The SOUND of ACTION BOOGALOO - use this thread, nerds

[Dan]

IT'S A-ME, VINO! AND I'M TAKING OVER THIS POST.

Vincetti gave me a list of sounds that still need doing. HERE IT IS!


folder sounds:
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click
APPROVE

style skill selection:
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click

Player sounds
spawn sounds
kill sounds
death sounds
fall damage (short fall and long fall?)
ladder climbing
spark sounds
water sounds
footsteps (all non-concrete ones)
metal sliding (barrels)
wood sliding (crates)

enviornmental hit sounds:
concrete
metal

SHIT BREAKING:
glass
wood
concrete (for pillars)




Original post follows:


I just started getting some recordings done. This thread is for building an asset list of all the sounds the game needs right now. I actually have only played the game once for a few minutes. Help me out!

Tell me what I need to get recorded. I'm looking for footstep materials (do the maps have concrete? wood? tile floors?) weapon sounds you think we might need (I won't be able to record some shooting for a while but I can get gun foley), UI sounds that I missed, stuntdive sounds, map ambient sounds, stuff like that.

http://soundcloud.com/laurencemcfunk/ac ... und-reel-9

What I've got so far:

Footsteps (carpeted concrete)
A pistol reload
Misc UI sounds
Weapon menu
Weapon draw

If you guys could post screenshots of the maps with points of interest that would really help. I want to get at least placeholder sounds in asap. It's going to take a while because I've never worked in the Source engine at all, so I don't even know how to add sounds to maps (all help would be appreciated.) I'll focus on getting as much material ready to drop in as possible.

[Wish]

Map sounds are added in Hammer; it's not very difficult at all, but I haven't had much luck with it. I have some stock ambiance in place; wind on megachat, city sounds on makeouttactics, etc. But if you want to add sounds - basically all the maps could probably benefit from it - just let me know, and I'll share the VMFs. You can also talk to Dementei, he seems to really know his way around Hammer.

I don't really know any specific points on the maps - they just need general ambiance. Da_wish could use some waves and seagulls. Da_keroberos may be needing some train sounds. Etc. If you want to run around in the maps and let your imagination go wild, I'm open to pretty much anything. All my maps are in the current build.

General sound thoughts: Heavy, satisfying sounds are good. Gunshots should be super loud and abrupt; weapons that feel powerful are always the best. The same goes for non-firing sounds. Releasing a slide, dropping a magazine - the heavier/metaler you can make it the better. I had a reload sound that included the dropped magazine clunking to the ground; it was godlike. Stuff like that is great.

[Shogi]

There are lots of free sound repositories where we can get some of this stuff (like footsteps). Shouldn't be an issue as long as this is a non-profit project and we give proper credit if necessary.

[Vino]

Zounds! SOOOOUNDS!

Let's start with this simple list:

* Dive sound
* Dive landing sound
* Sliding sound
* Rolling sound

I'll plug the sounds you have into the game as soon as I get around to working on this again, which will be in not long since we finally have a playtest on Thursday.

[Antagonist]

I will record taunts.

[Dan]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6008973/ACTION_BOOGALOO_FX.zip

Sounds included:

AB_DIVE_LAND.wav
AB_DIVE.WAV
AB_FOOTSTEP_CARPET_ON_CONCRETE_1.WAV
AB_FOOTSTEP_CARPET_ON_CONCRETE_2.WAV
AB_FOOTSTEP_CARPET_ON_CONCRETE_3.WAV
AB_FOOTSTEP_CARPET_ON_CONCRETE_4.WAV
AB_FOOTSTEP_CARPET_ON_CONCRETE_6.WAV (I made a typo, this is suppose to be 5.)
AB_PISTOL_CLIPIN.WAV
AB_PISTOL_CLIPOUT.WAV
AB_PISTOL_SLIDE_PULL.WAV
AB_ROLL.WAV
AB_UI_1.WAV
AB_UI_2.WAV
AB_UI_3.WAV
AB_UI_4.WAV
AB_WEAPON_DRAW.WAV
AB_WEAPON_SELECT.WAV

I've delivered all the files in 44.1 16 bit because I don't think Source plays back 24 bit files. I am missing a slide sound. The only "slide" i could get recorded was a book sliding across the floor and it sounded cheesy as hell and bad. I'll keep working on it.

