[bigshot]

99% of all music is recorded in stereo. And the cost of having to get 7 high quality speakers. Stereo works just fine.

Multichannel is certainly expensive. But when it comes to the sound, 5.1 is as much better than stereo as stereo is to mono. Stereo creates a soundstage. Multichannel extends that to a sound field filling the whole room. And that isn't just so a guitar can be behind you. The surround speakers mesh to create ambiences that can simulate anything from inside a tight little box to being in a cathedral.

There's a great deal of music mixed for multichannel. Just about every concert video is 5.1 now. Lots of classical recordings to choose from. Current music. Progressive rock. Classics from the Beatles and the Stones. And lately, Warner Bros has been opening up its archive of quadraphonic releases from the 70s and releasing albums in multichannel that haven't been heard that way in half a century. Plenty to choose from.

There are also upscalers on AVRs that convert stereo into multichannel. I use those 90% of the time myself. It's one of those things where you really don't know how important it is until you get the opportunity to hear a good multichannel rig.

 

[CT007]

99% of all music is recorded in stereo. And the cost of having to get 7 high quality speakers. Stereo works just fine.

I have zero interest in music, in this topic discussion, in stereo, mono, binaural, or multi-channel format. This is about achieving as fully realistic/correct 3D audio as possible, in a live 3D environment(such as a 3D first-person video game, or 3D first-person interactive software, or possibly a film).

 

[CT007]

And yet, turning our head, even a little, is a gold mine for positional cues.

I was thinking about this... I'm still skeptical, for FPS game use, but I could see how it might be effective =p Trying to come up with a situation where I would actually want to turn my head, instead of my view, or vice versa.

 

[bigshot]

In order to have immersive sound work flawlessly with a video game, you need immersive visuals. Surround sound with a VR headset would be the ultimate implementation of surround sound for a video game. Currently, the Quest has sound built into the headset and head tracking to make it move around you as you change position.

 

[gregorio]

The possibilities of future game audio are so exciting... but don't seem to be moving very quickly at all :/

They are moving but it’s a difficult problem to solve. The first problem is how to get a personalised HRTF. Most people won’t go through the hassle of actually generating their own HRTF and done by the masses, especially children, could easily result in damaging the ears. Research is ongoing in numerous directions and some of the big companies are throwing a lot of resources into it. For example, trying to improve generic HRTFs or in Apple’s case, using the built-in camera/depth capabilities of their Face ID tech to scan consumers ears and try to calculate a more appropriate HRTF automatically. Things are definitely moving along and gradually improving but the processing power required and consumers willingness/ability to generate their own HRTF are still stumbling blocks in the short and possibly even mid term.

G

 

[CT007]

In order to have immersive sound work flawlessly with a video game, you need immersive visuals. Surround sound with a VR headset would be the ultimate implementation of surround sound for a video game. Currently, the Quest has sound built into the headset and head tracking to make it move around you as you change position.

Several regular, non-VR games definitely have amazing graphics as of the last handful of years. I don't ever want to wear some dumb thing on my head, that will make me need glasses. I'll just strap my head to my monitor, instead, and have much higher framerate.

 

[bigshot]

You say that now…

In 1978, my brother and I played Dungeons & Dragons with a group of friends every week. My brother got an Apple II and decided to create a game like D&D on the computer. My friends and I all helped him, play testing and giving feedback. The game turned out pretty darn good, and my brother marketed it, putting together copies on his kitchen table and advertising it in computer newsletters. It was the very first top down graphical role playing game, and it established the video game fundamentals that RPG games still use. It was “Rogue-like” two full years before Rogue was released.

Back then, the most common criticism was, why do I need an expensive computer to play a role playing game, when I can buy a few TSR books and some dice and do the same thing for a few bucks?

They said that then…

 

[CT007]

They are moving but it’s a difficult problem to solve. The first problem is how to get a personalised HRTF. Most people won’t go through the hassle of actually generating their own HRTF and done by the masses, especially children, could easily result in damaging the ears. Research is ongoing in numerous directions and some of the big companies are throwing a lot of resources into it. For example, trying to improve generic HRTFs or in Apple’s case, using the built-in camera/depth capabilities of their Face ID tech to scan consumers ears and try to calculate a more appropriate HRTF automatically. Things are definitely moving along and gradually improving but the processing power required and consumers willingness/ability to generate their own HRTF are still stumbling blocks in the short and possibly even mid term.

G

If they have been developing stuff, I wish they would put out realtime demos of the technology in some 3D level, so we can at least playtest it and see what we have been missing. Please post 'em, if you know of 'em.

 

[bigshot]

Apple’s Spatial Audio for the iPhone is one you can try now. But it doesn’t work well for everyone yet. There’s the Realiser, but that requires a big investment in equipment to run.

 

[gregorio]

If they have been developing stuff, I wish they would put out realtime demos of the technology in some 3D level, so we can at least playtest it and see what we have been missing.

Not a chance! When they’ve completed a step and are happy it’s a marketable improvement, then they’ll implement it to the public, such as Dolby’s Atmos for headphones and Apple Spatial Audio. Until what they’re developing is almost ready for release there’s absolutely no way they’re going to let even a hint of it get into the public domain. There are a lot of companies, including some of the biggest in the world, competing for a future market (VR, inc. Audio) that promises to be in the hundreds of billions (if not trillions) and, in the not too distant future.

The only potential hints is from some of the papers published by independent researchers but it’s very likely commercial companies (particularly those with massive R&D budgets) are taking a different “tack” and/or are more advanced than independent scientists/researchers. This has pretty much always been the case with audio. Historically, the audio world is almost entirely reliant on science/technology developments by the telcos (most notably by Bell/AT&T), although these days it’s probably more likely to come from the tech giants (Apple, Google, etc).

G