3D Audio

Audio has always been something of a stepchild to graphics, but I've always been fascinated by audio. It comes from being a recovering audiophile, I suppose.

Aureal, Creative Labs, and Sensaura were all there, talking 3D audio. I got to spend a little time with Micah Stroud, Creative Lab's brand manager for sound products. We talked about EAX 2.0 and EAX 3.0. The most interesting moment came when Micah waxed enthusiastica about the merits of Creative's implementation of HRTF (head-related transfer functions) for doing 3D positional audio. Now, I may be getting older, but I could swear that Micah spoke disparagingly about HRTF at last year's GDC.

Aureal was there, and there was a lot of A3D-enabled software being shown around the floor. Aureal didn't have a lot new, though its next driver release, complete with EAX support, is coming along nicely. The Vortex2 is starting to get out into other products, with German sound-card maker Terratec and Xitel both shipping Vortex2 cards.

The good folks from Sensaura were there, too. Sensaura's technology is interesting. It's an HRTF-based, 3D positional audio technology that works within DirectSound3D, using DirectSound's extension capability. Developers do need to author their sound to take advantage of positional 3D audio, but there's no additional code or APIs to worry about. Currently, Sensaura works with ESS PCI audio cards and Yamaha's new Waveforce PCI cards. Another interesting bit is that Sensaura has managed to virtualize EAX - meaning you can get EAX effects out of two speakers instead of four. I don't know how well that works, but if it works at all, it will be a boon for those who can't wire up their offices or bedrooms for four speakers.

Sensaura is interesting from another perspective, too. It was formerly known as CRL, which stands for Central Research Lab. At one time, it was part of EMI, the big record company. Sensaura's history in audio goes back to the original patents for stereo in the 1930s. It is the only company in the 3D-audio game to have developed its own HRTF algorithms. So, while Sensaura is fairly new to the arena of computer games, it is worth watching.

Next: 3D GameGauge