[games_access] Feedback needed on poster for GDC 2008

Sun Jan 6 15:05:02 EST 2008

Eelke,

Interesting thoughts on what makes captioning dynamic or not. From my
perspective, it's dynamic because the captions for TV are time coded
and appear in a linear time line. For games, they can't be hard coded
to appear sequentially because the sound events are dynamic, changing
when they occur based on user and game system input.

I suppose a game could have different situations that change the
priority ordering of sounds. As a general rule, I suggest not doing
this to keep complexity low. If there's a sound that absolutely needs
to be captioned, change the priority of that one sound instead. It's
likely to be unique for that particular moment in the game anyway.

As an example, the sound of crowd noise cheering during a gun fight
normally would not be important to caption. However, if you play as a
Track star and are being chased by thugs shooting at you, crowd noise
can represent your character remembering his greatest Track race and
trying to motivate himself to out run the thugs chasing him. Then
you'd make that specific sound have a high priority.

-Reid

On Jan 4, 2008 5:37 PM, Eelke Folmer <eelke.folmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Reid,
>
> Happy new year everybody!
>
> Was this poster for the programming track? maybe you could include a
> simple class diagram on how to implement it? Feel free to copy my
> class diagram from my CC pattern.
>
> For dynamic closed captioning do the priorities for showing a
> particular caption depend on the state of the game (prioritize
> different sounds at different stages of the game) or just on the
> number of captions that can be shown at the same time? (e.g. if you
> need to play 5 sounds and you can show only 3 only do the three with
> the highest priority)  I was thinking about the priorities we
> implemented for the torque CC which has a fixed limit on the number of
> sounds that can be multiplexed  ( <5 ) so dynamic captioning
> essentially only depends on a constant which invalidates its
> definition.
>
> Cheers Eelke
>
>
>
> On 04/01/2008, AudioGames.net <richard at audiogames.net> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > To make it easier to conversate about the auditory gamespace, I'd like to
> > announce that Gamasutra is going to publish an article of Sander and me
> > sometime this month. This is the first publication concerning our game audio
> > research from the past couple of years. The article aims to provide a very
> > easy and handy (for designers) overview of how game audio is structured, and
> > also provides a first glance on the different roles of the different parts
> > that are distinguished. I'm currently sketching up an article about
> > solutions for game audio accessibility based on this structure (or
> > "framework"), in which I want to discuss which types of audio alternatives
> > are better (in my opinion) for which part of the auditory environment and
> > why.
> >
> > When it's online, I'll forward a link...
> >
> > Greets,
> >
> > Richard
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Reid Kimball" <reid at rbkdesign.com>
> > To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" <games_access at igda.org>
> > Sent: Friday, January 04, 2008 8:54 PM
> > Subject: Re: [games_access] Feedback needed on poster for GDC 2008
> >
> >
> > > You're right, I momentarily forgot one of my tenets, to make the sound
> > > atmosphere accessible to all, so in that sense, conveying loudness is
> > > valuable to express the artistic vision of the sound designers even
> > > though it's less important for gameplay. That is, until a game makes
> > > the loudness of sound important to gameplay of course. It's just not
> > > common practice as far as I know.
> > >
> > > -Reid
> > >
> > > On Jan 4, 2008 11:09 AM, AudioGames.net <richard at audiogames.net> wrote:
> > >> Hi,
> > >>
> > >> *quote*
> > >> I'm curious if you or anyone has other opinions? Not many people are
> > >> using
> > >> captions in this way and no standards have been established.
> > >> *quote end*
> > >>
> > >> Concerning alternatives to Closed Captions, I'm really interested in
> > >> Animated Sound Balloons (a personal concept of mine that as far as I know
> > >> has not really been done yet - see
> > >> http://www.accessibility.nl/games/index.php?pagefile=soundalternative ).
> > >> I
> > >> agree with you (Reid) that "(whether or not) one sound is loud or soft
> > >> doesn't usually communicate important gameplay information". However,
> > >> even
> > >> though not related to important gameplay information, I guess I would
> > >> like
> > >> to know whether or not a sound is loud or soft, or how it behaves. For
> > >> example, if a faucet dripping water is going "drip-drip-drip-drip-drip"
> > >> or
> > >> "drip-pause-drip-pause-drip". This is stuff that is designed by people in
> > >> my
> > >> field which I think is important to also try and make accessible for
