Get the hell out of my way!

These are two special modes designed each with a specific purpose: Complete the map as quickly as possible (Time Attack), or complete the map with the highest score possible (Score Attack). Both modes force you to take a completely different approach when playing the level (well, if you want to do well that is!). For instance, during time attack, it’s typically optimal to skip as many areas as possible. Sometimes you can do this by jumping off of crawlers or by rocket jumping. Score Attack encourages you to rack up (wrack up?) kills, multi-kills, and to chain together as many kills as you possibly can. Basically, it’s a slaughterfest with a bit of treasure hunting thrown in (some of which can take a lot of skill to get)!

What’s best about these modes though is that you’re not just competing against yourself – you’re competing against the whole world! That’s because your best time/score on a particular map is submitted to the leaderboard!

What? I'm LOSING?! NOOOOOOOOOOO!

What’s even better is that not only is your score/time submitted to the leaderboard, but your replay is as well! Not only will people be able to see your amazing time or score, but they’ll be able to see how you pulled off that amazing feat as well! Plus, if you’re dumbfounded by someone else’s time/score, you can easily check out how they did it without having to run to YouTube! Not only that, but this method will be a powerful cheat deterrent as well.

Runners, start your engines! It’s going to be fun!

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Brad has created a system that is a pleasure to work with. You’ll discover that it will be easy for you to plug your own sound effects into the game. The ease of doing this has made it even more fun to work on this project. It’s easy to try sounds out and see how they fit. Does the sound help the mood? Is the volume, treble, bass, etc. correct so it doesn’t cover up other effects that are important to hear? Those and other questions take a short amount of time to answer. All I have to do is give the effect the correct name, put it in the Sound directory, run the compile script (a batch file) and select that I want to compile Music and Sounds. Some seconds later I’m ready to run the game and see how everything is sounding. Great planning and programming on Brad’s part!

Back in the 90′s I came upon the audio editing software CoolEdit (by Robert Ellison and David Johnston, former Microsoft employees). I became a beta-tester and started using it most of the time. But I didn’t use it exclusively because I had gotten used to using other software that did what I needed to do. When CoolEdit became Audition, Adobe kept up the standards set by Ellison and Johnston and made the software even more powerful. Originally, Adobe bought CoolEdit Pro and sold it as it was, renaming it Audition. With Audition 2, they started adding features. After Audition 3, they came out with Soundbooth, a less powerful, consumer friendly version. It seemed they were going to forget Audition completely. I think they realized that was a mistake and now have Audition 4 (as of April, 2011).  But, from what I’ve read online, Audition 4 leaves out some powerful features of Audition 3 (tone/noise generation being an important one to me — good sounds to build effects from). So, I’m using Audition 3 for Wrack. Please understand, though, that almost any modern  multitrack audio software can work for sound effects creation. And this is not a recommendation for Audition. Audition 3 has some interface problems that make it not so fun to work with at times.

The first thing I did to start the creation process was to play the game as it stood when I first came on board. I didn’t have any temporary sound/music on so I could get into the mood of the action alone. I took notes of where I thought sounds should be used. After going over things with Brad and making some basic decisions, he created hooks (maybe not the technical term) for the individual sounds. We continue to do this same thing as new aspects of the game are developed.

For sounds that have to be synchronized with an animation, I play the game and record a video with screen capture software (but you could use a video camera and upload it to your computer). It doesn’t have to be a great video, but it should clearly show the action you are creating a sound effect for. If you’re going to replace existing sounds in Wrack, you won’t have to record a video since you can make your effects line up with the effect(s) being replaced.

I import the video into Audition. Then I open “raw material” sound effect files that I think can be layered to make a new sound for the action. Each raw material sound effect is put on a separate track. Audition has many effects that you can use “real time” in Multitrack mode — non-destructive effects that do not affect the original raw material. I can use most of the effects available in Audition this way (pitch shift, EQ,  reverb, modulation, echo/delay, amplitude/compression, etc.). This makes it easy to try different effect settings. The effects I use most often are pitch shift and EQ.

