The Week in Review: December 2-8, 2002

Last week's features at 3DsoundSurge

Last week's sound news

Drivers and bugs

New games, demos, patches and bugs

• Neverwinter Nights Demo
  A demo of the 3D sound and EAX Advanced HD supporting Neverwinter Nights as been released. You can grab the 390 MB download from 3D Gamers or FilePlanet

• WarCraft III Demo Released
  Blizzard has finally released the WarCraft III Demo. The game supports EAX 2.0 according to some reviews.

• MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries Demo
  The MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries Demo is now available for download from FilePlanet and 3D Gamers.

• Medal of Honor Allied Assault Spearhead Patch
  A new patch (v2.11) for Medal of Honor Allied Assault Spearhead is now available from 3D Gamers.

• Neverwinter Nights Patch
  A new (V1.27) patch for Neverwinter Nights has been released.

• The Use and Effectiveness of Audio in HALO: Game Music Evolved
  Music4Games has published a discussion between Bungie's audio director Marty O'Donnell and Aaron Marks, a popular freelance composer/sound designer and author of "The Complete Guide To Game Audio", about the use of audio in HALO and HALO 2. The article is titled "The Use and Effectiveness of Audio in HALO: Game Music Evolved". Here is an excerpt:

  We'll be pushing the boundaries of each area even further in Halo 2. The AI conversation system will be many layers deeper and more complex. The dynamic music system will have more tracks, markers, and triggers to enable even more interactivity, without turning it into a music game, of course.(Marty O'Donnell)

• Alexander Brandon Interview
  Music For Games has posted an interview with composer Alexander Brandon. He is currently Director of Audio for Deus Ex 2, he's past work includes Deus Ex, Unreal and Unreal Tournament. In the interview they discuss IASIG, GANG, Interactive Audio and some of his past as well as current project. Here's a snip:

  M4G - There continues to be a lot of debate about the nature and role of interactive audio. Please define interactive audio in your own words.
  AB - I've written a lot about interactive audio. First of all its an industry thing. It will never be a buzzword to the masses the way '3d' will be. Second of all, people usually think interactive audio is reactive, and this doesn't really mean anything in the literal sense. Adaptive audio does, but when you touch something and hear a noise because you touched it (from an alarm button to a keystroke), that's reactive; you influence the audio and that's an awfully easy thing to do. Yes, even for a music switch.

  Adaptive audio means the audio changes based on your decisions, AND helps influence those decisions. Audio that is reactive is a very natural phenomenon and can be anything from a music transition to sound effects, but adaptive audio is a much more two way experience and has yet to be fleshed out. So I think when we talk about interactive audio, focusing more on adaptive audio is a good thing.

  M4G - What are the benefits of interactive audio to the gamer's overall experience?
  AB - This can be broken down into any number of techniques…
  does the sound render well? Is it propagated in a way that can act as a suspension of belief? Does the sound have decent reverb? Is the dynamic range / volume attenuation of the sound tuned properly? If these things don't work then any additional icing on the cake won't help. Note that I'm talking about a 3d first person adventure / action / RPG title. For a 2D fighting game things like reverb don't necessarily apply nearly as much.

  As for adaptive elements helping the experience, sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. Its been shown that having music change when an enemy is nearby is a mixed bag. Some players like it, some utterly hate it. Its best to stick to sure things you know so I'm going to start phasing this out of my techniques for the games we're currently doing here at Ion Storm. If we were working on real-time strategy my answer might be very different.

  M4G - What tools/techniques are currently available to create effective/'realistic' interactive audio in games? Which do you think most composers will be using five years from now?
  AB - Currently there are several tools available to achieve a variety of interesting things for audio in games. SoundMAX by Analog Devices is a good tool for some basic and a few advanced realtime synthesis techniques. Sensaura has a pretty impressive engine called gameCODA that tries to cover everything under the sun, but I haven't heard it yet in a title. In fact I've heard almost no engine used to its full capabilities in a title, but I digress. FMOD is another fairly good engine I've heard about but have never used. Then there's the in house engines, like Cadence, the one we're working on, and Pathfinder at EA, that usually stay under wraps in terms of their capabilities for various reasons.

