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An Introduction to Spatial Sound Rendering in Virtual Environments and Games

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The Computer Games Journal

Abstract

With the rise of consumer-level virtual and augmented reality, there has been renewed interest in spatial sound. While this interest has been exciting for sound researchers, for newcomers to spatial sound the field can be fraught with technical terminology and a wide range of tools. This paper presents an introduction to spatial sound rendering in virtual environments (VEs: including games, augmented and virtual reality). We introduce a short overview of spatial sound, explore the aspects necessary to recreate spatial (virtual or 3D) sound, and present an overview of the common tools used in today’s major game development engines to create spatial sound in VEs.

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Funding

Funding was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Software and Informatics Research Centre (SIRC), Ontario Tech University, 2000 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, ON, L1H 7K4, Canada

    Mirza Beig, Bill Kapralos & Pejman Mirza-Babaei

  2. Department of Communication Arts, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    Karen Collins

Authors
  1. Mirza Beig
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  2. Bill Kapralos
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  3. Karen Collins
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  4. Pejman Mirza-Babaei
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bill Kapralos.

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On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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Beig, M., Kapralos, B., Collins, K. et al. An Introduction to Spatial Sound Rendering in Virtual Environments and Games. Comput Game J 8, 199–214 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40869-019-00086-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40869-019-00086-0

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