How quickly can I learn Unreal for sound design?

August 23, 2010 1:02 PM

What are my best next actions to learning the Unreal Engine for sound design?

I've been told that being able to script audio for levels within Unreal will give me a major advantage to getting freelance work for game design.

So, here's what I know how to do already:

– sound design/music composition within Logic and other DAWs
– syncing to frames and video etc.

Here's what I don't know how to do at all but will learn if it gets me to this place as fast as possible:

– what computer I'd need to be able to run Unreal myself (I currently have an iMac with parallels on it but would buy another computer if need be)
– is there any link between unreal the game and the unreal engine or is it just a coincidence?
– if there are different versions of Unreal based on whether or not you're doing visual or audio design
– the best website or print manuals to learn this stuff

I found this site but its tutorials for sound are extremely rudimentary.

Ideally, I'd like something on the detailed level of macprovideo.com for tutorials.

Metafilter, this one means the world to me so if you can help me out I'd be so grateful. I've been making music for more than a decade and I'd love to be able to break into the video game world more. Thank you for your time.

posted by fantasticninety to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Yes, the Unreal Engine is the engine used by Epic's Unreal Tournament games, Gears of War, and licensed out to a huge number of third parties. Epic has a pretty comprehensive set of documentation that's more robust than what you'd find on moddb. I would suggest starting at the bottom of this page.
posted by Uncle Ira at 1:46 PM on August 23, 2010

I asked our Audio Director. We're using Unreal now, and he's used it extensively in the past.

"The part about sound design that is different than creating sounds is how audio should behave in a real-time environment. There is a whole methodology there. If he's unfamiliar with randomization, streaming vs memory or game states, or more importantly, why all those things are very important, then he needs a more basic overview of interactive sound design than Unreal particularly. I would say he should go to Audiokinetics site where he can d/l Wwise and view lots of videos about Wwise's features. that should give him a pretty good understanding of interactive audio."
posted by Lord_Pall at 1:47 PM on August 23, 2010

I'm currently using the UDK, which is a spinoff of the Unreal Engine that allows you to make stand-alone games. Their site has lots of documentation and video tutorials.

For content creation, you'll need at least 4gb of Ram, a multi-core processer (above 2ghz) a graphics card at or above an Nvidia 8800, and lots of hard drive space. If you have a year old iMac or newer, you should be fine.

Also, the UDK site has a subforum for projects looking for people, which would be a great way to cut your teeth on a new project.
posted by hellojed at 2:50 PM on August 23, 2010

I sincerely appreciate you guys taking the time to answer this question and to give me genuine leads here. Thank you so much.
posted by fantasticninety at 9:25 PM on August 23, 2010

Oh yeah, you need multiple monitors.
UDK is a screen real estate hog. The new browser loves 2 screens, 3 if you can swing it.
posted by Lord_Pall at 7:19 AM on August 24, 2010