Hello and welcome to the Forty-Seventh Field Report!
Today marks the 160th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam or Sharpsburg, and what better way to commemorate the day with our community than to give an inside look into the future of War of Rights! In today’s field report, we will be covering a whole host of upcoming, and perhaps surprising, features, eye-watering overhauls, and an insight into our audio production. There is no strict timetable on any of the content featured in this field report; think of it as a de facto roadmap for the end of the year and into 2023. With that out of the way, let’s get going!Announcement: “Luminance” Graphics and Lighting Revamp!
[previewyoutube=oM0f0oFKhoM;full][/previewyoutube] Coming in the next major War of Rights update is a big revamp of the shading, materials and lighting in the game, which we call the “Luminance” update. Ever since the start of development, our world lighting has gone through many iterations, and while we have always been satisfied with the look of our game, this iteration is already showing a lot of promise! The current and previous iterations of our lighting and shading have particularly suffered from too much contrast and a lack of saturation. We have diligently adjusted the tonemapper to overcome these shortcomings and provide a more balanced and realistic image. Furthermore, our indirect lighting has been a point of focus in this update. This more natural indirect light bounce will give a lot more depth and vibrancy to the scene, particularly to interiors and forests. Finally, we have improved our water shader to feature better reflections, light absorption, and accurate sun highlights. We are very pleased with the new look and the visual potential it offers us in future development. Due to the nature of the asset changes in this update, a full download of the game will be required. One thing we have always loved about our community is the cinematic quality screenshots and video content you produce with the game, and we look forward to seeing more following the release of this update!Announcement: “Atlas” Community Level Editor In Development!
We’re excited to formally reveal the development of our upcoming community-level editor, "Atlas." This will open up a whole new realm of content for the game where the community will be able to create, share, and play custom levels built using assets from the game. Atlas will be available, free of charge, to everyone who has a copy of War of Rights.
Atlas, while only being a few months in development, is already taking shape. The screenshot above is a brief glimpse into the interface and toolset that will be available. We are looking to release the editor, during its infancy, to a limited audience in order to gather feedback. We will have more information on this in the future!
We look forward to encouraging and embracing a thriving level creation subcommunity once the level editor is fully released, and we can’t wait to see what sort of levels you’ll all come up with!
Audio Update: Black Powder Recordings
Introduction
Here at Campfire Games we have always strived for realism and authenticity with War of Rights, which also extends to our audio and sound design. We have always placed a high level of value on recording original and bespoke audio for our game - from ambiences, player foley, the musicians, to the sound of a minié ball passing by - the vast majority of the sound effects in War of Rights have been professionally recorded, crafted and designed by audio professionals. We thoroughly believe that this helps deliver an emotive and visceral experience for our players. [previewyoutube=PdOVls1guqM;full][/previewyoutube] Something we have wanted to improve on for a little while is the sound of our black powder weapons. Whilst we are rather pleased with the loudness and aggressiveness of our rifles, cannons and pistols in their current state - we feel that we could do much more to improve the sound of these weapons at different distances, environments and orientation/position from the shooter to the listener.
How does a rifle sound different when being shot in an open field compared to a wooded area? How different does it sound when being shot inside a building? How do they sound different when standing 20 yards behind the shooter compared to 20 yards in front of the shooter? These are all questions we wanted to be able to answer, and then deliver within the game itself. So we decided to organize a huge blackpowder audio recording session!
[previewyoutube=fPXPwgz2iQI;full][/previewyoutube]
American Civil War Society
We teamed up with The American Civil War Society (ACWS) based in the UK to record a vast library of black power weapon sounds. ACWS is a reenactment group who are very active within the scene, each year attending many events around the country. We even managed to record the ‘rebel yell’ and ‘huzzah!’ voices whilst visiting one of their events a few years ago! Their members are located in all corners of the UK and we were very grateful to have a handful of them assist us with our recording session, providing a large variety of weapons; rifles, cannons and pistols.
Field Recording
Tom, one of our audio designers has been involved with the project since the start, and is responsible for most of the sounds already existing within the game. He organized the event; researching and booking the best possible location, communicating with ACWS, as well as providing a large audio recording arsenal (microphones) for the session! From here we’ll hand over to Tom to explain further his thoughts and processes for capturing black powder explosions! [previewyoutube=wBOTN2Cq-tI;full][/previewyoutube]The Recording Session
Hey everyone! When Campfire Games spoke to me about updating some of our black powder weapon firing sounds, I knew that this would be a great opportunity to go out and grab some fresh new recordings. The first step in the process was to figure out a good location to record. Gunshots are essentially an impulse, a quick change in sound pressure which can sometimes sound rather uninteresting when shot in particular locations. The most interesting part of a gunshot (for me) is how the environment reacts to the change in air pressure. This is why guns can sound so different in various locations.
