Hi guys. First time i need to ask the community a question. And i´m kinda new to game audio so bare with me.
I know that a good share set of attenuation curves for your game can make all of a difference. It helps with the mix, improves intelligibility and tension and can really help to bring the game world alive.
Having said that there are a few things to consider when starting a share set of att. curves:
1) Properties of the sound source itself. Amplitude (energy over time) and frequency content. Two things need to be considered: Our subjective human hearing (Fletcher Munson) and princibles of spacial hearing (propagation in the medium air, reverberation, cocktail party effect and masking, etc). A percussive sound is perceived quite different than a sustained sound. Same goes for a single sound source versus many sources playing at the same time... And a sound that has most of it´s energy in the 800-5000 Hz range will be perceived quite loud and accurate in terms of localization than a sound with mostly high freq. content (short range, med localization) or a sound with mostly bass freq. (high range, poor localization).
2) What sound approach are you after. Are you after a realistic (simulation type) sound or is it more important that the sound sources work in terms of readability for the player as gameplay elements. The second though would be if these to approaches always contradict each other or if you can makea share set of curves that fulfill both needs (that would be the ideal solution).
So going from that what are your experiences with attenuation share sets? right now i would go with 2-4 "near" curves, 2-4 "Medium" curves and 2-4 "far" curves.
What is your approach when designing those curves? Do you go like with a math. accurate formula for volume? How "dramatic" do you guys make the falloff in the first 20 meters and do you let the values for the first 20m the same for all the other curves (lets say generic 200m, etc.)?
Do you use generic curves for all sound or do you also use like specific curves for specific game (sound) elements? How do you design you HP and LP and exterior reverb send level curve over distance? Do you generally use spread or ficus over distance and for what elements?
Sry for the many questions, but this keeps nagging on me and i don´t have the opportunity to talk with experienced designers about that. Hope you guys find this topic as interesting as i do.
Cheers