Real-time reverb in games

[Morgan C]

It's a little too much I think, but toned down a little this would be absolutely badass, especially with a 5.1 system.

 

[Fbarre]

Sounds interesting, however the late reflections sometimes sound a bit unnatural. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Empathy]

I've always thought about how something like this would add so much to games. Particularly on open world games like Grand Theft Auto; gunshots and police sirens in the middle of a city never sound like they ought-to.

 

[kev]

What are they doing at the moment? Impulsez!!!

 

[kaomao]

yeah that's cool, thanks for sharing!
I guess this hasn't binaural effect, if it had, it would have been more realistic. Cool anyway

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

I thought this was what already was happening in games? Didn't know audio in games was still so "primitive" or overlooked. Obviously the effect there is too much, but it's a tech demo so they have to show what it actually does. Has this never been implemented then? Since the video is quite old

 

[Josh M.]

I thought this was what already was happening in games? Didn't know audio in games was still so "primitive" or overlooked. Obviously the effect there is too much, but it's a tech demo so they have to show what it actually does. Has this never been implemented then? Since the video is quite old

My thoughts exactly.

I am sure Half-Life 2 has it. Firing any of the weapons (especially with explosions) causes echoes and even back in Half-Life 1 there was a resonator effect in different parts of maps where simply walking would make an annoying pitch.

 

[Brandon E.]

At the end of the video it sounds silly as hell compared to the HL2 sound engine, but it's a good idea...I find it hard to believe that a lot of games don't already use something like this though

 

[SimonSez]

Yeah I'm sure I have played HL2 and there were very reverberant areas that suddenly turned more dead-sounding when you walked into a small room. DirectX has had the DirectSound 3D for a while now http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...x_sdk.reference.dsfxi3dl2reverb(v=vs.85).aspx

 

[egan.]

I think the key here is that this is a new model for handling something that has been occurring for quite a while. This is just the engine developed by a particular research group at a college down the road from me. No doubt that some of these programmers will get picked up by Epic (also down the road) or one of the other engine companies.

 

[Morgan C]

My thoughts exactly.

I am sure Half-Life 2 has it. Firing any of the weapons (especially with explosions) causes echoes and even back in Half-Life 1 there was a resonator effect in different parts of maps where simply walking would make an annoying pitch.

I think at the moment in games you can set where a sound is coming from, and set a reverb for an area. But this calculates, based on the geometry and textures of the surrounding environment, an dynamic algorithmic reverb.
The only issue I see is that, at least in the video, it's using very simple geometry - closed environment, square rooms, very little 'filler' material. I can't imagine it'd run real-time in a cave, or a large room with a whole ton of debris. Yet.

 

[egan.]

Yet.

Indeed. Audio is always last on the list for bandwidth and processing power but we (using the term loosely) have seen some big gains as systems have improved. This might be the sort of thing we get in a PS4 world.

 

[Erratic]

Yet, it could, every pc gamers I know have a quad core nowadays with minimum 4gb of ram so why it doesn't happens yet?

Pretty sure that it's because of consoles getting old, also some minor fact like business and milking series does not help to expand games immersion as game company mostly see $$$ nowadays.

I think it is same in the movie industry, lack of time for audio mixing...
Just listen to a movie eyes close and try to capture the room of a scene and pretty much fail 70% of the time. (Unless no ADR were done, but rare are those movies and that you are watching 40-50's movies and yet ADR existed, even back then.)

My 2 cents

 

[egan.]

Yet, it could, every pc gamers I know have a quad core nowadays with minimum 4gb of ram so why it doesn't happens yet?

The PC market is relatively small and none of the non MMO big boys bother developing exclusively for PC anymore. In order to sink millions of dollars into a game you need a wide net and/or the exclusivity buy outs from console makers. It's a competitive world. Everything counts in large amounts.

 

[Erratic]

I agree with you that pc is losing mass appeal but it can be done quite easily on it by now, that's a shame though because games are being developed ON PC before reaching consoles....

EDIT: and like I said big company only see green by now, time has changed quite a lot.

 

[Erratic]

People mentality has changed, I'm sorry, I'll end up arguing by shooting one company that hasn't and always pushed forward the industry in terms of putting every possible aspect of tech in a game to make a better immersion and it's Id Software, they haven't changed.

Everything nowadays seems rushed and more about quantity than quality, maybe it's just me waking up on this topic or nostalgia growing on me but I can clearly see a degradation in games nowadays, everything feels less polished than before and not very notable in the audio department apart few games I can count on a single hand.

This sort of technology should be applied in video games just like mo-cap, that would greatly improve gaming experience.

 

[egan.]

Hey, Erratic, I sort of hosed you by deleting my post (I guess as you were replying) but I'll just agree to disagree. Not everyone is making great games but there are so many factors (and people) involved that blanket statements about the entire industry are generally unfair IMHO.

 

[ahjteam]

No doubt that some of these programmers will get picked up by Epic (also down the road) or one of the other engine companies.

Considering that many game companies use Wwise or FMOD for sound engine, so it needs to be implemented on those.

 

[Ermz]

I think too few gamers care about sound enough for this to take any significant priority.

I imagine most developers are still prioritizing scripting and bug testing these massive engines under the same budgets as yesteryear, while the public is busily ripping off their product.

 

[drew_drummer]

Well yeah... all gamers give a fuck about today is pretending they are this:

When in fact, they are this:

PS: Yes I play games.