There's always a question about the realistic audio system: you're not supposed to hear anything in space.
TL;DRSound in space follows rule of cool rather than strict realism, with cinematic audio first and a possible realistic mode left for later, not yet decided.
So the real audio and the real physics of audio in space, the physics with atmosphere. Well, it's kind of rule of cool sometimes. If we've got something we want to make a sound, then I want it to make a sound. Now, we can't just provide a roll-off. We can't just have the bass frequencies or the low pass just kicking in. We've got to feel vibration through our space suit and then through our helmet. We've got to consider how vibration works and how we achieve the real audio. Yes, you can't hear anything in space, but as soon as you start touching stuff, you'll get resonance through your suit and then through your helmet. And that's not just a case of creating a sound and then just rolling off the treble or the high frequencies. It's a bit more complicated than that. Now, I'm sure some people want real audio and some people don't want real audio. I'm not sure what the right answer is for that.
I think we really want to build a great cinematic experience first, because we're going to have to have cinematic sounds anyway in atmosphere. So if we can build on that foundation, then we can move on and do the realistic stuff at a later date once we've got the cinematic stuff in order, basically.
Build from that. I think there are areas of the game that we'll approach that give the feeling of more realism, like the difference between atmospheric flight and space flight, and that kind of juxtaposition between the two. It's like an artistic interpretation of no sound in space. But as Tristan said, we've got a lot of work to do on regular mode first.
It's got to be rule of cool. We're not going to please everyone all the time. But we don't want the game to be like a physics lecture. It's fun.
I think some people do, though. I think some people honestly want the game to be a physics lecture.
Well, maybe in the future we can provide for that. We've discussed it a lot, the no sound in space stuff and the realistic mode. But ultimately we design the sound in full and we shelve that sonic experience until we know how we're going to address that properly.