[F] Footsteps and Sounds

[Geroui]

I for one love footsteps in games and listening to my character run and such. I'd like this to stay in GW2.

I also would like something like DA:O in that when you are running you can hear your armor clanging and making it not sound as if the character can't tell if he's wearing a robe or 90 lb armor. (My opinion btw)

More ambient sounds and environmental sounds as well, as when you're at the beach, there is seagulls and waves going through the tides.

Lastly if there is Lava, Blizzards, Dust Storms, etc; make it so i can hear them as well as tell there is something there.

Basically more sounds and effects in GW2 and character sounds. Thanks

[Ss Heretic]

Sounds can really give a "feel" of what is going on. I think its just as valuable as graphics!

[Maglama]

I just love ambience. The echoes of caverns and what not. It really brings the atmosphere to life.

[Chronologix]

Armor sounds were not originally in GW1, they added it on a later date, but I think the other sounds were already there.

[Eliz Genevieve]

I also want it too. The ambience, the immersion, all that comes with the role that the sounds play is just irreplaceable.

I'm counting with this, Anet <<.

[Xuco]

Basically better ambiance with sounds. Why not?

[jayson]

I'm sorry but you're all just crazy. Why would Anet waste their time making dumb sound effects?

[Geroui]

Originally Posted by jayson

I'm sorry but you're all just crazy. Why would Anet waste their time making dumb sound effects?

To you it might be a waste of time, but some people like to be immersed in a game and experience their character in a unique way. Pray tell, what do you think they should spend time on? I would rather they provide a unique experience with ambiance and making Tyria seem like a world.

Ya'know when your character fires his spell, there's a sound for that.. hmmm should arenanet just be lazy and say "We should be just like almost every other MMO and reuse sounds, because hey they're not important."

So if there's an ocean, but has no sound of the tide rolling in, a lava river but no scorching hissing of it hitting the ocean, etc. Without an example like this, I think the world would be rather bland and boring imo.

[jayson]

I was just kidding! Honestly who in their right mind wouldn't want ambience and sound effects like you've suggested?

[Maglama]

Originally Posted by jayson

I'm sorry but you're all just crazy. Why would Anet waste their time making dumb sound effects?

I've notice a lot of people saying stuff like "this is just a waste of Anet's time". So do you expect just a MMO with purely gameplay? You are just one of those players that don't appreciate the art of a game and just min-max their whole way through it. Learn to enjoy a video game. There is a reason why you chose Guild Wars and not anything else.

[aRdNeK]

I always have my sound turned off in-game except the cinematics. lol But I'm fine with this, but only if ANet has time to do it; there are other things that are more important, such as actually releasing the beta/game, and making sure there is enough server space with no queues like Aion had, etc.

[Geroui]

Originally Posted by aRdNeK

I always have my sound turned off in-game except the cinematics. lol But I'm fine with this, but only if ANet has time to do it; there are other things that are more important, such as actually releasing the beta/game, and making sure there is enough server space with no queues like Aion had, etc.

I understand, and yes those features are more important. I was more along the lines of anet choosing between better sounds... and better more graphics. I would go with better ambiance and sounds all the way.

[Jonny10]

I though I'de share this video since saw it a few years ago.
It's about the work behind the game sounds (such as footsteps)

Arenanet is mostly likely doing this right now for GW2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMfZC2Iyx8g

[Malchior Devenholm]

Ah yes Foley. They do effects for a majority of games and movies. Great company!

[Regina Buenaobra]

Hey everyone,

James Ackley, our Audio Director, was super interested in the conversation here, so we wanted to post a few responses and insights into what our Audio Team has in store for audio in Guild Wars 2. I think many people might be excited about this behind-the-scenes look into what the team does, so without further ado:

“I, for one, love footsteps in games and listening to my character run and such. I'd like this to stay in GW2.”

We’ll not only be keeping footsteps in Guild Wars 2, we’re putting an amazing amount of time and energy into them! The footsteps were one of the first things we tackled. Here’s how we did it.

From very early on, sound designer Drew Cady and I knew that an MMO the size of Guild Wars 2 was going to need a ton of sounds. We didn’t want to take the brute force approach and just make a new sound for everything - that requires an extraordinary amount of assets and it just kills memory both on disk and to be loaded in RAM. So we started talking about how to create sounds procedurally. Drew came up with an amazing system that is fully working now. It sounds amazing and has taken a lot less time and assets to create.

Every footstep in Guild Wars 2 is made up of three sounds: heel, toe and spray (spray is the kick of your toe, mostly only made with loose surfaces and running). With this set-up, each of those three sounds gets its own random parameters, so you never feel like you are hearing the same footsteps over and over. Using Drew’s system, we get these incredible results but keep the total memory footprint in check.

“I also would like something like DA:O in that when you are running, you can hear your armor clanging and making it not sound as if the character can't tell if he's wearing a robe or 90 lb armor. (My opinion btw) “

Just as with footsteps, we’re doing a lot of procedural creation with the foley/movement sounds in Guild Wars 2. Not only will you hear the sound of your armor, but as you add or subtract armor you’ll hear that, and depending on the type and size of your armor, you’ll also hear differences. Our audio implementer Ron Perry has done a wonderful job working his creative magic, connecting all the sound scripting systems and animations to make Drew’s crazy ideas actually work.

“More ambient sounds and environmental sounds as well, as when you're at the beach, there are seagulls and waves going through the tides. “

Don’t worry about this! If we’re going to as much trouble with the footsteps as we are, I’m sure you can assume the level of detail we’ll have in the ambiences.

“Basically more sounds and effects in GW2 and character sounds. Thanks”

Drew and I agreed that we wanted Guild Wars 2 to be as full of sounds as possible, never leaving you wondering where the “world” went. Just because you aren’t in the middle of a huge battle doesn’t mean the world around you has gone away, from a sound perspective. On the other hand, we definitely didn’t want to create a world so full of sounds that once you do end up in a town or battle, the cacophony just makes you want to turn the sounds off. So we’re working on a very complex mixing system that we hope will not only solve this problem, but will help you focus on the important sounds and make you a better player.

I’ve included some pictures of our team out collecting sounds so you can see how important the sound in Guild Wars 2 is to us.

Getting ocean and wind sounds: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arenanet/4290640301/

Recording animal sounds: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arenanet/4290640321/

Winter sounds: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arenanet/4290640335/

Handmade shoes for footstep sounds: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arenanet/4290640349/

Electrical sounds: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arenanet/4291380008/

"Braveheart" sword: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arenanet/4290640383/

Control room at foley stage: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arenanet/4291380060/

Hope you enjoyed that peek into sounds in Guild Wars 2.

[Maglama]

Haha. That's amazing. Thanks for posting, Regina. Anything to bring the game to life is excellent.

[Excel]

Thank you very much, James and Regina, for that little look on your work. I think this will reassure everyone concerning ambience in GW2.

By the way, the procedural-sound-effect-making sounds like an amazing idea. Can't wait to hear the results!

[Cutthroat]

That's going to be fantastic!

I'm especially looking forward to hearing the winter sounds.

[Breakfast Mc Rit]

As if my imagination needed more fuel for daydreaming about GW2.

That looks so incredibly interesting, thanks a ton for sharing that with us, James and Regina!

[XNEO]

yeahhh thx a lot!! GW2 is gonna be soo huge