Date of Award

2006

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Bachelor of Performing Arts Honours

School

Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA)

Faculty

Faculty of Education and Arts

First Supervisor

Dr Cat Hope

Abstract

The video game industry is one of entertainment technologies' largest growing industries. There are thousands of games in the market covering a variety of different genres. There is also a high level technical sophistication in current games along with the game console that runs it. Games are realistic with astonishingly life like graphics. The backing audio and music tracks are performed by leading orchestras and written by renowned composers. Great technological strides have been made in the areas of graphic and audio design. The end user expects the very best and the video game industry is constantly improving software and hardware technology. The dissertation will discuss the research, experimentation and ongoing development of the audio technology in the video game industry, specifically the opportunities offered by binaural recording and spacialisation of video game soundtracks and effects. Different adaptations, applications and integration of audio technologies in the gaming arena will be studied with a focus on recording and playback techniques. The research into binaural applications aims to provide the game user with life-like audio and levels of realism surpassing the current technology commercially available. It explores ways of delivering spacially accurate audio to the gamer with headphones. This reduces the need for multiple speakers and also integrates with the user's current hardware. It also aims to provide new tools for music composers and sound designers to express their ideas. The end user will be exposed to the most spacially accurate audio through headphone playback.

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