Week 4 Forum - Circuit Bending I


This week our task was to circuit bend our own toy. I was all set and went down to the reject shop in town and bought my toy.




The I opened it and was very "annoyed!" (university blog language)





Turns out there wasn't any chip inside of the gun even though the front claimed it had a light near the trigger. I obviously had to go back to the shops and I couldn't find anything. Before almost giving up I did find this. . .


[6.2MB]



I then proceeded to take this toy apart to explore what was inside.















After I completely stuffed it up. . .


[41.7MB]

Just so you know this stank! I could smell burning plastic and the foil was getting heaps hot! I definitely shorted the circuit!


Sound File
Circuit Hacking [484KB]


[1] Christian Haines. "Music Technology Forum: Semester 2 - Week 4 - Circuit Bending I". Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 16th August 2007.

CC2 Week 4 - Synthesis I - Additive Tremolo RM & AM


[1]

When I listen to my patch this is what I see. . .


























Max Patches
Patch + Max Objects
Sonic Result



[1] wikipedia, 'Additive synthesis'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Additive_synthesis (Accessed 2/9/7)

[2] Christian Haines. "Creative Computing Lecture - Semester 2 - Week 4 - Synthesis I - Additive, Tremolo, RM & AM". Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 16th August 2007.

AA2 Week 4 - Game Engine Overview


[1]



As you know, my post-2000 game I am analyzing is Unreal Tournament. This being the original version which I find more fun than the 2004 release. The upcoming 2007 release looks to be good on the trailer but I obviously haven't played it yet. [3]



[2]

Unreal Tournament 2007 looks like a cool game



There is a point for all this rambling. That is since all the Unreal releases are based on the Unreal Engine licenced by Epic Games. This engine was first released in the game Unreal in 1998. The engine has had subsequent versions for each release of Unreal Tournament

The original engine that was used for Unreal was also used for Unreal Tourament. Unreal Tournament was released between the end of 1999 or beginning of 2000 (depending on which country you live in).

Unreal and Unreal Tournament have been the basis for games with similar characteristics:
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas
Red Steel
Gears of War


Since then the engine has also been used for future games including:

* Adventure Pinball: Forgotten Island — (2001) Digital Extremes
* Brother Bear — (2003) KnowWonder Digital Mediaworks
* Clive Barker's Undying — (2001) Dreamworks Interactive
* Deus Ex — (2000) Ion Storm
* Deus Ex: The Conspiracy — (2002) Ion Storm
* Dr. Brain's Thinking Games: Action/Reaction — (1999) Knowledge Adventure
* Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets — (2002) KnowWonder Digital Mediaworks
* Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the U.S) — (2001) KnowWonder Digital Mediaworks
* Mobile Forces — (2002) Rage Software
* Nerf Arena Blast — (1999) Visionary Media, Inc.
* New Legends — (2002) Infinite Machine
* Rune — (2000) Human Head Studios
* Rune: Halls of Valhalla — (2001) Human Head Studios
* Rune: Viking Warlord — (2001) Human Head Studios
* Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Fallen — (2000) The Collective
* Star Trek: The Next Generation: Klingon Honor Guard — (1998) MicroProse
* Tactical Ops: Assault on Terror — (2002) Kamehan Studios
* TNN Outdoors Pro Hunter — (1998) DreamForge Intertainment
* Twin Caliber — (2003) Rage Software
* Unreal — (1998) Epic Games
* Unreal Mission Pack: Return to Na Pali — (1999) Legend Entertainment
* Unreal Tournament — (1999) Epic Games
* Unrealty — (2000) Perilith Industrielle
* Virtual Reality Notre Dame: A Real Time Construction — (1999) Digitalo Studios
* The Wheel of Time — (1999) Legend Entertainment
* X-COM: Enforcer — (2001) MicroProse [4]



[4]

A comparison of Unreal Engine 1, 2 and 3's rendering capabilities using the Malcolm model from Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 2004 and Unreal Tournament 3 side-by-side. As you can see, the graphic capabilities have come a long way.



