The Content Browser: Finding Actors
Every Room Has a Tone: Ambience
[AmbientSoundSimple] for Looping Sounds
Attenuation and Radius Min/Radius Max
[AmbientSoundSimpleToggleable] for Toggleable Looping Sounds
Ambient Loops and “Phasing Loops”
Multiple Sounds Solution to the Walls Problem
[TriggerVolume] Switching Solution to the Walls Problem
Ambience: A Painterly Approach
Chapter 2 How Big is the Truck?
The Triangle of Compromise or “Triangle of Pain!”
Squaring the Triangle: Basic Memory Saving Techniques
Caveat—Sometimes Repetition is OK
Reuse of Sounds: The Power of Pitch
Reuse of Sounds: Using Filters
Randomization in Time, Pitch, and Volume
Randomization in Time, Pitch, and Volume Using [SoundCue]s
The Combinatorial Explosion: Vertical Combinations
The Combinatorial Explosion: Horizontal Concatenation
Chapter 3 Making it Sound Real
Sound Sources and Spatialization
Occlusion, Obstruction, Exclusion
Manual Collisions: Using [TriggerVolume]s
Automated Collisions: Footsteps and Surface Types
Cut-Scenes, Cameras, and Sound
Cut-Scenes with No Audio Control
Roles and Functions of Music in Games
It’s a Fine Line between Love and Hate
Music Concepting/Spotting/Prototyping/Testing
The Key Challenges of Game Music
Linear Music and Looping Music
Avoid the Problem: Timed Event Music
Avoid the Problem: Non-Time-Based Approaches Using Ambiguous Music
Transitional Forms/Horizontal Switching
Maintaining Musical Structures: Horizontal Transitions
Transitions and Transition Matrices
Switch Points: Marking Up Existing Tracks
Parallel Forms/Vertical Layering
Leitmotifs and the Combinatorial Explosion
The “Variation” Question: Generative or Procedural Forms
Low-Level Generative Processes
The Problem with Generative Music
“Interactive” Music: Music as an Input
A Short History Lesson: Gains and Losses
Near and Far (Proximity Effect and Off-Axis)
ADR Lines and Motion Capture Recordings
Rapid Prototyping for Dialogue Systems
AI, Variation, and How Not to Drive People Nuts: Part 1
Concatenation, Sports, and How Not to Drive People Nuts: Part 2
In-Engine Cut Scenes: A Dialogue Dilemma
Chapter 6 Making it Sound Good
Spotting, Roles, and Functions of Sound in Games
Define the Environment: Immersion and Emotion
Space, the Final (Technique) for Tears
Interactive Mixing and the Power of Subjectivity
Voice Instance Limiting and Prioritization
Chapter 7 Advanced Sound System Design
Weapons Sounds: Attenuation and Character Over Distance
Impact, Whizz-by, and Handling Sounds
Engine-Based Vehicles: Scorpion
Engine-Based Vehicle with Crossfades: GAT_Scorpion
Making a Demo Reel/Website/Blog
Finding and Seeing What’s Going On
Appendix B Troubleshooting and Optimization
Audio Optimization and Tracking the RAM Budget
The Builder Brush for Geometry, Trigger Volumes, and Reverb Volumes
Runtime versus Placeable Actors
Named Variables and Remote Events
Setting up UDK for Custom Scripts
Bibliography and Further Reading
Additional appendices available on the website (www.thegameaudiotutorial.com) include:
Appendix D Audio Editing for Games
Appendix E Sound Design Basics
Appendix F Batch Processing
Appendix G Digital Audio
Appendix H Sound Library Contents