FIT3172 Sonics – Semester 2, 2023
Assignment 3: Producing an Immersive Spatial Audio Environment
In this assignment you will design the audio for an immersive scene in Unity. A Unity project containing
a complete scene but with no audio has been created for you (A3 Audio Environment (Unity Project)).
Imagine this is a playable prototype for an upcoming game pitch, and you have the task of designing
the sound. The game studio is still unsure what the look and feel of the game should be, so your job is
to propose and create a sound design that captures a specific genre and style, which will be used to
inspire the visual design.
Your project will use a combination of recorded audio and sounds you create yourself. You are
encouraged to make use of the various techniques you’ve learned in studios, including Foley, synthesis,
field recordings and effects (reverb, filtering, etc.).
You can navigate through the game environment in 1st Person perspective. Minor adjustments to the
scene’s lighting and effects in order to better fit your chosen genre are permissible but should be used
sparingly and discussed with your tutor in advance.
Statement on the use of Generative AI for assessments in this unit: Generative AI tools cannot be used
for any assessments in this unit. In this unit, you must not use generative artificial intelligence (AI) to
generate any materials or content in relation to your assessment.
Requirements
● Genre and style: You are encouraged to be creative, and design your own style for the scene,
but this should be consistent with the genre you set. Explain these in your documentation.
● Sound creation: Your composition should include a variety of sounds you create yourself. This
includes both digitally generated sounds using VST synthesisers (e.g. Helm) or hardware
synthesisers, and effects created using Foley. You will use the FMOD sound engine to manage
your audio within Unity. Your game level will need to include a variety of created audio sources
and effects, including:
o ambient audio using head-locked stereo
o atmospheric effects for at least 2 distinct locations (e.g. indoor and outdoor) using
spatialised audio (either ambisonic or using spatial techniques in FMOD)
o 3D point sources
o 7 instances of interactive or reactive sounds (open & close chest, open & close door,
3 player actions)
o correct implementation of reverb zones and spatial effects
● Recording, editing and processing: Any recording you make should be appropriately edited
and processed in Audacity or Reaper using techniques learned during your studios. This should
include techniques such as multi-track mixing, non-destructive sound processing and editing
(for example filtering and effects), as well as techniques used in Assignments 1 & 2.
FIT3172 Sonics – Semester 2, 2023
● Documentation: Your submission should be accompanied by details about how and where you
made your recordings, and descriptions of the sounds you made and how you made them. You
should also describe the genre and style chosen for your project and the mood this is intended
to invoke, along with the decisions you made to achieve this (for example, the foreground and
background sounds you chose and how you fitted them together). Briefly describe (at a high
level) the editing and sound processing decisions you made, and your rationale.
● Spatialised audio: There are several options available depending on how ambitious you would
like to be. You can record an ambisonic track (using the H2n for example). You can edit or
create ambisonic tracks in Reaper and import these into Unity. You can use FMOD to spatialise
mono and stereo tracks that you created and edited in Reaper.
● Project: Your submission will include an executable of your final project. You don’t need to
include your source files, but should make these available in case markers need to see them.
See the submission instructions following.
Assignment Submission (via Moodle)
1. Unity build: Executable of your final scene.
2. Documentation file: A pdf of your documentation.
3. Link to project files: Place your zipped Unity and FMOD studio projects, including audio files
in a Monash Google Drive folder (using your student account) and include a link in your
documentation. Make sure to give all the tutors ({rick.laird, jethro.woodward,
amelia.giannioglou, bennett.owen, john.betts, barrett.ens}@monash.edu) permission to
access this folder.
Submission Instructions
Please complete the below steps to assemble your assignment files and prepare them for submission.
Do not include your audio or project files in your Moodle submission, as this must meet Moodle’s
upload limit of 500MB. Instead you will provide access to these from a Google Drive folder.
1. Create a new folder titled FIT3172_A3_StudentName in your Monash Google Drive. Add your
final Unity project here with your final audio files included. Include a link to this folder in your
documentation.
2. Create a new folder titled FIT3172_A3_StudentName
3. Create a build of your Unity project and save it to your submission folder.
4. Add your documentation file to the main folder. This should be a single .pdf document.
Assessment Criteria (total 30 marks)
● Recorded and edited foreground background sound: Quality of recorded content: quality of
recordings, sufficient variety of interesting sounds (e.g. timbre, volume, distance, dynamics,
variety), sound elements added. (5 marks)
● Created sound and Foley: Quality of created sounds: inclusion of both digitally generated
sounds and Foley, quality of sounds, variety of interesting sounds. (5 marks)
● Sound behaviour within scene (ambient and atmospheric): Inclusion of ambient audio as a
head-locked stereo track, spatialised local sound environments for at least 2 locations, and
correct implementation and behaviour of localised sound. (5 marks)
● Sound behaviour within scene (interactive and reactive): Correct implementation and
behaviour of interactive and reactive sounds. (5 marks)
FIT3172 Sonics – Semester 2, 2023
● Creation of genre and style of the scene: Quality of the project game scene: effective use of
genre and style, strategic use of different types of sounds. (5 marks)
● Documentation: Documentation of the audio production process, discussion of how elements
were chosen to fit the genre and style of your scene, factors in the decisions to use the chosen
sounds, and how they are strategically placed in the environment. (5 marks)
Due Date: Friday, 11:55 pm, Week 14 (3rd November)