Future Audio Support

I'm a sound designer and work currently at a studio developing a browser based MMO. I've been using Construct for a few years now and love it but I am eager to think about the future of C2's audio support. Currently this is the only thing holding me back from developing full projects using C2 and not just prototypes.

It's really impressive what Googles Web Audio API can achieve, the effects you can apply to sounds really opens up aesthetic and gameplay opportunities for designers. Check out these powerful in-browser Chrome examples:

Reverb Effects

Positioning, pitch and filtering

Doppler

Box2D - Sounds are effected by position and force of impacts

Audio reactive visuals

Granular effects

I'm aware web audio API availability is limited, even more so that WebGL. However, with the upcoming .exe desktop export, I don't think this should hold either us as a community or Scirra back from creating audio effect behaviors. If I had the skill I'd be right on it. :)

If interested, I can make myself fully available as a sound designer to aid / feedback in the design of these behaviors so that their usage is intuitive to how audio is best integrated into the editor.

That positioning stuff is cool, I hope that'll at least come to C2 like it did in Classic.

We do plan to ultimately support all of this. However right now the Web Audio API has quite a limited reach so it's difficult to justify it. Lots of users have a habit of assuming all features work everywhere then thinking its broken if it doesn't work, so we prefer not to support features which don't have reasonably broad support. Still I think in the near future both Chrome for Android and Firefox will be supporting the Web Audio API, so I'm sure we'll add support for advanced audio features sooner or later.

I really hope that you can implement these features in the future Ashley as they would be a great addition in the sound department. So many possibilities...

Yes, I'm also very much looking forward to it: using audio-filters interactively or even build a game using microphone input (amplitude comparison, FFT etc.)

I think once Firefox gets the Web Audio API we'll look in to this more. Should be a couple of months.

Meanwhile, there's nothing keeping you from modifying the existing sound plugin and adding those features, except perhaps your knowledge of JavaScript or the C2 Api.

Granted, it will break compatibility with existing projects unless you create a new plugin, and it won't work in the arcade, but I think it's a pretty viable option if you really need the features and know your user base.

That's definitively the right stimulus to learn C2 js API. Imagine building a real time sound generator based on some game mechanics with help of C2 event editor, or a looper.

I'm a sound designer and work currently at a studio developing a browser based MMO. I've been using Construct for a few years now and love it but I am eager to think about the future of C2's audio support. Currently this is the only thing holding me back from developing full projects using C2 and not just prototypes.

It's really impressive what Googles Web Audio API can achieve, the effects you can apply to sounds really opens up aesthetic and gameplay opportunities for designers. Check out these powerful in-browser Chrome examples:

Reverb Effects

Positioning, pitch and filtering

Doppler

Box2D - Sounds are effected by position and force of impacts

Audio reactive visuals

Granular effects

I'm aware web audio API availability is limited, even more so that WebGL. However, with the upcoming .exe desktop export, I don't think this should hold either us as a community or Scirra back from creating audio effect behaviors. If I had the skill I'd be right on it. :)

If interested, I can make myself fully available as a sound designer to aid / feedback in the design of these behaviors so that their usage is intuitive to how audio is best integrated into the editor.

Awesome!

I'd love some FFT/Audio reactive input too :)

We've added most of those audio effects since this post. Also: California, FFT and audio input are already supported, although you need the latest Chrome beta right now I think (although it should make Chrome stable soon).

These effects are awesome too Ashley! I'm putting them to use here: [TUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q8A7aos-Kg[/TUBE]

Three really crucial tweaks to the system are needed though:

• Ability to adjust range for each sound (or tag)
• Ability to adjust doppler value for each sound (or tag)
• Ability to disable panning for positional audio for each sound (or tag)

With these tweaks, this'll make the audio engine super brilliant.

We've added most of those audio effects since this post. Also: California, FFT and audio input are already supported, although you need the latest Chrome beta right now I think (although it should make Chrome stable soon). <img src="smileys/smiley41.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

nice portfolio —!

CrudeMik that game looks/sounds awesome!

Thanks! I'll be putting the prototype up online soon