Tips on lighting and sounds?

janusthemad · August 2013

I've been building my first quest over the last week or so. I'll probably be publishing it today or tomorrow. One thing that I noticed I didn't really get much mileage out of was the custom lighting and sounds. Does anyone have any tips for when or how to best use these features?

izatar · August 2013

Lighting and sound is responsible for most of the stars you will accrue on a quest. They add an emotional dimension that cannot be captured with story and combat alone.

I have two tips for sound. First, make sure you change the music fairly often to change the mood; I generally use the special place-able sound objects and enable them on point reached triggers. Second, check out all the music choices in the real game instead of the foundry emulator because some of the ones that don't play inside the emulator are very distinctive.

I find lighting very difficult. I have learned the hard way that making something dark that is supposed to be dark will <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> off players. So even the darkest hole needs to be well lit. Other than that, lighting is black magic as far as I'm concerned. :P

janusthemad · August 2013

See, I don't really play with sound enabled usually. I imagine that's part of my mental block while using it. I can definitely appreciate how it would lend to the mood though. What sort of music transitions would be appropriate in say .. a long combat crawl down a sewer tunnel? I can't say I have too many ideas on how to pull something like that off.

artgod · August 2013

janusthemad wrote: »

See, I don't really play with sound enabled usually. I imagine that's part of my mental block while using it. I can definitely appreciate how it would lend to the mood though. What sort of music transitions would be appropriate in say .. a long combat crawl down a sewer tunnel? I can't say I have too many ideas on how to pull something like that off.

You need at least a 'boss' tune for some major achievment. sewers would be like ambient type stuff.

redneckronin · August 2013

As regards the music thing.

How many of us have some "background music" playing when we take the dog for a walk, take the kids to school, are walking down the street?

I'm not talking from an iPod or such.

I'm talking how much music does the "world" play in those places?

Answer: None.

I'm a big believer that if you have to use music to build tension, emotion then the story is lacking. In fact I find the music in most MMO games so distracting, almost universally inappropriate to the moment, and so cheesy that I turn music off.

I'm all for using ambient sounds though, they can add a lot of character to a quest.

All The Best

neverwinter1776 · August 2013

Can't tell you how important Lighting is.
And ambient sounds just help immerse you even further.

Sadly, the lighting system in the Foundry is not that great. you don't have enough control on the amount of light that is cast.
So unfortunately you have to use a color that is not as bright to accomplish this.
It would be nice to have at least a choice of Low, medium, and high light casting. Things that need a soft glow to things that should be bright and eye squinting.

We are also very lacking in the atmosphere options, it's all or nothing in most cases, as mose sky overrides clash with each other. And the only way I can get a nice overall fog effect I only have one color. But again , I may stumble on that sweet combination that gives me what I want or need.

That said. You really need to experiment...a ...LOT....
Look around you for real world examples. And I have to disagrees a bit with lighting up dark areas. They were meant to be dark for a reason (cue ominous sounds here).

This clip of a world I'm playing with would be rather dull without the mood lighting and ambient sounds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2v67KJ4Sok

NW1776

hercooles130uscg · August 2013

redneckronin wrote: »

As regards the music thing.

How many of us have some "background music" playing when we take the dog for a walk, take the kids to school, are walking down the street?

I'm not talking from an iPod or such.

I'm talking how much music does the "world" play in those places?

Answer: None.

I'm a big believer that if you have to use music to build tension, emotion then the story is lacking. In fact I find the music in most MMO games so distracting, almost universally inappropriate to the moment, and so cheesy that I turn music off.

I'm all for using ambient sounds though, they can add a lot of character to a quest.

All The Best

I have to disagree, that is bullwonky. The music in a game or even a movie is to fill a key element you have when your doing everything in real life... and that is the full use of your other senses, and well as harder to quantify things that we humans experience in the world around us and how our minds react to real stimuli. Playing a game will never trigger those things in the same way, regardless of story. Take some of the scarriest games ever made, take away the music, and you will have an empty shell. Often times you do not even know the music is there, because it does a good job of just being another part of the larger picture your brain is taking in.

Music adds a lot of depth that you can not get from a game, puts emphasise on certain elements in far less time then a long drawn out dialogue. At some point, if you try to make the story do all the work, then the story takes away from the rest of the game, and you are no longer playing a game that is trying stimulate all your senses, but just reading a book. Which is fine, as I love to read, but I have my kindle for that.

When you walk into a room in real life, you can get a sense of the atmosphere of the room, the vibe. You can look around and see expression, mannerism, and other tings. It is something we just experience. You can not do that in a game, as all you have is pixels. Sure you can stop the player and explain what they are experiencing, what "vibe" they get from the town, but you risk breaking the adventure with needing too. This is where proper queued music comes in. It sets the tone of the scene in a way nothing short of written words will do and does it far better in some instances. When the player moves into a cave, you can either put in some music that sets the mood of the cave, creepy cave with baddies, home to some eccentric hermit, or whatever. Or, you can pause the game, interupt the player and tell them what they should be feeling. While I wish we had some form of DM speech popup, it is still no substitte for music.

Music in general has on of the most powerful effects on our minds, and can convey a feeling far better then even well written words can. The only substitution is real life.

redneckronin · August 2013

hercooles130uscg wrote: »

Take some of the scarriest games ever made, take away the music, and you will have an empty shell. Often times you do not even know the music is there, because it does a good job of just being another part of the larger picture your brain is taking in.

I'm also currently playing The Secret World.

Got the music turned right off.

Game has had me literally jump out of my chair three or four times.

It manages that by amazingly crafted environments (probably the best in any game I have ever played) and simply amazing use of ambient sounds, and small bursts of dialogue / information to help set the scene.

Before I tuned the music off in this game the only thing I had ever felt about it was that it was an unnecessary distraction.

Same is true in most movies - loud music doesn't build story, it breaks immersion.

PS: I think that "sensory gap" that you think music fills is actually called "an imagination".

All The Best

Tips on lighting and sounds?

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