# Microbe Biome Ambience
**URL:** https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700
**Category:** Sound
**Created:** [August 30, 2020, 6:34pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700 "2020-08-30T18:34:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@NickTheNick](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/NickTheNick)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2020, 6:34pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700/1 "2020-08-30T18:34:09Z")
I searched the forums and realized we didn’t have a thread for planning the ambience tracks for the Microbe Stage Biomes. This is a thread to center the discussion.
On discord we discussed updating the current ambience tracks with some newer and more realistic tracks. We also discussed the idea of creating unique ambience tracks for each biome. Here’s a list with ideas for each track:
**Coastal Biomes (Tidepool, Coastal, Estuary, Rivers)**
- Shallow water flowing
- Soft bubbling
- Wind?
**Underwater Caverns (Cavern)**
- Deep water flowing
- Cavern echoing
- Soft bubbling
**Ocean Biomes (Epipelagic, Mesopelagic, Bathypelagic, Seafloor)**
- Deep water flowing
- Underwater echoes / reverb
- Infrequent bubbling
**Abyssopelagic**
- Deep water flowing
- Underwater echoes
- Eerie silences
**Hydrothermal Vents (Vents)**
- Frequent bubbling
- Muted explosions (since they’re underwater)
- Deep water flowing
And below are some inspirations of tracks that capture a sense of deep sea ambience really well:
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bN6VNTXrIE)
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjQxhOXco_k)
Feel free to post any thoughts on the design of the ambience tracks, or any of your attempts to create them!
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### Author:  [@hhyyrylainen](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/hhyyrylainen)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2020, 6:36pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700/2 "2020-08-30T18:36:48Z")
One current limitation from the programming side is that there’s no way currently to make ambience tracks play in a specific biome. It’s only possible to add tracks to the general ambiance list which is played.
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### Author:  [@NickTheNick](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/NickTheNick)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2020, 6:38pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700/3 "2020-08-30T18:38:01Z")
Ah okay, how difficult would it be to add that in. In any case, we could create and collect the ambient tracks for now, so that we have them once we add that functionality.
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### Author:  [@LukeH](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/LukeH)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2020, 6:40pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700/4 "2020-08-30T18:40:50Z")
You could use some middleware to manage audio (FMod and Wwise are the main ones) it’s easy to implement into programming.
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### Author:  [@hhyyrylainen](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/hhyyrylainen)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2020, 6:43pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700/5 "2020-08-30T18:43:35Z")
Overall it wouldn’t be that difficult, but needs some redesigning on the system. So it needs a bit involved programming changes, which is something that not many programmers beside me have done recently.
> [@LukeH](#):
>
> You could use some middleware to manage audio (FMod and Wwise are the main ones) it’s easy to implement into programming.
Thrive is open source software, GPL licensed. It can’t be combined with closed source, proprietary software like that.
We use the Godot engine. And because I don’t want to compile native code for Windows,Mac, and Linux we can’t use native code modules not bundled in with Godot.
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### Author:  [@NickTheNick](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/NickTheNick)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2020, 6:51pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700/6 "2020-08-30T18:51:53Z")
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### Author:  [@Pambulina](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Pambulina)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2022, 7:15am UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700/7 "2022-04-19T07:15:29Z")
I can make wind maybe
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### Author:  [@hhyyrylainen](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/hhyyrylainen)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2022, 7:19am UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700/8 "2022-04-19T07:19:06Z")
Microbes are underwater, so I’d say a wind ambiance is not really suitable… for later stages maybe?
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### Author:  [@Pambulina](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Pambulina)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2022, 7:20am UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700/9 "2022-04-19T07:20:11Z")
I just read the list ¯\_(ツ)\_/¯ I’ll just make something water based
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### Author:  [@Vyethriel](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Vyethriel)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2022, 8:13am UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700/10 "2022-04-19T08:13:02Z")
Will there be more special ambiences for e.g. ice biomes or bodies of water that aren’t oceans?
A big part of these tracks will be sampling of underwater sounds. How important is it to look at the licenses for them? I don’t really know what permissions are needed to sample sounds for open-source projects
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### Author:  [@hhyyrylainen](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/hhyyrylainen)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2022, 8:22am UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700/11 "2022-04-19T08:22:14Z")
> [@Vyethriel](#):
>
> How important is it to look at the licenses for them?
