GAME SOUND RESOURCES

Introduction

Watch the videos below to get a sense of the current state of VR and the Unity Game Engine. In particular, watch the dedicated Unity video walkthrough: How to use AUDIO SOURCES in Unity - Basics to get the fundamental concepts for positioning audio within 3D environments. In fact, this is very similar to 'object based' panning in Dolby Atmos. Except of course you're able to move your listening position (e.g. characters ears) around your audio in 3D space. Cool huh!
RESEARCH: Research the technical requirements for delivering audio into the two main Game Engines (Unity and Unreal Engine) - e.g. what audio formats, sample rates and bit rate(s) will they accept and prefer. This will be handy information as you develop audio assets for Games Students. Note your findings in your Learning Journal, ready to share your findings in class.

Whilst Unity version 5 was released back in 2015, this video shows some key audio features. Unity is a great engine for developing 2D, 3D and VR games, and builds out apps to a wide variety of platforms.

Dear VR Unity - a very nice third party asset that delivers high quality binaural spatialisation and excellent reverbs (identical in quality to the DearVR Pro VST).

Hand tracking was released on the Oculus Quest 1 in December 2019.

Oculus Quest 2 was released in October 2020, retailing for $479. It can be used either standalone, or tethered to a PC for higher-powered processing. The Quest 2 supports wireless streaming from PCs for VR games, improved hand tracking and a refresh rate of 120Hz!

Half-Life: Alyx was the most epic VR game of 2020. Star Wars: Squadrons is also very immersive.

Sound design demonstration from Ara Manassyan

Short film made in Unity, showing off it's real-time rendering features. Game engines have become a new tool for film makers, for example The Mandalorian uses a technique called Virtual Production, harnessing the Unreal Game Engine.

This video walks through adding AudioClips to AudioSources, placing them in the level and setting parameters such as spatial settings, attenuation distance, spread, doppler; and routing them to the Unity audio mixer for in-game mixing, and use of insert and send effects. Plus a look at using Soundly for sourcing appropriate sounds.

AUDIO IMPLEMENTATION IN UNITY

After watching the 'Unity Audio' video above you should be pretty familiar with Audio Clips, Audio Sources and the Audio Listener. Below is further information on Audio Clips, Audio Sources and the Audio Listener.

Audio Clips are audio files such as .wav, .mp3 or .ogg. You can drag audio files from your desktop straight into Unity - drop them in within the Assets folders as below. When an Audio Clip is clicked in the Project View, its details & options will show in the Inspector window (see two images below). More info.

Below: this is the type of view the Inspector gives when you click on an audio file.

Audio Listener.

This is typically the player's ears. It receives input from Audio Sources in the scene and plays sounds through the computer speakers. If the 'Spatial Blend' is set to 3D on an Audio Source, the distance and angle of that Audio Source from the Audio Listener will affect the audio volume and panning. If the 'Spatial Blend' is set to 2D on an Audio Source, the distance and angle of that Audio Source from the Audio Listener are ignored, and the audio will be audible regardless of the distance between the Audio Source and Audio Listener. By default, in a new project, an Audio Listener is on the Main Camera. You should only have 1 Audio Listener in your scene. More info.

An Audio Listener alongside the Camera (acting as the player's eyes and ears). Yep, not much to see here - the Audio Listener simply directs sound from Audio Sources to your speakers or headphones.

Audio Sources can be placed and positioned within the game level. Since Audio Clips can't play themselves, you add them to an Audio Source to play in the game. The Audio Source includes a number of useful controls, such as volume, pitch, loop and spatialisation options. To add an Audio Clip to an Audio Source, you would: drag the AK47 Audio Clip (on left) into the 'AudioClip' slot in the Audio Source below. More info.

Below: this is the type of view the Inspector gives when you click on an object that is in the level (in this can I've clicked on an object named Audio Source - see the bigger picture below under the header 'Putting it all together').

An Audio Source with no referenced AudioClip.

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

For simplicity, here's an empty Unity Project showing an Audio Source (with its blue sound attenuation spheres) in the scene view loaded with an AK47 Audio Clip, and outputting to the Gun Sounds group on the Audio Mixer. Not visible in the image is the Audio Listener component that is on the Main Camera (right where you'd want your ears). Because the Audio Source has its 'Play On Awake' button ticked, the gun will play as soon as the level is started (by pressing the play button, top centre). With guns, we usually want the gun firing sound to play when a key or button is pressed. If you want to jump straight in, here's how to do it.

Below is an example of many Audio Sources placed throughout an environment. Normally you will only see one blue min/max distance sphere at a time, but if you select all of your Audiosources, you can see them together. This can be a useful visual reference to check how sounds overlap.

REVERB ZONES

Reverb Zone = If an audio listener is within the boundaries of a Reverb Zone (being the Min Distance & Max Distance represented by the blue spheres below), reverberation is applied to all audible sounds in the scene. The reverb settings can be altered in the 'Audio Reverb Zone' component in the Inspector view - as shown below. More info.

A reverb zone, with its inner and outer radius displayed in the scene view. Note its associated reverb options in the Inspector. Yes, you're right! Reverb Zone attenuation spheres do look just the same as Audio Source attenuation spheres. We should tell Unity to give them different colours.

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