Monday 21 May 2012

Finished Sound Room


I have finished constructing my Unity game level. There were some minor changes made from the original floor plan. I discovered that neither 'Audacity' or 'Soundtrack Pro' gave me the ability to span out my clips leaving empty space either side of the actual sound clip itself. This meant that if I wanted to loop sounds like I specified in my floor plan, everything would play together when loading the level and then loop immediately. I had little to no control over timings this way, meaning that many of the sounds had to be triggered by the player to avoid the room sounding too busy and chaotic. I made a slight alteration to the script for this taking out the line that terminates the sound when the player leaves the box collider. This was because I didn't like how the sound ended abruptly and I had not intention of having the triggered sounds loop anyway. Here is the script:


function OnTriggerEnter()


{


audio.Play();


}


All of the sounds are now triggered by the player apart from the hum of the boiler, the wind creeping through the gap in the door at the beginning of the level and the subtle drone of the elevator shaft and equipment. 


I am actually quite happy with the finished result. The game space is quite atmospheric and full in sound. I feel that a solid ambience is established by the constant droning of the boiler and maintenance elevator. The triggered sounds then encourage the player to explore the room, listen closely and try and unfold the macabre backstory of the room. I hope that I have achieved my aim of proving sound can create an immersive game space, stressing its importance along side visuals which we consciously notice immediately. This is not to say that subconsciously sound doesn't play a hugely important role in shaping a gaming experience. I hope also that I have managed to create narrative through sound, communicating a ghost story to the player with very little visuals for aid. If I'd have had more time, I would probably of attempted to create some of my own sounds, particularly the groan of the janitor and the footsteps, and likely the dripping water. If I decide to take sound serious as an area of study next year, I must improve my knowledge working with sound editing software. I found a sound clip of footsteps and spent a huge amount of time trying to clean up the clip after applying a noise reduction tool. I experimented with a compressor to cut out the tinny echo that had been created and used the EQ tool also to try and tame some of the high frequencies. I couldn't eliminate the hollow popping so in the end found a different sound clip, also realising I needed the footsteps to be on a metal surface based on my concept art. In the end, I feel my final presentation piece fits in well with a key area of interest which runs through my blog, which is narrative and immersion in game.

Unity Web Player | Finished_Sound_Room_web

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