Blizzard Insider Issue #4 12/12/00 Insider Issue #4 - Holiday 2000 Edition =========================================================== **INSIDER EXCLUSIVE COUPON: $10 SAVINGS ON DIABLO II EXCLUSIVE GIFT SET** It's that time of the year again, and what better present to give for the Holidays than the complete Diablo saga. The Diablo II Exclusive Gift Set contains Diablo, Diablo II, and the official strategy guides for both titles. Click here for a printable coupon which is good for a mail-in rebate on all retail purchases of the Diablo II Exclusive Gift Set through January 7, 2001! http://www.blizzard.com/insider/coupon.shtml =========================================================== In This Issue: 1) Blizzard Announces Final Warcraft(R) III Race 2) Battle.net(TM) Update 3) The Aural Experience of Diablo(TM) II: Interview with sound designer Jon Stone 4) New Products from the Blizzard Universe 5) New Feature: Send Us Your Questions! =========================================================== 1) BLIZZARD ANNOUCES FINAL WARCRAFT III RACE- THE NIGHT ELVES: With the announcement of the Night Elves, the mystery shrouding the final race in Warcraft III has been lifted. The Night Elves are nocturnal by nature, and their units include of Ents, Druids, Archers, Hunters and Sentinels. An honorable and just race, the Night Elves were the first the study magic in the World of Warcraft thousands of years ago. However, reckless use of their powers resulted in a catastrophic war, and as a result, the Night Elves now refuse to use their magic abilities. For complete details on the Night Elves' units and abilities check out the January issue of Computer Games Magazine's available on newsstands now. =========================================================== 2) BATTLE.NET STATUS UPDATE: The Battle.net team is aware of the problems that some Diablo II users have experienced playing Blizzard Entertainment's games over our Battle.net. In an effort to solve those problems the Battle.net team has expanded in terms of both personnel and hardware in order to provide users with the best possible play experience. We have increased game servers for our Diablo II realms by nearly 300% since Diablo II was launched and we will be adding more servers over the next few months to further support the increasing demand. We have been upgrading existing Battle.net servers with better hardware as well. Due to the large volume of messages generated by advertising 'bots on Battle.net using Starcraft(TM) shareware, Diablo Shareware and original Diablo, the Battle.net team has limited the channel access of those games. Those games can still enter their default channels as well as the Technical Support channels. This change should make chatting over Battle.net a much more pleasant experience. Battle.net is going to be changing somewhat in the coming months, and we anticipate these changes will be met with great enthusiasm by our game users. The next insider will detail these new additions to Battle.net. =========================================================== 3) THE AURAL EXPERIENCE OF DIABLO II: An Interview with Jon Stone, Game Programmer and Sound Designer from Blizzard North Q: What part of Diablo II did you work on? A: I was responsible for the sound technology, though like many programmers at Blizzard I took on different roles over the course of Diablo II - it was quite a large project. I'm one of the few game programmers who really enjoys working with sound and music, so I naturally gravitated towards that aspect of the game. Q: How much has the audio technology in Diablo II changed from the original Diablo? A: A great deal. Diablo II was the first Blizzard game to be developed at a time when 3D-accelerated sound hardware was commonplace, so we were able to use hardware features that weren't available when the original Diablo was written. We knew we wanted a much richer sound environment than the first game had, with a wide variety of ambient effects to reinforce the diverse game locations, so we wrote an entirely new sound engine for Diablo II based upon DirectSound3D and Creative Labs' EAX. Q: Does Diablo II sound different with 4 speakers? Will I be able to hear sounds behind me? A: Yes, the game does sound better with 4 speakers, though not so much because sound effects come from behind you, but because the ambient sounds fill the space more realistically. Since Diablo II's world is essentially 2D, we place most sound effects in the space in front of the player, but on surround speaker systems the ambient sounds like wind and echoes play from the rear speakers as well, making the sound environment more enveloping. Our sound effect designer, Scott Petersen, created a nice array of ambient rumbles and moans for Diablo II which you can hear from all sides on a 