Hello, I’m Kent Jolly, the audio director for the new SimCity coming out in February 2013. I’ve been with Maxis since 1998. The first big game that I worked on was SimCity 3000 as a sound designer, and from there I went on to work on The Sims, SimCity 4, and Spore. It’s really cool to be working on SimCity again after such a long time. There is so much more we can do now than we could have done before. Today, I’m going to talk a little bit about how we’ve implemented traffic sound effects in this game, as well as give you a peek into some of the music.
One of my favorite aspects of SimCity, and especially this new SimCity, is the challenge of creating a great traffic and city ambience. The reason I’m singling out the traffic is because it’s amazing how different it is this time around. Because of the GlassBox engine, the traffic is no longer a representation of congestion or road type, it’s actually showing you where people in your city are going. People are on their way to work, going out of town, going to the shop, going home, etc. That means that cars don’t just disappear because there isn’t "traffic" there, and it means that you don’t see trucks in an industrial area just because it’s an industrial area, you see all of this happen in your city because it’s really moving resources from a manufacturing plant to a commercial store etc. So, how does that affect audio?
In previous SimCity games we simply counted the number of cars and then played sounds randomly in that general area to replicate the simulation. If it was residential area then you got "residential" car sounds, and if it was an "industrial" area you heard more truck sounds, etc. In this SimCity the cars are actually tracked individually! We wait for a car to hit a stop light and then when it leaves the intersection we can play a sound of a car pulling away and not just any car sound, the right car sound! We can also track the car as it moves and play a sound as it drives past.
We also change the sound based on the SimSpeed of the game. As the cars go faster and faster we adjust the audio to match what you see, but it remains true to the actual traffic. We’re showing you the visuals of the audio debug; it won’t look like this in the game, but we’ve left it up so you get a sense of where and how the sounds are actually playing.
So, that’s the traffic system in a nut shell.
The music in our game is something we’re also pretty excited about. We’ve decided to work with Chris Tilton, a composer in LA who works on the Fringe and Alcatraz TV series. He’s been doing great work for us, and we’re going to be recording with a full orchestra in late August.
The music in SimCity has always been very strong, but the one thing it didn’t have was have any interactivity. There was as set of great songs written and a jukebox that played those songs for you in random order. In this SimCity, we don’t want to lose that. There is still great music to be listened to, but we also want to subtly adjust the music to your experience. There’ a few ways we do that the most important being that we adjust the mix of the music based on various game states.
An example of this is when you are zoomed out, you’ll hear a fuller version of the score, but when you zoom in, we take away certain elements off the tracks. This also brings down the music in general. We did this is to help make room for all the activity going on in your city. We also add various elements to the music when you open up a data view. The music also shifts when you enter edit mode on a building, shifting to a much more rhythmic focused track. Each time you enter the editor the music will pick a set of tracks to put together on the fly. Lastly, the music tracks are written with population in mind, and we expose the full playlist as your city develops and grows in population.
So that’s it! These are just two ways in which the game has changed since nearly nine years ago. There’s a lot more in store! I thought I'd leave you with one of our early tracks, there are still a few things yet to do on it, but I think it's cool enough to show off! Thanks for your time.
Comments
Really like it Maxis! Is the
Really like it Maxis! Is the interface in the two images an early version of the game interface or just the debug interface? It looks really clean and simple, which is great!
cant wait looks like you guys
cant wait looks like you guys are doing a fantastic job :D keep up the great work
Cool interface!
Cool interface!
The music is, great. Which
The music is, great. Which reminds me, The Sims 3 has good music too, but it doesn't have the same feeling that your composers have always given to your franchise. Nevertheless, I appreciate all the hard work your team is up to, and can't wait to purchase your product this coming February!
Is going to be a MAGLEV
Is going to be a MAGLEV system in the new SC?
+0 simoleons / hour? Is the
+0 simoleons / hour? Is the game time scale going to change? Seems interesting...
