Making Audio for PlanetSide 2

Behind the Scenes: Making Audio for PlanetSide 2

For this month's dev letter, we wanted to give you a peek into what goes on when making new audio updates to the game, both when it comes to sound effects and music. 

Starting as a new audio team on such an established franchise has been very exciting, while at the same time there’s been a lot for us to get into. Initially, we spent a lot of time playing the game and reading through player feedback on the forums and Reddit. 

This turned out to be very helpful in both establishing what we would value ourselves, while also learning what you, the players, would like to see happening to the game. At the end of this dev letter, we have also provided a survey which if answered would help us to work even more toward what our player base wants. 

Bug fixes and optimization 

Our focus so far has mainly been on bug fixes and carefully updating existing sounds. This has resulted in updates like fixing audio/animation desynchronization issues, and a larger fix for weapons that would spam multiple sound cues when tapping quickly. 

Our most recent submission is a potential fix for the big audio dropout issue. This has been on our radar since the beginning, but since the issue has no clear reproduction steps and the only place we seem to encounter it is on a large and populated live server, this has been especially complex to debug and test. 

So far we have increased the channel limit, which allows for more sounds to play simultaneously, and we just made a system that resets the sound system on every loading screen. Hopefully this will help, but if not, we will continue trying what we can to solve it in future updates. 

Music updates 

We take part in working on the regular updates with the rest of the team, so we’ve had our hands on every new weapon or skin that gets added with new sounds. But one of the inspiring elements for us is adding new music to the game. 

Our latest work was for the franchise anniversary, but we have also tested the waters with various Sanctuary themes, including the updated Halloween and Auraximas versions you might have heard of in the last 6 months. Next, we are also trying to produce something nice for the November anniversary! 

In the coming period, we are working on getting our new soundtracks up on YouTube, with the first example being the PlanetSide Anniversary Remake: 

One additional area we are considering looking into is the NC music, also potentially tweaking some in game tracks. There is more to come in this area, and depending on your feedback on the matter, we have a few different paths ahead we might choose. 

A modern homage to the early days 

One of our philosophies on this project is to look back with respect while taking advantage of modern technology and techniques. One element we really like from the early days of PS2 audio was some of the unique sounds of weapon firing and vehicles for each faction. 

We have done some initial research, and in the future we hope to make certain elements sound more like they did several years ago. 

The modern aspect we want to make use of here is more complex with immersive acoustic technology and mixing techniques. Making busy combat scenarios sound a bit cleaner, while giving the player some more strategic elements for navigating the world through sounds. 

This will of course not be made in a hurry and is quite complex to dig into, so expect minor updates to begin while we monitor your response on the matter. Our goal is to improve your experience while maintaining that great PlanetSide feeling many of us enjoy. 

General improvements 

Besides the points above, our day-to-day also consists of many general improvements. When working on these, we choose an area and try to work on it systematically. The first step is to break it down into categories, start testing and make a list of improvements containing both creative and technical fixes. 

After doing this with weapons for a long time, submitting various updates you might have seen in patch notes, we have just started to move our focus over to vehicles.

If you have any thoughts on areas that could benefit from projects like this, never hesitate to let us know on the forums - we try to account for as much data as possible when we make these decisions.

Conclusion and survey 

As we learn more, both from our own experiences and hearing what you, the players, write and how you react to our updates, we hope to be able to provide some great updates that will make your experience on Auraxis as good as possible. Below you can find the mentioned survey, and it would be very helpful to us if we could get your input submitted in this! 

The first part of this journey has been very exciting for us, and we thank you for continuing to be engaged in the game, both on the battlefield and with keeping the community active. 

PLANETSIDE 2 AUDIO SURVEY 

- PlanetSide 2 Team