> > >> those
> > >> players who want it.
> > >>
> > >> But I agree with you that there should always (!) be the option "to fall
> > >> back to plain non-stylized captions", if only for those who want to adapt
> > >> audio to text, for instance for deaf-blind gamers who use a braille
> > >> display.
> > >> But I also think we should consider more creative alternatives to simply
> > >> text.
> > >>
> > >> Greets,
> > >>
> > >> Richard
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> ----- Original Message -----
> > >> From: "Reid Kimball" <reid at rbkdesign.com>
> > >> To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" <games_access at igda.org>
> > >>
> > >> Sent: Friday, January 04, 2008 7:17 PM
> > >> Subject: Re: [games_access] Feedback needed on poster for GDC 2008
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> > Of the games that use closed captioning they usually don't communicate
> > >> > gameplay or other info such as distance and loudness. That is more a
> > >> > style choice in my opinion, whether to change the alpha of the caption
> > >> > based on how loud the sound is. My personal opinion is to err on the
> > >> > side of readability and not use alpha to communicate loudness or
> > >> > distance, etc. The distance can be represented in the visual sound
> > >> > radar if the game/player wants to use that feature. Usually, how loud
> > >> > a sound is doesn't matter, because one sound is loud or soft doesn't
> > >> > usually communicate important gameplay information.
> > >> >
> > >> > I can see developers wanting to get creative with the captions, making
> > >> > them shake and look distorted to represent an earthquake, that's fine,
> > >> > but I think players should have the option to turn these text
> > >> > animations off and fall back to plain non-stylized captions. They may
> > >> > have poor vision or a low quality TV that makes them prefer the plain
> > >> > text.
> > >> >
> > >> > I'm curious if you or anyone has other opinions? Not many people are
> > >> > using captions in this way and no standards have been established.
> > >> >
> > >> > -Reid
> > >> >
> > >> > On Jan 4, 2008 9:53 AM, Matthias Troup <foreversublime at hotmail.com>
> > >> > wrote:
> > >> >>
> > >> >>  Reid,
> > >> >>
> > >> >>  A little off topic - Does [dcc] have any features relating to
> > >> >> gameplay
> > >> >> and
> > >> >> difficulty?  Hard-to-hear sounds could be missed by anyone regardless
> > >> >> of
> > >> >> their hearing ability.  If the text were harder to see that would
> > >> >> reflect
> > >> >> the chance you might miss what the text identified.  For instance, if
> > >> >> the
> > >> >> text were displayed with an alpha channel correlating to how far
> > >> >> away/loud
> > >> >> the sound was and/or if the text were visible on-screen for a time
> > >> >> that
> > >> >> correlated to the distance/volume of the sound.
> > >> >>
> > >> >>  -Matt
> > >> >>
> > >> >>
> > >> >>
> > >> >>
> > >> >>
> > >> >>
> > >> >>
> > >> >> > Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2008 22:10:25 -0800
> > >> >> > From: reid at rbkdesign.com
> > >> >> > To: games_access at igda.org
> > >> >>
> > >> >> > Subject: [games_access] Feedback needed on poster for GDC 2008
> > >> >> >
> > >> >>
> > >> >> > Hi everyone,
> > >> >> >
> > >> >> > I'm working on a poster for my Dynamic Closed Captioning poster
> > >> >> > session at GDC this coming Feb 2008. I'd like feedback on the poster
> > >> >> > regarding the actual content I have on it. I wanted to keep the
> > >> >> > content minimal, I want people talking with me rather than reading
> > >> >> > posters. I also want the poster to prompt them to ask questions, so
> > >> >> > not everything is explained clearly on purpose.
> > >> >> >
> > >> >> > NOTE: I know that one screenshot is labeled as Half-Life 2 but
> > >> >> > instead
> > >> >> > shows Doom3[CC], this is temp and I'll change it to HL2 later.
> > >> >> >
> > >> >> > Take a look at the word 2007 version or the pdf version linked
> > >> >> > below:
> > >> >> >
> > >> >> > http://gamescc.rbkdesign.com/GDC2008_poster02.docx
> > >> >> > http://gamescc.rbkdesign.com/GDC2008_poster02.pdf
> > >> >> >
> > >> >> > Thanks everyone,
> > >> >> >
> > >> >> > -Reid
> > >> >> > _______________________________________________
> > >> >> > games_access mailing list
> > >> >> > games_access at igda.org
> > >> >> > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access
> > >> >>
> > >> >>
> > >> >> ________________________________
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> > >> >>
> > >> >>
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>
> --
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Eelke Folmer                           Assistant Professor
> Department of CS&E/171
> University of Nevada              Reno, Nevada 89557
> Game interaction design        www.helpyouplay.com
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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