City Ambients

[drewb50]

have a listen.

 

more realistic ambient

http://208.49.149.118/TheDarkMod/audio/unf...city01_loop.ogg

 

traditional thiefy drone

http://208.49.149.118/TheDarkMod/audio/unf..._with_drone.ogg

 

I'm really having a hard time with what sounds would have been realistic in a medieval city at night.

 

I thought about dogs barking but, although dogs existed in that period, they would take me out of the emersion; I associate dogs with modern, urban city settings.

 

Wolves or Coyotes could work. And maybe some other more generic sounds like heavy wood doors opening and closing in the distance or horse drawn carts and buggys.

 

Which brings me to a question for the sound programmers: Is there only one channel for ambient sound, or can the level designer throw in several. Should I design the city loops with all ambient sfx inclusive, or keep them separate?

 

 

-Drew

[Schatten]

Hmm, I have trouble downloading.. seems it always times out.

Anyone else having this?

[drewb50]

Just tested the links; they seem to work fine. Try again.

[Fingernail]

The FTP was down yesterday.

[god_is_my_goldfish]

They both sound excellent

[Schatten]

Mmmh, very good. Great mood - keep both of them, as a set.

 

As rule of a thumb, I'd say keep environmental ambient seperate from a track, but if the sounds go with the "song", I see no harm in combining them.

 

Which brings me to another thing: Did you note how in T3, the city ambients were used to make up for what couldn't be in the game? Horses, carts, dogs...

 

Here's the question: Should we include ambients/sfx of things that aren't physicaly in the game?

 

You could say, the sounds make up for the lack of the models/objects.

 

On the other hand, you could say it makes the player realise (or feel) that something has been "left out"...

 

Personaly, I loved the cart sounds in T3. I didn't really mind that there wasn't an actual model driving around.

[Ishtvan]

I wouldn't mind hearing a dog yapping in the distance in the city, even if I could not see that dog. Carts and horses might be a little trickier; it would be weird if it sounded like there was a cart rolling on the next street over, then you went there and, surprise, no cart. I guess it would work if they sounded distant enough though.

[god_is_my_goldfish]

There's also no reason we can't have carts in our missions.

[drewb50]

Yeah, if the cart sounds have enough of a distant echo-y sound, it would definitely work. Ill try to add some into the ambients so we can all see if we like it...

 

So, isht, can ambients be placed throughout the map as "objects" or should all distant ambient effects be added to the main ambient track? I'd like to have a little of both, If possible.

[pakmannen]

Yeah, if the cart sounds have enough of a distant echo-y sound, it would definitely work.  Ill try to add some into the ambients so we can all see if we like it...

 

So, isht, can ambients be placed throughout the map as "objects" or should all distant ambient effects be added to the main ambient track?  I'd like to have a little of both, If possible.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Ambients are placed as objects (called "speakers") so you can keep various sounds sepparated if you wish. The leveldesigner would then have to place multiple speaker objects in the map. Either way works fine, so do a little bit of both if you feel like it.