  I think in five years audio engines will evolve to include componentsystems much in the same way the Unreal Engine can be coupled with a physics system such as Havok. They will have basic playback parameters, a set of middleware plugins for cool features like better surround sound, and features specific to a game system such as triggering for scripted events.

• American McGee Interview
  Music For Games has posted the result of an interview with game producer American McGee. In the process McGee revealed that Geoff Zanelli of Media Ventures, Hans Zimmer's company, is composing the music for OZ, the forthcoming game version of the L. Frank Baum fantasy universe. American McGee previously worked with ex-Nine Inch Nails drummer Chris Vrenna on the soundtrack to American McGee's Alice. Geoff Zanelli has written music for several major motion pictures including Face/Off, The Time Machine, Hannibal, Pearl Harbor and K-19: The Widowmaker. In the interview Music For Games asks McGee about plans for a game soundtrack release and his appreciation for quality music in games. For all the details check out this interesting interview.

• Ron Jones (Composer) Interview
  An interview with Film/TV/Game Composer Ron Jones has been posted on Tracksounds. Here's an excerpt:

  CC: Do you think the purely orchestral score is doomed?

  RJ: Oh it's dead! Music as we know it is dead. It's becoming something else. Just as they figured out the code for the human gene and breaking down what "life" is and can generate new species of plants, the same thing is happening in music. We can't say, "Stop the world. I want to get off!" Music has needed to move on. It sort of became stale since the middle of the 1960s. We really haven't moved much past John Cage and what people like that were doing. We've actually gone a bit backwards. For music to live, it has to break some rules. You know, the deejay stuff is really big and at the big shows, the biggest selling musical instrument was the turntable. Traditional music has a very small market share, as these younger audiences are driving music towards something else.

• Jeremy Soule Q&A
  Homelan Fed has interviewed composer Jeremy Soule about his past (e.g. Dungeon Siege, Neverwinter Nights) as well current project (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic). Here's an interesting bit:

  HomeLAN - How do you first start to compose music for a game when you get the assignment?

  Jeremy Soule - I always start a project by communicating with the team with sketches and ideas. I always want people to have an idea of what I'm proposing as early as possible. I'll then work out the main themes and such.

  HomeLAN - How much do you work with a game's actual development team on the composition of a soundtrack?

  Jeremy Soule - I usually check in about every week or so. As major deadlines approach, that interval is shortened. Around E3, I may be communicating with my team everyday. We usually chatter back and forth with email as well.

  HomeLAN - Music and sound in PC and video games have sometimes not received as much attention as other aspects of a game. Why do you think that has happened in
  some cases?

  Jeremy Soule - For starters, if a game doesn't have enough volume, or gives the user the option to shut it off right away, you'll see less interest in that game's music. Music is of the quality these days that giving the user the option to shut off a score is tantamount to letting them shut off the graphics. There's still some major holdouts from the old school mentality surrounding music and games. I also think that games should take more advantage of music and sound. We're still seeing multi-million dollar games out there that are shipping with no dynamic mixing capabilities between sound and music. Most games initiate the music and sound levels up front and just leave it.

Reviews of soundcards, speakers, headphones and MP3 players.

• Hercules Gamesurround MUSE 5.1 DVD
  RadiativeNZ has done a review of Hercules Gamesurround MUSE 5.1 DVD. It's the successor of Gamesurround Muse XL and uses the C-Media 8738 chip. RadiativeNZ found it to perform very well considering the price, especially in case of DVD movies using the bundled PowerDVD 4. Worth noting that the Dolby Digital decoding is done in software by the DVD player and not the soundcard.

• Creative Inspire 6.1 6700
  Digit-Life has done a detailed review of Creative Labs Insire 6.1 6700 system. They found it to perform fairly well considering the low price.

• Digitalis Vision II Home Theater System
  Systemcooling.com has posted a review of the Digitalis Vision II Home Theater System. Now in this particular case system really refers to a custom home theater PC case that has been designed with integration into the hi-fi rack in mind.

• Altec Lansing 5100 5.1 Speaker System
  Ownt has posted an overall very positive and short review of Altec Lansing 5100 5.1 Speaker System.

• Logitech Z-680
  Gaming Nexus has posted a very positive review of Logitech's new Z-680 Speaker system. They mostly compare it to Logitech's Z-560 and found it to be just as impressive with the difference now being a very impressive feature set than unbelievable low price price.