Mr Jolly! The idea of
Mr Jolly! The idea of bringing specific tracks in and out depending on your level of zoom is pure genius! I love it all. Make an off-line version and this game is mine :D
The blog topic was requested
The blog topic was requested over at twitter a few weeks ago! Very nice pick imo.
I'm literally drooling. I never thought I would actually "drool" over a computer game.
I noticed the income is set
I noticed the income is set to per hours, maybe we get a more realistic time
That sounds fantastic. one of
That sounds fantastic. one of the main things i didnt't like about sc4 was the traffic and the vehicels just disappearing. now you change this and also add realistic sounds. keep up the great work i've been waitinf for a new sim city since sc4. Societes was crap by the way
Thanks so much for listening
Thanks so much for listening to my suggestion. I suggest this topic few weeks ago and its great to know all the hard work that is going to make the city sound as realistic as possible.
Can't wait for this game to
Can't wait for this game to come out... Loving the interface thus far.
I'm really liking the
I'm really liking the direction this game is going after the game trailers!
Awesome stuff! Is there any
Awesome stuff! Is there any chance you guys will make a new Simant???
A New Sim ANT??? now there's
A New Sim ANT??? now there's an IDEA.... How freaking COOL would it be on todays machines to go crawl around and see the world from an Ant's perspective?? The game engine could be GLASSBOX.. so the nests look amazingly detailed.. and the surface too, I want a sim ant now, GOG.com needs the original game on there, I'd be happy to pay $5.99 for it..
This soundtrack has an Indian
This soundtrack has an Indian (not US indian) feel to it, which is kinda cool, it's a huge departure from previous Sim Cities.. I would love to hear a LOSSLESS version, Speaking of which, Is EA planning on maybe releasing a Soundtrack Album? If so what bitrate would it be? I am an AUDIO nut.. I gotta have the best sounding music for my Home theater system, I have my Computer hooked up to my 42" Vizio, and I have a 5.1 Pioneer Reciever with 4 3d-ready HDMI ports.. I only use the best wiring for the system, and have a custom subwoofer, the provided 50 watt subwoofer was a JOKE. My sub runs up to 500 watts, but I usually run it at 150. Movies are at 300 watts.. I have a 7870 ATI card, perfectly capable of displaying all my games in full settings on 1080p.. Even Battlefield looks too realistic.. I only hope glassbox runs really well on my setup. That game engine looks amazing, I know this game will put Cities XL-2012 to an end, after seeing this game in action why would I even want another City builder? I almost want to go into hibernation until March 1st.. I'm so excited about this game, I have longed for a sim city follow up to SC4, that game was ok, but EA never fixed all the bugs, Thank you EA.. (not) I thought another game (Spore) would be fun too, but almost 3 years since patch 1.5.01 come on EA, don't just abandon this game and not allow MODS.. Spore looks good on my system, when it wants to work that is.. I only hope after paying $80+ for the Deluxe version of Sim City EA actually pays attention to it.. seriously.. this game should be babied... pampered, and nurtured to the point you patch it every 3 months or less.. I love it when games get patched, especially even years later, it means the Developer hasn't given up on the game.. Please EA make sure this game is PERFECT.. I want to beta test it if possible, I love beta testing, I do it all the time for Sony on PS3/VITA games..
Not to rain on your parade,
Not to rain on your parade, but:
You claim to be an audio nut, and then say you use Pioneer equipment. Dude, just no. Price does not equal quality, anyone with a £200 pair of Bose headphones can tell you that. Pure power of your subwoofer of course doesn't say much towards it's clarity, warmth and punch. Heck, I spent £19.99 on a PC Line 5.1 set and dude, they're good enough to use as monitor speakers while I'm mixing.
