It has been pretty damned amazing to hear from fans of W@W as they stumble on some of our more 'hidden' details...things like the Piano on "Asylum", or the ghostly whispers at the shrine in "Makin Raid."
These weren't really placed in the game as 'secrets' per say, but are elements that we layer in to help create an atmosphere. I think its awesome that so many people have not only noticed them, but are now posting lists on the net so others can find them, as well. (EDIT - I would have posted a link here to some of the forum lists, but I didn't get this online fast enough. When i find the links again, I'll post 'em).
The Piano piece in Asylum was composed (and performed) by James McCawley, one of our sound designers here at Treyarch. He did a fantastic job on that piece, so it's great to see he's getting props from the community! I may upload the stereo file so others can hear the higher resolution to it if you all want it.
There are a lot of odd layers in the game...see what you can find!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
World At War Audio Technology
Audio Technology
The Call of Duty franchise has always been about great gameplay, great graphics, great design…and great audio. One of the reasons why the franchise sounds so good is because it has always tried to be as authentic as possible --from the full musical scores to firing authentic period weapons, COD has always been on the forefront of what you can do with audio.
Call of Duty: World at War is no different. Given the amount of processing power that we have on the newer platforms, we knew we could do some new things with sound to deepen your experience and really bring our levels to life.
We are doing a lot more than just recording a sound in the field and playing it back on your console (or PC) when an event happens. We now have to think about the context where a sound is played and what kinds of things we need to do in the game engine to more accurately simulate real life.
Two important pieces of new technology for World at War are Occlusion and Flux.
Occlusion
So what IS occlusion? It’s the concept that if a sound has to travel through an object, its going to sound different than if the sound plays with a clear line of sight. If you imagine someone yelling at you and you slam the door in their face, their voice would sound significantly more muffled through the closed door than the open door.
Using lots of fancy programming (and CPU cycles) we are able to figure out whether a sound has to travel through something, and if it does, affect the sound with low pass filtering. This is a very simple EQ’ing method that can make sounds sound ‘muffled’ when they have to travel through anything in the game---geometry, buildings\props, walls…whatever.
Sounds in World at War can also be only partially occluded. If you drop a grenade behind a low wall and then go prone, even through the sound must travel through the wall to reach you, you wouldn’t want it to be as occluded as it would be if it had to travel through a building. The system is pretty precise and you get various degrees of ‘muffled’ sound, depending on the situation when a sound occurs.
Because it is completely dynamic in nature, the game’s audio is constantly changing and morphing based on where you are in a level. Learning to use these new audio cues will make you a better player…because for the first time in a Call of Duty game, you can distinctly tell the difference between someone walking next to you vs. above or below you, or a shot fired in the distance vs. close by, but behind a solid object.
So really, occlusion is a way to make sounds behave more naturally and realistically which has a lot to do with how sound is moving in the real world.
Flux System
Once you realize that no sound is truly static in the real world, and you have modeled frequency dampening somewhat realistically, the next logical step is also simulating how sound travels.
One of the things that gun lovers already know is that the sound of a gun is not static; the reflections of the shot move and bounce off of everything in the environment. It was truly awe inspiring to hear these period weapons firing and literally destroying the air when the fired. We decided that we needed to figure out a way to get the game engine to be able to reproduce these reflections.
So, we set up several mikes in various places and recorded single shot sounds, mainly listening for the echo of the gun and not the shot itself.
In the studio, we created stereo composites of the echo sound (traveling from mike to mike), and then created a new system in the game called the “Flux” system. Its intention is to keep sounds moving and traveling (especially echoes). So for our gun shots, especially sniper rifles, you’ll hear the shot, followed by its echo. The echo travels down the trajectory of the shot, but it moves much more slowly than the actual bullets. Because this is essentially a ‘stereo’ sound being played in 3D, it also adds an element of ‘space’ to the sound that you just can’t get with a mono file. Provided that you survive a sniper shot that is fired at you, you’ll hear the reflection of that shot as it passes by you. Granted, you probably won’t take a lot of time sitting there listening to the shot, but because it is behaving realistically you’ll be able to pinpoint where the shot came from.