Next, I create markers for the start and end of the action needing a sound effect. If there are other things within the action that need a special sound, I create a marker for them, too.

Now I drag raw material sounds to the correct marker(s) and play them while watching the video. If they sound close to right and the timing is correct, I move to tweaking the sounds.

Before I talk about tweaking the sounds, let me explain where my raw materials come from. I’ll also talk a bit about income tax Almost everywhere I go, I carry a solid state digital recording device (years ago it was a DAT — Digital Audio Tape recorder, and before that it was a cassette recorder). If I hear a sound that I think is different/unique/catchy/whatever, I record it. This helps me in at least two ways. I have lots of free sound effects to work from. And, since I am in the business of sound effects, for tax purposes I can write off the expenses of collecting them — meaning it helps pay for trips

When I was working on Duke Nukem, I needed a servo sound effect. No raw material I had was close to what was needed. Then I remembered the soft drink machine (I was at Apogee/3D Realms at the time). I took the DAT recorder and some bills/change and ran that machine through it’s paces. The change return mechanism ended up being perfect with a little pitch shifting. Some of the other sounds worked into the game, too — the can coming down the chute, the whir of a defaced dollar being rejected and the coins dropping. Another time I needed sounds for when Duke was in the HVAC ducts. That was a square metal office trash can being flexed. And did you ever get Duke to relieve himself? That took drinking all the drinks I bought from the drink machine and a visit to the men’s room — oh, and a long time finding a short loop that allowed endless urination on Duke’s part

Bugs! Bad for software, GREAT for raw sound material. Electronics can sound really weird when pitch shifted. Home appliances. Tools. Vehicles. Animals. The sky is the limit. And you don’t have to pay a lot for a recorder. Many of the inexpensive ones do a great job for sound effects — especially those sounds to be layered with other sounds.

And, yes, there are some fantastic sound effects CD’s out there. If you look around, you’ll find older CD’s full of sound effects of yesteryear. They can come in very handy and are not expensive at all. For personal use, you’ll have no problem using any of them, but if you’re going to use them in a commercial venture, make sure permission is given for that.

And, of course, there are literally tens of thousands of effects available on the web, some for free, some inexpensive and some not so inexpensive.

Tweaking sound effects is an art, but it requires familiarity with your audio editing software, too. I look at the video and somehow hear how I think that action would sound. My only task is to get that sound out of my head and into reality. This requires tinkering with settings on effects, trying out different combinations of sounds and such. Lots of times I give up getting the sound right and leave it for a day or so. When I come back to it, I’m usually able to get it the way I want it.

Some of the sounds in Wrack are layered from dozens of sounds. I may use several sounds just for the start and end of the action. A click, followed by a whir, followed by several layered sounds that are remindful of air whooshing in a pipe. When I’m working on such sounds, I try to slow down the final effect in my mind and decide what will build up to creating that effect.

So, let’s say you’re replacing a lift (elevator) sound in Wrack. You’ll have three sound files to create. The first will be the start sound (Sound #1). The second is a looping “movement” sound (Sound #2). Some lifts in the game travel further than others. Rather than having to time all of them and create multiple files with the same sound in different lengths, a loop is used. The third sound would be the stopping sound (Sound #3).

The starting and ending sounds cannot be too long or they may last longer than the travel time of the lift. They probably need to have a switching sound followed by a mechanism start/end sound. And, most importantly, they will need the looping sound (Sound #2) layered in so that there’s not an abrupt change in sounds from starting sound to loop to ending sound.

In the early days of game production, sounds had to be short and sweet — limited RAM, disk space, etc. Looping sounds were required. A looping sound is one that can be played over and over, and the listener will never know it’s not an endless sound. Simple sounds (sounds that do not change over time) are easy to loop. Complex sounds (which change over time) are time consuming to loop. Some are virtually impossible to loop. There is no magic formula for complex sound looping. It takes a good ear and luck. It also helps to be able to look at a waveform and see where the looping possibilities are.

