Audio Creation for PGR 3
The who, what, when, where, and why?
by Nick Wiswell, Audio Manager, Bizarre Creations Ltd
I’m sitting here in a small, hot, soundproof room, wondering to myself: “Why do we do what we do? Why go to the lengths we do to make everything not only sound correct, but to sound great?” I thought I’d share my findings with you and who, what, when, where, and why seemed a good place to start.
Who?
There is a five person audio team here at Bizarre Creations, plus a small group of supporting staff at Microsoft in the US. The team at Bizarre is responsible for all European recordings and the creation and implementation of every single sound effect you will hear in Project Gotham Racing® 3. The Microsoft team helps us with manufacturer contacts and most of the US recordings. They are also working with us on music licensing and dialogue.
What?
Most of the work we are doing obviously revolves around the sounds of the cars, but there is far more to the game’s soundscape than just engines. We have been recording and creating samples for each of the cities, crowds, track side commentary, road noise, skids, and the collisions, plus many more little incidental sounds such as gear changes and exhaust pops.
Each of these audio systems is being modelled to a level of detail that just hasn’t been possible before, and it’s great not having to make so many compromises due to lack of voices, memory, or CPU.
When?
Two members of the team (myself and Nick, the audio programmer) moved over to PGR 3 shortly after the completion of the downloadable content for PGR 2 just over a year ago. This team expanded to the current five members over the first six months on the project. During this time our whole approach to game audio has changed and our audio engine has been re-written to take full advantage of next generation hardware.
Where?
(Or to be more precise, where have we been?) We’ve been lucky enough to travel quite a bit in our quest to make games sound better. Every sample in the game has been recorded specifically for the game and for the locales and cars featured, including various German trips, Modena, Detroit, and even Blackpool. It’s a hard life, but somebody has to do it…
Why?
This one is easy, because we care enough about what we do to strive for perfection every time.
Our philosophy with this project was to make everything sound as accurate as possible. PGR 3 isn’t trying to be an obsessive simulation, but it is based on real world physics, and therefore the various audible cues that your brain responds to whilst driving normally should work the same way in the game. Many people have found that you can get so much feedback on what the car is doing from the audio system that it helps their driving and makes them better.
Even with non-car-related sounds such as cities and crowds, you can really feel the atmosphere if you hear the crowd cheer as you pull off a cool slide with the ambient sounds of New York playing behind them.
It creates a truly immersive environment that responds to you as you play.
Oh well, thoughts shared, back to the grindstone or should that be the V8….
Nick Wiswell
Audio Manager
Bizarre Creations Ltd