It turns out that this system was also perfect for creating shockwave sounds off of explosions. If you toss a grenade, you’ll hear the initial ‘pop’ of the grenade blowing up, followed by a loud WOOSH that begins where the grenade blows up, and ends well behind you. So the system ends up supporting shockwave sounds, as well as echoes and reflections.
Like every other sound, the Flux sounds can also be occluded. So if you toss a grenade down a hallway, you’ll get a very different sound than if you throw it into an open area.
A good place to really listen to the flux system in action (without risking your head) is just after the intro to Makin Raid. When they give the signal to start blowing up the village, you’ll really hear the flux in action during the last hut explosion. You’ll not only hear the building and its shockwave, but you’ll also hear hundreds of wood pieces hitting the ground all around you and it moves by.
Conclusion
We’ve introduced a great deal of new sound technology to Call of Duty: World at War and are currently developing more for our next title. Hopefully this entry helps you understand a little more of what goes on under the hood of our game engine. We aren’t just replaying recorded sounds anymore and we’re actively creating lots of new exciting technology---all in the interest of making your gaming experience more realistic, exciting, and most of all…FUN.
The Call of Duty franchise has always been about great gameplay, great graphics, great design…and great audio. One of the reasons why the franchise sounds so good is because it has always tried to be as authentic as possible --from the full musical scores to firing authentic period weapons, COD has always been on the forefront of what you can do with audio.
Call of Duty: World at War is no different. Given the amount of processing power that we have on the newer platforms, we knew we could do some new things with sound to deepen your experience and really bring our levels to life.
We are doing a lot more than just recording a sound in the field and playing it back on your console (or PC) when an event happens. We now have to think about the context where a sound is played and what kinds of things we need to do in the game engine to more accurately simulate real life.
Two important pieces of new technology for World at War are Occlusion and Flux.
Occlusion
So what IS occlusion? It’s the concept that if a sound has to travel through an object, its going to sound different than if the sound plays with a clear line of sight. If you imagine someone yelling at you and you slam the door in their face, their voice would sound significantly more muffled through the closed door than the open door.
Using lots of fancy programming (and CPU cycles) we are able to figure out whether a sound has to travel through something, and if it does, affect the sound with low pass filtering. This is a very simple EQ’ing method that can make sounds sound ‘muffled’ when they have to travel through anything in the game---geometry, buildings\props, walls…whatever.
Sounds in World at War can also be only partially occluded. If you drop a grenade behind a low wall and then go prone, even through the sound must travel through the wall to reach you, you wouldn’t want it to be as occluded as it would be if it had to travel through a building. The system is pretty precise and you get various degrees of ‘muffled’ sound, depending on the situation when a sound occurs.
Because it is completely dynamic in nature, the game’s audio is constantly changing and morphing based on where you are in a level. Learning to use these new audio cues will make you a better player…because for the first time in a Call of Duty game, you can distinctly tell the difference between someone walking next to you vs. above or below you, or a shot fired in the distance vs. close by, but behind a solid object.
So really, occlusion is a way to make sounds behave more naturally and realistically which has a lot to do with how sound is moving in the real world.
Flux System
Once you realize that no sound is truly static in the real world, and you have modeled frequency dampening somewhat realistically, the next logical step is also simulating how sound travels.
One of the things that gun lovers already know is that the sound of a gun is not static; the reflections of the shot move and bounce off of everything in the environment. It was truly awe inspiring to hear these period weapons firing and literally destroying the air when the fired. We decided that we needed to figure out a way to get the game engine to be able to reproduce these reflections.
So, we set up several mikes in various places and recorded single shot sounds, mainly listening for the echo of the gun and not the shot itself.
In the studio, we created stereo composites of the echo sound (traveling from mike to mike), and then created a new system in the game called the “Flux” system. Its intention is to keep sounds moving and traveling (especially echoes). So for our gun shots, especially sniper rifles, you’ll hear the shot, followed by its echo. The echo travels down the trajectory of the shot, but it moves much more slowly than the actual bullets. Because this is essentially a ‘stereo’ sound being played in 3D, it also adds an element of ‘space’ to the sound that you just can’t get with a mono file. Provided that you survive a sniper shot that is fired at you, you’ll hear the reflection of that shot as it passes by you. Granted, you probably won’t take a lot of time sitting there listening to the shot, but because it is behaving realistically you’ll be able to pinpoint where the shot came from.