I've delivered all the sounds relatively quiet (about -6 or -5 dB). If you guys decide we need more volume I can always limit and compress the crap out of the sounds later.

General sound thoughts: Heavy, satisfying sounds are good. Gunshots should be super loud and abrupt; weapons that feel powerful are always the best. The same goes for non-firing sounds. Releasing a slide, dropping a magazine - the heavier/metaler you can make it the better. I had a reload sound that included the dropped magazine clunking to the ground; it was godlike. Stuff like that is great.

I've been doing some gun recording already and it's surprisingly difficult to get good gun handling sounds. I tried getting empty magazines dropping on the ground and I can't seem to quite get the mic distance and gain right. I'll keep working on it.

There are lots of free sound repositories where we can get some of this stuff (like footsteps). Shouldn't be an issue as long as this is a non-profit project and we give proper credit if necessary.

I'm not opposed to using stuff like Freesound for placeholder sounds in the game, but I would really like to have the first release of ACTION BOOGALOO to have 100% original sounds because that'd be really cool. It's awesome to see this thing get treated like an actual serious indie game project by people like Wish and our coders so I want to contribute the best way I know how. I want to be a sound designer anyway so I might as well put the work in.

[Wish]

Great footsteps.

[Dan]

Great footsteps.

Thanks.

I will record taunts.

WELCOME TO MURDER CITY. I'M THE MAYOR

[Vino]

This shit is great. I'll make sure it's in the next version. If you intend to do this a lot I should probably give you Dropbox access.

[Dementei]

This is awesome, I'd like to have 100% original sounds too, the farther away we get from hl2 the better.

[Vino]

I just connected up the sounds to the game. Here's a primer of what you need to know.

There sound script files are in scripts/game_sounds_*.txt These scripts determine what sounds are played during what events, at what volumes, and so on. All of the sounds I've added so far are at the bottom of game_sounds_player.txt but the footstep sounds are at the bottom of game_sounds_physics.txt You have access to the Dropbox right? I think you do. If not send me your email and I'll add you. If you modify the shit in Dropbox, it'll automatically get included in the next release.

I've added in the dive sound, the dive landing sound, and the rolling sound. The footsteps and other stuff I'll leave for you. When you get the next release you'll be able to hear them. If you do just a dive then when you land since it goes into a roll automatically you'll hear the rolling sound. Otherwise if you hold down the stunt button you'll hear the dive landing sound. Here's my suggestions:

1) The sounds are good quality, but they're quiet. You need to run them through some compressors and amplifiers.
2) You need to layer a bunch of sounds in there. Video game sounds need to be fat and beefy. One sample won't do, you need ten layered on top of each other.
3) You need the sound to start as close to the beginning of the file as possible. When the sound is triggered you want it to start making noise right away. In some of your sounds there's a 1/5 second pause before the sound starts, and it makes it sound laggy.
4) Remove all markers from the wave files. That causes them to loop. I think the dive land sound had a marker in it and every time the player would land the file would play forever.

Good work, keep it up.

[Dan]

I just connected up the sounds to the game. Here's a primer of what you need to know.

There sound script files are in scripts/game_sounds_*.txt These scripts determine what sounds are played during what events, at what volumes, and so on. All of the sounds I've added so far are at the bottom of game_sounds_player.txt but the footstep sounds are at the bottom of game_sounds_physics.txt You have access to the Dropbox right? I think you do. If not send me your email and I'll add you. If you modify the shit in Dropbox, it'll automatically get included in the next release.

