Thanks, Lezz. I'll be posting the results when I'll manage to:
A) Group all of the fragmented data into one single chart (I'm forced to close the survey and create a new one every 100 entries since I'm using a free SurveyMonkey account)
B) make some basic charts to look at.
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I agree with Lezz, it'll be fun to see the results, glad to hear you'll be posting them.
Can I be nosey and ask what you'll be writing about in your dissertation? :x
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No problem. My dissertation is about procedural audio: pretty much creating sound from the information received in-game rather than reproducing it with pre-recorded audio files.
Long story short, my thesis focuses on the fact that the game industry's Sound Design has been stagnating for a solid decade or two; because it doesn't have the proper funds to develop. Not enough households have dedicated sound cards to make any investment in a game's sound design worth it: The investment is practically limited to what the movie industry has to offer... multi-channel sound.
The new multi-core processors, however, might give sound design a chance to shine by utilizing a fragment of a processor's computational power for modern-day sound synthesis; creating procedurally generated footsteps, gun-fire, explosions and other sounds, realistic reverberations, AI hearing (aka machine listening; which would make stealth games extremely engaging) and a lot more.
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that is really interesting.
the part of the stealth games, the AI really hearing at you, could be great.
what would be the difference with the existing system?, for example, in Splinter Cell 3, you have noise levels, and you can cover your own noise (footsteps, gun fire), with ambience noise (jam a camera, turn on a radio, etc)...
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The difference between previous stealth games, such as Splinter Cell, was that the illusion of AI perception was based off of triggers: If you ran within an x unit radius from the AI, it would go in an alert state and approach the last point it received the "alert" trigger. The AI didn't listen to your footsteps simply because there was no such in-game data to be considered as such.
Deus Ex:HR's Missing Link DLC is a perfect example of unrealistic stealth mechanics. While you're still on the Belltower ship, there's a point where you're forced to sneak on the outer docks. A storm is raging outside but, no matter how loud that noise is, the guards still manage to spot you immediately as soon as you jog 10 meters behind them.
Machine listening would have taken into account the high noise-floor of the environment and the reduced reverberation of the outer docks, which would've caused a masking effect of most sounds below a certain intensity level to occur. Some other cool 0-effort features (once you implement the sound engine) might include not triggering an alert state of nearby guards if the guard who spotted you managed to get killed before shouting and much more. (usually, when a guard spots you, half the world somehow knows exactly where you are)
[edited because I'm not 100% sure about Thief 4's machine listening bit]
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Very interesting indeed! I confess I'm one of the "no dedicated sound card and the shabbiest of speakers/headphones" kind of users. I guess I'm more a visual person, but I do understand how more immersive a game can feel when you're properly put inside of the game sound-wise as well as visually. I guess in a way it does become a bit of a cicle, doesn't it? Lots of people don't feel like it's worth it to invest in sound cards or good speakers and headphones and then the devs end up having less reason to invest in audio as well, which in turn just reinforces people's lack of interest in all that.
The idea of AI Hearing sounds pretty awesome :)
Do you also work with audio yourself or are you more interested in the theoretic aspect of it?
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Done. it was pretty easy and short. :)
Good luck on the dissertation, feel free to ask if you ever need someone to answer some more questions, I'd be glad to help however I can (no giveaway required).
Thank you for the prize, anyhow. <3
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Not a bad survey with good questions. Thanks for the link too.
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Went ahead and did the survey. Then asked how I got there. :P
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Any chance you'll share the results of your survey when you're finished?
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(September 2nd) The results are in
(September 1st) I will stop the survey at around 14:00 GMT+1. I've collected 500+ survey entries already so this has been way better than I anticipated. Thanks everyone and good luck with the giveaway. :)
Hi everyone,
I'll go straight to the point:
I made an 8 question long survey (that shouldn't take you more than 5-10 minutes to complete, imo) for an upcoming dissertation that I'll be typing up soon. There should be nothing complicated about it, but if I haven't made myself too clear in any of the questions then please let me know and I'll try to answer you as clearly as I possibly can.
There are no personal questions like "what's your name", "where do you live", "how old are you" or "what are you wearing right now" and no strange conditions in order to join the private giveaway. Just answer that one page survey and then copy&paste the giveaway link provided, so no worries.
Anyway:
[HERE'S THE LINK TO THE SURVEY (the survey has ended)]()
Note: Due to SurveyMonkey's free account limitations I might close the survey and open a clone copy from time to time depending on the number of participants.
FINAL EDIT: The survey has ended. I will post the results some time next week. Thank you all for participating!! :D
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