Everyone always talks about the great graphics that we get with games and of course with these next generation consoles, but I really like the focus by Sony on their Tempest 3D audio solution that they announced and by Xbox with their continued push in 3D audio based on their years of Microsoft Research with Project Acoustics. They have a dedicated custom audio hardware block to process Project Acoustics wave physics based audio. Their GDC talk last year is actually really well done IMO if you are into this type of technical thing, showing how easily a developer can do the computationally intensive simulations of the wave physics in the scene in the cloud during development and then use that result to tailor within Unity or Unreal Engine while building their game. What seems to be a real differentiator here is that a full and accurate simulation of the audio in the scene relative to the geometry and materials in the scene can be generated and then tweaked as desired by the developer because fully "real" isn't always what they want to portray in their game, rather than just placement of sound sources with no regard to the wave physics at play in the scene.
These awesome advances in audio on both consoles are going to really help with immersion for sure.
From the detailed Xbox Series X glossary at https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/03/16/xbox-series-x-glossary/, which is really a nice technical summary of the new features in the console:
Great GDC video talking about Project Acoustics at GDC last year:
More detailed writeup on Project Acoustics that includes links to the Unity and Unreal Engine plugins and samples, and given that many of us are in more due to this coronavirus I may play around with the Unity things myself in Visual Studio if I get a chance :)
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cognitive-services/acoustics/what-is-acoustics
These awesome advances in audio on both consoles are going to really help with immersion for sure.
From the detailed Xbox Series X glossary at https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/03/16/xbox-series-x-glossary/, which is really a nice technical summary of the new features in the console:
Project Acoustics
– Incubated over a decade by Microsoft Research,
Project Acoustics
accurately models sound propagation physics in mixed reality and games, employed by many AAA experiences today. It is unique in simulating wave effects like diffraction in complex scene geometries without straining CPU, enabling a much more immersive and lifelike auditory experience. Plug-in support for both the Unity and Unreal game engines empower the sound designer with expressive controls to mold reality. Developers will be able to easily leverage Project Acoustics with Xbox Series X through the addition of a new custom audio hardware block.
Spatial Audio
– Spatial Audio delivers deeply immersive audio which enables the player to more accurately pinpoint objects in a 3D play space. With full support for Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and Windows Sonic, Xbox Series X has custom audio hardware to offload audio processing from the CPU, dramatically improving the accessibility, quality and performance of these immersive experiences.
Great GDC video talking about Project Acoustics at GDC last year:
More detailed writeup on Project Acoustics that includes links to the Unity and Unreal Engine plugins and samples, and given that many of us are in more due to this coronavirus I may play around with the Unity things myself in Visual Studio if I get a chance :)
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cognitive-services/acoustics/what-is-acoustics