudness for all types of sounds in the game.\n\nFrom here we can determine just how loud guns should be, and just how quiet, say, ambience could be in relation to them. Having this to refer to seems trivial, but simply having this to hand, having a \u2018whole project\u2019 perspective at any one time, outside of running the game itself, makes it much more possible to ensure we\u2019re working to similar loudness standards; one fewer thing to worry about and another step towards a higher quality experience.\n\nHere are some words from other members of the team on what the Wwise move brings and some samples of Wwise in action!\n\nGraham Phillipson, Audio Programmer\nFrom a code perspective Wwise allows us to trigger events that are more powerful than just \u201cplay sound\u201d and \u201cstop sound\u201d. This means that in many cases we can add simple audio hooks into the game and the sound designers can use them to trigger complex audio events that play\/stop sounds, affect mix changes and change switch and parameter states. It\u2019s also been really good for profiling and debugging; when we connect to the game we can see graphs of instance counts, CPU usage, stream counts and bandwidth and memory usage, and mix trees. Solo and mute functions are also useful debugging tools. The 3d object viewer gives us a good illustration of what sounds are playing in the game world without all those pesky game graphics getting in the way.\n\nLuke Hatton, Senior Sound Designer\nHaving joined the team last July when we were using our previous audio middleware solution through to this release, it\u2019s great to finally be settled in Wwise with our audio content migrated over. Just recently, hearing Betty again in the cockpit and ship enter\/exit mechanical parts working again in the new sound engine has been very rewarding. For us, working internally, the start of the Wwise conversion process meant that many months ago we started again with no sound at all in our internal build, and it has slowly been sonically restored. How great it is to be at this new starting point where I\u2019m certain the sound will go in that much slicker than ever before!\n\nThe major win for me personally is that we now have a clean, tidy and easy to maintain tool for all of our sound assets and all of our real-time processes. What I mean is, any sound can be renamed, re-bussed, categorised in a different way and this will not affect the in-game hook we have. It means we can try structuring our data one way, change our minds for whatever reason and it won\u2019t cause a lot of re-working. Because of this, we\u2019re now producing audio content in a much more systemic way than before; we are creating robust systems that cater for general scenarios, rather than crafting specific one-off sounds which are dependent on specific animations\/scripting.\n\nThe Wwise release is also representative of a larger and more streamlined audio team in comparison to a year ago. With so many sound designers and assets being added on a daily basis, our new naming conventions and workflows allow for an easier time making decisions, which can filter through on a game-wide level. If something is put into our Wwise project which doesn\u2019t make sense, or isn\u2019t clear, it\u2019s a matter of having a quick group chat and changing it. In this way, it\u2019s easier for work to be peer-reviewed now so we can sanity check each other\u2019s content or audition new sounds very easily.\n\n(All this recapping reminds me, I really need to change our thruster \u2018RPM\u2019 parameter to just \u2018Thrust\u2019. We currently use a parameter named \u2018RPM\u2019 in Wwise (the same name as it was in FMOD) to drive thruster sounds, so it needs changing to something that makes more sense. Our thrusters don\u2019t actually \u2018revolve per minute\u2019. Now easily done!)\n\nMatteo Cerquone, Junior Sound Designer\nI was lucky enough to join the CIG Audio team after the transition from FMOD to Wwise, I skipped the first part of the process of converting assets to the new audio engine and that gave me more freedom in terms of audio implementation.\n\nWorking with Wwise is a great experience as it allows us to manipulate, re-shape and mix audio in real time according to what is happening in game.\n\nI found myself working on the sound design for the missiles, and implementing those assets in game using Wwise allowed me to add variations depending on the distance and speed: each missile, once launched, has three different loops that describes how far this object is from the listener perspective, the first loop is composed of a rocket layer and different characteristics sounds that describe the brand and type of missile (in most cases this would be a specific beeping sound), the second loop is a more distant perspective of the rocket itself and the third loop is a far off, distant perspective rocket sound.\n\nWith Wwise we can blend between these three layers and add real time parameters such as volume or Doppler effects according to how far the object is from the player. When being chased by a missile you can now definitely hear how distant it is (blend between different loops, volume, low pass filter etc..) and how fast is approaching you (thanks to the Doppler effect), also if a missile is close enough you can recognize the brand and type of missile before getting hit (or escape if you are lucky).\n\nSimilar approach was used for the explosions of such missiles, we have created different explosion sounds according to the brand and type of missile, if the missile has hit or miss and if it\u2019s happened far away from the player or close. Again Wwise gives us the tools for not just triggering the correct sound but to blend them together and create variations (if you are close enough you will also be able to hear the debris sound of the ship being hit).