I've added in the dive sound, the dive landing sound, and the rolling sound. The footsteps and other stuff I'll leave for you. When you get the next release you'll be able to hear them. If you do just a dive then when you land since it goes into a roll automatically you'll hear the rolling sound. Otherwise if you hold down the stunt button you'll hear the dive landing sound. Here's my suggestions:

1) The sounds are good quality, but they're quiet. You need to run them through some compressors and amplifiers.
2) You need to layer a bunch of sounds in there. Video game sounds need to be fat and beefy. One sample won't do, you need ten layered on top of each other.
3) You need the sound to start as close to the beginning of the file as possible. When the sound is triggered you want it to start making noise right away. In some of your sounds there's a 1/5 second pause before the sound starts, and it makes it sound laggy.
4) Remove all markers from the wave files. That causes them to loop. I think the dive land sound had a marker in it and every time the player would land the file would play forever.

Good work, keep it up.

0) I'll PM you my email for dropbox access.
1) I intentionally made them quiet, so I figured that they would be too quiet for video game use. I am intimately familiar with all the arcane dark magic rituals I need to perform to make the sounds loud as hell, so I'll go ahead and do that in the next revision.
2) You are right, the samples I made are basically straight recordings with about 2-3 layers and some edits. I didn't want to go overboard on the dives and rolls because the player will literally be hearing them all the time, but I obviously didn't get to hear them in game so I'll add some stuff to them. As far as the UI sounds go, I intentionally left them thin.
3) When I looked at the sounds in my wave editor they looked like they started at the soonest possible sample so I'm not sure how this happened. I'll take a look at them again and crop them closer.
4) I have no idea how any markers got in the files so I'll take a second look.

I can probably get all of this work done tonight. Coming up next: a slide sound, which I have no idea how to do.

[Dan]

WHAT'S DONE:

I've added a significant amount of volume to all the samples (but there's still room for me to make them all even louder if necessary.)
I've edited the sounds so they all start at the beginning of the sound event (thanks for the tip Vino)
Minor tweaks

WHAT ISN'T:

I haven't added any new layers to the sounds yet. I'll need to get another recording session going if you need more layers because I've already used most of my recorded material.
A god damned sliding sound.


I think I might have been at this for an hour and I'm still having a major problem.

I can't get a good sliding sound. All the things that I thought might sound like a person sliding across the floor sound nothing like a person sliding across the floor, even a person actually sliding across the floor I can't get to sound right.

I think part of the problem is that the slides are so damn long. The way I'm thinking of doing this is having three separate sound events:

1) Slide starts
2) Player sliding (this is a looping sound so the player can slide as long or short as is necessary)
3) Slide ends

But I think implementing this is another coding job on your part, Vino. Let me know. In the meantime I'll persist in coming up with a not crappy sliding sound. My ears are actually fatigued right now so no more work on this tonight.

[Vino]

Ear fatigue can be a huge problem when working with sounds. Take it easy.

I think the first and second part of the slide can be combined into the same sound file. Wav files let you include markers and the engine will repeat the sound from the marker when it comes to the end in order to loop it, so you can just put the marker at the end of the "start slide" sound and it'll play that and then loop the second part, if that makes sense.

For CF's "wall grinding" sound I used the sound of a big pile of rocks being poured out of a wheelbarrow. I cut out the metallic parts and got just the rocky part and that worked really well for that. I don't know if it would work well for sliding too (it'd be too rough and grindy) but maybe it gives you some ideas. Maybe a little bit of rockslidey might help make the slide sound a bit thicker.

Anyhow, I added you to dropbox so all of the sounds are now at your discretion. Knock yourself out. Whatever you think is best is fine with me, but I'll do my best to give you good feedback. I'll be releasing the newest beta tonight so you can have something to work with. Just be sure to copy all of your work back into Dropbox when you're done.

[Dan]

I uploaded the new sounds and implemented the new dive, roll, and footstep sounds as well. I hope I didn't break the physics txt file by adding in the footsteps.

I haven't done the UI sounds yet, I'm guessing that's game_sounds_ui.txt?

edit: and of course, no slide yet.