Contributing Audio

The best way to contribute audio is to first visit the Discord, ask for a contributor role in the #new-contributors channel, and start a conversation in the #audio channel.

All sound files should be in Vorbis format (with the .ogg file extension) and exported at Variable Bit Rate level 5. The quick and easy way to do this is to export as a .wav, open it in Audacity, and export it again as an Ogg Vorbis file at compression level "5".

Sound Effects

Most sound effects go in an appropriate folder in assets\voxygen\audio\sfx\.

Sound effects that emit from an source in 3D space, like footsteps, hitsounds, and utterances, should be exported as mono.

There are two main ways of triggering a sound effect in-game: SFX events and outcomes.

SFX events retrieve SFX from the sfx.ron file. They are mostly triggered by any of the various mod.rs's in voxygen\src\audio\sfx\.

Outcome SFX are retrieved from sfx.ron and handled in voxygen\src\audio\sfx\mod.rs. Outcomes are emitted from whichever code is related to it, be it combat, server event, etc. The outcome must also be added to common\src\outcome.rs.

UI SFX usually stereo sounds that play directly to the player (i.e. not from a place in the world).

There are is also ambience, used for things like wind and rain. These sounds are always stereo. The code for it is in voxygen\src\audio\ambient.rs, the files are in assets\voxygen\audio\ambient, and its manifest is assets\voxygen\audio\ambient.ron.

If possible, have your SFX tested in-game before trying to merge it; ensure it sounds right and plays at the right volume. Be sure to get a second opinion from the Discord channel!

Music

Music files are found in assets\voxygen\audio\soundtrack\. The game retrieves the files via the soundtrack.ron file. Music should be normalized at -1dB after mastering.

It is customary to check in with one of the audio leads on Discord to get your music approved for the game.

Rough loudness guidelines: For people with LUFS analysis software, try to keep the max LUFS-S (after normalization) between -14 and -13 for exploration tracks, and between -13 and -12 for combat tracks. If in doubt, compare directly with existing tracks.

Exploration

The game plays exploration music as single, standalone tracks in the background. When one track ends, some time passes before another track plays. Which track is played is determined by which site, biome, and time of day the player is in.

The available sites currently are the overworld, dungeons, caves, and towns.

The available biomes currently are Grassland, Forest, Desert, Tundra, Lake, Mountain, Ocean, Jungle, Savannah and Taiga. A Swamp biome is planned, but doesn't exist yet. For an up-to-date list of biomes, see common\src\terrain\biome.rs.

It is worth noting that biomes are descriptive, not prescriptive, when it comes to code. The world doesn't generate based on biomes, and biomes are determined based on existing chunk data.

Certain biomes supersede others - most notably, snow-covered mountains will count as Tundra. If you want to know exactly how biomes are determined, see get_biome() in world\src\sim\mod.rs.

Also note that music may play in more than one biome and time of day, though we generally want to minimize this as more music gets added, to give each biome a more distinct tone.

The times of day are day and night.

The best way to get a feel for the tone of the soundtrack is to simply listen to it.

Exploration music should have soft starts and endings since they come in at essentially random times.

Combat

The current implementation of the combat music system is as follows:

"Combat" as a state is when the player comes within a certain distance of enemies with either high health or high quantity. Currently, combat music is reserved for the old, underground dungeons. Upon the player entering combat, a start segment is played. If it ends and combat continues, a loop segment is immediately played, before either fading out or playing an end segment when combat ends.

• start is a short intro attached to a loop. If the composer is smart, they can shorten this segment by having it somehow transition perfectly into the loop without playing the entire loop itself.

• loop is the main portion of the combat music. Since the music only comes in when the player is in a fairly dire situation (mobs of enemies, hard enemies, and bosses), the intensity of the music should be fairly high.

• end is a very short cadence coming off the end of the loop, and is only played if the fadeout can't complete before the loop ends. Should give a sense of finality.

It is important for the transitions and loops to be smooth. This means the loop must be "exported as loop"; the tail (the residual release/reverb at the end) of the loop (and the start) must also bleed into its beginning, as well as into the end.