\n\nAnother great help is the possibility to have a cleaner mix, when working with the primary thrusters for some of the ships I wanted to duck down the sound of the main engine whenever the overdrive was engaged, with Wwise I could use a meter that controls the volume of the main engine according to how loud the overdrive is (side-chaining), so now every time the overdrive is engaged, the primary engine sound will automatically duck down.\n\nDarren Lambourne, Senior Sound Designer\nWwise is a very freeing and creative tool. Being able to move quickly from a concept, a high level idea, to something functional in the game engine is so crucial to bottling that initial inspiration.\n\nThe diagnostics are second to none, letting us get to the heart of a problem quickly and solve it rather than just applying a patch to mask the issue. That\u2019s important on a project of this size, there are already a bewildering number of audio systems in our game universe and that number is growing every day. We\u2019re trying to create something truly special for the audio in Star Citizen. Getting eyes on the project as a whole and drilling down into problem areas that can impact both the fidelity and the smoothness of our audio systems is absolutely essential to ensure that we keep out the bad stuff and emphasise the good stuff.\n\nJason Cobb, Senior Sound Designer:\nFrom my perspective the conversion of audio middleware from Fmod to Wwise has been a year\u2019s long process that began with early naive aspirations for a quick change-over and only concluded after a drawn-out haul of many incremental yet monumental changes.\n\nFrom an audio content standpoint, the earlier and faster we converted over, the least amount of Fmod content and implementation would be have to be re-done. Seems like a no-brainer but unfortunately the situation would not allow for such a fast change-over with everyone focusing on each next release or demo version that year.\n\nIn May 2014 we examined an integration of Wwise in CryEngine which had been done by an outside company. This was at a time before Crytek had released an official Wwise integration and we did not yet have any details about it or an eta when it would be available which was compounded by the uncertainty of their financial situation at the time. For a short while it looked like we had a path to a fast, straight-forward Wwise integration and minimal data changeover job.\n\nOne factor at that time was not enough engineers available to dedicate one or more to integrate Wwise using the example we had been provided, yet alone our own take on it. Even still if we had used a third-party or in-house Wwise integration, it would have made future CryEngine SDK integrations that much harder to do.\n\nBy choosing the yet-to-be-delivered Crytek Wwise integration we minimized the amount of divergence between the Star Citizen game engine and the base SDK CryEngine. Still from an audio standpoint this guaranteed a lot more audio content would be created and implemented with Fmod, which made the task of converting this Fmod audio content and implementation into a much larger and more difficult job.\n\nIt was not until the end of September 2014 until we kicked off an integration of CryEngine that included a Wwise integration. Instead of directly replacing Fmod calls with Wwise calls in their game code like the other example integration we looked at, their version instead converted game audio calls to the newly conceived Audio Translation Layer, as an abstraction to allow for different audio middleware to be swapped out underneath \u2013 a great feature if you are selling a game engine that needs lots of options for a variety of customers but maybe a little more than we needed on Star Citizen at the time. Still, always good to have future options and we have since made greater use of this audio translation\/abstraction layer to store event metadata.\n\nUnfortunately by the existence of this abstraction layer and its associated data files, it created a new step in the audio content workflow which required the sound designers to take the work they had just made in Wwise designer tool and manually create new objects referencing these same events, parameters, switches, states and sound-banks, saved into ATL files and managed in the audio controls browser. The early days of this workflow were somewhat primitive and slow and very much unlike the smooth experience of using Wwise in any other game engine I have shipped before. For this reason I decided to script a workflow solution that would simply automatically create the necessary ATL files for us when we build sound-banks in the Wwise designer tool. Then the sound designers will have no extra steps to manually create and manage these ATL files in CryEngine other than making sure they are checked in when updated. We can just immediately use our sounds in the game engine as soon as we build them into a sound-bank.\n\nMeanwhile the audio team was still working in Fmod for the series of game releases and demos, with lots of new and exciting game content and sounds going in over the rest of that year. The Wwise integration branch kept making progress but the challenges of completing all the code side work in conjunction with dependencies from other development integrations and game releases meant that it was a few months before the window appeared where Wwise could be safely made \u201clive\u201d in the main game development stream.\n\nAlong the line dedicated audio engineers and additional sound designers were brought on board and the task of converting the audio content and implementation was able to begin in earnest. Across all the game files we data-mined for Fmod event strings and setup a conversion table to enter the new Wwise event \/ ATL trigger strings, which were then converted by scripting automation of search and replace across batches of hundreds of data files at a time.