Principles and Practice : Principles and Practices

Welcome to the fourth volume of Game Audio Programming: Principles and Practices – the first series of its kind dedicated to the art, science, and craft of game audio programming. This volume contains 17 chapters from some of the top game audio programmers in the industry and dives into subjects that apply to diverse game genres and from low-level topics such as thread-safe command buffers and pitch detection to high-level topics such as object management, music systems, and audio tools.

With such a wide variety of topics, game audio programmers of all levels will find something for them in this book. The techniques presented in this book have all been used to ship games, including some large AAA titles, so they are all practical and many will find their way into your audio engines. There are chapters about timed ADSRs, data-driven music systems, background sounds, and more.

This book collects a wealth of advanced knowledge and wisdom about game audio programming. If you are new to game audio programming or a seasoned veteran, or even if you’ve just been assigned the task and are trying to figure out what it’s all about, this book is for you!

Guy Somberg has been programming audio engines for his entire career. From humble beginnings writing a low-level audio mixer for slot machines, he quickly transitioned to writing game audio engines for all manner of games. He has written audio engines that shipped AAA games like Hellgate: London, Bioshock 2, The Sims 4, and Torchlight 3, as well as smaller titles like Minion Master, Tales from the Borderlands, and Game of Thrones. Guy has also given several talks at the Game Developer Conference, the Audio Developer Conference, and CppCon. When he’s not programming or writing game audio programming books, he can be found at home reading, playing video games, and playing the flute