  One bit I disagree with in the review is that you would need true Dolby Digital games and have to wait for Doom III to fully appreciate how surround sound adds to a game. Not that I don't think future games can and will improve the use of 3D sound as well as other aspects of the audio experience but see no reason why this would be better in a true Dolby Digital game.

• Samsung Yepp YP-700H MP3 Player
  PC Stats has reviewed Samsung Yepp YP-700H MP3 Player. They found this flash based MP3 players impressive.

• INcoder TS24C-C1 portable CD-RW/DVD drive
  CD-R Info has posted an overall positive review of INcoder TS24C-C1 portable CD-RW/DVD drive.

Other sound news

• Dell Expands Relationship With Altec Lansing
  Altec Lansing® has announced an expansion of its vendor relationship with Dell Computer. The contract, for which terms are not being disclosed, broadens Altec Lansing's relationship with Dell, America's favorite PC. Currently Dell ships Altec Lansing's ADA995, a THX®-certified Dolby Digital surround sound 5.1 speaker system. The ADA995 represents one of Dell's highest offerings in PC speakers, delivering 200 watts of continuous RMS power. It is the high-end speaker system option on both Dell's Dimension® 8200 and 4500 computer systems. You can find more details in the press release.

• Interactive Media Introduces the Kanguru Micro MP3 Player
  Interactive Media Corporation has announced the release of the new KanguruMicro MP3, a palm sized USB Flash Drive and MP3 player rolled into one.

  Measuring at just 3 inches, the new KanguruMicro MP3 comes with its own set of headphones, a rechargeable battery that lasts up to six hours and the ability to store as much as 256MB worth of data. In addition to storing music, the KanguruMicro MP3 can also be used to store Word, Excel or any type of data file.

  Starting at $99.95, the KanguruMicro MP3 weighs only 46g, offers plug and play abilities, requires no external power and is driverless with most operating systems. You can find more details in the press release.

• FID Introduces A Full-Featured, Affordable CD/MP3/FM Player
  First International Digital (FID), Inc., a Motorola spin-off and maker of the popular irock! portable audio devices, has introduced the irock! BLiNG CD/MP3/FM player. The versatile BLiNG plays MP3 CDs (CD-R and CD-RW), standard audio CDs and includes an FM radio tuner to allow users to enjoy music in their preferred format.

  The BLiNG features a sleek remote control complete with a robust FM tuner and an LCD display. A backlit three-line LCD on the main unit supports ID3 tags and displays song title, artist, bit rate and elapsed time. The unit also features six preset equalizer modes (Flat, Rock, Classical, Jazz, Pop and Bass) and six play modes (normal, repeat 1, repeat all, random, intro and program list) to provide the customization that consumers desire.

  The BLiNG will be available in December at CompUSA and Buy.com for an estimated retail price of $99.99. You can find more details in the press release

• InterVideo Launches WinDVD Platinum
  InterVideo has launched WinDVD Platinum, the latest version of the world's most popular DVD-playing software, which includes a number of new features including DivX(TM) support, making WinDVD Platinum the ultimate way to watch DivX movies. The new software is also the first DVD player to include Dolby Virtual Speaker Technology, a brand new technology from Dolby that replicates rich, surround sound audio over only two speakers.

  In addition to Dolby Virtual Speaker functionality, WinDVD Platinum also includes several new features not found in any other version of WinDVD including: Movie Effector and advanced de-interlacing for higher quality video, docking capabilities, new skins and support for 96 kHz/24 bit audio. Worth noting that the support for 96/24 bit audio does not mean it will support DVD-Audio. You can find more details in the press release.

Upcoming features at 3DsoundSurge

• Reviews that we are currently working on:
  Updated Santa Cruz/Sonic Fury and GameTheaterXP reviews
  Hercules Fortissimo II
  Terratec DMX Xfire 1024
  CMedia CM8738 Reference Review
  Full Audigy Review
  Full Philips MMS305 Review
  
• There are several other hardware reviews in the pipeline including, but not limited to the following:
  Guillemot Maxi Sound MUSE
  Terratec m3po
  DigMedia MusicStore
  Philips Seismic Edge
  Lots of other stuff on the go in including several guides and major site revisions that we will soon be releasing more details on.
  

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