Very important. Things that can’t be creative commons licensed in their entirety are completely useless to us.
> [@Vyethriel](#):
>
> I don’t really know what permissions are needed to sample sounds for open-source projects
Any work that isn’t entirely yours probably comes with an attribution requirement as well. So we need to track each source that is used and the license for it and include that info in the game.
For example the used code libraries are mentioned: [Thrive/LICENSE.txt at master · Revolutionary-Games/Thrive · GitHub](https://github.com/Revolutionary-Games/Thrive/blob/master/LICENSE.txt)
Also you might want to check the CLA _again_ which you should have already signed, that says that you kinda promised you won’t submit other people’s IP to us as your own work.
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### Author:  [@Twitchywhalez](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Twitchywhalez)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2022, 8:31am UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700/13 "2022-04-19T08:31:10Z")
You need to be careful with samples since some have fine print that could lead to legal issues. What I’ve been doing for the underwater/microbe environmental ambience I’m currently working on (and what I usually do) is recording my own sounds or creating them from scratch in a synthesizer. I’ve been stopping by creeks to record water flow, recording water flowing from my faucet, water in buckets. This ensures that the sounds used are unique to thrive and I don’t have to look to into samples online.
I know that not everyone on the sound team has recording equipment or the same experience in sound design as me so I would be willing to make a “Thrive Water Sample Pack” if that would be useful.
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### Author:  [@hhyyrylainen](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/hhyyrylainen)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2022, 8:34am UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700/14 "2022-04-19T08:34:57Z")
> [@Twitchywhalez](#):
>
> You need to be careful with samples since some have fine print that could lead to legal issues. What I’ve been doing for the underwater/microbe environmental ambience I’m currently working on (and what I usually do) is recording my own sounds or creating them from scratch in a synthesizer.
Yeah, this is the safest thing to do. If you take _any_ work from someone else you need to completely understand the licensing terms that work is under and whether you can subsequently license your derived work in a way that Revolutionary Games Studio can then further license it to our users under the CC license we use for our graphics and other binary assets: [Thrive/assets/LICENSE.txt at master · Revolutionary-Games/Thrive · GitHub](https://github.com/Revolutionary-Games/Thrive/blob/master/assets/LICENSE.txt)
---
### Author:  [@Vyethriel](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Vyethriel)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2022, 10:33am UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700/15 "2022-04-19T10:33:24Z")
> [@hhyyrylainen](#):
>
> Very important. Things that can’t be creative commons licensed in their entirety are completely useless to us.
Alright… That’s unfortunate but understandable
> [@Twitchywhalez](#):
>
> I know that not everyone on the sound team has recording equipment or the same experience in sound design as me so I would be willing to make a “Thrive Water Sample Pack” if that would be useful.
That would indeed be very useful. I can’t really take my recording equipment outside, besides I don’t know where I’d even find a spot to record underwater noises.
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### Author:  [@NickTheNick](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/NickTheNick)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2022, 7:29pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700/16 "2022-07-21T19:29:43Z")
Alright I’d like to take a crack at helping with the Microbe Biome Ambience for this next release.
## **Licensing**
One big thing we need to clear up is how much we can use freely available sounds off of the internet. Can anyone provide a clear explanation on whether we can, and if so what steps we need to take to be compliant with licensing rules? If not, our only option is to create all sounds ourselves eh?
## **Current Ambience**
The ambient tracks we have now have served us well for many years. I mean no disrespect to whoever created them, but I think that they can be replaced with higher quality and more accurate ambient tracks (as with many past features and assets we have improved upon). For perspective, here are the current two ambient tracks:
[https://whyp.it/t/microbe-ambience-1-dBv0J/](https://whyp.it/t/microbe-ambience-1-dBv0J/)
I will be honest, after many times of playing the game, this ambient track is harder to listen to now. This track has a bit of a higher pitched echoing/screeching sound (that gets strong about 30 seconds in) that I cannot fully place my finger on, that doesn’t sound entirely underwater and is a little audibly irritating.
