There is a credit sequence in Asgard’s Wrath where you’re in a pub and a band is playing while the credits roll. Nothing fancy. But then I realised that when I turn my head, I can hear the instruments each coming from the specific place where the band member is. Such a small detail but it managed to blow my mind.
Yeah, that is just the default way audio works in VR. Spatial audio is the term for it. Since they are effectively tracking your ears, they being in a fixed, known location relative to the headset orientation, Spatial audio just makes sense. It’s easier than the faked positional audio of the oldendays on flat games and movies.
It’ll of course be less common in games that weren’t designed for VR originally like Senua’s sacrifice. But they leaned pretty heavily on real physicality when making the game. So it was one of the first flat games that had true spatial audio.
Almost any movie theater you go to in the last 10 years or so has also switched to spatial audio, Atmos is the name of the theater and flat game equivalent. So all sound is created at a specific co-ordinate, generally by having it be initially recorded with a mic array and actually being located at the position it should physically be. Alternately, in post when they are doing the CG, they can position the sound sources then too. And sound sources don’t have to be a single point, a sound can be created by the entire surface of an object, like a bell. So that the sound would reflect and refract accurately off other surfaces. Sound works alot like light, except slower.
Sure, that’s obvious, but I like they went the extra mile and separated the music tracks. It’s just a credits song. They could have just mixed it together and placed the sound source in the middle of the stage where the players are. You can’t move around at that stage, so it wouldn’t even be too jarring.
There is a credit sequence in Asgard’s Wrath where you’re in a pub and a band is playing while the credits roll. Nothing fancy. But then I realised that when I turn my head, I can hear the instruments each coming from the specific place where the band member is. Such a small detail but it managed to blow my mind.
Yeah, that is just the default way audio works in VR. Spatial audio is the term for it. Since they are effectively tracking your ears, they being in a fixed, known location relative to the headset orientation, Spatial audio just makes sense. It’s easier than the faked positional audio of the oldendays on flat games and movies.
It’ll of course be less common in games that weren’t designed for VR originally like Senua’s sacrifice. But they leaned pretty heavily on real physicality when making the game. So it was one of the first flat games that had true spatial audio.
Almost any movie theater you go to in the last 10 years or so has also switched to spatial audio, Atmos is the name of the theater and flat game equivalent. So all sound is created at a specific co-ordinate, generally by having it be initially recorded with a mic array and actually being located at the position it should physically be. Alternately, in post when they are doing the CG, they can position the sound sources then too. And sound sources don’t have to be a single point, a sound can be created by the entire surface of an object, like a bell. So that the sound would reflect and refract accurately off other surfaces. Sound works alot like light, except slower.
Sure, that’s obvious, but I like they went the extra mile and separated the music tracks. It’s just a credits song. They could have just mixed it together and placed the sound source in the middle of the stage where the players are. You can’t move around at that stage, so it wouldn’t even be too jarring.