\n\nTo cut a long story short, by the time we wrapped up all the audio code and data implementation conversions, to date we have touched untold thousands of game data files and created close to 10000 new Wwise events and well over 1000 sound banks. It feels so good to finally be done with this task and now get on to the actual fun parts of making new content once again, not to mention now having the tools needed to better refine, modulate, mix and optimize, the game sounds with the features provided by Wwise and the ATL.\n\nUltimately, we\u2019re not finished yet, by quite some way \u2013 but we feel we\u2019re in a much better place to keep improving and keep building. While we\u2019re proud of what we\u2019re getting together, we\u2019re not 100% happy by some way, we realize still have a lot of work to do and now we have more of the tools in hand to do it.\n\nAs always we\u2019d appreciate your feedback and reports of any issues with the sound of our game. The \u2018Ask A Developer\u2019 section of the forums, there\u2019s an audio topic which is where we hang out and respond to sound queries. Thanks for listening!","de_DE":"Hallo zusammen!\nWir sind stolz darauf, unsere erste Iteration von Wwise Audio f\u00fcr Star Citizen pr\u00e4sentieren zu k\u00f6nnen. Wenn wir zu Wwise \u00fcbergehen, sind wir gut aufgestellt, um den gro\u00dfen Umfang und die Gr\u00f6\u00dfe unseres Spiels zu unterst\u00fctzen.\n\nWir haben einige Monate damit verbracht, zuerst unsere Inhalte von unserer vorherigen Middleware-L\u00f6sung zu migrieren, dann das Refactoring durchzuf\u00fchren und die Implementierung von Audio in der CryEngine zu \u00fcberarbeiten. Wir haben in fr\u00fcheren Updates erw\u00e4hnt, welche Funktionen es auflistet, aber ich werde hier einige der wichtigsten Punkte besprechen, was es uns bringt. (Achtung, die Liste ist nicht ausschlie\u00dflich glamour\u00f6s, und es kann die Verwendung von Begriffen wie \"Pipeline\", \"Workflow\" und \"Iteration\" kommen!\n\nDie geringere Abh\u00e4ngigkeit zwischen Sound-Designern und Audioprogrammierern ist wahrscheinlich unser erster gro\u00dfer Gewinn. Wir brauchen immer noch Audioprogrammierressourcen, um unseren Sound in das Spiel zu integrieren, ganz sicher. Aber es gibt viel, was Sie in Wwise tun k\u00f6nnen, was wir fr\u00fcher in relativ schwer zu bekommendem Code definieren mussten.\n\nIm Inneren von Wwise k\u00f6nnen wir es:\n\nErstellen Sie Soundstrukturen, Re-Sequenz- und Re-Layer-Sounds, um unendliche Variabilit\u00e4t zu erreichen. Verwenden Sie dann Simulationswerkzeuge, um einen Prototyp zu erstellen, wie sie sich in einem Spielkontext verhalten werden. Integrieren Sie diese Sounds in spielerfreundliche Bankstrukturen, stellen Sie sie so ein, dass sie von der Disc\/Disk streamen oder im Hauptspeicher verbleiben usw. Richten Sie die Eventhooks ein, die in CryEngine Trigger und Parameter umgewandelt werden. Nach der Implementierung k\u00f6nnen wir uns dann mit dem Spiel selbst verbinden und es profilieren, das Verhalten des Spiels \u00fcberwachen, nach Fehlern oder Ressourcenspitzen suchen. Und mischen, \u00e4ndern Sie die Eigenschaften der Sounds, alles in Echtzeit. Das alles erscheint vielleicht etwas trocken, aber je mehr wir diese grundlegende Pipeline an Ort und Stelle und solide haben, desto mehr Zeit haben wir, um etwas Spannenderes zu tun; wie zum Beispiel gro\u00dfartige Sounds zu machen, sie von vornherein zu wiederholen und mehr M\u00fche und Aufmerksamkeit darauf zu verwenden, wie die ganze Klanglandschaft zusammenkommt.\n\nF\u00fcr ein Spiel von der Gr\u00f6\u00dfenordnung von Star Citizen, insbesondere da wir die Gro\u00dfe Welt online haben, ist dies besonders wichtig. Unsere Basistechnologie ist die Grundlage f\u00fcr alles andere, was wir tun, und wir k\u00f6nnen nicht anfangen, uns die funkiereren Features anzusehen, bis wir mit dieser Integration zu 100% zufrieden sind.\n\nVieles davon ist jedoch eine standardm\u00e4\u00dfige Wise G\u00fcte. Mit einem solchen Toolset haben wir nicht nur unser bisheriges Audio migriert, sondern auch bereits viele neue Sounds f\u00fcr Module wie FPS, f\u00fcr die PU, alle in Wwise vorbereitet. Viele von ihnen werden wiederum in die Staffel 42 sowie in das gr\u00f6\u00dfere Universum einflie\u00dfen.\n\nBei einem laufenden Release-Zyklus m\u00fcssen wir Vertrauen in unseren Mix haben, wenn wir Fortschritte machen. Zu diesem Zweck richtete Stefan eine sogenannte Soundcaster-Session ein - im Wesentlichen eine Palette von Ereignissen, die man ausl\u00f6sen kann - die als Bezugspunkt f\u00fcr die Einstellung der relativen Lautst\u00e4rke f\u00fcr alle Arten von Sounds im Spiel dient.\n\nVon hier aus k\u00f6nnen wir bestimmen, wie laut die Waffen sein sollen und wie ruhig, sagen wir, das Ambiente im Verh\u00e4ltnis zu ihnen sein k\u00f6nnte. Dies zu erw\u00e4hnen, scheint trivial zu sein, aber einfach dies zur Hand zu haben, eine Perspektive des \"ganzen Projekts\" zu haben, die zu irgendeinem Zeitpunkt, au\u00dferhalb des Betriebs des Spiels selbst, macht es viel einfacher sicherzustellen, dass wir nach \u00e4hnlichen Lautheitsstandards arbeiten; eine weniger Sorge und ein weiterer Schritt zu einem qualitativ hochwertigeren Erlebnis.\n\nHier sind einige Worte von anderen Mitgliedern des Teams dar\u00fcber, was der Zug der Weisheit bringt und einige Beispiele von Weisheit in Aktion!\n\nGraham Phillipson, Audio-Programmierer\nAus Codeperspektive erlaubt uns Wwise, Ereignisse auszul\u00f6sen, die m\u00e4chtiger sind als nur \"Play Sound\" und \"Stop Sound\". Das bedeutet, dass wir in vielen F\u00e4llen einfache Audio-Hooks in das Spiel integrieren k\u00f6nnen und die Sound-Designer sie verwenden k\u00f6nnen, um komplexe Audio-Ereignisse auszul\u00f6sen, die Sounds abspielen\/stoppen, Mix\u00e4nderungen beeinflussen und Schalt- und Parameterzust\u00e4nde \u00e4ndern. Es war auch wirklich gut f\u00fcr das Profiling und Debugging; wenn wir uns mit dem Spiel verbinden, k\u00f6nnen wir Diagramme mit Instanzanzahl, CPU-Auslastung, Streamanzahl, Bandbreiten- und Speicherauslastung und Mischb\u00e4umen sehen. Solo und Mute-Funktionen sind ebenfalls n\u00fctzliche Debugging-Tools. Der 3D-Objekt-Viewer gibt uns eine gute Illustration davon, welche Sounds in der Spielwelt spielen, ohne dass all die l\u00e4stigen Spielgrafiken im Weg stehen.