4-speaker system. Q: How does Diablo II use EAX effects? A: We used EAX for its reverb and filter effects. Our sound design team was able to set up separate effects properties for each location in the game, to describe the way game sounds such as footsteps would echo in, say, caves or the monastery. This turned out to be much more effective than the traditional technique of pre-recording the echo effects into the original sound, because while the footsteps appear to be originating from the location of the character on the screen, the echoes can come from the entire stereo field. We also took advantage of EAX's ability to apply a filter to sounds that originate from behind a wall, to muffle the direct portion of the sound, but leave the indirect echoes untouched. The effect is pretty subtle, but it reinforces the sense that you're in a real space with solid walls. Q: What type of effects would you like to see come out or in the next game you work on? A: Well, in the area of audio one thing I'd like to see game machines with more flexible sound hardware, on which the sound processing can be modified at a deeper level than is currently possible. This already seems to be the direction which next-generation game consoles are taking, in that the hardware's digital signal processing can be programmed by the game designers to apply their own custom effects to sounds, such as equalization and compression, bringing the power of a game machine closer to that of a sound recording studio. We're also really interested in creating interactive soundtracks for future games, in which the music changes in response to the player's action - for example, changing the orchestration of a music theme as the player enters a battle. This won't so much require advances in the state of the sound hardware but a shift in the way our game technology is designed and the music composed, and is something we'll be exploring in future Blizzard titles. =========================================================== 4) NEW PRODUCTS FROM THE BLIZZARD UNIVERSE Two new Blizzard e-books from Pocket Books will be available for download on December 18th joining 'Demonsbane' in the library of essential Blizzard fiction. Here's a run down of what's available and where: 'Demonsbane' a gothic tale of revenge set in the world of Diablo. Written by Robert B. Marks with cover art by BLIZZARD'S Dave Berggren. AVAILABLE NOW FOR DOWNLOAD! 'StarCraft: Uprising' written by BLIZZARD'S Micky Neilson with cover art by BLIZZARD'S Roman Kenney. AVAILABLE DECEMBER 18th. 'Warcraft: Of Blood and Honor' written by BLIZZARD'S Chris Metzen with cover art by BLIZZARD'S Bill Petras and Chris Metzen. AVAILABLE DECEMBER 18th. For more information on Demonsbane check out: http://www.simonsays.com/book/default_book.cfm?areaid=170&isbn=0743418999 To download these e-books and e-book reader software go to: http://ebooks.barnesandnoble.com/index.asp?userid=22FGL50BK2 Those wishing to download these e-books to your PDA should visit: http://www.peanutpress.com/index.cgi/06473584-30379-252067022 A new content download site called Digital Goods is offering a chance to win some very cool prizes if you download 'Demonsbane' or 'Uprising' from them: Demonsbane: http://www.market.softlock.com/bp/item.asp?ProdId=8268 Uprising: http://www.market.softlock.com/bp/item.asp?ProdId=8784 Also.... Wizards of the Coast is proud to announce the release of the Diablo II: Diablerie table-top role playing game based on the new 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons rule set. The Diablo II: Diablerie is IN STORES NOW! =========================================================== 5) NEW FEATURE: SEND US YOUR QUESTIONS! Have you always had a question about Blizzard or one of our games? Ever wanted to ask the people behind the scenes their opinion? We'll here's your chance. Send your burning questions to questions@blizzard.com and we will answer one question each issue. If we use your question you will receive a snazzy Blizzard baseball cap available only from the Blizzard online store. =========================================================== Blizzard Entertainment P.O. Box 18979 Irvine, CA 92623 Direct Sales (800) 953-SNOW International Direct Sales (949) 955-0283 Technical Support (949) 955-1382 Technical Support Fax (949) 737-7669 Online Technical Support support@blizzard.com http://www.blizzard.com/support/ Visit Blizzard on the world web at http://www.blizzard.com =========================================================== (c) 2000 Blizzard Entertainment. All rights reserved. StarCraft is a trademark and Battle.net, Diablo, Warcraft and Blizzard Entertainment are trademarks or registered trademarks of Havas Interactive, Inc. and/or its wholly owned subsidiaries in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.