Audio not just visual, read this.

[Kuiper7986]

We always talk about graphics graphics graphics. I know graphics are wonderful no question in my mind about that. But what about sound, hows the audio part of the game coming along. Is there going to be surround sound or is it going ti give us full frontal blasts of sound? I\'ll post more. comments? please post.

added edit: here some things to watch out for. for a better experience, I\'m sounding nieve but its just my opinions.

-audio obstruction
-audio occlusion
-audio exclusion
-audio enviromental reflection
-audio enviromental panning
-audio enviromental morphing.

[Mage of Darkness]

i agree the sound is an important aspect to a game. not only do you need graphics you must have sound to back it up. i would like to see aweasome battle music and like on an open plan nice serene music as like the sun sets and stuff. i work on music myself but most of it is techno/trance/dance styles but if needed be i could make other stuff    just so that the devs know.  

[Moogie]

I also hope the audio-side of things doesn\'t get too neglected, but we must keep in mind that this is a MMORPG and the developers only have so much time spare to code this thing. What you\'re talking about doesn\'t only sound difficult to code, but also, might it not add alot of information that needs to be sent to all the clients in an area and calculated seperately for each one, every second?...

For a project such as this where players have no other option but to download the client from the Internet, I think complex enviromental audio effects could be overlooked safely... It sounds to me like a major thing that would take years to implement and add a tonne on the download size.

But correct me if I\'m wrong... I usually am when I know nothing of what I\'m talking about. Hehe.

[Mage of Darkness]

hmmm you have a good point moogie i totally overlooked size. but if done nice and correctly it can be made it to a smaller size. i no hardly anything bout codeing and stuff but music is my catagory and if need be i could do everything in my power to make small file repeative song bases.   ill get working on some later and put some on a site or something so you guys can hear.  

[Monketh]

*Ahem*
Why would the server have to tell clients to change music?
It should be a problem, such things could be done client-side.
Altough, there are many things I\'d rather see first.

[Uyaem]

Originally posted by Kuiper7986
-audio obstruction
-audio occlusion
-audio exclusion
-audio enviromental reflection
-audio enviromental panning
-audio enviromental morphing.

A lot of the stuff mentioned is really great IMHO, but how much CPU will it take?
It\'s like true raytracing for graphics - nothing so far looks more realistic, but as I don\'t own a computer like \"Earth Simulator\" it\'s just not realistic. The playability on non-high-end computers must not be neglected!

[Kuiper7986]

what I mentioned is just basic audio effects. They\'re on Sound Blaster Live cards and above.

[Niber]

Wow this thread is identical with my first thread (I got flamed though, *takes note on how you managed to not get flamed  *).

Anyway the quality of the game music and audio not just code ofcourse it is the creative work of the music department, and nice code can ofcourse enhance that.

Our 3d engine (Crystal Space) already supports EAX2 so most of these effects can be done already but it has to be intregrated to the game and that is not a priority at the moment.

Creative Labs, the creator of EAX, has not realesed EAX3 and 4 SDK for the public so we can\'t use those fancy features like Envirument Panning and such. and that SDK is availible for game developers who are registered to Creative Labs and it is free so I suppos PS can have it to but it takes alot of paperwork.

*EAX = the API that does all those nice features

[Xordan]

Well download size isn\'t a problem. U can download the music in one format, and then use a simple .bat file to change the format. I\'ve had to do this with various rip addons, and it changed the total file size from 70mb to 900mb.....

From what I\'ve heard, the music and sound side of things are going gr8, and we\'ve got some nice stuff coming in CB. (Don\'t shoot me if I\'m wrong...)

[Icefalcon]

Hey...the music in MB is already great. For an alpha-test, i would say the music is very advanced.

[Kuiper7986]

awesome! it supports EAX2, cool now it can use more of my sound card.

[roguewolftamer]

if their gonna have good battle music i say it needs to expand farther then 1 kind of music for all mobs, and i know many of you will prob agree with me when i say this but

i think MMORPGs need several kinds of battle music for all types of mobs, not just different species, but im talking about one type for normal mobs, another for quest-type mobs, another set for boss mobs (for the major dungeons), unique mob music, rare mob music, ect.

i dunno if many of you will actually agree with me but i at least think that its needed so you dont get bored with 1 music, and yes i also think that every other update or so, more battle music should be added or even replaced (up to a point) so that way it isnt just listening to the same thing over and over till you go play another MMORPG cause your already one of the top players

[Kixie]

well personally i think that the mute sound feature should be kept at all times. sure the music on the game is ok but after the 300th loop it gets a bit annoying. sometimes i would just rather listen to my soundtrack on winamp playing instead....

[roguewolftamer]

true, i usualy play my winamp soundtrack while i play Q3F (quake 3 mod) but thats why i said more music should be added every other update or so, even though i ment battle music it should go for all music

[Icefalcon]

yup i agree...we need a variety of music....i was just sayin that usually, a game this early in development wouldnt even have music.