ATMOSPHERE - Why its important and simple ways to give your level more character.

Hey all!

I'm sure most of you know that finding a great snapmap is like finding a needle in a haystack. I've started this thread to give and get some ideas specific to atmosphere.

What I find when playing most snapmaps is the lack of atmosphere be it ambient noise, lighting or even music. These element when left out leave your map feeling lifeless and stale. You would be surprised what a little atmosphere can do to your level. And since we are limited to a certain amount of modulars its important to spruce up what we all will be walking through a thousand times over and make it your own.

So here are some ways I've found to spice up my snapmaps. If you have anymore ideas or great little tricks let us know.

Sound
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Nothing is worse than starting a map and it is just void of sound outside of your character and the demons.

Ambient noise
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One way to remedy this is on your map start up launch a 2D sound with an atmospheric sound. This sound will be heard through out your entire map. It can be turned of with pretty much any trigger.

With wanting a particular ambient atmosphere in a certain room use the start map launch in the modular you want and connect it to a room noise node. This sound will play over your 2d atmosphere (described above) both sounds will play simultaneously.

If you want to go the extra step addng random bangs, scare noises and one time audio is a great way to keep the player on their toes. An occasional machine bang noise in the back drop or crying moans from hell bring the level to life. A good way to accomplish this is to put the noises on a repeater with a good amount of seconds between repeats.

Adding noises to set pieces already built into the modular is also a great way to create ambiance. For instance if the modular has massive pipes running through it give those pipes a pipe noise.


Music
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Blows my mind how many DONT use this amazing soundtrack they gave us. If anything put music in your level.

TIP: Try using the same music theme throughout your level. Each Theme has 3 songs. Idle, A, and B.

I usually start the map with no music. Once I see my first epic room or low level monsters Ill start the idle song. On my waves I use song A, and on the Boss or final battle of the level I use song B. I also calm the song back down to idle after the waves and boss battles, nothing sets the pace better. Song B always seems to be the heaviest and most dramatic of the music themes.

Using one theme such as UAC 01 or INDUSTRIAL 02 constantly throughout the level will result in better transitions between songs in the theme and give your level a more defined character.

Lighting
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Lighting can take a modular you've seen 100x over and make it new again.

Note the pictures below. Once the Gore Nest explodes the trigger turns the red lights off as if the gore nest was lighting the room.



Another is to magnify your light sources by adding more light to them. Notice the green light stretch across the room from the green flame source.



Another way to use light is dynamically. Below for instance once the switch is hit the flames rise and a green light is cast across the room with placed lights.



Props
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Props are also a great way to take a modular youve played through over and over and make is something new. It is also away to make your level feel like its been lived in and can also create a sutto narrative.

The power of sound! (tm)

Definitely going back to my earliest Snapmaps and revamping tgem with what I now know... what a difference! And Hell Tablets that give upgrades and a green 'flare' light disappears on use, within a normal module 'transitioning' into Hell thanks to static props! And bypassing the use of lock down and AI conductors altogether....

I hope in a future update they have base props tho as well... maybe even the missing 'laboratory' theme with modules and props as well.

But, man... Sound and lighting....

Double Post sorry!!!!

Some great advice I'll be sure to use for my own maps, and it's true, too many maps don't make good enough use of all the awesome samples we've got like the grones

We even have trumpet notes! how has no one made a decent toot map yet :p

Dynamic light and level changes throughout are my thing. I love when backtracking if previous rooms are locked off and new paths have opened. Hell modules and the brick wall props blocking off doors are a great way of doing it.

Here's one I'm kinda proud of:

http://imgur.com/a/q6RnA

The only BFG cell in the entire map is hidden behind a wall that blows outwards after you pick up the blue key. I added a few rocks around the wall that aren't in these images, which are lying on surfaces with small fire added. They appear around the same time.

Very good tips here. Will bookmark this for later. And including the fact that props no longer need to absorb network usage, props should be a staple in maps.

ALSO MUSIC. I'm surprised myself how many maps play only one track, with no variation to idle/combatA/combatB! There is even maps WITHOUT MUSIC.

Potatoguy said:

Very good tips here. Will bookmark this for later. And including the fact that props no longer need to absorb network usage, props should be a staple in maps.

Still absortbs object usage though sadly

Personally never found network to be a problem, object limit always fills up waaay before I get anywhere near 100% for network usage :-\

Another seldom used trick is rotating the orientation of the props by pressing Shift and rotating with the mouse (on PC), instead of having all the props in their default upright positions.

Potatoguy said:

There is even maps WITHOUT MUSIC.

Sometimes no music can be effective too. In movies, such as in Hitchcock's The Birds, the lack of music is used to heightened the atmosphere. The background sound effects are also the key. In fact, one should see music AND sound as a whole. If the end result of the audio works, it doesn't matter if there is music or not. Many years ago when they gave out Oscars for sound design, the awards went to both the sound recorders and music composers.

DoomPhreak said:

Sometimes no music can be effective too. In movies, such as in Hitchcock's The Birds, the lack of music is used to heightened the atmosphere. The background sound effects are also the key. In fact, one should see music AND sound as a whole. If the end result of the audio works, it doesn't matter if there is music or not. Many years ago when they gave out Oscars for sound design, the awards went to both the sound recorders and music composers.

Yea no music can be atmospheric I agree. But you can tell when its being used that way and when the creator was just being uncreative or lazy. You know when youre playing a map with a vision behind it and when you are playing something someone just wiped up. Most who dont put music in their maps also dont bother to put any other atmosphere in their maps such as lighting and ambient sounds. Its just "lets see how many big rooms and doorways I can use and how massive I can make my map" because bigger is better.

Has anyone tried creating thunder and lightning effects for modules with outdoor scenary? I did a test with "atmosphere: overexposed" and pitch-altered explosion audio with randomized timing, volume, and pitch, and was surprised by how realistic it looked and sounded.

Yeah, you can get some real sounding thunder by just using one of the "machine" types in 3d audio and putting the pitch lower. I accidentally ran across some sounds like that, but this was before we could pretend to make outdoor maps.