It was very important that we picked a suitable place to record for two reasons; firstly, the location had to be very quiet, so that we could capture the cleanest possible recordings with limited background noise. Unfortunately, because the UK is so densely populated, it is quite difficult to avoid all types of traffic noise - but we were lucky to find an area in the countryside that was fairly quiet.
[previewyoutube=HGewlN7PTys;full][/previewyoutube]
Secondly, the location has to have good surroundings for capturing the explosions themselves. The location we used was in an open field with a wooded area bordering and some nice hillsides in the distance. This is quite representative of the locations within War of Rights. We were able to capture some fairly dry up-close sounds whilst capturing the initial slap-back from the wooded area and successfully recording some fantastic reflections from the hills beyond the wood.
In order to accurately capture all of the potential sounds of the cannon and the environment we used a 12 channel recording setup, strategically placing microphones around the weapons at different distances and positions. We used a combination of Sound Devices Mix Pre recorders with microphones from Schoeps, DPA and Sennheiser - as well as using a set of handheld recorders (Sony D100 / Zoom H4n Pro) which all sounded absolutely fantastic.
[previewyoutube=xm8dBOdNnFQ;full][/previewyoutube]
Earlier in the daytime we performed a few test shots, which was useful because the best recordings we got were later in the evening. When the winds dropped and the subtle hint of distant traffic noise died down - we shot weapons for hours! At least 40 unique cannon shots and at least 120 different rifle and pistol shots were recorded throughout the session.
[previewyoutube=5pC9uML9ZJI;full][/previewyoutube]
The reason we shoot so many times is to ensure that we get enough variety in the shots. It’s best to shoot only one weapon at a time, so that it’s possible to edit them into single shot sound files that will later be used to build volleys in real-time. If all of the sounds in a volley are slightly different, we can avoid any repetition in the audio.
[previewyoutube=Z34rzjCA-so;full][/previewyoutube]
We really look forward to sharing more audio from the recording session, and we can’t wait to get all of these audio files edited down and designed to be used in-game! Please also visit the ACWS website and show them some support! https://acws.co.uk/
Flag Blog: The Flags of Bloody Lane
Bradley, Texture Artist & Historical Consultant Shortly before 9 AM on September 17, 1862, Generals Robert E. Lee and D. H. Hill toured the sunken road comprising the center of the Army of Northern Virginia. Veteran infantry brigades of Alabamians and North Carolinians under Generals Robert E. Rodes and George B. Anderson occupied the position. Colonel John Brown Gordon’s Sixth Alabama was at the apex of this critical point in Lee’s line. Gordon’s Yellowhammers and Col. Charles Tew’s Tarheels scoured the vicinity for fence railing, transforming the undulating path into a menacing 800-yard entrenchment—soon to be known as Bloody Lane. Gordon gave his assurances to Lee that his men would hold their assigned place, “’till the sun goes down or victory is won.” Not a half hour later, Rodes was wounded, Anderson lay dying, Tew was dead, and Gordon was expected to die having received no less than five gunshot wounds. Flags were of central importance in the Civil War, and they feature prominently in many survivor accounts of the fighting along the sunken road. Col. Gordon, for example, recalled seeing the first division of Yankee soldiers as they marched into view and their vibrant, silken “banners above them,” which “had apparently never been discolored by the smoke and dust of battle.” On the opposing side, a sergeant in the Eighth Ohio remembered “a stand of colors just opposite us.” The Confederate flags in the sunken road were “a constant mark for us to shoot at. But although we often dropped them, those colors would rise again and wave as defiantly as before.” The Alabamians of the Sixth carried a pattern of battle flag known as a second bunting issue, from a Richmond, Virginia depot. The flag featured a sewn battle honor for the regiment’s valor in the fight at Seven Pines. The Fourteenth North Carolina carried an earlier version of the battle flag, known as a first bunting, to which was fixed two battle honors for gallant service, “WILLIAMSBURG” and “SEVEN PINES!” There was no rule dictating how regiments should apply these battle honors to their colors, and we see the consequence of the lack of standardization in these two flags—both flags appear in War of Rights.
