Better 3d sound localization in stereo/headphones.

[ShamazZeb]

Hi guys,

I was testing how well the 3d sound localization works on headphones. Left to right is of course great, but I was disappointed that front to back simply doesn't work. I know you can't expect wonders, but still, if you put a sound 2m in front of you and 2m behind you, it sounds exactly the same.

Did anyone else play with 3d sound localization and did you figured out some way to fake it for a bit better result?

Would it be possible to implement hrtf or even something simpler but with better front/back sound positioning into UDK, maybe through the new unreal script dll binding?

Thanks.

[immortius]

You can't alter the UE3 sound engine via dll binding, but you could completely replace it with fmod or something I guess. It would be a major hassle though because you couldn't use sounds from unreal packages.

[Blade[UG]]

The positional audio system is .. weak.

[ShamazZeb]

Thanks immortius, good to know.

Blade[UG] , yes weak, at least for stereo. Anyone tried something, even fake to get better sound positioning in stereo? I can't believe there is virtually no front/back position recognition.

[Chris@EngineAudio]

The UDK does not utilize very much in the way of sound localization cues for stereo beyond low pass filters and panning. All sounds emanate as perfect spheres from a source. With no audio cone feature it is hard to create directional sound. In stereo, you are going a similar mix at 180deg.

[Blade[UG]]

it's pretty weak in multichannel, too. especially when in 5.1 mode, it considers your rear speakers to be side channel.. so if 7.1 ever gets fixed.. positional audio will be all sorts of messed up. in 5.1, the rears are rears, and in 7.1 the rears are rears, and the sides are the new feature. in unreal, 7.1 adds the rears.. so if you want something to come from the rear in a 5.1, it will come from the sides in a 7.1 ..

[ShamazZeb]

Any ideas how to fake at least a bit of front/back sound localization?

Currently it seems to me that sound 2m in front of me sounds absolutely the same as that sound 2m behind me.

[Mr Evil]

Any ideas how to fake at least a bit of front/back sound localization?

Currently it seems to me that sound 2m in front of me sounds absolutely the same as that sound 2m behind me.

You could apply a bit of low-pass filtering to a sound played behind.

[ShamazZeb]

And how would you go about that? Imagine a room where there are different static sound sources and you as player are moving and rotating around. How do you "attach" this low pass filter to be always behind you?

[Hourences]

I usually just turn off "Spatialize" since it is so horribly directional otherwise. I usually can't hear anything in front if I stand in front of something, but when I turn 90 degrees I can hear it really loud from just 1 single speaker. All doesn't make sense. Sound should bounce around the room, it can never be 100% on one speaker and 0% on all others. Gives a very bizarre feel.

Spatialize off isn't very realistic either but at least the volume is pretty consistent.

[Mr Evil]

And how would you go about that? Imagine a room where there are different static sound sources and you as player are moving and rotating around. How do you "attach" this low pass filter to be always behind you?

I suppose the actor playing the sound would have to calculate the local player's position every tick and fiddle with the SoundCue's low-pass settings. It would be a bit of a pain.

...I usually can't hear anything in front if I stand in front of something, but when I turn 90 degrees I can hear it really loud from just 1 single speaker...

It sounds* like it's trying to output to a centre speaker. I get that If I've set my soundcard to 5.1 mode for listening on speakers, then plug my headphones in and forget to set it back to stereo.

*I crack myself up with these quality jokes.

[ShamazZeb]

Thanks for the ideas. Still a bit sad and surprised that sound is a bit of a weak spot of unreal engine.

[Hourences]

I suppose the actor playing the sound would have to calculate the local player's position every tick and fiddle with the SoundCue's low-pass settings. It would be a bit of a pain.



It sounds* like it's trying to output to a centre speaker. I get that If I've set my soundcard to 5.1 mode for listening on speakers, then plug my headphones in and forget to set it back to stereo.

*I crack myself up with these quality jokes.

I can plug in headphones and set my speakers to headphone mode and I still hear almost nothing when standing in front of something. This doesn't happen in any other game with my setup.

[Ragnalin The Thief]

If it's really as bad as you guys say it is then I think epic needs to fix it. How was Thief deadly shadows made? as it had amazing sound precision and was made in Unreal engine 2 or 2.5.

[Blade[UG]]

Prior to UDK, the engine used a different sound system .. however, I've got UT04, UT3, and a couple of other lesser known games on the engine, and the positional audio in all of them is terrible, especially when you compare it to the other games that I've played since I got my 7.1 setup - Dragon Age and Dungeons and Dragons Online. In DA, the sound system is almost always 100% perfect, excluding a few camera issues.. In DDO, it sounds fantastic as well, although there are some problems (front volumes fade way too rapidly, some really loud sounds do not position properly)