Spatialized audio

Spatialized audio, also called 3D audio, simulates three-dimensional sound.This creates more realistic audio than .

In real life, our experience of sound is affected by factors including its volume, the surrounding area (such as a cave or small room), and the position and movement of the sound source. We can usually tell approximately where a sound is coming from and whether it's moving.

For example, the frequency (pitch) of the sound coming from a moving object varies depending on the observer's position (the Doppler effect). Sound from an approaching source has a higher frequency than sound from a receding source:

To simulate realistic 3D audio, Xenko tracks the positions of two entities in the scene:

• , which emit audio
• audio listeners, which hear the sound emitted by audio emittersYou must have both audio emitters and audio listeners to hear spatialized sound in a scene.

Spatialized audio is widely used for sound effects in platform, desktop, and VR games. For example, a gun might make a gunshot sound when fired, or a character might make a footstep sound when they take a step.

Note

Spatialized audio uses more CPU than non-spatialized audio.

When you , select Spatialized Sound as the asset type.

• In Asset View, select Audio Asset.

Note

Xenko processes spatialized audio as mono (single-channel) audio. It doesn't alter the source file.

See also

• Audio emitters
• HRTF