So while working on my latest project Castle Lovers I realised I had no idea what the loudness standards were for video games. Over the last few weeks I've looked into loudness standards for film and YouTube while working on my trailer project but realise I have no clue where at aim for Castle Lovers. I did some research and found that the general census was that there aren't that many standards set in the industry for video games. Obviously some forward thinking companies like Sony have put limits on their 1st party title but as a whole no one has really laid down the law. I found a blog written by Anne-Sophie Mongeau the sound designer responsible for Shadow of the Tomb Raider and a real gem in her field. She commented on the fact that there were no real guidelines set for game sound and what that meant for us...
"There are currently no standards set for loudness measurements in game audio, resulting in wide variations and discrepancies in loudness from one game to another. The differences in gaming set ups and devices also present a challenge in terms of developing those standards."(Mongeau A.S, 2016)
I'm sure that soon there will be a strive for video game sound standards as there are for film and television due to it's 'recent' move into the main stream. There are reasons for games to follow a standard as Steven Schappler said all the way back in 2013..
"Loudness standards are important in an environment where a number of third party groups are contributing content to the same platform. This certainly applies to video games and game audio. As sound designers and game publishers, we want the end user to have a consistent experience when it comes to loudness levels. Not only should game audio have a baseline for loudness, that baseline should correspond to established standards in television and film. The goal is a consistent experience when switching between movies, television, and games, especially with the next generation of consoles where users have easy access to all these types of media from one unit." (Schappler S, 2013)
After reading these blogs from industry professionals I was a little worried that there wouldn't be a lot to follow in terms of guidelines but thanks to Miss Mongeau in her blog she does explain where the ball park is. Firstly there are three key parts of metering loudness.
Integrated
Average of all audio over time measured.
Measured in LUFS (Loudness Unit relative to Full Scale)
Range:
Difference between the highest and lowest sound.
Measured in LU (1LU = 1dB)
Max Peak:
The highest peak of loudness during time measured.
Measured in dBTP (deciBels True-Peak)
Now that we know what to look for what are the standards for most other programs. Well since I'm using Fmod the inbuilt loudness meter follows the Europe standards of EBU R-128. The recommendations for games following R-128 are as follows
-Program level average: -23 LUFS (+/-1
-True peak maximum: -1 dBTP
So basically I should play my game and monitor the levels through Fmod to see where I lie within these standards... which I did of course or this blog would be boring. Below is a photo of my results.
So in the yellow circle is my little loudness meter that's built into Fmod. In the green is my integrated LUFS which total to an average of -20.2. The blue circle is my peak which is sitting pretty at -1.3 so under the limit which is good. Not so importantly but kind of interestingly is my red circle the range. My range is 6.1 LU which means that there isn't a whole lot of dynamic range in my game which makes sense because there is always music playing and the only real break from audio is the transition between night and day which takes all of 2 seconds to change between the tracks.
Overall the results are pretty good, the standards I was marking my project to are console or PC game standards so I don't necessarily need to be right on the -23 LUFS and anyway I'm pretty close. This was a neat little experiment and it really opened my eyes to the standard that my future projects should live up to.
This really helps me in my composing, recording and everything in between because the closer I get to the standard the less balancing I'm doing later. One thing I should really improve on however is my dynamic range as there really isn't much room to rest. For a phone game it makes sense because playing phone games compared to PC games are quite different in terms of time spent playing and also attention being paid to what you're doing. I hope you learned a thing or two from my little insight and thank you for reading!
References:
Mongeau, A. (2016). Loudness and metering in game audio. [Blog] GAME AUDIO & DIGITAL ART BLOG. Available at: https://annesoaudio.com/2016/07/27/loudness-and-metering-in-game-audio/ [Accessed 9 Aug. 2019].
Schappler, S. (2013). LISTENING FOR LOUDNESS IN VIDEO GAMES. [Blog] Recording and Sound. Available at: http://www.stephenschappler.com/2013/07/26/listening-for-loudness-in-video-games/ [Accessed 9 Aug. 2019].
Taylor, M. (2012). Video Games and Loudness Standards: Interview with Sony’s Garry Taylor. [online] Designingsound.org. Available at: http://designingsound.org/2012/07/30/video-games-and-loudness-standards-interview-with-sonys-garry-taylor/ [Accessed 9 Aug. 2019].
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