Browse and sort the growing list of GDC Summer sessions by day, time, pass type, topic, and format. All session times are shown in Pacific Time. Check out GDC Summer’s Event Details for more information related to the event schedule.
Guy Somberg (Lead Gameplay Programmer, Echtra Games, Inc.)
Date: Wednesday, August 5
Time: 10:00am - 10:45am
Pass Type: Conference Pass - Get your pass now!
Topic: Programming
Format: Session
Vault Recording: TBD
Audience Level: Intermediate
Action RPG games have a particularly challenging mix. Hordes of monsters of all different shapes and sizes come onto the screen from all directions, and they are all making sounds that are competing for your attention. Add to that the ambience, the music, player skills, pets, other players (and other players' pets!), and you've got a recipe for noise.
In this talk, learn how Torchlight Frontiers is tackling the challenges of the ARPG mix, including a deep dive on importance-based mixing, volumetric sounds, and screen-space distance attenuation.
Attendees will learn several audio programming techniques: how to control a complex audio mix with an importance-based mixing system, how to play volumetric sounds that are not just point sources, and how to encode what the player can see more directly into the concept of distance in an action RPG game.
This talk is intended primarily for audio programmers and sound designers, but it should also be accessible for non-audio programmers who may end up writing audio code (grudgingly or otherwise), and anybody else who is interested in audio.