Speed of Sound
One of the first things our Game director, Kim, talked to me about back when I started in Zero Point Software was a simulated "Speed Of Sound-system". Now 2 years and 7 months later I thought it was about time that I actually looked at it :-)
Alright, let's jump right in! The speed of sound is approximately 343 meter per second (m/s) in dry air at 20 degrees Celsius. You know this phenomena from thunder and lightning - as Lighting McQueen says in Cars: "Well, you know, because Thunder always comes after... Lightning!"
Hey... Am I rambling now???... Sorry about that - back to work!
The solution to simulating Speed of Sound is actually quite simple. Just delay the sounds (distance-from-sound-to-listener / 343) seconds. So what does this do to the experience? Well give this prototype a go and let me hear what you think.
Speed Of Sound Prototype
I've exaggerated the delay-effect a bit (by a factor 1.5) to make the it more dramatic (hollywood realism ftw).
Cheers,
Kenneth
Very cool.
I'm starting to get worried, stop worrying about non relevant sound details and focus on the gameplay, please.
It's cool that you're spending time doing it, but in the end, it's worthless if the game will suck and I'd rather see posts about what you will be doing to make the gameplay great, rather than anything you're doing to make it more like a movie and less like what the hell it is. A freaking game, stop doing what all the big AAA publishers do PLEASE, you claim to be Indie AAA and you seem to be heading down the same path, I personally am deeply worried for what will happen to Insterstellar Marines if this goes on.
I fear it will become just another fancy AAA game, indistinguishable from other titles anymore, because it takes graphics and other "realism" over gameplay.
This is just my opinion as a worried Spearhead :)
I hear your concerns DuckSauce, and if the rest of the game wasn't looking top notch I might agree with you, but what you need to realise is that it is all these little seemingly insignificant touches that actually take a good game and make it into a great game. Sure this detail doesn't effect gameplay so much, but it does a hell of a lot for immersion. The devil is in the details, and even if it is something that you don't consciously pick up on? Don't worry, because unconsciously it will register and really up the immersion factor.
It is like the great detail that goes into all the realistic textures in games these days, every last little rivet, paint scratch and dint goes into the environments and other art assets. Are they essential to gameplay? No, but you'd sure miss them if they weren't there, or not up to snuff. Same situation with sound, if done right it helps with immersion, if done wrong? Well that wrecks the immersion. If done fantastically? That can take the realism of the game to a whole other level. Never underestimate the power of good sound design.
I'm well aware that they've done some great stuff with it so far, that's why I became a spearhead in the first place, the sounds were great and I saw some video's where they did some great stuff with sound... but sound alone doesn't make a good game.
While bullseye was great, Running Man was... kind of crappy(ignoring the gun part which was present in Bullseye already) so I have all reason to be concerned about the gameplay here, I'd like to see some posts about what they're doing to make the game fun, not what they're doing to turn it into Life in Space: The Game.
I almost want to say "sorry for being so ungrateful" but I paid good money and got nothing so far, but regardless, I'll be waiting and watching until you guys are ready to unveil Deadlock and it's gameplay in all it's glory :)