XACT Audio

The Microsoft Cross-Platform Audio Creation Tool (XACT) is an audio implementation platform that is available for use on Xbox 360, Windows, and XNA Game Studio Express titles. The XACT authoring tool enables composers and sound designers to create dynamic, non-repetitive sound effects and more easily take advantage of sophisticated, real-time effects processing. The XACT engine provides optimized bundling and multi-streaming interfaces for programmers, as well as the ability to interactively perform and monitor audio playback programmatically. XACT supports real-time in-game auditioning, editing, mixing, and monitoring of audio content, allowing for rapid content prototyping with minimal programming resources. In this hands-on session we’ll go over the basics and some more advanced techniques using XACT to create, edit, and play back content. There will be tasks for both programmers and content creators to explore while familiarizing themselves with this audio engine and creation tool.

Armillo

The Delta of Audio 2: Music

The Delta of Audio 1

“From the perspective of a programmer, Yanni was the perfect combination of perfectionist, creative, flexible and reliable. You could always count on him doing everything he could to have his vision and the designers come into fruition. My main experience with Yanni was working on the rhythm based game step aerobics and Active. The game mode’s main feature was to match animations with the tempo of a song. Yanni had to deal with interesting challenges that lead to features. To name a few he delivered tempo shift while maintaining sounds quality, smooth song transition to avoid animation jerks, instrument focus (bass drum) when the user is messing up in the song. On one occasion we needed a range of footsteps sounds for step aerobics. Instead of mixing some canned footsteps from another game that did not fit, Yanni got myself and the designer of Step Aerobics all in a studio to record what we thought should be the most authentic sound.” Neilson Mackay, Assistant Lead Engineer
Electronic Arts