Useful Tools for Making Video Games

1
Useful Tools for Making Video Games

• Part IV
• An overview of

2
Features

• Built-in DSP effects
• PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PSP, Xbox, Gamecube,
  Windows, Linux, Mac OS support
• Sound designer tools (FMOD Designer)
• 3D sound
• Thousands of sounds at once
• Multi-speaker support
• Supports over 20 file formats
• C, C, Visual Basic API

3
FMOD Hot Games

• Guitar Hero III
• BioShock
• Stranglehold
• Metroid Prime 3
• Heavenly Sword
• Call of Duty 4
• Crysis
• StarCraft II, World of Warcraft

4
Startup Sequence

• // create system
• FMODSystem system
• FMOD_RESULT result FMODSystem_Create(system)
  
• // set speaker mode, 3D settings, configuration
  options etc.
• //
• // load sound
• FMODSound sound
• result system-gtcreateSound(sound.mp3",,
  sound)
• // play sound
• FMODChannel channel 0
• result system-gtplaySound(, sound, ,
  channel)
• // release resources
• Result sound-gtrelease()
• Result system-gtrelease()

5
Configuration options

• if you desire behaviour differing from the
  default such as
• SystemsetOutput(FMOD_OUTPUTTYPE_AUTODETECT/XBOX
  /XBOX360/PS2/PS3/PSP/WII/)
• Systemset3DSettings(float dopplerscale, float
  distancefactor, float rolloffscale)
• SystemsetHardwareChannels specify min number
  of hardware channels before falling to software
• SystemsetSpeakerMode Surround, 5.1, 7.1 etc

6
Channels

• A channel is an instance of a sound. You can play
  a sound many times at once, and each time you get
  a new channel handle.
• Channels can be grouped eg
• FMODChannel channelsNUM_CHANNELS
• FMODChannelGroup group
• result system-gtcreateChannelGroup("Group",
  group)
• result channeli-gtsetChannelGroup(group) //
  i0..NUM_CHANNELS
• result groupA-gtsetVolume()
• group-gtsetMute() // etc.

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3D Sound

• FMOD_RESULT result
• fmodSystem-gtset3DListenerAttributes(int
  listener,
• const FMOD_VECTOR pos, const FMOD_VECTOR
  vel,
• const FMOD_VECTOR forward, const FMOD_VECTOR
  up)
• Pos Address of a variable that receives the
  position of the listener in world space.
• Vel Address of a variable that receives the
  velocity of the listener.
• Forward unit length and perpendicular to the up
  vector. up
• Update these vectors every so many milliseconds,
  not every frame, since frame rate can vary.

8
Effects

• Can create chains of digital sound processing
  effects by adding existing filters one after the
  other eg
• FMODDSP dspDistortion 0
• FMOD_RESULT result
• system-gtcreateDSPByType(FMOD_DSP_TYPE_LOWPASS,
• dspDistortion )
• result system-gtaddDSP(dspDistortion)
• DSP types FMOD_DSP_CHORUS/COMPRESSOR/DISTORTION/
  ECHO/FLANGE/NORMALIZE/PITCHSHIFT/REVERB/

9
References

• www.fmod.org