\n\nLuke Hatton, Senior Sound Designer (Senior Sound Designer)\nNachdem wir im Juli letzten Jahres dem Team beigetreten sind, als wir unsere vorherige Audio-Middleware-L\u00f6sung bis zu diesem Release verwendet haben, ist es gro\u00dfartig, endlich in Wise angesiedelt zu sein, da unsere Audioinhalte \u00fcbernommen wurden. Erst k\u00fcrzlich war es sehr lohnend, Betty wieder im Cockpit und im Schiff zu h\u00f6ren, wie mechanische Teile in der neuen Sound-Engine wieder arbeiten. F\u00fcr uns, die wir intern arbeiten, bedeutete der Beginn des Wwise Konvertierungsprozesses, dass wir vor vielen Monaten wieder ohne Sound in unserem internen Aufbau begonnen haben, und er wurde langsam klanglich wiederhergestellt. Wie gro\u00dfartig ist es, an diesem neuen Ausgangspunkt zu sein, an dem ich sicher bin, dass der Sound so viel glatter sein wird als je zuvor!\n\nDer wichtigste Gewinn f\u00fcr mich pers\u00f6nlich ist, dass wir jetzt ein sauberes, ordentliches und einfach zu wartendes Werkzeug f\u00fcr alle unsere Tonanlagen und alle unsere Echtzeitprozesse haben. Was ich meine, ist, dass jeder Sound umbenannt, umgebildet, kategorisiert und auf eine andere Weise kategorisiert werden kann, und das hat keinen Einfluss auf den Haken im Spiel, den wir haben. Es bedeutet, dass wir versuchen k\u00f6nnen, unsere Daten auf eine Weise zu strukturieren, unsere Meinung aus irgendeinem Grund zu \u00e4ndern, und es wird nicht viel Nacharbeit verursachen. Aus diesem Grund produzieren wir Audioinhalte jetzt viel systemischer als bisher; wir schaffen robuste Systeme, die allgemeine Szenarien abdecken, anstatt spezifische Einzelsounds zu erstellen, die von bestimmten Animationen\/Skripten abh\u00e4ngig sind.\n\nDie Wwise Version ist auch repr\u00e4sentativ f\u00fcr ein gr\u00f6\u00dferes und schlankeres Audio-Team im Vergleich zu vor einem Jahr. Da t\u00e4glich so viele Sound-Designer und Assets hinzugef\u00fcgt werden, erm\u00f6glichen unsere neuen Namenskonventionen und Workflows eine einfachere Entscheidungsfindung, die sich auf spielweiter Ebene durchsetzen kann. Wenn etwas in unser Wwise Projekt eingef\u00fcgt wird, das keinen Sinn macht oder nicht klar ist, geht es darum, einen schnellen Gruppenchat zu haben und ihn zu \u00e4ndern. Auf diese Weise ist es f\u00fcr die Arbeit einfacher, jetzt Peer-Review zu machen, so dass wir uns gegenseitig den Inhalt \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen oder neue Sounds sehr einfach anh\u00f6ren k\u00f6nnen.\n\n(All dieses Umschreiben erinnert mich daran, dass ich wirklich unseren Parameter'RPM' des Thrusters auf'Thrust' \u00e4ndern muss. Wir verwenden derzeit einen Parameter namens'RPM' im Wwise (der gleiche Name wie in FMOD), um Thruster-Sounds anzusteuern, so dass er auf etwas Sinnvolleres umgestellt werden muss. Unsere Triebwerke drehen sich nicht wirklich pro Minute. Jetzt einfach gemacht!)\n\nMatteo Cerquone, Junior Klangdesigner\nIch hatte das Gl\u00fcck, nach dem \u00dcbergang von FMOD zu Wwise dem CIG Audio-Team beizutreten, ich \u00fcbersprang den ersten Teil des Prozesses der Konvertierung von Assets in die neue Audio-Engine und das gab mir mehr Freiheit bei der Audio-Implementierung.\n\nDie Arbeit mit Wwise ist eine gro\u00dfartige Erfahrung, da sie es uns erm\u00f6glicht, Audio in Echtzeit zu manipulieren, umzugestalten und zu mischen, je nachdem, was im Spiel passiert.\n\nIch arbeitete an dem Sounddesign f\u00fcr die Raketen und die Implementierung dieser Assets im Spiel mit Wwise erlaubte es mir, Variationen in Abh\u00e4ngigkeit von der Entfernung und Geschwindigkeit hinzuzuf\u00fcgen: Jede Rakete, sobald sie gestartet wurde, hat drei verschiedene Schleifen, die beschreiben, wie weit sich dieses Objekt von der Zuh\u00f6rerperspektive entfernt befindet, die erste Schleife besteht aus einer Raketenschicht und verschiedenen charakteristischen Ger\u00e4uschen, die die Marke und den Typ der Rakete beschreiben (in den meisten F\u00e4llen w\u00e4re dies ein spezifischer Piepton), die zweite Schleife ist eine weiter entfernte Perspektive der Rakete selbst und die dritte Schleife ist ein weit entfernter, entfernter perspektivischer Raketenklang.\n\nMit Wwise k\u00f6nnen wir zwischen diesen drei Ebenen mischen und Echtzeitparameter wie Lautst\u00e4rke oder Dopplereffekte hinzuf\u00fcgen, je nachdem, wie weit das Objekt vom Player entfernt ist. Wenn man von einer Rakete gejagt wird, kann man nun definitiv h\u00f6ren, wie weit sie entfernt ist (Mischung aus verschiedenen Schleifen, Volumen, Tiefpassfilter usw.) und wie schnell sie sich einem n\u00e4hert (dank des Doppler-Effekts), auch wenn eine Rakete nah genug ist, kann man die Marke und den Raketentyp erkennen, bevor man getroffen wird (oder mit etwas Gl\u00fcck entkommen).\n\n\u00c4hnlicher Ansatz wurde f\u00fcr die Explosionen solcher Raketen verwendet, wir haben verschiedene Explosionsger\u00e4usche je nach Marke und Art der Rakete erzeugt, wenn die Rakete getroffen oder verfehlt hat und wenn es weit weg vom Spieler oder in der N\u00e4he passiert ist. Auch hier gibt uns Wwise die Werkzeuge an die Hand, um nicht nur den richtigen Sound auszul\u00f6sen, sondern ihn auch zu mischen und Variationen zu erzeugen (wenn man nah genug dran ist, kann man auch das Tr\u00fcmmerger\u00e4usch des getroffenen Schiffes h\u00f6ren).\n\nEine weitere gro\u00dfe Hilfe ist die M\u00f6glichkeit, eine sauberere Mischung zu erhalten, wenn ich mit den Prim\u00e4rtriebwerken f\u00fcr einige der Schiffe arbeite, wollte ich das Ger\u00e4usch der Hauptmaschine d\u00e4mpfen, wenn der Overdrive eingeschaltet ist, mit Wwise k\u00f6nnte ich einen Z\u00e4hler verwenden, der die Lautst\u00e4rke der Hauptmaschine entsprechend der Lautst\u00e4rke des Overdrive regelt (Seitenkettenschaltung), so dass jetzt jedes Mal, wenn der Overdrive eingeschaltet wird, der Prim\u00e4rmotorger\u00e4usch automatisch d\u00e4mpft.