Hi everyone!

I'm a student at SAE Amsterdam in the Netherlands, currently working on a research project about the technical and commercial aspects of procedural audio for video games.

I know Andy (Obiwannabe) is the person to talk to about this stuff, so I've already sent him an e-mail containing my questions.

I have posted them here as well, just in case anyone else here can, and wants to answer my questions or has any tips for me. It would really appreciate it!

Questions:

1. Is the non linear (and sometimes higher) CPU cost of procedural audio a bottleneck, or a positive feature?

2. Is the video game industry aware of the advantages and the potential of procedural audio, compared to the more traditional sample based methods?

3. Sample based audio has been around for years. Do you think that video game developers / publishers are prepared to put money and effort in developing procedural audio systems?

4. Do you know of any games that make use of procedural audio?

5. What other good uses for procedural audio can you think of (other than in video games)?

Kind regards and a happy new year!

Imre

Oh and first post btw!

Thanks for the suggestions ! My research project has been completed already, but this does not make the subject less interesting of course .

As for the answers on my questions, Andy Farnell replied me with the following answers:

1: A positive feature

2: Yes, but they are slow to invest

3: Yes, see Audiogaming and Wwise systems

4: Most are casual games on mobile devices

5: Computer animation, simulation training VR, embedded device sonification eg car engine sounds

A more detailed explanation for answer 1 is actually given in his book Designing Sound, and also here, in the "implementing procedural audio" section):

http://obiwannabe.co.uk/html/papers/proc-audio/proc-audio.html

Based on the answer I got from Andy Farnell, and other information found in articles and interviews, I concluded that the game (and audio) industry is slowly starting to become aware of the possibilities and the advantages of procedural audio techniques vs sample based techniques for video games. But, as with most new technologies, it will take (a long) time before the new technology will be (properly) implemented.
There are already some companies that are creating procedural audio models and tools, like the previously mentioned Audiogaming and Wwise, and also Sonory (who make pretty amazing vehicle engine-sound models). This means that there are already companies that are beginning to see the potential of procedural audio for video games in the future.

Some other interesting links I found:

http://www.sonory.org/examples.html

http://puredata.hurleur.com/sujet-1402-crack