The official Creative Soundblaster website has conducted a fresh interview with Zachary Quarles; Senior Sound Effects Designer/Music Composer of Raven Software regarding the audio engine renderer of Quake 4 of course, from its OpenAL support to 5.1 surround sound audio itself, to Creative's proprietary EAX Advanced HD v4.0-5.0+ API, any occlusion low-pass reverb effects that are bounded to follow, and the like. Here's a snoop from it:
"Q4: The OpenAL audio implementation in QUAKE 4 is really great, how was it done and how does audio hardware take advantage of it?
Zachary: From the programmatical (Good Lord, is that even a word?) angle of things, Carlo Vogelsang from Creative Labs came out to the Raven offices towards the end of the development cycle and began work on the actual code-implementation of OpenAL. From there, I went through all the levels in the game and mapped out reverb areas. This information is based around the use of portals in the game. If you shift into a new portal area, then the opportunity to use a slightly different reverb setting is presented to you. It was simply a case of deciding how we wanted the reverb to sound and how often it played a role. Of course, outdoor areas were pretty much dry, while the portions of the game that take place in dank sewer-like passageways become remarkably thick with reverb."
Don't forget to head on over and check out the entire interview for the complete run-down.
