HRTF 3D positional audio

[Bucic]

Does SOMA use OpenAL so we can enable HRTF? It was possible with ATDD but I haven't managed to enable it in AAMFP.

Related
https://www.frictionalgames.com/forum/th...light=hrtf

To those not familiar:
- aby sort of surround Sound, 7.1 headphones, Creative EAX, Creative CMSS etc. do not provide true 3D audio
- HRTF combined with regular stereo headphones does allowing to pinpoint sound sources locations with high accuracy in 3D space

[jens]

SOMA uses FMOD and from what I know HRTF is not available like it is with OpenAL.

[Bucic]

That's bad. And FMOD to top that...
Well, at least I have Xonar with Dolby Headphone. Still a poor substitute for OpenAL based HRTF but better than nothing.

While we're at it. Does AAMFP use FMOD as well?

[jens]

AAMFP uses OpenAL

[Bucic]

OK, thank you Jens.

---

I've just read through http://www.fmod.org/products/ and it seems they do have some rudimentary 3D audio provisions but I don't know of a game which actually makes use of it. Hardly surprising when you can still get all the accolades for sound design without having a glimpse of positional audio (Alien Isolation).

[Argoon]

SOMA uses FMOD and from what I know HRTF is not available like it is with OpenAL.

Now i can't use Rapture3D (also a HRTF software) like i did in ATDD.

The decision came from the need to make the engine work on consoles, or is FMOD so superior to OpenAL that a total change was worth it?

EDIT: It seams FMOD does support HRTF through third parties in this case:

HRTF headphone 3D audio via AstoundSound 3D RTI and Plugins
FMOD provides 3D headphone audio via third party plugins. Get your users immersed in the mix by using advanced processing algorithms that spatialize audio over 2 speakers, for precise positioning and enhanced spatial separation of noisy scenes.

[samueljustice00]

We actually mimic HRTF ingame, all the objects and creatures have an azimuth relative to camera and the azimuth angle is used to control a shelving filter which subtly removes about 3db of high frequency dependent on the angle, that's then multiplied by distance for further shelving. This isn't channel independent however, but still sounds quite natural. We also use a parametric EQ based on distance as well to notch out high frequencies that don't travel as far over distance - most games just use a brute force low pass on distance, we don't do that which is why the game sounds quite natural over longer distances. Couple that with an reverb amplitude multiplier which is also applied on distance - it brings it all together.

FMODs solution isn't rudimentary, instead of brute forcing a single setting on all sounds it allows us to pick and choose, as well as fine tune. It just requires a knowledge of what tools to use and when.

[Argoon]

We actually mimic HRTF ingame, all the objects and creatures have an azimuth relative to camera and the azimuth angle is used to control a shelving filter which subtly removes about 3db of high frequency dependent on the angle, that's then multiplied by distance for further shelving. This isn't channel independent however, but still sounds quite natural. We also use a parametric EQ based on distance as well to notch out high frequencies that don't travel as far over distance - most games just use a brute force low pass on distance, we don't do that which is why the game sounds quite natural over longer distances. Couple that with an reverb amplitude multiplier which is also applied on distance - it brings it all together.

FMODs solution isn't rudimentary, instead of brute forcing a single setting on all sounds it allows us to pick and choose, as well as fine tune. It just requires a knowledge of what tools to use and when.

Hey thanks for taking the time to respond, i still didn't got the game (low on cash now but i will buy it) so i can't test the audio for myself, but Amnesia 3D sound cues, was so nice with Rapture3d, that losing that would make me really sad and will impact my enjoyment of the game, but i've total confidence on your abilities to make awesome audio, i'm also glad to know you guys thought about the audio tech not only the graphics, some just implement FMOD enable 2.0 and 7.1 audio and call it a day, forgetting all the immersion potential that audio effects like HRTF or other effects like those enabled by (EAX or EFX) can have.
Sorry for the Rambling but i just find that audio is the single thing that lost its way on game design and i don't see this changing without returning to audio hardware acceleration, lets hope Dx12 or Vulkan helps, HRTF is nice but is still not what audio can be and used to be.