OTHER TECH

SURROUND SOUND UNLEASHED

Sound is a huge part of the Star Wars universe, in both music and effects, and Unleashed received the full theatrical treatment. While John Williams's original themes are present, Mark Griskey composed more than 90 minutes of new music for the game. Griskey's compositions do a wonderful job of being original while still transporting listeners to that galaxy far, far away. Unleashed also has the distinction of being the first videogame ever recorded on the main scoring stage at Lucas's Skywalker Sound, using an orchestra of 80 musicians. (The Skywalker stage has been used to record the scores to Iron Man and the three most recent Star Wars films, along with many other blockbusters.) Griskey told me that composing a score for a game poses unique challenges. "The experience is totally interactive and non-linear, and the music needs to be able to change and react to what the player is doing in the game," he said. "Also, you have to make sure that it doesn't sound boring or repetitive when it's heard over and over again as the player is wandering around the environments."

The game renders discrete multichannel surround sound on the fly, using not only the films' signature soundtrack moments but also ambient and atmospheric elements that add layers to the experience. Furthermore, new software was created allowing the game to dynamically mix audio in real time, adjusting levels for environments. Thus, ships sound louder when you're outside them than when you're inside, explosions that happen inside have more impact, and the volume of the music ramps up and down as needed to create tension.

Audio leader David Collins, who also voices holodroid sidekick PROXY, was responsible for mixing the game's sound, which includes nearly 20,000 effects files and more than 3 hours of in-game dialogue. Listening to the game at reference level while sitting at Collins's "Mix Pod" produced wall-to-wall surround, from ambient forest sounds to TIE Fighters screaming overhead, depending on what the game action called for. Right from the opening LucasArts logo screen, sounds explode into and all around the room, making you want to crank up the volume and immerse yourself in the adventure.

THE FORCE IS STRONG WITH HD

Graphically, Unleashed was designed with high-def home theater gameplay in mind. And the widescreen format gave the design team a lot of creative license. Art director Matt Omernick explained: "Widescreen really comes down to the fact that we now extend what the viewer can see by 280 pixels on each side of the image. This allows for a more immersive vista of the worlds and the action that helps nearly every aspect of the game, from art to design."

Running on an Xbox 360, the demos I watched displayed highly elaborate backgrounds and lighting effects, revealing details that add realism to further draw you into the experience. Minute effects like wisps of smoke or ripples in puddles as you run around help convince you that you are the Secret Apprentice. I asked Omernick how HD resolution helped improve the game's design. "It allowed the artists to provide more information to the player in more creative ways. For instance, we can use the resolution to add small lights that flicker to subtly guide the player to where he needs to go. We've always had the ability to put in interesting details such as scratches on armor, dew on plants, and bumps on surfaces that suggest sand or pebbles, but we didn't because the resolution never allowed these details to show up. It's very rewarding for the artists to be able to actually execute on that level, knowing it will be seen."

Over 60 minutes of high-def cinematic cut scenes also help move the story along. "If you think about it," Omernick mused, "not only did we build a really fun and exciting game, we also created an hour-long CG Star Wars film."