High Octane Engine Audio: Field Report

2. Field Report: High Octane Recording and Implementation of Engine AudioKaren Muro &Dave Lowmiller

3. Field Report: High Octane Recording and Implementation of Engine AudioKaren Muro &Dave Lowmiller

4. Introduction • Our involvement with Off Road Racing • Rainbow has made 8 off road titles over the last 10 years • The current franchise is MX vs ATV

5. Introduction • Scope of MX vs ATV • Varied types of events • All events require a separate mix with different goals • Off road bikes and Off road vehicles • MX bikes 125cc, 250R, 250F, 450F • Vehicles UTV, Off road Trucks

6. Introduction • Why dirt bike engines behave badly? • Terrain • Driving Style

12. In other racing titles • Motorcycle, Yes • Terrain, No • And that is what sets us apart

14. Design Goals • Engines • Create a realistic engine that mimics off road driving style while providing meaningful feedback to the player • Implementation rules the recording and editing • Build a system to trigger single samples based on the state of the bike

15. Design Goals • Terrain and related sounds • To capture the essence of off road, special attention needed to be paid to the terrains • In addition to the standard drive on terrain loops, a system of one shot fairing hits was implemented per terrain type to bring the player into the environment

16. Recording Engines • Off road bikes recording hot spots/ Mic Placement • Dyno Logistics • Recording Script • Bike/Vehicle Procurement

17. Recording Terrains • Drive On Loops recorded with the cart, helmet and mic • Lots and lots of dirt!! • One shots for Terrain Generator- mimicking terrain hits on a fairing was done in the studio with a bucket of rocks and some bike parts • We did use some library sounds for terrain loops where we couldn’t record

18. Editing • Bikes • Mix Them Mean • Each bike is different • Know your DSP limitations fully before mixing • Align compressions and rarefactions by hand if necessary • Don’t feel bad about dropping a track • A little modulation can be your friend • Master a brick

19. Editing • Bikes (cont.) • Cutting like a Moto Ninja • Cut to performance • Take advantage of implied throttle movements • Off throttle “negative space” is your friend • Use modular editing components • Mock up and audition

21. Editing • Vehicle Engines • Standard Loop editing on the engines • 4 Levels of RPM, On load and Off load samples

23. Implementation • FMOD, why we chose it?? • We do not use FMOD to trigger our bike engines beyond setting up events that our state triggering system handles • We did use FMOD complex events for our vehicle engines, terrains & collisions

24. Implementation • Engine States • Each bike is roughly made up of 50 engine files and 17 different engine states • At the most basic level is idle and all states return • Powerbands instead of gears

28. Implementation • Engine States (cont.) • Most of states are driven from the physics, but the audio system is decoupled from the physics system in some areas • A typical engine run might look like • Idle> Powerband1-> Powerband2->(Player going off of a jump) • Every state is defined in an XML file

29. Implementation • Why Crossfading does not work for us on bikes • Tried and implemented crossfading twice • Tried a Hybrid system= FAIL • Engine State triggering single samples= where we started

30. Implementation • Terrain System • Drive on loops • Pitched and increased in volume based on speed • We used loops and one shots operating as loops

31. Implementation • Terrain System (cont.) • Terrain Generator • Driving/Riding • Random one shots set on a timer based on speed, these are also increased in volume with speed • Skidding • Triggering factor is based on rear tire slip • Sample frequency is increased with heavy slippage

34. Mix • Mix a brick of engines and a brick of music, what do you get? • Oh and don’t forget the subtlety • Defining Custom mixes per event type and racer quantity

35. Where do we go from here? • The future of the badly behaved engine

36. Q&A