Game Audio Programming (Charles River Media Game Development) [Hardcover]

James Boer (Author)

Book Description

Series: Charles River Media Game Development | Publication Date: October 25, 2002

Game Audio Programming is a comprehensive guide to interactive audio programming for the Microsoft Windows ? platform. Written for C++ programmers implementing an audio system for an entertainment or multimedia title, this practical reference covers a wide range of topics relevant to today's audio programmers, including DirectX Audio, audio decompression libraries, hardware filters and effects, geometric representation of world data for effects, occlusion and obstruction, and more. In addition, a full-featured, documented, and internally commented game audio programming (GAP) library is referenced throughout the book to explain various concepts. The library is included on the companion CD-ROM and can be used as either a ready-to-use library for your own games or as reference code to help implement an audio system.

Editorial Reviews

Review

.. . [this book] is an excellent resource for audio developers wishing to go the extra mile in their implementations for games." -- David Yackley, Program Manager, Microsoft

About the Author

James Boer is an audio programmer and a sound designer/composer. He has a number of best-selling games to his name, including Deer Hunter, Deer Hunter II, and Rocky Mountain Trophy Hunter. Other credits (audio and/or programming) include Pro Bass Fishing, Microsoft Baseball 2000, Jamoke (online game), and Tex Atomic?s Big Bot Battles (online game).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 640 pages
• Publisher: Charles River Media; 1 edition (October 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584502452
• ISBN-13: 978-1584502456
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,256,464 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for learning about API, not audio prgramming, April 30, 2003

By 

J. Young "jray" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Game Audio Programming (Charles River Media Game Development) (Hardcover)

I agree with a previous reviewer that this book is dedicated to developing a high to mid level audio engine based on DirectSound and DirectMusic. This book is not about audio programming from scratch. It doesn't give any algorithms for implementing your own 3D audio engine. It does give pretty good explanation of the I3DL2 spec (but this can be gleaned from the AISIG site. It also has a good explanation of Occlusion and Obstruction.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent !!! - Informative, Disciplined, and Practical..., December 4, 2002

By 

"bcallister" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Game Audio Programming (Charles River Media Game Development) (Hardcover)

I recently had the opportunity to be the sole programmer for a very cool project that was a combination of a music player and a comprehensive jukebox. Yet, this was my first experience with *serious* audio programming on the Windows platform.

While doing my research on how I would meet the requirements for this project (including playback, sound mixing, crossfading, and conversions between the various standard audio formats - WAV, WMA, MP3, OGG Vorbis), I was very fortunate to stumble on this book while in a bookstore in Manhattan. At first I was thrown off by the title and assumed that this book was intended solely for 'game developers.' However, after picking it up and scanning it, I quickly realized that that was not the case. This book is for *anyone* interested in audio programming on the Windows platform.

In my opinion, this book accomplishes several things VERY well:

1) Provides the reader with a very good understanding about how audio works in general and the key components of any wave that you must understand when tackling a project such as mine (eg. sampling rate, bit depth, etc.)

2) While geared towards using the DirectX Audio APIs, the author provides a sound explanation (no pun intended) of why this API should be seriously considered and how it compares to using other APIs (typically offered by a 3rd party)

3) Perhaps most important, the author takes a very disciplined approach to the design of an audio system. This is extrememly helpful since many readers, like myself, will purchase this book not only because they have an interest in audio, but also because they need/want to build their own set of audio engines that they can use/reuse in present and future projects. This feature alone seperates this book from most, if not all others (that are typically reference books to a technology such as DirectX). This also demonstrates that the author has a very solid meta-level understanding of what he is writing about, pulling from many recognized and practical real-world projects.

4) Serves as a very good reference to the DirectX Audio APIs (DirectSound and DirectMusic) and even the Windows Media Format SDK

5) Discusses the main file formats (Raw PCM, WAV, WMA, MP3, OGG Vorbis) and how you can employ various codecs to get wave data from a file to a DirectSound buffer or vice versa. This is very useful because, on the Windows platform, you dont get some of these formats for free. So, an understanding of how you can design a system to support virtually any audio codec is therefore invaluable - and something the author does very well. He even walks you through the integration of the MP3 and OGG Vorbis formats into your audio engine.

I really cant say enough about this book. In fact, even though I shop here ALL the time, this is the first book review I have ever written on Amazon[.com]'s website. Anyone who is interested in audio programming, at ANY level, should purchase this book. You will NOT be disappointed.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent !!! - Informative, Disciplined, and Practical..., December 4, 2002

By 

"bcallister" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Game Audio Programming (Charles River Media Game Development) (Hardcover)

I recently had the opportunity to be the sole programmer for a very cool project that was a combination of a music player and a comprehensive jukebox. Yet, this was my first experience with *serious* audio programming on the Windows platform.

While doing my research on how I would meet the requirements for this project (including playback, sound mixing, crossfading, and conversions between the various standard audio formats - WAV, WMA, MP3, OGG Vorbis), I was very fortunate to stumble on this book while in a bookstore in Manhattan. At first I was thrown off by the title and assumed that this book was intended solely for 'game developers.' However, after picking it up and scanning it, I quickly realized that that was not the case. This book is for *anyone* interested in audio programming on the Windows platform.

In my opinion, this book accomplishes several things VERY well:

1) Provides the reader with a very good understanding about how audio works in general and the key components of any wave that you must understand when tackling a project such as mine (eg. sampling rate, bit depth, etc.)

2) While geared towards using the DirectX Audio APIs, the author provides a sound explanation (no pun intended) of why this API should be seriously considered and how it compares to using other APIs (typically offered by a 3rd party)

3) Perhaps most important, the author takes a very disciplined approach to the design of an audio system. This is extrememly helpful since many readers, like myself, will purchase this book not only because they have an interest in audio, but also because they need/want to build their own set of audio engines that they can use/reuse in present and future projects. This feature alone seperates this book from most, if not all others (that are typically reference books to a technology such as DirectX). This also demonstrates that the author has a very solid meta-level understanding of what he is writing about, pulling from many recognized and practical real-world projects.

4) Serves as a very good reference to the DirectX Audio APIs (DirectSound and DirectMusic) and even the Windows Media Format SDK

5) Discusses the main file formats (Raw PCM, WAV, WMA, MP3, OGG Vorbis) and how you can employ various codecs to get wave data from a file to a DirectSound buffer or vice versa. This is very useful because, on the Windows platform, you dont get some of these formats for free. So, an understanding of how you can design a system to support virtually any audio codec is therefore invaluable - and something the author does very well. He even walks you through the integration of the MP3 and OGG Vorbis formats into your audio engine.

I really cant say enough about this book. In fact, even though I shop here ALL the time, this is the first book review I have ever written on Amazon's website. Anyone who is interested in audio programming, at ANY level, should purchase this book. You will NOT be disappointed.