[https://whyp.it/t/microbe-ambience-2-bDxnn](https://whyp.it/t/microbe-ambience-2-bDxnn)
I do prefer the second track, but I think it has some areas of improvement as well. It’s more of a clearly noticeably underwater bubbling sound, but I think the problem lies in having a single “bubbling focused” ambient track that plays in every patch is the problem (and a higher pitched echoey bubble track). Additionally, the amount of bubbling you hear often doesn’t match what you see on the screen. The amount of bubbling is actually quite intense, but then you can sometimes have a screen with no activity of cells or currents or compounds or chunks on it, and not even any bubbles (though implementing 3D and mobile bubbles will be a separate task). This disconnect between the audio and the visuals broke the immersion for me at some moments and made it feel more like a game.
## **Solution**
I think the solution, as I highlighted way back when in the original post, is to break down all possible ambient sounds into their component “ingredients”, and then come up with a “recipe” of “ingredients” for each patch. Instead of recapping all the ingredient sounds and coming up with a master list for all the patches at once, I’ll start by focusing only on the Hydrothermal Vents biome. Once we have this one done, we can move one by one through the other biomes. I can update the Original Post as we finish each biome, and then we can eventually save all that info to the wiki.
* * *
## **Hydrothermal Vents**
I think the ambient track of the hydrothermal vents should be comprised of three main sounds:
- **Underwater hum**. I don’t know the exact word for it, but if you have ever fully submerged yourself underwater without too many sounds around you you know what I mean. There is a strange humming sound that occurs when you are underwater, which is probably caused by the flowing of the water on and off of your eardrums. I think having this constantly playing faintly in the background is perfect for creating the sense of being underwater (I think this is what Microbe Ambience 1 was trying to do with the higher pitches echoey sounds). The best example I can find of this sound is the following:
- [Freesound - wendywater2minheel.wav by scratchikken](https://freesound.org/people/scratchikken/sounds/115610/)
- **Bubbling**. Although I think that bubbling should not play in the ambience of other biomes, this is one place where bubbling belongs. The hydrothermal vents are constantly ejecting gasses which are dissolving into the seawater, so there should be constant bubbling. Perhaps we could have a second track where the gas release (and thus bubbling) occurs in bursts for a more sporadic vent.
- I think one big problem for now is that bubbling ambience will always feel unrealistic, since we will be able to hear them but not see them. In the future we can create a task to implement small bubble particle FX that swirl across the currents and float past the player’s camera to visually show the bubbles, and perhaps even some larger 3D bubbles that can be interacted with by the player (moved or popped).
- **Occasional explosions/booms**. Occasionally vents may release a large amount of pent up gas, and this could even create a shockwave in the water. There could also be moments where rocks around a vent crack from the fissuring forces of the vent. To show this audibly, every 5-8 minutes we can play distantly muffled booms or explosions amongst the ambient sound. I think this would be a really cool way of making the hydrothermal vents feel like both a fountain of nutrients and source of life, but also a little terrifying as we remind the player that they are close to volcanic activity. The best examples I could find of underwater sounding explosions/booms are below:
- [Freesound - G45-35-Distant Explosions Underwater.wav by craigsmith](https://freesound.org/people/craigsmith/sounds/438737/)
If we are indeed able to use free sounds on the internet without licensing problems, I can go ahead and start finding the best free samples I can find for these three sounds. If anyone has experience in sound design / sound engineering, or is able to help create any samples for these sounds themselves, I could really use the help!
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### Author:  [@hhyyrylainen](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/hhyyrylainen)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2022, 7:39pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700/17 "2022-07-21T19:39:55Z")
> [@NickTheNick](#):
>
> and if so what steps we need to take to be compliant with licensing rules?
The terms of use (the license) for each individual used sound needs to be evaluated separately if they are usable.
Anything that uses the already used license for Thrive assets: [Thrive/assets/LICENSE.txt at master · Revolutionary-Games/Thrive · GitHub](https://github.com/Revolutionary-Games/Thrive/blob/master/assets/LICENSE.txt) would be optimal as then we just need to add a bit of text in the assets readme that a particular asset uses work by person x.
