Description:
This workshop will complement Matthew Smith's Distinguished Lecture on February 6th 2023. Contributions from presenters will focus on audio aspects relating to sound design and music applied in video games. Authors will share their insight on a variety of topics not only of technical nature but also involving aesthetics, workflow, spatial design, and other challenges facing interactive audio.
We welcome you to share this event via Facebook.
Registration and call for presentations:
Please fill out the registration form for this event indicating whether you will be a presenter or a participant.
If you wish to participate, the deadline to complete this form is Thursday 26th January, 12pm.
Schedule:
10:00 – 10:20
Author: Rodrigo Rubilar
Affiliation: Audio Director at Eidos Montreal
Title: Convolution Reverb Design in Video Games
Abstract: This guide provides a practical approach to capturing acoustic environments and preparing higher-order ambisonics impulse responses for in-engine usage. By understanding the basics of IR design, sound designers can use this technique as a creative tool to enhance the player's experience.
10:20-10-40
Author: Clément Girin
Affiliation: CRASH University of Sherbrooke
Title: Physical/Perceptual Hierarchy of Acoustic Propagation Phenomena for Real-Time Auralization
Abstract: Wwise is an audio engine for video games developed by Audiokinetic that allows audio mixing and acoustic propagation modeling. Its goal is to provide a perceptually convincing audio modeling to players. In order to improve this modeling, Wwise attempts to approach physics while taking into account real-time calculation constraints. However, is it necessary to be physically accurate to be perceptually convincing? This project seeks to perceptually hierarchize different degrees of modeling of acoustic propagation phenomena and evaluate the physical accuracy of Wwise's modeling.
10:40-11:00
Author: Brian D'Oliveira
Affiliation: Founder at Mntra Instruments and La Hacienda Creative
Title: Virtual Instruments: a new approach through dynamic controls, interaction and performance
Abstract: In the past decades, digital musical interfaces and platforms have focused on controls of linear or technical parameters. At Mntra Instruments, the goal is to create fluidity in how we interact and think of music sources and music making, combining intuitive Real-Time Parameter Controls (RTPCs) inspired by game audio and tools that are dynamically and simultaneously changing to create a living performative environment. Developing our own software and integrating multiple developments to produce a platform for expression has been vital to pushing the boundaries of what we would like virtual instruments and audio effects to be, an extension of the musical mind.
11:00 – 11:20
Author: Wieslaw Woszczyk, Richard King, Ying-Ying Zhang, Aybar Aydin, Gianluca Grazioli, Vlad Baran
Affiliation: McGill University Sound Recording Program
Title: Towards Recording in Virtual Acoustics in a Modern Recording Studio
Abstract: Acoustical designs of recording studios have evolved over several decades to accommodate changes in the recording process/practice and in the available footprint of real estate. Today, workstations, plugins, and virtual acoustics setup allow for a replacement of the traditional design of a recording studio with one incorporating virtual acoustics that puts lesser demands on real estate. The brief talk will present a modern approach to 3D recording based on virtual assets that permits both simultaneous and sequential processes in recording of music while maximizing acoustic experiences of artists and creative flexibility in media productions.
11:20 – 11:40
Author: Robert-Eric Gaskell
Affiliation: Ora Graphene Audio Inc. / McGill University.
Title: Graphene Oxide Headphone Drivers for Improved Localization and Gaming Experience
Abstract: More than ever before, gaming headphones must reproduce realistic, enveloping audio environments while providing accurate sound localization. In some games, knowing quickly and precisely the direction of a sound can be a matter of life or death. Ora, a technology company spun out of McGill University, has developed graphene oxide (GO) loudspeakers for several gaming headphone brands. GO loudspeakers leverage the low-weight and high-stiffness of graphene to improve high-frequency reproduction vs. traditional headphones. GO loudspeakers preserve the delicate phase and amplitude cues necessary for accurate spatial imaging. This presentation will discuss the technical and perceptual benefits of Ora’s GO loudspeakers and their reception within the video game accessories industry
11:40-12:00
Author: Antoine Lussier
Affiliation: Digital Music, Université de Montréal
Title: Wwise as an Instrument in Experimental Music Performance
Abstract: This presentation will discuss a process for using Wwise as a musical instrument in order to create experimental musical performances. Taking inspiration from both the world of video games as well as musical creation, the possibilities of interaction between procedural game music and the performance are explored through the evolution of a research-creation piece.
12:00-12:20
Author: Richard Yanaky & Catherine Guastavino
Affiliation: School of Information Studies, McGill University
Title: City Ditty: A Soundscape Interaction Tool for Non-sound Professionals
Abstract: City Ditty is an in-house developed immersive sound-planning tool for Professions of the Build Environment (PBEs) (E.g., urban planners, landscape architects). Although not a video game, it was created with tools common to game development (Unity, currently extending into Wwise) through a user-centered design approach, intending to better equip PBEs for the task of creating better sounding cities. It does this by including a sound-awareness session with 36 tasks to help raise their sound-awareness and provide an interface for rapid development of their own city soundscapes. Its evaluation and future are discussed in relation to sound requirements in video games.
12:20-12:30
Closing comments from Matthew Smith.