Game Audio Development with Unity 5.X

Game Audio Development with Unity 5.X

by Micheal Lanham
Released June 2017
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781787286450

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Book description

Create ‘AAA’ quality game audio with new features and tools built for Unity

About This Book

  • Explore the basics of audio development in Unity to create spatial sound, mixing, effects, composition, adaptive audio and more.
  • Leverage the Audio Mixer of Unity 5.x to create blockbuster sound and music for your game.
  • Learn about developing professional audio for games with FMOD Studio and composing original music with Reaper.
  • Build amazing audio synchronized graphic visualizations with Unity.
  • Understand how real-time character lip syncing can be implemented.

Who This Book Is For

The ideal target audience for this book will be game developers, both Indie as well as semi pro. No prior knowledge of Unity and audio development is assumed,

What You Will Learn

  • Develop game audio and other audio effects with Unity
  • Getting familiar with the new Audio Mixer introduced in Unity 5
  • Implement dynamic and adaptive audio using various tools and strategies
  • Explore interesting ways to incorporate audio into a game with sound visualization
  • Use 3rd party professional audio development tools like FMOD
  • Compose original music and record vocals
  • Understand and troubleshoot audio performance issues

In Detail

Game Audio is one of the key components in making a game successful and it is quite popular in the gaming industry. So if you are a game developer with an eye on capturing the gamer market then this book is the right solution for you.

In this book, we will take you through a step by step journey which will teach you to implement original and engaging soundtracks and SFX with Unity 5.x. You will be firstly introduced to the basics of game audio and sound development in Unity. After going through the core topics of audio development: audio sources, spatial sound, mixing, effects, and more; you will then have the option of delving deeper into more advanced topics like dynamic and adaptive audio. You will also learn to develop dynamic and adaptive audio using the Unity Audio Mixer. Further, you will learn how professional third party tools like FMOD are used for audio development in Unity. You will then go through the creation of sound visualization techniques and creating your own original music using the simple yet powerful audio workstation Reaper. Lastly, you will go through tips, techniques and strategies to help you optimize game audio performance or troubleshoot issues.

At the end of the book, you’ll have gained the skills to implement professional sound and music. Along with a good base knowledge audio and music principles you can apply across a range of other game development tools.

Style and approach

This book will have a step by step practical approach where downloadable free games will be given with the book and readers will be free to work with them.

Table of contents

  1. Preface
    1. What this book covers
    2. What you need for this book
    3. Who this book is for
    4. Conventions
    5. Reader feedback
    6. Customer support
      1. Downloading the example code
      2. Downloading the color images of this book
      3. Errata
      4. Piracy
      5. Questions
  2. Introducing Game Audio with Unity
    1. Introduction to game audio
      1. Main game audio components
      2. Diegetic versus non-diegetic sound
      3. Audio layers or groups
    2. Getting started with unity
      1. Downloading unity
      2. An introduction to unity
      3. Downloading and importing project assets
      4. A tour of the village
    3. Importing audio into unity
      1. Inspecting the imported audio files
    4. Audio sources and listeners
      1. Adding an audio source
    5. 3D sound and spatial blending
    6. Summary
  3. Scripting Audio
    1. Introduction to scripting in Unity
    2. Building a musical keyboard
      1. Importing and playing notes
      2. Enhancing the virtual keyboard
    3. Weapons and sound
      1. Throwing the ax
      2. Understanding the axController script
      3. Playing sounds on collision
    4. Randomizing audio
    5. Background music
    6. Summary
  4. Introduction to the Audio Mixer
    1. Introducing the Unity Audio mixer
      1. Creating mixer groups
    2. Shaping audio with effects
      1. Visualizing audio equalization
    3. The master mixer and controlling signal flow
    4. Routing audio signals in the mixer to effects
      1. Audio effects breakdown
        1. Equalization effects
          1. Lowpass and Lowpass simple
          2. Highpass and Highpass simple
          3. ParamEQ
        2. Delay effects
          1. Echo
          2. SFX reverb
          3. Flange
          4. Chorus
        3. Other effects
          1. Pitch Shifter
          2. Normalize
          3. Compressor
    5. The duck volume effect
    6. Summary
  5. Advanced Audio Mixing
    1. Recording audio changes with snapshots
      1. Pausing the scene
    2. Audio Mixer scripting with parameters
    3. A dynamic audio wind effect
    4. Creating environmental audio zones
    5. Dynamic music mixing
    6. Summary
  6. Using the Audio Mixer for Adaptive Audio
    1. Introducing adaptive audio
    2. Building adaptive audio cues
    3. Creating mood with adaptive music
    4. Vertical remixing with the Audio Mixer
    5. Footsteps with adaptive sound
    6. Summary
  7. Introduction to FMOD
    1. Getting started with FMOD Studio
      1. Installing FMOD Studio
    2. Back to the basics
    3. Effects and mixing
    4. Mixing in a reverb effect
    5. Parameters, snapshots, and triggers
    6. Summary
  8. FMOD for Dyanmic and Adaptive Audio
    1. Dynamic wind and environmental zones
    2. Scripting with FMOD
    3. Revisiting the footsteps example
    4. Adaptive music with FMOD
    5. Transition timelines and stingers
    6. Summary
  9. Visualizing Audio in Games
    1. Analyzing audio with Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) windows
      1. Audio spectrum
      2. Deconstructing signals using FFT and windowing
    2. Examining an audio visualizer
      1. Uncovering the details
    3. Visualization performance and windowing
    4. Audio-driven lighting
    5. Microphone-driven visualizations
    6. Summary
  10. Character Lip Syncing and Vocals
    1. Real-time lip syncing
    2. Speech and phonemes
    3. Blend shape animation
    4. Real-time character lip sync
    5. Recording vocals
    6. Summary
  11. Composing Music
    1. Getting started with Reaper
    2. MIDI and virtual instruments
      1. Virtual instruments
    3. Basic music theory
      1. Chords and chord progressions
        1. Chord progression
      2. Melody and scale
    4. Enhancing the composition
    5. Recording music and vocals
      1. Recording and optimizing vocals
    6. Summary
  12. Audio Performance and Troubleshooting
    1. Audio performance considerations
    2. Profiling performance with Unity
    3. Audio optimization tips and tricks for Unity
      1. Memory optimization tips and tricks
      2. Effects optimization tips and tricks
    4. FMOD performance and optimization
    5. Audio troubleshooting
    6. Summary

Product information

  • Title: Game Audio Development with Unity 5.X
  • Author(s): Micheal Lanham
  • Release date: June 2017
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781787286450