adaptive mixing in frostbite

HDR Audio

Adaptive mixing in Frostbite

David Möllerstedt, Head of Audio Stefan Standberg, Audio director

Battlefield: Bad Company™EA – DICEaudio<@>dice.se

Agenda• Battlefield Heritage• HDR Audio Principle• Focused Sound Design• Frostbite™• Battlefield: Bad Company™ Runtime Demo• Summary• Questions

Battlefield heritage• Sandbox experience, gameplay driven design, open

ended, free roaming, multiplayer online• All out destruction in Battlefield: Bad Company™

increasing the challenge• Other alternatives; duckers, snapshot mixers, scene

defines, don’t solve the problem

HDR Audio Principle• Measure loudness at Listener position – Scale all sound

sources accordingly

• Handle the dynamic range from the quietest sound noticeable to the pain threshold, Some 130 dB

• Functions similar to HDR lighting

0db

140db

12db

30db

55db

120db

35 db

Time

Hdr off example

0db

140db

12db

30db

55db

120db

35 db

TimeMasked

Hdr on example

Focused Sound Design•Cinematic approach

Focused Sound Design

Focused Sound Design•Prioritize, instead of compete for dynamic range•Play the right sounds, not all sounds•Vital to the sandbox architecture of Battlefield

Frostbite™• DICE’s game engine Frostbite™

• Tight system integration, audio one of the core components

• Destruction integral part of the engine

• Developed for Battlefield: Bad Company™ and to be used by future projects at DICE

Frostbite™

Frostbite™

Battlefield: Bad Company™

Loudness• HDR Audio functions as a culling algorithm• This is a positive side effect• Priority is set according to loudness, loudness is a good

approximation for ‘importance’ especially in FPS game• We set loudness values to create any desired effect

Not Compression• HDR Audio does not have a specific “sound”

• HDR Audio is not compression, all sounds are played uncompressed

• The effect and thus the sound is sometimes similar

• HDR Audio works on logical loudness values and does not touch the actual audio waveform

Boundaries• Not the Silver Bullet

• Special situations still need attention

• First Person focus

Summary

“HDR Audio Make Loud sounds sound loud, and quieter sounds sound as loud as loud sounds”

Summary• Automatic mixing solution• Handle Infinitive dynamic range• Transparent sound

Sounds Interesting?• We are always looking for talented and devoted persons

to join our audio teams

• jobs.ea.com

Questions• Who has the first question?

Thank You

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