(Left: Fourteenth North Carolina; Right: Sixth Alabama)
Our most recent in-game expansion introduced a conundrum, however, as it gave each regiment two color bearers. This is not a problem for some regiments. Using the example of Bloody Lane, both the Eight Ohio and the Sixty-ninth New York have a stand of colors in War of Rights exactly recreating the flags those regiments carried into battle because the artifacts, or some description of the flags, are still extant.
What flags might the Sixth Alabama and the Fourteenth North Carolina have carried that day? It gnawed at me that until I could answer this question, Confederate players who successfully defended Bloody Lane were rewarded with a victory screen featuring duplicate flags with each regiment.
(The “CSA VICTORY” screen at Bloody Lane showing duplicate flags.)
Fortunately, creating the Fourteenth North Carolina’s second flag was relatively uncomplicated once I discovered their flag still exists—indeed, it was captured on the sunken road. Confusingly, the silk flag bears the designation “4th Regiment of North Carolina Volunteers,” but this is not the “Bloody Fourth” North Carolina regiment of the same brigade. The Fourteenth initially mustered as the Fourth Regiment of North Carolina Volunteers and continued to fight under the old banner after their re-designation.
(The Fourteenth North Carolina’s “4th Regiment” flag - the state seal is a work in progress.)
What about the Sixth Alabama’s second flag? The simple answer is that we do not know what other flags Gordon’s men might have carried on that day.
To my knowledge, only one flag belonging to the Sixth Alabama during the Maryland Campaign of 1862 is extant today. The company colors of the Hayneville Guards, later Company E of the Sixth, is now in the care of conservators at the State of Alabama’s Department of Archives and History in Montgomery, Alabama—home to one of the nation’s largest collections of Confederate flags. The Sixth Alabama marched with the flag in their home state and carried it with them as they joined the Army of Northern Virginia in Old Dominion. The flag probably did not accompany the Army of Northern Virginia into Maryland, however, and certainly it was not at Bloody Lane. To borrow Col. Gordon’s description, the banner of the Hayneville Guards was likely “never discolored by the smoke of battle.” Incidentally, though, the flag was eventually unfurled in Sharpsburg, Maryland, but by a restoration company one hundred and thirty-five years after its original guardians fought and bled without it on the sunken road.
My options were then to choose between recreating the only artifact attributed to the regiment still extant, however miniscule the chance is that it was with Lee’s army in Maryland in 1862, or to produce a more-or-less generic First National, more famously known as “Stars and Bars”—the most common flag in Confederate use during the Maryland Campaign. Neither option is accurate, both options are entirely authentic. But the first option reproduces something that is real, that you can see for yourself in the archives, whereas the second option is idealized, it exists only in the imagination of this artist’s tortured mind. After much hemming and hawing, I decided to recreate the artifact.
(Flag of the Hayneville Guards, later Company E of the Sixth Alabama)
Right away, players will notice the flag is made of white silk, which is an unfortunate choice for a battle flag but not entirely unheard of. Even at Bloody Lane, Union soldiers “noticed a white flag waving in the rebel line for some time.” Some Yankees mistook what they saw through the dense fog of battle as rebels offering a white flag of surrender, but likely it was a company flag like this one.
The front of the banner is meticulously wreathed in gold stitching in the shape of a chain. At the center, the flag features seven stars chained together, representing the seven slaveholding states that seceded from the Union prior to Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration as the sixteenth President of the United States. The town of Hayneville is the county seat of Lowndes County, Alabama and was one of the state’s largest slaveholding counties. On a ribbon beneath the chained constellation appears a motto: “Our Homes Our Rights / We Entrust to your Keeping / Brave Sons of ALABAMA.”
The reverse of the flag is also quite interesting, as it features the goddess Liberty, unironically breaking a set of iron chains clasped to her wrists. Most of Liberty’s head and face no longer exist on the artifact, and so I based her likeness on other period paintings—particularly those originating in Alabama. Above her head is another slogan, this one with a distinctive typo: “TYRANY [sic] IS HATEFUL TO THE GODS.”
Beyond these and a few more new flags we’ll be adding to War of Rights, the lighting rework showcased in this Field Report is one of the more significant upcoming updates as it provides a significant visual boost to flags. Silk, in particular, is a difficult fabric to recreate visually with its sheen, high saturation and contrasts, and opacities. With this update, however, colors will display more accurately. Gone are the dull, dark flags. The application of new shaders will also allow sunlight to cast shadows through the flag, as seen in the screenshot below. While minor features in the grand scheme of things, we trust the community will appreciate our attention to these various details as we press onward for greater immersion.