\n\nDarren Lambourne, Senior Sound Designer (Senior Sound Designer)\nWise ist ein sehr befreiendes und kreatives Werkzeug. Die F\u00e4higkeit, schnell von einem Konzept, einer Idee auf hohem Niveau zu etwas Funktionalem in der Game Engine \u00fcberzugehen, ist so entscheidend f\u00fcr die Abf\u00fcllung dieser ersten Inspiration.\n\nDie Diagnose ist un\u00fcbertroffen, so dass wir schnell zum Kern eines Problems kommen und es l\u00f6sen k\u00f6nnen, anstatt nur einen Patch anzuwenden, um das Problem zu maskieren. Das ist wichtig bei einem Projekt dieser Gr\u00f6\u00dfe, es gibt bereits eine verwirrende Anzahl von Audiosystemen in unserem Spieluniversum und diese Zahl w\u00e4chst t\u00e4glich. Wir versuchen, etwas ganz Besonderes f\u00fcr das Audio in Star Citizen zu schaffen. Das Projekt als Ganzes im Auge zu behalten und in Problembereiche vorzudringen, die sowohl die Genauigkeit als auch die Gl\u00e4tte unserer Audiosysteme beeintr\u00e4chtigen k\u00f6nnen, ist absolut notwendig, um sicherzustellen, dass wir die schlechten Dinge fernhalten und die guten Dinge hervorheben.\n\nJason Cobb, Senior Sound Designer:\nAus meiner Sicht war die Umstellung der Audiomiddleware von Fmod auf Wwise ein einj\u00e4hriger Prozess, der mit fr\u00fchen naiven Bestrebungen nach einer schnellen Umstellung begann und erst nach einer langen Phase vieler inkrementeller, aber monumentaler \u00c4nderungen abgeschlossen wurde.\n\nAus Sicht der Audioinhalte gilt: Je fr\u00fcher und schneller wir konvertiert haben, desto weniger Fmod-Inhalte und Implementierungen m\u00fcssten neu erstellt werden. Scheint ein Kinderspiel zu sein, aber leider w\u00fcrde die Situation einen so schnellen Wechsel nicht zulassen, da sich jeder auf jedes n\u00e4chste Release oder jede n\u00e4chste Demo-Version in diesem Jahr konzentriert.\n\nIm Mai 2014 untersuchten wir eine Integration von Wwise in die CryEngine, die von einem externen Unternehmen durchgef\u00fchrt wurde. Dies geschah zu einem Zeitpunkt, an dem Crytek eine offizielle Wise-Integration ver\u00f6ffentlicht hatte, und wir hatten noch keine Details dar\u00fcber oder ein Eta, wann es verf\u00fcgbar sein w\u00fcrde, was durch die Unsicherheit ihrer finanziellen Situation zu diesem Zeitpunkt noch verst\u00e4rkt wurde. F\u00fcr kurze Zeit sah es so aus, als h\u00e4tten wir einen Weg zu einer schnellen, unkomplizierten Wise-Integration und einer minimalen Datenumstellung.\n\nEin Faktor zu dieser Zeit war, dass nicht gen\u00fcgend Ingenieure zur Verf\u00fcgung standen, um einen oder mehrere f\u00fcr die Integration von Wwise nach dem uns zur Verf\u00fcgung gestellten Beispiel zu widmen, aber allein unsere eigene Sichtweise darauf. Selbst wenn wir eine Wwise Integration von Drittanbietern oder intern verwendet h\u00e4tten, h\u00e4tte es zuk\u00fcnftige CryEngine SDK-Integrationen umso schwieriger gemacht.\n\nDurch die Wahl der noch zu liefernden Crytek Wwise Integration haben wir den Grad der Abweichung zwischen der Star Citizen Game Engine und der Basis-SDK CryEngine minimiert. Aus audiotechnischer Sicht war damit gew\u00e4hrleistet, dass viel mehr Audioinhalte mit Fmod erstellt und umgesetzt werden konnten, was die Aufgabe stellte, diese Fmod-Audioinhalte und -Implementierungen in einen viel gr\u00f6\u00dferen und schwierigeren Job umzuwandeln.\n\nErst Ende September 2014 begannen wir mit der Integration von CryEngine, die auch eine Wwise Integration beinhaltete. Anstatt Fmod-Aufrufe direkt durch Wwise-Aufrufe in ihrem Spielcode zu ersetzen, wie die andere Beispielintegration, die wir uns angesehen haben, wandelte ihre Version stattdessen Audioaufrufe in den neu konzipierten Audio Translation Layer um, als Abstraktion, um zu erm\u00f6glichen, dass verschiedene Audio-Middleware darunter ausgelagert werden kann - eine gro\u00dfartige Funktion, wenn Sie eine Game Engine verkaufen, die viele Optionen f\u00fcr eine Vielzahl von Kunden ben\u00f6tigt, aber vielleicht ein wenig mehr, als wir damals bei Star Citizen brauchten. Dennoch ist es immer gut, zuk\u00fcnftige Optionen zu haben, und wir haben diese Audio-\u00dcbersetzungs-\/Abstraktionsebene seitdem verst\u00e4rkt genutzt, um Ereignismetadaten zu speichern.\n\nLeider hat es durch die Existenz dieser Abstraktionsschicht und der damit verbundenen Datendateien einen neuen Schritt im Audio-Content-Workflow geschaffen, der von den Sound-Designern verlangt, die Arbeit, die sie gerade mit dem Wwise Designer-Tool gemacht hatten, zu \u00fcbernehmen und manuell neue Objekte mit Bezug auf dieselben Ereignisse, Parameter, Schalter, Zust\u00e4nde und Soundb\u00e4nke zu erstellen, die in ATL-Dateien gespeichert und im Browser der Audiosteuerung verwaltet wurden. Die ersten Tage dieses Workflows waren etwas primitiv und langsam und sehr unterschiedlich von der reibungslosen Erfahrung, Wwise in jeder anderen Spiele-Engine zu verwenden, die ich zuvor ausgeliefert habe. Aus diesem Grund habe ich mich entschieden, eine Workflow-L\u00f6sung zu entwickeln, die einfach automatisch die notwendigen ATL-Dateien f\u00fcr uns erstellt, wenn wir Sound-Banken im Wwise Designer-Tool aufbauen. Dann haben die Sound-Designer keine zus\u00e4tzlichen Schritte, um diese ATL-Dateien manuell in CryEngine zu erstellen und zu verwalten, au\u00dfer sicherzustellen, dass sie bei der Aktualisierung eingecheckt werden. Wir k\u00f6nnen unsere Sounds einfach sofort in der Game Engine verwenden, sobald wir sie in eine Sound-Bank eingebaut haben.\n\nW\u00e4hrenddessen arbeitete das Audio-Team immer noch in Fmod f\u00fcr die Reihe von Spielver\u00f6ffentlichungen und Demos, mit vielen neuen und aufregenden Spielinhalten und Sounds, die im Laufe des Jahres eingef\u00fchrt wurden. Der Wwise Integrationszweig machte weiterhin Fortschritte, aber die Herausforderungen, die sich aus der Fertigstellung der gesamten Code-seitigen Arbeit in Verbindung mit Abh\u00e4ngigkeiten von anderen Entwicklungsintegrationen und Spielversionen ergaben, f\u00fchrten dazu, dass es einige Monate dauerte, bis das Fenster erschien, in dem Wwise sicher \"live\" im Hauptstrom der Spieleentwicklung gemacht werden konnte.