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Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Power of Sound
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
A new developer diary has turned up at the Star Wars: The Old Republic site today. This one comes from Audio Producer Orion Kellogg from LucasArts. He starts with a quote from the Master himself, George Lucas, "Sound is 50 percent of the movie-going experience, and I've always believed audiences are moved and excited by what they hear in my movies at least as much as by what they see.”
There is no question that Lucas is right. We who are Star Wars fans are sure to instantly recognize Darth Vader's theme or the Cantina tunes when we hear them. "It is our job," Kellogg says, "to create an audio experience that enhances the emotional experience of the game and reaches the quality level expected of the Star Wars franchise."
With that in mind, Kellogg details the creative process behind the sounds for Star Wars: The Old Republic. He discusses voices, aliens, ambient sounds, weapon sounds and, of course, the incredible importance of music.
Lightsabers in particular are a great chance for exploration with every flavor of traditional “vwooooms” combining with truly unique and bass-heavy sabers that will give a terrifying Sith Warrior a rush of power. We’re taking traditional sound effects and then tweaking them in dozens of different ways, pulling the most out of the source material provided by KOTOR veteran Julian Kwasneski and taking the sound variety to a new level. As these weapons combine with sizzling Force powers like Force Lightning and crunching specials like Stock Strike, the resulting sound combinations are as dynamic and varied as any weapon system I’ve heard in an MMO.
It's a wonderful article that you won't want to miss.
Comments
The attention to detail and level of work they are putting into this aspect appears to be what really scares a lot of vet MMO players.
The Half empty crew:
It leads to are they putting so much effort into this that the game play and the rest of the game suffers?
The Half Full crew:
If they are putting this much effort into sounds and VO then the rest of the game should rock!
hehe, so much can be read on either side of this article. I am hoping for the latter but, anticipating the former.
Say hello, To the things you've left behind. They are more a part of your life now that you can't touch them.
Orion Kellogg, probably one of the most epic developer names I've seen yet.
Has it been disclosed what the budget for TOR is? It must be huge
they will double their investment cuz this is WoW in space. however, they talk about the audio, why are there no high quality sound samples? why is there no hd video? boring.
Here you are:
HQ sound samples with HD video
They stated that the music and pieces used in that video would return in SW:TOR.
They also mentioned that all of the music pieces of all the Star Wars movies will be used and integrated into SW:TOR.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
I TOTALLY agree! As I was reading the article and came to his name at the bottom, I thought, "You just can't make stuff like that up!" LOL! GREAT name!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
yes like the sound and audio team do the job of the gameplay developers....
You do realize that they have different teams for different aspects of the game right?
This isn't one person in the basement at moms house trying to do this whole thing. It is a HUGE company with many employees, staff, and developers. There are about 3 HUGE companies invloved. They could afford to hire a different team for different parts of the game..
Thought this was common sense.
after watching that whole video I did not hear the Imperial March not one time. Or any sound from the cantina's in the movies. As far as I can recall.
Perhaps they are adding new music themes that are not overplayed such as the ones you mentioned.
Don't know if they will have that high quality sound in the game when it releases, but then if you know anything about gaming rigs, you will know that sound is probably one of the areas rarely up to par. Most speakers and head phones unless you are laying out $300 and up just don't support high quality sound well. Since that covers about 95 % of the gaming public why even bother including such a feature if so few will be able to avail of it?
It is impossible to fail at anything with a name like that. I am officially hyped for SW:TOR.
love hearing all the negative feedback on a positive subject. Who cares how much they are shelling out on the sound. Maybe they are striving for perfection?
I know my computer isn't such a POS that i can't even enjoy audio tracks during gameplay.
I welcome the new audio soundtrack, it will make the game less dull than some of the other games I have played., that have no soundtrack or just effect sounds.
Obviously these people can afford to invest this much in their game, so what is all the complaining about now?
Just seems like no matter what this team does you will always have somebody that don't like it.
Let them have good quality , for the people that have quality computers, (which didn't even cost that much I built my own)
Fantastic article but it makes me a little worried about how they'll be able to output expansions in a decent timeframe with the level of detail they are putting into everything.
You could try downloading the HD video from the link that is on every video they post.
Just a thought.
You guys do know that the "Hope" Cinematic trailer was created by a different company and has nothing to do with the actual graphics or audio in the game itself. So far the graphics are barely a step up from WoW, if any of the gameplay video's are any indication. I haven't really noticed any sound in any of the gameplay clips so I have no idea what it's going to sound like.
But yeah the big thing is don't expect the game to look or sound like "Hope" cause you'll just be really dissapointed.
duh
music speaking, NOT graphics of course lol
Wow.
The music in just that small video was AMAZING. ALso, you saw some very very VERY expansive places in the few seconds they showed different places too.
Music almost brought a tear to my eye it was so much like star wars yet so fresh.
I don't know, the sounds and musical themes when I play Age of Conan in the Cimmerian regions are absolutely astonishing and sound exactly the same as I listen to the DVD.
So I don't see why it shouldn't be possible to have samelike quality of sound when playing SW:TOR.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Obviously, you're wrong, regarding the music that is.
From the article:
"No Star Wars game would be complete without orchestral music, of course, and LucasArts Music Supervisor Jesse Harlin has pulled together an impressive score, the largest we’ve ever done. He, Mark Griskey, and our team of composers have written five hours of new fully orchestrated score for the game. Recorded with a full 80-piece symphony orchestra at Skywalker Ranch, all of the music in the game combined is enough content to fill an entire new trilogy of Star Wars films. Observant fans will note that some of our recent materials—like the “Hope” cinematic trailer—benefit from the inclusion of some of these new pieces and we’re so far thrilled with the results."
Also:
There is 5 1/2 hours of original music in TOR, plus in addition to that the music from KOTOR 1 & 2 plus the music from the movies - Dev Dispatch: Music of TOR
Really, people, what are you expecting, 8-bit Nintento console tunes? Audio is one of the things that can be done at crystal clear, high quality in MMO's.
Edit add: oh, I almost forgot, here's the link to that dev dispatch trailer:
Music of the Old Republic
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
WOW.
OK, you do realize they DO have a budget right?
And as is often times the case some parts are cut down to pay for others, right?
HUGE companies do not = unlimited amount of funds. <-- that is common sense.
No where do I say they are cutting the developer budget to pay for the sound. I SAID this is where the base argument lies tho. Which is why some are complaining over the graphics and game elements they see. Too much money spent on sounds and voices when you could have put ALL of that HUGE companies money into game developement.
No point in being snarky about it. I was not bashing the game at all. Since I have been let down on almost all of the MMO released lately, I anticipate the worst and hope for the best. I do try to base it on facts tho and not capitalized bolded words.
Say hello, To the things you've left behind. They are more a part of your life now that you can't touch them.
Here's another good video on music in TOR: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/starwarstheoldrepublic/video/6268560
You know what else is powerful?
Good graphics.
Hmm.......
Speaking of music, look what someone on TOR's official forum just posted. Guy named "Foulwin" caught it.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v57/chronium/TOR/CorelliaMusicSheet.jpg
Don't know what game you're looking at but it certainly isn't the same one I'm watching. Stylized is a better way to go for longevity, realism dwindles as time passes. I know it comes down to tastes and it just happens that I'm into stylized stuff such as bold lines and comic style art.
I like this part here.
With tens of thousands of lines of alien dialogue and over fifty different species pouring into the game,