You game, but you have your computer plugged into a TV set. Why? Using a television set with a computer is like using a lawnmower engine to drive a tank. So you get the screen size, that's great and all, but you gotta sit 6 feet back from it or you can see the pixels. To put it into perspective, a good gaming screen in the 17-19" range is going to be the same 1920x1080 resolution as your TV. A good 26" screen is going to be 2560x1440. And you can sit close to it without hurting your eyes or straining your neck. And the colour and contrast are good. LCD TVs, even if they have LED backlights or they're the new "Generation X+1" Plasma, have notoriously crap colour control because they're TVs. You don't reference colours on a TV. You don't set your computer's white-point on a TV. You use a computer screen. Most modern TVs also use softening/sharpening, noise reduction and picture combing by default and you cannot turn this off. Result: movies and TV in MPEG format look better, but your computer image is mangled and no longer truly represents what the computer has produced in the first place.
I use my laptop for gaming. It's got a 15" 1680x1050 screen with good colour, and a nice crisp LED backlight. This is powered by an AMD Radeon 6750M with a gigabyte of RAM for shaders et cetera. The whole machine is controlled by a Intel Quad Core i7 running between 2.2 and 3.1GHz depending on what I need it to do and how flat the battery is. It has a 2.1 Altec Lansing speaker system. You know what? I may have a couple hundred less pixels to play with than you, but I'm pretty sure I will enjoy the game just as much.
Though I do agree with you:
This will be the final nail in the coffin of the Cities XL franchise. Then again, it was Focus themselves who hammered the first nail in. The game has been a complete shambles since the first edition, with Focus even conceding that CXL2011 was so error-riddled that they offered people an 80% discount to upgrade to CXL2012 - which had the SAME BUGS. The only thing that originally piqued my interest in CXL was the full 3D, and the photorealism. It did neither very well, and crashed a lot, failed to load textures, and the traffic engine was pitiful.
To address your fears of the new Sim City game not being 'moddable' - the developers have reiterated many many times now that this game is being built with modification constantly in mind. Whether or not they just mean texture colours, or if they're including a tool to create your own models and rules for the game, has not yet been made clear. Remember, the game is 8 months from completion. They could suddenly decide to use Google Sketchup models and rebuild everything in this time.
And you don't really need a soundtrack disc from the game. Sim City 4 didn't have it's own special disc, but the audio was right there, named and everything, in MP3 128kbps format in the game folder itself. You could, you know, always just burn your own. That way you spend 50p on a disc, not £12.
Also, darnit, use paragraphs!
This all sounds VERY COOL and
This all sounds VERY COOL and AMAZING! I can't wait till this game comes out!!!
Out of interest, wheres the disaster tool in the images?
SIM CITY NEEDS TO BE
SIM CITY NEEDS TO BE REALISTIC!!!! (Physics) My Pet hates are despawning vehicles and characters and unrealistic building construction (i actually dont like plobables, but as it adds depth to the games its ok) also please, please, please [[dont make the buildings stretch, they are not elastic bands, they need to build stage by stage as in real life]], i dont want sim city to be a game as such that will be a major turn off, i want it to be a representation of the real life development of a city.
i think you're going to be in
i think you're going to be in for a very good surprise. this is exactly what these people are promising with Glassbox.
Love it
Love it
Oh wow! i really like that
Oh wow! i really like that Sound!!! Can't wait to play it!!! :D It sounds so cool!
Somebody said that this
Somebody said that this interface is really bad. I don't think so, it's really simple and good! (unlike the noisy interface in A-train) Just one question: can I expand the RCI button to a big graph?
I have waited so long for a
I have waited so long for a new sim city I played every one accept 2000
i hope their going to be a u
i hope their going to be a u drive it like SimCity 4
The music is 100% in line
The music is 100% in line with what I like hearing in simcity.
wow it's great that the music
wow it's great that the music even feels like Sim City music :D
Really like the game in every
Really like the game in every way, and the games only going to get better as it comes closer to Feb. 2013!
eally like the game in every
eally like the game in every way, and the games only going to get better as it comes closer to Feb. 2013! pull ralph lauren pas cher
this song is more of a
this song is more of a starting something then to a city song
EX:depperesing song
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