It turns out that this system was also perfect for creating shockwave sounds off of explosions. If you toss a grenade, you’ll hear the initial ‘pop’ of the grenade blowing up, followed by a loud WOOSH that begins where the grenade blows up, and ends well behind you. So the system ends up supporting shockwave sounds, as well as echoes and reflections.
Like every other sound, the Flux sounds can also be occluded. So if you toss a grenade down a hallway, you’ll get a very different sound than if you throw it into an open area.
A good place to really listen to the flux system in action (without risking your head) is just after the intro to Makin Raid. When they give the signal to start blowing up the village, you’ll really hear the flux in action during the last hut explosion. You’ll not only hear the building and its shockwave, but you’ll also hear hundreds of wood pieces hitting the ground all around you and it moves by.
Conclusion
We’ve introduced a great deal of new sound technology to Call of Duty: World at War and are currently developing more for our next title. Hopefully this entry helps you understand a little more of what goes on under the hood of our game engine. We aren’t just replaying recorded sounds anymore and we’re actively creating lots of new exciting technology---all in the interest of making your gaming experience more realistic, exciting, and most of all…FUN.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Call of Duty: World at War Credits Music
So, a lot of people have been looking for the credits track online to no avail. But not anymore!
"Black Cat" Theme Clip
"Black Cat" Theme Clip
Monday, December 8, 2008
World at War: Nazi Zombies
So by now, most of you have heard about the Nazi Zombie mode in Call of Duty: World at War.
This amazingly fun little mode was originated by Jesse Snyder (our lead designer). You can find out more about how it came about on his blog.
In terms of the sound, I've seen posts recently wonder what in the world the song that plays is when you 'die'. Most people liken it to John Murphy's piece from 28 Weeks Later.
While quite a compliment, Kevin Sherwood (one of our many talented sound designers) wrote the riff that plays when the camera flys through the environment essentially as a quick fix (we could have just clipped some of the in game music, but we thought it could be cool to do something totally different). Once it got in, however, we didn't want to change it...and in fact, decided that it should be a full song.
So once the project was completed, Kevin blew the 8 bar piece into a complete song. Kevin is on guitar(s), Elena Siegman (a really kick ass game producer and singer) is doing the vocals. All of it was recorded and produced at Treyarch Studio's. Its called "Lullaby of a Dead Man".
Aside from the end game stinger that's in there, you'll also find a little radio if you look around enough. (HINT: check near the magic box in the HELP room!)
If you shoot (or otherwise damage) the radio, you'll hear a new song pop up evert time it's damaged. Most of the tracks on the radio are edits from the Call of Duty: World at War soundtrack...but we also thought it would be fun to have some crossover with True Crime: New York City, given that Sean and I worked together on that game as well. So if you are familiar with that title, you may recognize 3 or 4 of the pieces on the radio now that you know what it is.
In addition to the gameplay score from TC: NYC, you'll hear a few other interesting pieces. The first song that plays on the radio is called "WTF". Kevin basically tossed some guitars on a trancy piece I did a few years ago just for fun. We thought it fit pretty well for kicking zombie ass, so we put it in.
Also included on the radio is a song I wrote for the 'dance' station in TC:NYC called "Dusk". Yeah, dance music doesn't really go with the WWII era, but hell, you're killing Zombies with a ray gun, so we just threw 'period' out the window for this one.
This amazingly fun little mode was originated by Jesse Snyder (our lead designer). You can find out more about how it came about on his blog.
In terms of the sound, I've seen posts recently wonder what in the world the song that plays is when you 'die'. Most people liken it to John Murphy's piece from 28 Weeks Later.
While quite a compliment, Kevin Sherwood (one of our many talented sound designers) wrote the riff that plays when the camera flys through the environment essentially as a quick fix (we could have just clipped some of the in game music, but we thought it could be cool to do something totally different). Once it got in, however, we didn't want to change it...and in fact, decided that it should be a full song.
So once the project was completed, Kevin blew the 8 bar piece into a complete song. Kevin is on guitar(s), Elena Siegman (a really kick ass game producer and singer) is doing the vocals. All of it was recorded and produced at Treyarch Studio's. Its called "Lullaby of a Dead Man".