The important thing is to always loop at zero points and make sure the waveform continues in the same direction it was going. If the waveform is moving in a positive direction at the end of the loop, the start of that loop should move from zero in a positive direction. Otherwise, you get the dreaded CLICK that says another iteration of the loop just started.

So, here’s what you’d do:

1. Decide on your looping sound and create it (Sound #2). If it’s layered (multitrack) sounds, mix it down to a single file (but keep your multitrack version for possible later use).
2. Turn on zero crossing in your audio editing software so you will always be looping at a zero crossing point.
3. Select part of the waveform.
4. Play your selection.
5. If it loops seamlessly, YIPEE! Go to step 7.
6. If the loop isn’t seamless, change either the start or the end of the loop. Editing just one end of the loop seems to get faster results for me rather than reselecting both ends. Always move that one end of the selection to a zero crossing point. Go to step 4.
7. Decide on your starting sound (Sound #1).
8. If you’re using layered sounds, put each sound on a different track.
9. Make sure you put your mixed down loop sound (Sound #2) on one of the tracks.
   1. If the loop (Sound #2) is shorter than the starting sound, use multiple copies of the loop (Sound #2).
   2. Most importantly, you want to make sure that you have the end of your loop (Sound #2) aligned with the end of the starting sound. Remember that the loop sound (Sound #2) follows the starting sound. You always want the end of the loop to play before the start of the same loop.
   3. The best way to do this is to work backwards. Put a copy of the loop (Sound #2) with its end aligned with the end of the starting sound. Then add copies of the loop to the left of that loop. If there’s not room for a full copy of the loop (Sound #2), trim the start of the loop so your partial loop fits the space. Again, you’re making sure the end of the loop always matches up with the next start of that same loop.
   4. Create a volume envelope for the track with this looping sound. Have the track volume increase as the starting sound plays (a fade in). This way the looping sound (Sound #2) will play smoothly after the starting sound (Sound #1).
10. Do the same thing with the ending sound. This is when you’ll want to trim the end of the loop sound (since the ending sound follows the loop sound — Sound #2).
11. Give your sounds the proper file name and make sure they’re in the Sounds directory of the game. Compile the sounds and play the game to hear your sounds.

These days, if you want to see some interesting waveforms in your audio editing software, you’ll have to look somewhere other than recent music recordings and many game sound effects. That’s because in recent years the music and audio industry have gone with extreme compression. Compression can be set to amplify low volume sounds without amplifying those that are already at maximum volume.

Here’s an example of a typical rock song where heavy compression has been used:

The green part is the waveform. If you play this file at regular volume and try to play a sound effect at that same volume, you’ll hear neither clearly. It would be the same thing as having each musician in a band play at the absolute maximum volume, disregarding that others were doing the same thing. If you were watching a sound level meter, it would be in the red all the time. You’d get digital splatter if you were recording.

So, when you create your replacement sound effects, remember that they will be playing with other sound effects in the game. For that reason, it’s best not to compress your sound effect unless it is compressed at lower than the maximum volume.

I hope this is helpful to some of you when the game comes out, and I hope you like the sounds I come up with for Wrack. I will look forward to sounds you all come up with, too

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What is ambient occlusion? Basically, it’s extra darkness along edges and in corners. Why does this occur normally? Since light tends to bounce off surfaces somewhat randomly, light is essentially scattering around a room in all different directions. So, while any point on a surface (like a wall or something) is mostly being hit by a dominant light source in a room (like a light bulb), it’s also being hit from every direction by scattered light. However, in a corner, roughly half of that scattered light is blocked by the wall at a right angle to it. The result? The corner is darker!