There are three versions of the Unreal Engine but the game I am focusing on utilizes the first Unreal Engine. In terms of finding information on the Audio Engine for Unreal Tournament, it was actually quite hard to find anything at all. I did find an article written by Tim Sweeney, a programmer who worked on the Unreal Engine. He also founded Epic Games.


Digital Sound System
* Supports 3D positioning via distance attenuation, stereo panning, doppler shifting.
* Supports software Dolby Surround sound encoding for full 360-degree panning among the center, rear, left, and right channels (requires a Dolby decoder).
* Supports rich, ambient environmental sounds which can be fully controlled from UnrealScript.
* Advanced software mixer supports up to 64 stereo channels of music and sound, and mixes to a 32-bit buffer internally for maximum sound quality.
* Supports 8- and 16-bit samples using any playback rate from 4 kHz to 44 kHz.
* Dynamic sample interpolation enables high-quality pitch shifting without distortion.
* Optimized to take advantage of Intel's MMX™ technology, with fallback to support regular Pentium® processors.
* Supports DSP-style reverb and echo postprocessing on the sound effect stream.
* Aural raytracing realistically simulates the echo and reverb characteristics of complex environments. When enabled, UnrealEd pre-computes a reverb kernel for each designer-specified zone in the level.
* Supports Microsoft DirectSound and legacy WinMM sound output for backwards compatibility.
* Plug-in interface makes it possible to integrate other sound systems into the Unreal technology.
* Supports Aureal A3D 3D sound positioning, and the upcoming Creative Labs 3D sound cards.




Digital Music System
* Supports both CD audio and realtime digitally mixed music. Game designers can mix and match soundtracks in both formats to take maximum advantage of the speed and quality of CD music and the dynamic music and Internet portability of digitally mixed music.
* Smooth and instantaneous dynamic music changes for fading between songs, fading between tracks within a song, fading to silence, and instantly switching songs.
* Realtime mixing of musical instruments and sound effects.
* Supports volume and panning envelopes for professional composing.
* Supports up to eight octaves per sample.
* Supports all widely used module file formats, including .mod, .s3m, .xm, and .it. [5]



[1]

NICE!



[1] Absolute-Playstation, 'Unreal Tournament'. http://www.absolute-playstation.com/gp2a/unreal_tournament_hr_1.jpg (Accessed 10/8/7)

[2] youtube, Unreal Tournament 2007 Trailer. www.youtube.com (Accessed 10/8/7)

[3] wikipedia, 'Unreal Tournament'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_Tournament (Accessed 10/8/7)

[4] wikipedia, 'Unreal Engine'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_Engine (Accessed 10/8/7)

[5] Epic MegaGames, Inc. 'Unreal Technology Features'. http://unreal.epicgames.com/UnrealFeatures.htm (Accessed 10/8/7)

[6] Christian Haines "Audio Arts: Semester 2, Week 4: Game Engine Overview" Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 7th August 2007.

Week 3 Forum - Modular Electronics


This week I tried recording the piezo from last week on some newspaper. I placed the piezo inside the paper and shook it around. The sound created was interesting but I was hoping for a more brighter sound.


Newspaper Piezo Sound [264KB]



I completed the tasks A, B & C from our forum class. I found that these exercises took a very long time and it was frustrating when something as simple as changing one pin or placing a new resistor or capacitor could make or break the entire circuit.


Square Wave Oscillator



Square Wave Oscillator [1MB]



Modulating A Square Wave Oscillator



Modulating A Square Wave Oscillator [1MB]



Simple Ring Modulation Effect



Modulating A Square Wave Oscillator [1.2MB]





me playing around. . .




I did some further experimentation with the piezo. I tried using the piezo as a speaker and then joining it to another piezo which was connected to an amplifier. At times I got small shocks and the piezo was vibrating a lot.



[14.9MB]

you haven't heard Armin van Buuren till you've heard him through a piezo. . .



[10.9MB]

my piezo setup. . .



[8MB]

teapot piezo. . .



[1] Christian Haines. "Music Technology Forum: Semester 2 - Week 3 - Modular Electronics". Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 9th August 2007.