\n\nEntlang der Linie wurden engagierte Audio-Ingenieure und zus\u00e4tzliche Sound-Designer an Bord geholt und die Aufgabe der Konvertierung der Audio-Inhalte und der Implementierung konnte ernsthaft beginnen. \u00dcber alle Spieldateien hinweg, die wir f\u00fcr Fmod-Ereignisse abgefragt haben, und richten Sie eine Konvertierungstabelle ein, um die neuen Wwise Event \/ ATL-Triggerzeichenketten einzugeben, die dann durch Skript-Automatisierung der Suche und des Ersetzens \u00fcber Stapel von Hunderten von Datendateien hinweg konvertiert wurden.\n\nUm es kurz zu machen, als wir alle Konvertierungen des Audiocodes und der Datenimplementierung abgeschlossen haben, haben wir bis heute unz\u00e4hlige tausend Spieldatendateien ber\u00fchrt und fast 10000 neue Wwise Events und weit \u00fcber 1000 Soundb\u00e4nke erstellt. Es f\u00fchlt sich so gut an, endlich mit dieser Aufgabe fertig zu werden und nun wieder zu den eigentlichen lustigen Teilen der Erstellung neuer Inhalte zu kommen, ganz zu schweigen von den Werkzeugen, die notwendig sind, um das Spiel mit den Features von Wwise und dem ATL besser zu verfeinern, zu modulieren, zu mischen und zu optimieren.\n\nLetztendlich sind wir noch lange nicht fertig - aber wir f\u00fchlen uns an einem viel besseren Ort, um uns weiter zu verbessern und weiter zu bauen. Obwohl wir stolz auf das sind, was wir zusammenbringen, sind wir irgendwie nicht 100% gl\u00fccklich, aber wir wissen, dass wir noch viel Arbeit vor uns haben und jetzt haben wir mehr von den Werkzeugen zur Hand, um es zu tun.\n\nWie immer freuen wir uns \u00fcber Ihr Feedback und Ihre Berichte \u00fcber Probleme mit dem Sound unseres Spiels. Im Abschnitt'Ask A Developer' des Forums gibt es ein Audiothema, in dem wir herumh\u00e4ngen und auf Soundanfragen antworten. Danke f\u00fcrs Zuh\u00f6ren!","zh_CN":"Hello everyone!\nWe\u2019re proud to present our first iteration of Wwise audio for Star Citizen. Moving over to Wwise sets us up well to support the expansive scope and scale of our game.\n\nWe\u2019ve spent some months first migrating our content from our previous middleware solution, then refactoring and reengineering how audio is implemented within CryEngine. We\u2019ve mentioned in previous updates what features it lists, but I\u2019ll go over some of the key points here as to what it brings us. (Warning, the list it isn\u2019t all exclusively glamorous features, and there may be use of terms such as \u2018pipeline\u2019, \u2018workflow\u2019 and \u2018iteration\u2019 coming!)\n\nReduced dependency between sound designers and audio programmers is probably our first big win. We still need audio programming resources to integrate our sound in the game, for sure. But there\u2019s a lot you can do within Wwise that previously we\u2019d have to define in relatively hard-to-get-to code.\n\nWithin Wwise we can:\n\nAuthor sound structures, and re-sequence and re-layer sounds to give infinite variability.\n\nThen use simulation tools to prototype how they\u2019ll behave in a game context.\n\nIntegrate those sounds into game-friendly bank structures, set them to stream from disc\/disk or stay resident in main RAM etc.\n\nSet up the event hooks that get converted to CryEngine triggers and parameters.\n\nOnce implemented, we can then connect to and profile the game itself, and monitor how the game audio is behaving, check for bugs or resource spikes. And mix, change properties of the sounds, all in real time.\n\nThat all seems a little dry perhaps, but the more we have this basic pipeline in place and solid, the more time we have to do the something more exciting; like making awesome sounds in the first place, iterating on them, and putting more effort and consideration into how the whole soundscape comes together.\n\nFor a game of the scale of Star Citizen, especially as we move into having the Large World online, this is particularly important. Our base tech is the foundation for everything else we do and we can\u2019t begin to look at the funkier features until we\u2019re 100% happy with this integration.\n\nA lot of this though is standard Wwise goodness. With a toolset like this, as well as migrating our previous audio, we\u2019ve already been prepping hosts of new sounds for modules such as FPS, for the PU, all within Wwise already. Many of these will in turn feed into Squadron 42 as well as the larger universe.\n\nWith an ongoing release cycle, we need to be able to have confidence in our mix as we progress. To this end, Stefan set up what\u2019s called a Soundcaster session \u2013 essentially a pallet of events that one can trigger \u2013 that acts as a reference point for setting relative loudness for all types of sounds in the game.\n\nFrom here we can determine just how loud guns should be, and just how quiet, say, ambience could be in relation to them. Having this to refer to seems trivial, but simply having this to hand, having a \u2018whole project\u2019 perspective at any one time, outside of running the game itself, makes it much more possible to ensure we\u2019re working to similar loudness standards; one fewer thing to worry about and another step towards a higher quality experience.\n\nHere are some words from other members of the team on what the Wwise move brings and some samples of Wwise in action!\n\nGraham Phillipson, Audio Programmer\nFrom a code perspective Wwise allows us to trigger events that are more powerful than just \u201cplay sound\u201d and \u201cstop sound\u201d. This means that in many cases we can add simple audio hooks into the game and the sound designers can use them to trigger complex audio events that play\/stop sounds, affect mix changes and change switch and parameter states. It\u2019s also been really good for profiling and debugging; when we connect to the game we can see graphs of instance counts, CPU usage, stream counts and bandwidth and memory usage, and mix trees. Solo and mute functions are also useful debugging tools. The 3d object viewer gives us a good illustration of what sounds are playing in the game world without all those pesky game graphics getting in the way.