Other licenses need to be looked at separately, most creative commons variants should be fine, but we’ll need to include the full license texts for them in the game if they are used as I don’t think the licenses are currently included.
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### Author:  [@NickTheNick](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/NickTheNick)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2022, 1:10am UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700/18 "2022-07-22T01:10:16Z")
Ok that’s good to know! Being able to find a few crucial sound effects online that are under appropriate licenses that we could use will help a lot.
For demonstration, here’s a quick test track I threw together for a Vents Ambience track. It uses the “Underwater Snowstorm” track made by Yuri which works as a perfect Underwater Hum sound effect constantly playing in the background. Then I sprinkled in three underwater explosions off of [Freesound.org](http://Freesound.org) to show when the vents release another burst of gas (they are pretty bad quality so you can hear the buzz of the microphone during their clips). Finally I added some bubbling taken from the current microbe\_ambience2.ogg track. Sometimes an explosion leads to bubbling, sometimes it doesn’t, just to see what sounds best. Give a listen and provide your thoughts!
> **[Vents Ambience Test Track](https://whyp.it/t/vents-ambience-test-track-dwxLw/)**
>
> Listen to a track uploaded by nickthenick.
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### Author:  [@hhyyrylainen](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/hhyyrylainen)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2022, 9:48am UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700/19 "2022-07-22T09:48:28Z")
I opened an issue for expanding the game music system to allow context specific tracks to play only when that context is active:
>
>
> so for patch specific music we need a new feature in the jukebox to only play ce…rtain tracks in a given context.
>
> To start off I think we should make it so that there's a list of active contexts in the jukebox, those context are mandatory to give as a parameter when changing category (other contexts would be cleared). Then the tracks in a category are modified so that they have an optional field called something like "ExclusiveToContext" (type should probably be a list of strings) that way certain tracks would only be allowed to be played when one of their exclusive context tags would be set. One alternative design would be to have an enum with the possible context values, which I think might be nice as that would avoid typos in the track configurations, which would be pretty hard to test for (to notice that one track never gets played).
>
> In the future we can expand this system to add extra features like exclusive tracks being able to specify they take priority over normal tracks when they can be played, and maybe setting a context (like in combat) could force a track change early.
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### Author:  [@NickTheNick](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/NickTheNick)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2022, 3:10am UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700/20 "2022-08-12T03:10:37Z")
I opened an issue for the sound production component of the Ambience Revamp. It requires the issue you created HH to be resolved before it itself can be fully resolved:
>
>
> Ideally creating a set of ambient tracks and ambient noises that can be layered …on top of each other, based on the biome the player is in.
>
> Some of these can also be tied to specific actions and events (cells bumping into each other, rock chunks colliding, etc), giving more audio immersion to the world.
>
> Is currently being discussed in this thread: https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700
>
> Requires the following issue to be completed before the tracks can be made to be specific per biome: https://github.com/Revolutionary-Games/Thrive/issues/3586
---
### Author:  [@NickTheNick](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/NickTheNick)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2022, 11:12pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700/21 "2022-08-15T23:12:47Z")
Just as a quick update, thanks to @Twitchywhalez we now have a repository of some locally made Thrive sounds, which we can mix and match to produce our own ambient tracks. We can also grow this repository to include more and more recordings so we can keep making more interesting SFX and ambience.
I’ve created two draft ambient tracks with these sounds. Please listen and give feedback on:
- The sound quality. Is it too loud? Too buzzy? Is the bass too low? Did you hear any strange out of places sounding noises at some point?
- The immersiveness. Does it sound like you are underwater?
A generic background noise for being underwater:
> **[Underwater Hum 1](https://whyp.it/tracks/37124/underwater-hum-1?token=3lyL6)**
>
> Listen to a track uploaded by nickthenick.
Another one that is probably better suited for deeper environments:
> **[Underwater Hum (Deep and Bassy)](https://whyp.it/tracks/37123/underwater-hum-deep-and-bassy?token=cCuvO)**
>
> Listen to a track uploaded by nickthenick.
If there are no issues we’re going to go ahead and starting creating more SFX and ambience in this style.
[Next page](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/microbe-biome-ambience/700.md?page=2)