Sitrep: Brink Audio Interview

[News Portal]

Imagine having to spend your working day out in the middle of the desert, firing dozens of machine guns and driving tanks just to capture their unique audio effects. That's the hard life of one Chris Sweetman, a sound engineer with Goldeneye, 12 Monkeys and now [app=5649]Brink[/app] on his resume. Sitrep sits down with Chris to talk about the unique challenge creating sound on Brink's post-apocalyptic Ark presented.

Read full article by Toby McCasker

[spkypwnsuall]

Audio is overlooked by a mile. While making things sound right is important, sound adds a feeling to weapons, movement and impacts. Without sounds, everything has a somewhat unreal feeling. Hell, that's what made me dislike the F2000 from BC2.

A good soundtrack really does change a game, and I'm not just talking about the music. I hope Brink rocks, no doubt from the amount of audio work they've done. taking guns out to see the sounds they make is pro development

Somewhat disappointed that no one posted before me, but anyway :3

[Bronze_D]

some of BC2's weapon lacked that distinct thump that allow the ears to recognize individual shot sound, on weapons like F2000 this is extremely prevalent... on others less so.

in particular for F2000 though, it sounds as if they recorded the gun shots of a burst and then simply cut the playback time short if the player fired a very short burst... the sound then becomes extremely unnatural when you do single shots or very short burst... something you unfortunately have to do when trying to nail someone at extended range with it.

probably had to do as well with how battlefield games playback the sounds. Back in the previous game when we still had weapon ROF selector, they had 2 different weapon sounds iirc... one for single shots and one for burst, it becomes somewhat jarring though because the burst sound doesn't particularly sound like a rapid fire successive single shot sounds at all.

[Mythor]

Somewhat disappointed that no one posted before me, but anyway :3

I didn't comment because I'd already read a lot of what the guy said over on IGN over a week ago. It was fascinating at the time and I linked people to it on Twitter... but what's to say?
Sounds are good!

Brink will have a hard time competing with the sound quality of Bad Company. The original game used sound to mindblowing effect.
So long as the rifles sound punchy and the shotguns have a good boom to them, I'm happy.

[spkypwnsuall]

Yeah, it doesn't sound right, but hopefully these guys working on Brink will have a good audio for bursting auto weapons.

Either way, Audio really does make a difference to the feeling of a weapon.

And yeah, if the shotguns have a nice bang to it, i think all of us light classes will love it

[Instinx]

With great sound you can somewhat forgive graphics, if you can close your eyes and feel the world around you - they have achieved their goal. If when you open your eyes and see the same world, they have perfected it. Oh, gameplay helps too

[spkypwnsuall]

With great sound you can somewhat forgive graphics, if you can close your eyes and feel the world around you - they have achieved their goal. If when you open your eyes and see the same world, they have perfected it. Oh, gameplay helps too

I completely agree. If you can balance Graphics, Gameplay and Sound, you've got an awesome game. If only more Dev's worked for that balance, rather than their BANK balance

[MuscularTeeth]

Great article and very interesting.
Game audio is something i'd love to get involved in.
I have this year been asked to create the soundscapes on a mid-budget (10mill budget) movie which starts prelim filming soon. For me this is so great, and a real opportunity to later get into game audio.

And for those who are interested in music made from "found sounds" - try Amon Tobin's "Foley Room".

[Serval]

Yeah, it doesn't sound right, but hopefully these guys working on Brink will have a good audio for bursting auto weapons.

Either way, Audio really does make a difference to the feeling of a weapon.

And yeah, if the shotguns have a nice bang to it, i think all of us light classes will love it

The shotguns are going to be medium weapons, so lights won't be able to use them (I think there is also a full-auto shotgun that heavies can use).

[Drakand]

The shotguns are going to be medium weapons, so lights won't be able to use them (I think there is also a full-auto shotgun that heavies can use).

I think lights can only use small auto weapons (mini-uzi etc) and auto pistols, weps like that, but have a knife with pistol for secondary weapon extra damage. Though I would have thought there'd be a light shotty for light size usage.

[Bronze_D]

indeed, light body type can only use long/light rifles, pistols, and SMGs for firearms choice.

[Mythor]

Yeah, I'd've thought there'd be a shotgun for light body types. Lights would be well suited for slipping in behind people and getting up close before unleashing.
I'd expect them to have access to the SMG style weapons as well though. Maybe a sawn-off shotty? Or a large caliber revolver?

[Drakand]

Yeah, I'd've thought there'd be a shotgun for light body types. Lights would be well suited for slipping in behind people and getting up close before unleashing.

Thats exactly my point, in a lot of FPS games, playing the fast class who gets in close and unleashes shotty hell upon some much larger class is very amusing but obviously getting that close is the challenge
SMG's can still do this but unleashing a clip over just unloading with a shotty is a bit less satisfying imo.

[Bronze_D]

Yeah, I'd've thought there'd be a shotgun for light body types. Lights would be well suited for slipping in behind people and getting up close before unleashing.
I'd expect them to have access to the SMG style weapons as well though. Maybe a sawn-off shotty? Or a large caliber revolver?

all body types can use the revolvers since revolvers are part of the pistol or sidearm weapon class in brink.

[Drakand]

Yeah, I'd've thought there'd be a shotgun for light body types. Lights would be well suited for slipping in behind people and getting up close before unleashing.
I'd expect them to have access to the SMG style weapons as well though. Maybe a sawn-off shotty? Or a large caliber revolver?

all body types can use the revolvers since revolvers are part of the pistol or sidearm weapon class.

I think what Mythor is trying to say is if there is some extra big revolver that's designed for main weapon (not sidearm) to be used as shotgun equivalent by light class players.