Yr. / 2023 / Stereo / Unity.
A Sound World - v2.1.  

1. Green Meadows
2. The Pine Forest
3. The Ship
4. The Lost Island
5. Crow’s Desert
   
6. The Shed + Fire

Implementation | Attenuation + Occlusion*

The attenuation for each event, relies on a customised distance Curve, which helps to create a well balanced and spatialised mix as the user spins between areas. To add depth, scope and detail, I split sound into the following distances:

Close

6. (Shed + Fire), are intended to be heard only when the camera is on top of the object and are designed with sharp distance curves.

Mid

1 & 3 (Green Meadows + Ship), are on slightly longer curves, and should be felt only when aproaching the zones (and muted when not visible).

Far

(Ocean + Sea), are more omnipresent sounds that overlap between zones; they are designed with the furthest distance parameters.

To ease transitions between zones, there are carefully designed Volume automation / lowpass filters for each event (LP filtering only as the volume reachs it’s lowest audible point).  This way, the transition is very natural and retains the upper frequencies as the zone moves away from the camera.  The mix therefore relies slightly more on volume loss over frequential filtering, as the player moves from one zone to the next.  


The spatial imagery of the final mix was also an important factor (so as not to loose realism in headphones).  Each event has been carefully considered and finetuned to create a solid balance between mono / stereo signal within Wwise.

Further experimentation led to the idea that some music would certainly add some strong ambient value, and aid in enviromental storytelling. 

A general stereo musical soundtrack wouldn’t necessarily be a suitable additive, considering the tone of the piece.  However –

What about diegetic music? Perhaps something which conveys activity on the ship, and plays into the sea life tradition? 

To begin with I wanted to write a tune for accordion The Rolling Sea, which is inspired by sea-tunes of times gone by.  Not so much a Shanty, but more an English folk dance in the Key of G maj. Followed by a melodic rendition of the traditional Lowlands Away. 

A: The Rolling Sea – Accordion – 32 bars.
B: Lowlands Away – Accordion  – 16 bars.
C: Lowlands Away Siren – Vocals – 16 bars.

The Final soundtrack is Mastered with subtle EQ / Compression / Limiting within Wwise, but it is free from extreme dynamic compression + Loudness in order to retain it’s naturalistic tone, and secondly, to sound realistic to the listener, in headphones, whilst spinning through the zones.

The Small planet was created using a variety of different assets, and relied heavily on the polybrush toolt to create landforms and physical dynamism.