Aside from the end game stinger that's in there, you'll also find a little radio if you look around enough. (HINT: check near the magic box in the HELP room!)
If you shoot (or otherwise damage) the radio, you'll hear a new song pop up evert time it's damaged. Most of the tracks on the radio are edits from the Call of Duty: World at War soundtrack...but we also thought it would be fun to have some crossover with True Crime: New York City, given that Sean and I worked together on that game as well. So if you are familiar with that title, you may recognize 3 or 4 of the pieces on the radio now that you know what it is.
In addition to the gameplay score from TC: NYC, you'll hear a few other interesting pieces. The first song that plays on the radio is called "WTF". Kevin basically tossed some guitars on a trancy piece I did a few years ago just for fun. We thought it fit pretty well for kicking zombie ass, so we put it in.
Also included on the radio is a song I wrote for the 'dance' station in TC:NYC called "Dusk". Yeah, dance music doesn't really go with the WWII era, but hell, you're killing Zombies with a ray gun, so we just threw 'period' out the window for this one.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
World at War: Music Design
There have been a lot of comments out on the internet concerning the music in Call of Duty: World at War. Most of it has been (surprisingly) positive, considering how unique the score is for the Call of Duty franchise. Its definitly not the typical musical score for a game in this genre, which was our desire from the outset.
Luckily, we were able to sign our composer (Sean Murray) very early on. He and I had worked together on the True Crime series, and I really liked the fact that he uses a lot of sound design elements in his music. He's a fantastic composer, willing to work hard...and he really wanted to do something innovative for the genre. In essence, he was a perfect fit for us.
So, we started by changing where our influences generally come from for this genre: "Saving Private Ryan". We wanted to create a moody, stressful atmosphere, and have music that would complement the sound effects instead of fighting for sonic space with them. We settled on the movie "Thin Red Line" and really got into it, prototyping several styles and moods using his vast array of synths.
It didn't take long before we realized that we couldn't completely abandon the roots of the franchise--it was just sounding too much like a red-haired stepchild, and less like a unique take on what we'd done in the past. It had always been a full orchestral score, with very traditional instrumentation and composition - somehow, we needed to maintain this, while also adding the fresh changes that we wanted to make.
I think it finally started coming together when working on the 'Black Cats' mission. Getting our orchestral pieces put into this map was very challenging...and sadly, the mission was just missing something. Strings (which are great for adding tension) were completly washed out by the 50 cal turret on the side of the plane. Horns, while they blasted through, didn't add the kind of intensity we were looking for.
So, I started putting all kinds of music into the level: traditional japanese, classic rock, metal, psytrace...what? Psytrance?
It worked. The driving beat of trance worked in perfect harmony with the rat-tat-tat of the machine guns. The ethereal sounds and melodies blended perfectly with the cacaphony of the explosions. It made the level feel faster paced and a lot more immersive.
But there was a major red flag:
"YOU can't possibly be thinking of putting psytrance into a World War II game, can you?" I was asked by several parties.
Honestly, it worked so well for Gameplay that for a few weeks I really did consider it, even though thematically it wasn't quite right. But then our audio programmer (Stephen McCaul) had a better idea. Create something completly new by remixing and sampling Sean's music so it's not so different and keep the driving beat.
After a several late nights, the "Black Cat" theme was born. The piece combines traditional japanese instruments and modern techno to create something completely new that really fits the level. Every sound in the music is found across the game's score (see below for Part B).
This worked out so well that we decided to sweeten up more of the traditional orchestrations that Sean had written with lots of elements, from drum sweetners to 8-string guitars. Kevin Sherwood wrote several guitar parts that we began to layer in when we wanted to bring 'anger' or 'revenge' out in a scene.
Thematically, we wanted to do something unique for each of the campaigns. The Russians invading Germany was pretty simple--they were out for Revenge and made no bones about it. The Pacific campaign was a little more difficult, however, the Japanese were known for one thing: ambushes. So we decided that the music's purpose for that campaign needed to keep the player off balance.
The Russian campaign begins in the outskirts of Germany and follows the Red Army into the heart of Berlin. As the Red Army progresses through Germany, their anger and lust for revenge really takes hold of them. The music follows suit. Early in the campaign its very traditional, but the closer you get to the Reichstag, the darker and more disturbing the score gets.
