So here's something I recently started working on that I've had as an idea for a long time. As I've gotten more invested and experienced in doing audio for games and video, I've also found myself getting less and less tolerant over what I would call static ambient sounds, meaning when the majority of the environmental audio experience is conveyed via abstract stereo loops that aren't really tangibly grounded in the world you're in. They don't change at all in relation to the player's position or viewing angle. In the real world, sound doesn't work this way at all, and our hearing is innately wired to detect all these miniscule changes in phase and whatnot to help us orientate, just like sight has nuances like depth perception etc.

Most existing sound mods that add ambient sounds work the same way as well, with the brunt of the new content being these static sounds. I've decided to try a different approach by painting a much higher degree of the overall soundscape via sound emitters that have a physical source and properly respond to x/y/z changes, and just make everything feel more alive/responsive/tangible. What really pushed me to start doing this was the recent release of http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1897/? which is an incredible boon to these types of sounds in particular, given that Skyrim's internal way of handling positional audio is notoriously bad. It won't be a requirement for my mod, but it's still being created with this and mind and thus comes highly recommended.

So far I've created a whole bunch of raw sound assets for all sorts of things, but only for dungeons and interiors at the moment. I've implemented and created systems for town interior sounds so far, using Dragonsreach as a sort of guinea pig for prototyping and figuring out what works well. This video of some of my early work should give you a good idea of the kind of direction I'm striving for:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3pMbXAgw_0

Recorded in Dragonsreach during rainy weather, so the sounds with rain conditions are active. There is a standard static stereo loop for indoor rain used as a base, much like how other mods typically do it, but it's not the main attraction here, and instead works alongside some additional emitters that have been strategically placed close to the ceilings. Since they have a limited radius, you'll notice the raindrops get more muted as you head down into the cellar. As you get close to the walls, you can hear additional raindrops hitting the windows. There's also some extra outdoor wind layers close to the walls (that just don't happen to be as noticeable during this kind of weather, but it does add some extra spice as subtle as it is). I tried some new stuff with the big fire as well, so as you get really close to it, a separate bass layer with stereo separation fades in and envelopes you to add an extra feeling of proximity.

Once I have finished doing raw assets and worked out standards for how to implement them, the real work begins with placing them in all the cells, which is probably going to take a while. I might even need to recruit some help with that. Will probably work in a priority order where things like important quest-related locations get treated first.