VORPAL: a middleware for real-time soundtracks in digital games

• Ano de defesa: 2017
• Autor(a) principal: Mizutani, Wilson Kazuo
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Biblioteca Digitais de Teses e Dissertações da USP
• Palavras-chave em Português: Adaptive music; Áudio dinâmico; Audio middleware; Digital games; Dynamic audio; Game soundtrack; Games; Jogos digitais; Middleware de áudio; Música adaptativa; Real-time soundtrack; Trilhas sonoras em tempo real; Trilhas sonoras para jogos
• Link de acesso: http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/45/45134/tde-18052017-112539/

Although soundtracks play an essential role in the experience delivered by digital games, there are a number of design restrictions it suffers from due to technology limitations. This is specially true for real-time effects, a natural demand in the interactive media of games. Developers may either implement their own solutions each time, rely on proprietary software, or neglect the soundtrack altogether. Besides, even the best commercial tools support only sample-based audio, which is one of the main causes for the aforementioned design restrictions. Thus, this thesis proposes VORPAL, a free software game audio middleware implementation that focuses on procedural audio instead while maintaining the possibility of sample-based audio as a more accessible and adequate tool for composing real-time soundtracks for digital games. The middleware, inspired by its commercial predecessors, is divided in two main pieces of software: an audio engine and a soundtrack creation kit. The audio engine comprises a native C++ programming library, which games and game engines can be linked to to play and control in real-time soundtrack pieces created using the soundtrack creation kit, which consists of building blocks provided as Pure Data abstractions. We have interviewed and partnered with professional sound designers to validate our technology, and came to develop a proof of concept game called Sound Wanderer, which showcases the possibilities and limitations of the VORPAL middleware.