The American campaign doesn't follow the emotions of the Marines as they fight through the jungles of Peleliu---instead, we focused on the tactics of the Japanese. They were known for ambushing the marines and setting traps up in very inconspicuous places. So, we really focused on eerie, quite underscores that blend in with the ambient sound of the jungles. When the ambush(es) take place, we blast loud taiko drums that just shatters the more quiet underscore, usually making you jump.
So after a year plus of work, our game had its voice: traditional orchestral scores, sweetened (when needed) with modern instrumentation, accenting each campaign differntly but appropriately.
Luckily, we were able to sign our composer (Sean Murray) very early on. He and I had worked together on the True Crime series, and I really liked the fact that he uses a lot of sound design elements in his music. He's a fantastic composer, willing to work hard...and he really wanted to do something innovative for the genre. In essence, he was a perfect fit for us.
So, we started by changing where our influences generally come from for this genre: "Saving Private Ryan". We wanted to create a moody, stressful atmosphere, and have music that would complement the sound effects instead of fighting for sonic space with them. We settled on the movie "Thin Red Line" and really got into it, prototyping several styles and moods using his vast array of synths.
It didn't take long before we realized that we couldn't completely abandon the roots of the franchise--it was just sounding too much like a red-haired stepchild, and less like a unique take on what we'd done in the past. It had always been a full orchestral score, with very traditional instrumentation and composition - somehow, we needed to maintain this, while also adding the fresh changes that we wanted to make.
I think it finally started coming together when working on the 'Black Cats' mission. Getting our orchestral pieces put into this map was very challenging...and sadly, the mission was just missing something. Strings (which are great for adding tension) were completly washed out by the 50 cal turret on the side of the plane. Horns, while they blasted through, didn't add the kind of intensity we were looking for.
So, I started putting all kinds of music into the level: traditional japanese, classic rock, metal, psytrace...what? Psytrance?
It worked. The driving beat of trance worked in perfect harmony with the rat-tat-tat of the machine guns. The ethereal sounds and melodies blended perfectly with the cacaphony of the explosions. It made the level feel faster paced and a lot more immersive.
But there was a major red flag:
"YOU can't possibly be thinking of putting psytrance into a World War II game, can you?" I was asked by several parties.
Honestly, it worked so well for Gameplay that for a few weeks I really did consider it, even though thematically it wasn't quite right. But then our audio programmer (Stephen McCaul) had a better idea. Create something completly new by remixing and sampling Sean's music so it's not so different and keep the driving beat.
After a several late nights, the "Black Cat" theme was born. The piece combines traditional japanese instruments and modern techno to create something completely new that really fits the level. Every sound in the music is found across the game's score (see below for Part B).
This worked out so well that we decided to sweeten up more of the traditional orchestrations that Sean had written with lots of elements, from drum sweetners to 8-string guitars. Kevin Sherwood wrote several guitar parts that we began to layer in when we wanted to bring 'anger' or 'revenge' out in a scene.
Thematically, we wanted to do something unique for each of the campaigns. The Russians invading Germany was pretty simple--they were out for Revenge and made no bones about it. The Pacific campaign was a little more difficult, however, the Japanese were known for one thing: ambushes. So we decided that the music's purpose for that campaign needed to keep the player off balance.
The Russian campaign begins in the outskirts of Germany and follows the Red Army into the heart of Berlin. As the Red Army progresses through Germany, their anger and lust for revenge really takes hold of them. The music follows suit. Early in the campaign its very traditional, but the closer you get to the Reichstag, the darker and more disturbing the score gets.
The American campaign doesn't follow the emotions of the Marines as they fight through the jungles of Peleliu---instead, we focused on the tactics of the Japanese. They were known for ambushing the marines and setting traps up in very inconspicuous places. So, we really focused on eerie, quite underscores that blend in with the ambient sound of the jungles. When the ambush(es) take place, we blast loud taiko drums that just shatters the more quiet underscore, usually making you jump.
So after a year plus of work, our game had its voice: traditional orchestral scores, sweetened (when needed) with modern instrumentation, accenting each campaign differntly but appropriately.
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