Reel

Process:

On Avowed, we separated most ambience into 3 main categories; beds, emitters, and oneshots. 

Beds:

• These were a mix of Quad and Stereo files, not linked to a location but giving the overall general feel.
• Things like generic trees and wind in a forest, distant ocean waves near the shore, cold wind in the tundra
• We implemented these through 3D Volumes in Unreal that played on the player when inside of the volume, and attenuated from the closes point when outside

Emitters:

• These were sounds that came from specific locations, usually that the player could see. 
• Things like fire, wind in the trees, waves on the ocean, debris falling down cliffs, waterfalls
• These were implemented either through point emitters or splines, placed or drawn exactly where we wanted the sound to come from.

Oneshots:

• This was a special type of emitter that was setup to play a sound or randomly play from a group of sounds, at a randomized location. 
• This was used for things that should be at a specific location in relation to the player but not necessarily seen. Things like birds in the sky or bugs on the ground, random wind or sand gusts. 
• We created a system that was setup within a 3D volume placed down, that while the player was in the volume it would play at a random location in relation to the player, based on parameters setup. 
  • An example is birds playing one of 12 bird cries every 20-60 seconds, in a ring around the player between 1500-60,000 units, about 2000 units in the air.
• We would setup similar soundscapes so similar areas could have the same oneshot system applied to the volume in the area. So if a larger map had two similar forest areas, the same forest oneshot group could be assigned to a volume placed on both forests. 

All of these together created a realistic and immersive soundscape that could be different every time the player went through the area, but was easy to install game-wide