Wave-based sound propagation for VR applications

Abstract

Realistic sound effects are extremely important in VR to improve the sense of presence and immersion. They augment the visual sense of the user and can help reduce simulation fatigue. Sound can provide 3D spatial cues outside eld of view and help create high-fidelity VR training simulations. Current sound propagation techniques are based on heuristic approaches or simple line-of-sight based geometric techniques. These techniques cannot capture important sound effects such as diffraction, interference, focusing. For VR applications, there is a need for high-fidelity, accurate sound propagation. In order to model sound propagation accurately, it is important to model wave-based sound propagation. We present a set of efficient wave-based propagation techniques for VR applications that can handle large scenes, directional sound sources, and generate spatial sound. Our technique has been integrated in Valve's game engine and we use it to demonstrate realistic acoustic effects such as diffraction, high-order re ection, interference, directivity, and spatialization, in complex scenarios.