A lot of games do some fairly complex things to try to calculate this in real time. The results aren’t always all that great, and create extra work for your graphics card. Vega, however, builds all of this directly into the lightmap! The result? No CPU/GPU overhead, or additional memory usage! Plus, you get to tweak the settings to make the effect look as nice as you want it to.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Who cares! Just show us pretty pictures!” To which my response is: “Well that’s a little rude. ” All joking aside, I have a couple of screenshots of Vega’s start room which demonstrate the effect perfectly.

Without ambient occlusion:

WITH ambient occlusion:

To really see the effect, it might be helpful to open both screenshots in separate tabs, and then switch between them.

Makes quite a difference, eh?

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My question to you: which version looks better to you? Method 1, or method 2?

Method 1:

Method 2:

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After years of standing in the way of this, I have finally decided to allow for the release of the Skulltag source code. After all, let’s be honest: No longer running Skulltag has given me a different perspective on this issue.

The release of the source code is something that Torr has wanted to do for awhile now. For security reasons, we’re releasing the source to the older 97c2 first. I have given him permission to release any subsequent versions that he desires. After all, who am I now to stand in his way?

Some benefits to this are:

• Being open-source will eventually allow Skulltag to update the GZDoom renderer (provided Graf doesn’t modify the license again)
• Someone might fix Botscript
• Someone might implement a more centralized handling of the client/server code

It will be interesting to see what happens with this. Will a community of people all pitch it and help make Skulltag a better product? Or will other ports use this to bolster their products and erode Skulltag’s multiplayer Doom success? Time will tell!

Anyway, that’s enough from me. Here it is! Enjoy!

http://www.skulltag.com/download/97c2source.zip

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While the first phase primarily had to do with getting the basic technology off the ground (building the editor, getting the scripting system working, getting map basics working, etc.), and the next phase further developed that into a playable demo (lightmapping, basic working monsters, basic working weapons. etc.), this third phase is geared towards developing a small slice of what the game will actually be like. This means we’re finialing the overall look of the game (more on that in a minute), determining what visual technology we’ll need to do this (and implementing this), and developing a few maps that fully reflect the final look of the game, as well as the final gameplay of the game.

Concerning the look of the game, we’ve chosen to take it in the direction of cel-shading. This means that the game will be bright and colorful, looking something like an anime. Meshes will have banded lighting (while still allowing the full spectrum of color), and be outlined. Overall, it looks very cool so far! We’re moving away from a more realistic look to something more interesting, I think. Currently, Mechadon and Esselfortium are working on figuring out how the maps should look under this new rendering system. Once we’ve got it all ironed out, I’ll be sure to post share some screenshots of it!

I’ve also been working extensively on the gameplay side of things. After fixing several bugs/issues noticed at QuakeCon, I’ve added several new elements including powerups and an extensive customizeable skill setting system similar to what’s found in ZDoom. This allows you to define your own skill levels and properties, such as speeds for objects (in some skills you may want missiles to travel faster), player damage factor (so the player can take more/less damage under certain skill levels), and whether or not the monsters should attack more frequently. I’ve been updating the monster scripts to reflect these new properties, and so far I’m very pleased with the results.

We’re well on our way to completing this next phase – a small slice of what the real game will be like, in terms of visuals and gameplay. When this phase is complete, we’ll finally be ready to find ourselves a publisher, and get this game finished!

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For instance, take a look at this shot without shadows:

And then look at this shot with shadows:

Makes a big difference, doesn’t it? Anyone who’s played Doom 3 can understand just how important lighting is. Without lighting, most Doom 3 maps would appear to have simple architecture and simple texturing. However, the lighting brings the rooms to life, making them look very 3D, and is almost solely responsible for setting the map’s overall mood.

It’s amazing how much of a difference one little checkbox can make.

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Just because there haven’t been updates in awhile doesn’t at all mean that progress has been slow – in fact, things have been going extremely smoothly! About a month ago, I scheduled a list of features that I wanted to have implemented for a… “certain event in August” (hint hint). It was supposed to take over two months. I was done within two weeks.

