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- A YouTuber used the mechanics of visual Ray Tracing to help make 3D realistic ray tracing audio so it can be used for future games.
- Your player shoots rays outwards in the surroundings, and these rays travel to seek a source of sound. Once they detect it, they return to the player.
- With different walls and objects hindering the source of the sound, these waves travel through the openings to present realistic sounds.
Ray Tracing has made many games appear realistic by using real-life-inspired lighting effects and ultra-realistic shadows. Not only that, but the reflections also mimic what we see in real life.
While many people love the visual enhancements it provides, others conclude that it isn’t necessary for games. These debates are quite common for visual Ray Tracing, but what if I told you that we could now be getting Ray Tracing for audio?
Audio Ray Tracing
YouTuber Vercidium worked for seven years in the game engine, and he has figured out that he can use Ray Tracing to get realistic 3D Audio. What he discovered is something that could be utilised in future games. Let’s see how it works.
Currently, most games use binaural audio to generate 3D sounds. This tricks your brain into thinking that a specific sound came from a particular place. But this has its issues and limitations.
The Problem With Standard Audio In Games
See, if two players are standing close to each other, they’ll have clear sounds. However, if the second player decides to enter a room, their audio will be slightly muffled. The audio will be further muffled if he goes to a distant room.
But the problem is that games have variable environments, which significantly impact the audio we perceive. For instance, the walls of some rooms could be thicker than the others. Some doors of the rooms could be opened while others were closed.
Moreover, some could have one of their walls destroyed due to the destructible environment in the game. All of this would become a big problem if developers just used a fixed system for the audio.
How Ray Tracing Audio Works
This is where Ray Tracing Audio comes in. The way it works is that the player will fire rays outwards into the room, much similar to how Ray Tracing works. These rays are in 3d and are too quick to be captured by our eyes.
Unlike how sound travels from the object making the sound towards our ears, these rays are fired outwards from our player and towards our environment. These rays then travel as far as they can, depending on the environment, to see audio cues.
Once these rays detect a source of sound, they get absorbed by this very source. The more rays there are surrounding the source of the sound, the clearer you can hear the sound in that area.
With Walls Or Other Objects In The Way
If you close up the room by placing a few partial walls or other heavy objects, the sound waves only travel along the paths that are open, and they reduce in size. So, the audio will only be perceived from those openings.
This way, game developers can experiment with the entire building by placing walls in some areas and leaving openings in others, and the audio rays will always react differently, presenting us with realistic audio every time.
Echo Rays
The same goes for Echo sounds. In any room, your player will shoot rays outwards, and after they’ve reached the edge of the room, these rays will return to the player and will be the Echo that we hear in real life.
Using objects in the middle of the room will shrink the pathway of these rays since they’ll have less space to travel, thus making for less echo in the room. If the rays travel to the end of the level, we’ll say that they’ve escaped outdoors.
Similarly, if there are two rooms and one of them has a window where the storm sounds from outside can be heard, then these same echo waves will travel back after bouncing from the walls to create a realistic muffled sound.
In Rooms With Variable Thickness
For rooms with variable thickness, a new kind of ray will be used. They’ll shoot outwards from the player, but the longer they stay inside a wall, the more energy they’ll lose. This will muffle the sounds more in a thicker room than a thinner one.
This Is The Future Of Audio
Now, those who thought Ray Tracing was not worth it should reconsider their opinion, as standard Ray Tracing principles are used to create this breakthrough discovery.
Vercidium went ahead and made the entire animation and code of this project accessible to the public. He has also put through a survey form that will record your interest so that Ray Tracing audio could be used in future games as a paid plugin.
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[Comparisons Expert]
Shehryar Khan, a seasoned PC hardware expert, brings over three years of extensive experience and a deep passion for the world of technology. With a love for building PCs and a genuine enthusiasm for exploring the latest advancements in components, his expertise shines through his work and dedication towards this field. Currently, Shehryar is rocking a custom loop setup for his built.
Get In Touch: shehryar@tech4gamers.com
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