\n\nLuke Hatton, Senior Sound Designer\nHaving joined the team last July when we were using our previous audio middleware solution through to this release, it\u2019s great to finally be settled in Wwise with our audio content migrated over. Just recently, hearing Betty again in the cockpit and ship enter\/exit mechanical parts working again in the new sound engine has been very rewarding. For us, working internally, the start of the Wwise conversion process meant that many months ago we started again with no sound at all in our internal build, and it has slowly been sonically restored. How great it is to be at this new starting point where I\u2019m certain the sound will go in that much slicker than ever before!\n\nThe major win for me personally is that we now have a clean, tidy and easy to maintain tool for all of our sound assets and all of our real-time processes. What I mean is, any sound can be renamed, re-bussed, categorised in a different way and this will not affect the in-game hook we have. It means we can try structuring our data one way, change our minds for whatever reason and it won\u2019t cause a lot of re-working. Because of this, we\u2019re now producing audio content in a much more systemic way than before; we are creating robust systems that cater for general scenarios, rather than crafting specific one-off sounds which are dependent on specific animations\/scripting.\n\nThe Wwise release is also representative of a larger and more streamlined audio team in comparison to a year ago. With so many sound designers and assets being added on a daily basis, our new naming conventions and workflows allow for an easier time making decisions, which can filter through on a game-wide level. If something is put into our Wwise project which doesn\u2019t make sense, or isn\u2019t clear, it\u2019s a matter of having a quick group chat and changing it. In this way, it\u2019s easier for work to be peer-reviewed now so we can sanity check each other\u2019s content or audition new sounds very easily.\n\n(All this recapping reminds me, I really need to change our thruster \u2018RPM\u2019 parameter to just \u2018Thrust\u2019. We currently use a parameter named \u2018RPM\u2019 in Wwise (the same name as it was in FMOD) to drive thruster sounds, so it needs changing to something that makes more sense. Our thrusters don\u2019t actually \u2018revolve per minute\u2019. Now easily done!)\n\nMatteo Cerquone, Junior Sound Designer\nI was lucky enough to join the CIG Audio team after the transition from FMOD to Wwise, I skipped the first part of the process of converting assets to the new audio engine and that gave me more freedom in terms of audio implementation.\n\nWorking with Wwise is a great experience as it allows us to manipulate, re-shape and mix audio in real time according to what is happening in game.\n\nI found myself working on the sound design for the missiles, and implementing those assets in game using Wwise allowed me to add variations depending on the distance and speed: each missile, once launched, has three different loops that describes how far this object is from the listener perspective, the first loop is composed of a rocket layer and different characteristics sounds that describe the brand and type of missile (in most cases this would be a specific beeping sound), the second loop is a more distant perspective of the rocket itself and the third loop is a far off, distant perspective rocket sound.\n\nWith Wwise we can blend between these three layers and add real time parameters such as volume or Doppler effects according to how far the object is from the player. When being chased by a missile you can now definitely hear how distant it is (blend between different loops, volume, low pass filter etc..) and how fast is approaching you (thanks to the Doppler effect), also if a missile is close enough you can recognize the brand and type of missile before getting hit (or escape if you are lucky).\n\nSimilar approach was used for the explosions of such missiles, we have created different explosion sounds according to the brand and type of missile, if the missile has hit or miss and if it\u2019s happened far away from the player or close. Again Wwise gives us the tools for not just triggering the correct sound but to blend them together and create variations (if you are close enough you will also be able to hear the debris sound of the ship being hit).\n\nAnother great help is the possibility to have a cleaner mix, when working with the primary thrusters for some of the ships I wanted to duck down the sound of the main engine whenever the overdrive was engaged, with Wwise I could use a meter that controls the volume of the main engine according to how loud the overdrive is (side-chaining), so now every time the overdrive is engaged, the primary engine sound will automatically duck down.\n\nDarren Lambourne, Senior Sound Designer\nWwise is a very freeing and creative tool. Being able to move quickly from a concept, a high level idea, to something functional in the game engine is so crucial to bottling that initial inspiration.\n\nThe diagnostics are second to none, letting us get to the heart of a problem quickly and solve it rather than just applying a patch to mask the issue. That\u2019s important on a project of this size, there are already a bewildering number of audio systems in our game universe and that number is growing every day. We\u2019re trying to create something truly special for the audio in Star Citizen. Getting eyes on the project as a whole and drilling down into problem areas that can impact both the fidelity and the smoothness of our audio systems is absolutely essential to ensure that we keep out the bad stuff and emphasise the good stuff.