First, a lot of rather simple features have been implemented which have dramatically increased the quality of how things look: filtering, mipmapping, and anti-aliasing. Some of you might have noticed how blocky and pixely the old screenshots of Vega (remember, it’s a codename!) looked. However, these new features have greatly improved how things look. Here’s a little before/after look:

Before:

After:

We’ve also made a lot of progress on the maps and other content. Recently, I took one of the older maps that WastedYouth made, and retextured it using high-res textures. After doing that, doing some minor restructuring and lighting, it looks a hell of a lot better! Again, here’s a before/after of the map:

Before:

After:

So as you can see, things are progressing nicely! A lot of other things have been done, but none of them are quite ready to show… yet! We’ll have an announcement or two in the next few days – after all, I don’t want to cram too much into one post!

Anyway, one small bit of bad news I’d like to pass on – Agent Spork will unfortunately be too busy to be part of the project We’d love to have him aboard, but he’s just too busy with real life issues right now. Despite his absence, we’ll be just fine in the mapping department!

That’s all for now!

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So now we move into the next phase of development: application. To use a housing metaphor, if the first phase was laying the foundation, this phase is about putting up walls, and flushing out the overall design of the house. In short, we’re starting to make use of everything the foundation has provided us to make something we can live in… or in our case, play.

Each phase of development is also broken into two phases: a gameplay phase, and a visual phase. So, once the gameplay elements are all set for a phase, we work on making them all look pretty. For instance, with the maps, in the gameplay phase we focused on getting them up and running so that there was actual geometry you could run around on, and in the visual phase we focused on making them look nice with cool lighting, textures, etc.

So now that we’ve completed the first visual phase, it’s time to get back to focusing on gameplay. It should be a lot of fun to start utilizing everything that we put into place before.

I’ll leave you all with this: a lightmap texture generated for one of the new maps Todd’s working on. Each region represents the lighting for a face, so if you stretch that region out of the face, and combine it with the texture, you end up with the face’s lighting. Enjoy!

A lightmap generated from a new map.

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The process of finalizing the map basically meant copying and pasting one section of it 3x because of the symmetry of the map (kind of like copying half of your CTF map when it’s all done). This quadrupled the number of faces and lights on the map. Even after all of my best optimizations (short of writing the shader in assembly), this brought the framerate to… 12 FPS! :O

What was causing this drop? The lighting. When I turned it off, I would go back to 60 FPS (which is what Vega is capped at). I tried lowering the max. number of lights that could affect a particular face (it had started at 8), and it helped performance, but made things look pretty crappy. After all,  only allowing a face to be lit by one or two lights just plain isn’t going to make them look very good – hell, sometimes 8 wasn’t even enough!

It didn’t seem like there was any way to speed up the lighting. When every pixel on the screen is being shaded by 8 lights, it’s just plain going to be slow… unless you have some kind of monster graphics card, which we don’t want people to have to have. So, I finally I got to thinking that if 99% of these faces aren’t going to be moving, and the lights aren’t going to be changing… why not precompute the lighting?

And that’s exactly what I did! From now on, we’re going to be using light mapping for the lighting as much as possible. I’ve just implemented the first version of it, and I’m very pleased with the results so far. Here’s why I think this is going to work out great:

• It looks just as good! Look at these two screenshots – the first one is using light mapping, and the second per-pixel lighting. Note that they look almost exactly the same – except that the light mapped-shot has 4x the framerate
• Additional effects. Some effects, like shadows and light-emitting faces, really aren’t practical on a real-time basis. So, we’ll end up getting even cooler effects out of this, and they won’t have any impact on the framerate whatsoever!
• We can still do per-pixel lighting. Faces that move, or lights that are capable of changing won’t be factored into the light map. So, we really get to have the best of both worlds!

There are some drawbacks – it will take slightly more memory to do this (but not a lot), and it will either add to the load times, or the time it takes to save a map in the editor. In the end though, it will be worth it… because who wants to play a game at 12 FPS?

Hope you guys are as pleased with this development as I am! Let us know what you think!

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