Hi everyone!
In the previous episode you learned about Premium ships in World of Warships.
Today you will see and, more importantly, hear how a sound setting is created in our game.
Full speed ahead!
Developers Diary
When it comes to the evolution of sound in World of Warships,
the game prototype had no sound at all,
and ships of the same type sounded the same in the earliest game versions.
But time passed, and now each warship in the game has hundreds of unique sounds...
All sounds in World of Warships serve a few important purposes.
On the one hand, they immerse players in the gameplay,
creating a unique naval warfare setting.
On the other hand, they help players navigate the battle by guiding
and motivating them to take action.
You can turn off the screen, put on your headset,
and you will know immediately what’s happening and where:
gunfire on the right, explosion over there...
…Basically, we narrate the naval battle through sound effects.
To optimize all this sound variety—from the sound of a working engine to the sound of a creaking hull,
and from the sound of the primary armament gunfire to the sound of received hits—
developers have implemented a technology which they call modular sound design.
What's modular sound design?
Well, first of all, it’s these small sound modules, fragments.
We can tune each of these sound modules in a way that,
if used as a whole, they would produce a completely unique sound for each ship.
As a result, we found a whole new sound “feature”.
And we called it the ship's “sound passport”.
This sound passport is, in fact, a system that plays a unique sound for each ship.
All effects are located in the separate folders of a sound passport,
whether they are sounds for movement, armament, or the surrounding environment.
Players change the speed on the engine order telegraph,
and they can hear all the mechanical sounds and creaking that follows.
The sound layer of the working engine consists of two elements
mixed with a layer of creaking sounds from the hull.
The ship starts moving, and players can hear the sound of the hull cutting through waves
which consists of two layers: noise and a two-phase sound of water falling off the fore.
The primary armament turrets turn: the higher the speed, the higher the sound.
The roar from primary armament fire is a three-layered sound:
the attack, the body of the sound, and the tail of the shot.
The salvo is fired, and players can hear a sound that suggests the reloading mechanism.
All players want the sound in the game to be as realistic as possible.
But no one really knows how the real Yamato sounded when it fired, how these big…
BIG shells hit the ship's hull and what sound they produced.
You have to use your imagination here.
If we simply take a single shot and put it into the gameplay—
say, a shot that was recorded somewhere on the gunnery range—
it won't be as powerful
or as impressive as we need it to be…
Our goal is to design a sound a player wants, a sound a player can believe in.
World of Warships has more than two thousand sounds.
Some of them were taken from sound libraries, archives, and chronicles,
others are designed by sound designers themselves…
Naturally, we make good use of a large library of sounds
that can be heard in the Navy.
But they aren’t enough. We need to spice things up.
And this is where technology comes in handy.
For example, the sound of torpedoes when they hit the ship's hull is quite specific…
We used the sound of a large water tank getting hit
which was further modified and processed…
Giving us (demonstrates the sound).
At the same time, this sound is very descriptive.
It's clear for the player that this is a hit against
a huge sheet of iron and this sound comes from none other than a torpedo.
The sound of a ship being hit,
sounds from distant and nearby shots,
look at the battle through a binocular or from a bird's eye view—
the sound setting of World of Warships is created in real time
through your speakers and headsets.
It depends on the player's position in the game
and responds to the slightest changes in the situation.
…So if we are in the standard view watching the battle from the viewpoint of primary armament guns,
we hear one particular sound.
If we are in a first person mode, using the Binocular View,
we hear a completely different sound…
…Tracking the shell with the camera,
feeling completely immersed in this state
when you are just flying and everything is just “Whoosh”.
The wind is blowing all around you, and you feel all this speed
and power with every fiber of your being…
And then the shell hits the ship and the ship is smashed to pieces.
Apart from its primary goals, the sound in World of Warships
helps create the same, one of a kind,
naval setting that our players like so much…
We divided the “ambient”—the surrounding environment— into a few parts.
On the one hand, it's the noise of the sea,
it's the sound of waves rolling over each other, it's the sound of a ship cutting through water…
At the same time, it's a breath of wind,
and it's the deafening sound when the wind is blowing right into your ear.
As a matter of fact, you may not even realize it,
or you may not even notice it, but it's like a small piece that
fits into a much bigger sound puzzle.
We have a lot of sea-related sounds, namely, from the Navy.
In particular, we have some specific sounds,
such as the sound of a boatswain's call. It's a special whistle.
Also, we have the sound of a marine horn in the Port, it can be heard in some of the screens…
Plus, we’ve put a few audio Easter Eggs in the gameplay.
These Easter Eggs are encrypted messages, each of them has a certain meaning.
For example—well, some of the players have already found it—
you can hear Morse code while you are in the Port.
It is used to encrypt phrases addressed to the players.
This is how we create the feeling of being on a ship to immerse the player in the naval setting.
The soundtrack for World of Warships was created in the Saint Petersburg studio
by three composers who are also sound producers.
When they worked on the soundtrack, they decided not to follow the same steps
as their colleagues from World of Tanks, who created different soundtracks for different maps.
What we did is we composed certain looped pieces,
music pieces that are randomly replayed when players enter the battle.
And these pieces are being controlled by different parameters sent by the game.
As a result, we can, say, start moving our ship, and a certain parameter is triggered…
In other words, let's say, the player begins moving…
This means that we can gradually bring the drums sequence to front.
The player makes the first shot, or the player hits the enemy ship,
or the player destroys the enemy ship…
All these actions define the way that the background music sounds.
The primary goal of those who work magic with sound in World of Warships
is to create the kind of sound that is always pleasing to the ear regardless of where it's coming from:
a headset, small laptop loudspeakers, or a big acoustic system.
We created a special mix for every type of sound equipment.
So, choosing the kind of sound you want to hear is a matter of personal choice.
In the future, we will enhance the sound setting for World of Warships
by implementing a 5.1 surround system and new sound effects,
such as echoing shots and many other sounds…
Our goal is to give players an interactive amusement ride, a blockbuster.
So that our players feel adrenalin from playing our game.
And, of course, technology helps a lot in our efforts.
Our dreams and aspirations are focused on creating a sound comparable to a Hollywood blockbuster.
A graphic and overwhelming sound which augments intense action-packed naval warfare
and makes the gaming experience epic…
A warship is a huge system.
A lot of people are working on it.
And creating sounds for it is a serious challenge.
The sound should be comprehensive, integral, and appealing to players.
Our primary goal for the future is to create a vibrant
and rich sound palette for the game.
When you play with the sound turned off, you deprive yourself of a fantastic way of receiving information
and an unforgettable experience.
The primary purpose of sound in World of Warships is to use all its power
and make players feel as if they are at the very epicenter of naval warfare.
This is why each of you believes that when you fire the primary armament of the battleship,
it is indeed a salvo from the massive guns of a formidable ship.
You believe because you feel the power of this salvo and it gives you goosebumps.