Your new friend

[HortonsWho]

In case you are new to map making or if you are not and don't know better.... don't submit map without them...


;)

[ShirleyFT]

Is this some kinda sound thing?

If it is I have some suggestions. Change the frequency of ambient sounds. Slow them down. You can really freak some people out with low frequencies. David Lynch does it all the time. I did it with every sound in Binary Star.

[HortonsWho]

Exactly---

Play around--- experiment--- we do it with lighting, why not sound? --- too many maps we are reviewing have ZERO sound or very little. To me, it's almost the quivalent of no lighting... OK, an exaggeration but sound helps so much.

Just another nudge to "pump up the jam."

[Freakish]

David Lynch rocks..just watched Lost Highway for the first last night and got severely freaked out.

/me makes note to check out everything past season 1 in twin peaks




oh..and..uh..sounds make a map come to life.

[Scourgem]

LoL :D

You know, Hort - with all that dedication to sound - why don't you make some kind of sticky sound FAQ thing for the UT/UT2k3 Level Design forums? You could just assemble some of the stuff you've already posted on the subject. ;)

[HisDivineShadow]

For myself, I seem to pay more attention to ambient sounds in DM or one player games more than CTF. I guess that's because in CTF I'm so focused on just a few sounds like flag alarms, player sounds, items picked up, etc. With so much hardcore action I don't get to enjoy the environment of most CTF maps until later when no one is really playing.

They can really suck you in to the overall feeling of a map though and that I love.

[Lord_Simeon]

i LOVE ambient sounds, its one of the best parts of making a map, the sound addition.

All those sounds, mmmmm
Scrolling through the lists, listening to all the beeps, crackles and bangs.

And the limitless possibilities a good wav site holds, BTW, heres a cracker i found a while back, its wavs for radio use.

A1 radio sounds (http://www.a1freesoundeffects.com/radio.html)

[ShirleyFT]

Lots of possibilities with ambirent sounds. Alter the sound and then layer several instances of the sound on top of itself and with other sounds. Layer about 6 sounds on top of each other and it gets nice and full. If you lower the frequency of a sound it will become comepletey different - imagine slowing down the sound of a hummingbird's wings until it becomes the sound of a dragon's wing. Low, slow pulsing sounds can be used to increase a sense of danger. I used these sounds in the entrances of the bases in Binary Star.

Also works wonders for objects: Build a box, texture it with an electron face, add some sounds and the box becomes a computer or some other gizmo. Cool. Stand next to some of the gadgets in I built in Binary Star. I gave them a small sound radius so you'll only hear them if you walk close to them.

Also, increase the reverb of a sound and the whole room changes - reverb can make a big room bigger or make a marble face wall harder (live sound opposed to dead, sound absorbant surfaces). In Binary Star I used a lot of reverb down in the sewers.

In filmmaking a good sound man will record the sound of a room (every space, room has a unique sound) and use it to tie together the sound in different shots. This idea can also be used to tie together a room or an area and also be used for the opposite - to separate rooms.

[HortonsWho]

All good points--- for the radio and TV work I have done, you're spot on-- always grab more ambience than you need. Record the room empty just to get the air handling, etc for editing.


I may post a brief tut and example or three.

:)

[jperson]

I completely agree that sound ambience is just as important as visual performance... EAR candy! A good practice is to think outside the packages installed with UT2003 and visit Google or another search engine for sounds. For DM-NebulousStone, about 30 minutes of searching resulted in a spooky loon sound that had perfect reverb. Testing the map with this sound brought the map to a new level of realism.

Outdoor maps especially require plenty of ambience. A good technique is to find small creature sounds such as frogs and birds. Place the critter sounds in the middle of a group of trees, position the bird sound on the branch of a tree or high up in the air -- where they would be in real life. Wind likewise is good when placed higher up; players will hear the wind louder as they reach higher z-axis. Generally speaking, when you add an AmbientSound to the map, don't leave that object until it's been given the proper thought to placement and volume.

I don't really consider myself a mapping expert, but in working with this past map, a number of techniques came up that helped add good realism... I'd be happy to put together a page of tips if people are interested about enhancing outdoor maps, from sound ambience to improving shadow casting.

[phalanx]

dont use sounds although i can do them