\n\nJason Cobb, Senior Sound Designer:\nFrom my perspective the conversion of audio middleware from Fmod to Wwise has been a year\u2019s long process that began with early naive aspirations for a quick change-over and only concluded after a drawn-out haul of many incremental yet monumental changes.\n\nFrom an audio content standpoint, the earlier and faster we converted over, the least amount of Fmod content and implementation would be have to be re-done. Seems like a no-brainer but unfortunately the situation would not allow for such a fast change-over with everyone focusing on each next release or demo version that year.\n\nIn May 2014 we examined an integration of Wwise in CryEngine which had been done by an outside company. This was at a time before Crytek had released an official Wwise integration and we did not yet have any details about it or an eta when it would be available which was compounded by the uncertainty of their financial situation at the time. For a short while it looked like we had a path to a fast, straight-forward Wwise integration and minimal data changeover job.\n\nOne factor at that time was not enough engineers available to dedicate one or more to integrate Wwise using the example we had been provided, yet alone our own take on it. Even still if we had used a third-party or in-house Wwise integration, it would have made future CryEngine SDK integrations that much harder to do.\n\nBy choosing the yet-to-be-delivered Crytek Wwise integration we minimized the amount of divergence between the Star Citizen game engine and the base SDK CryEngine. Still from an audio standpoint this guaranteed a lot more audio content would be created and implemented with Fmod, which made the task of converting this Fmod audio content and implementation into a much larger and more difficult job.\n\nIt was not until the end of September 2014 until we kicked off an integration of CryEngine that included a Wwise integration. Instead of directly replacing Fmod calls with Wwise calls in their game code like the other example integration we looked at, their version instead converted game audio calls to the newly conceived Audio Translation Layer, as an abstraction to allow for different audio middleware to be swapped out underneath \u2013 a great feature if you are selling a game engine that needs lots of options for a variety of customers but maybe a little more than we needed on Star Citizen at the time. Still, always good to have future options and we have since made greater use of this audio translation\/abstraction layer to store event metadata.\n\nUnfortunately by the existence of this abstraction layer and its associated data files, it created a new step in the audio content workflow which required the sound designers to take the work they had just made in Wwise designer tool and manually create new objects referencing these same events, parameters, switches, states and sound-banks, saved into ATL files and managed in the audio controls browser. The early days of this workflow were somewhat primitive and slow and very much unlike the smooth experience of using Wwise in any other game engine I have shipped before. For this reason I decided to script a workflow solution that would simply automatically create the necessary ATL files for us when we build sound-banks in the Wwise designer tool. Then the sound designers will have no extra steps to manually create and manage these ATL files in CryEngine other than making sure they are checked in when updated. We can just immediately use our sounds in the game engine as soon as we build them into a sound-bank.\n\nMeanwhile the audio team was still working in Fmod for the series of game releases and demos, with lots of new and exciting game content and sounds going in over the rest of that year. The Wwise integration branch kept making progress but the challenges of completing all the code side work in conjunction with dependencies from other development integrations and game releases meant that it was a few months before the window appeared where Wwise could be safely made \u201clive\u201d in the main game development stream.\n\nAlong the line dedicated audio engineers and additional sound designers were brought on board and the task of converting the audio content and implementation was able to begin in earnest. Across all the game files we data-mined for Fmod event strings and setup a conversion table to enter the new Wwise event \/ ATL trigger strings, which were then converted by scripting automation of search and replace across batches of hundreds of data files at a time.\n\nTo cut a long story short, by the time we wrapped up all the audio code and data implementation conversions, to date we have touched untold thousands of game data files and created close to 10000 new Wwise events and well over 1000 sound banks. It feels so good to finally be done with this task and now get on to the actual fun parts of making new content once again, not to mention now having the tools needed to better refine, modulate, mix and optimize, the game sounds with the features provided by Wwise and the ATL.\n\nUltimately, we\u2019re not finished yet, by quite some way \u2013 but we feel we\u2019re in a much better place to keep improving and keep building. While we\u2019re proud of what we\u2019re getting together, we\u2019re not 100% happy by some way, we realize still have a lot of work to do and now we have more of the tools in hand to do it.\n\nAs always we\u2019d appreciate your feedback and reports of any issues with the sound of our game. The \u2018Ask A Developer\u2019 section of the forums, there\u2019s an audio topic which is where we hang out and respond to sound queries. Thanks for listening!"},"links_count":1,"comment_count":85,"created_at":"2015-07-24T00:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"10 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-04-29 14:33:49","valid_relations":["images","links","translations"],"prev_id":14852,"next_id":14854}}