Sonic Days 2024

New gen consoles and modern GPU hardware have opened new opportunities for how sound propagation can be handled in games. In Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, these new opportunities sent the sound crew on a journey to the realms of raytracing and voxelized path finding, towards the ultimate goal: a real-time propagation solution providing an obstruction and occlusion simulation that’s scalable, supports dynamic environments, uses existing data, requires no baking steps, no adding of rooms and portals, or tagging materials with absorption values. Spoiler alert: they did not quite get there! However, in this talk, two senior members of the audio team will present their intriguing and impressive final solution sharing what they learned along the way.

Join Richard Lapington as he delves into the high-level approach behind shaping the audio experience for Alan Wake 2. This talk explores how the Remedy team harnessed sound to craft suspense, establish setting, and support narrative depth. Using practical examples, Richard will guide attendees through key audio techniques, thematic inspirations, and the creative process that brings the eerie and immersive atmosphere of Alan Wake 2 to life. Designed for both audio professionals and game enthusiasts, this session reveals the artistry and technical direction that makes audio a crucial part of storytelling in modern games.

Simulating acoustics within a game isn't a novel concept, but recent advancements and refinements in this technology have significantly enhanced its accessibility. Let’s do a quick overview of what’s possible with todays game audio technology and dive into concepts like Rooms/Portals, Geometry Transmission/Diffraction and Early Reflections.

In the dynamic realm of game development, maintaining a seamless creative flow is essential, particularly within the game audio sector. This panel delves into strategies for fostering innovation, drawing inspiration, and overcoming creative blocks. We will explore methods to enhance teamwork, effectively integrate emerging talents, and ensure their contributions are acknowledged and utilized. Additionally, we'll discuss how industry newcomers can actively participate in and enrich the creative process.

Pax Dei, a huge multi-player open world game developed by Mainframe Industries in Finland and Iceland, with a sound department in Denmark - a one man band in Copenhagen, Bjørn Jacobsen. 

How to approach a game of this magnitude as a single developer and how to scope and prepare for production, setting up a Wwise project of this scale alone. 

Here we will take a look at the game, the project, the wwise project and get an in-depth explanation of how everything is made and how it needs to be set up in order to perform on a map of this scale.