This presentation describes how to utilize the Half-Life 2 (HL2) Source engine and Open Sound Control (OSC) to communicate real-time sound event calls to a Pure Data (PD) sound driver. Game events are sent from Half-Life 2 to the PD patch via OSC which triggers the sound across a network. The advantage of this approach is that the PD sound driver can have both the sample data and the sound behaviors modified in real-time, thus avoiding the conventional need for a lengthy recompilation stage. This technique allows for rapid iterative game audio sound design through prototyping which increases the efficiency of the work-flow of the game sound artist working on the current seventh-generation consoles and PC video games. This method is also of interest to researchers of game audio who wish to experiment with novel game audio techniques within the context of a game while it is running.
Leonard J. Paul attained his Honours degree in Computer Science at Simon Fraser University in BC, Canada with an Extended Minor in Music concentrating in Electroacoustics. He has a fifteen year history in composing, sound design and coding for video games working for companies such as Electronic Arts, Backbone Entertainment, Radical Entertainment, moderngroove entertainment, Rockstar Vancouver and Black Box Games.
Source: Vimeo