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by Entlin 5529 days ago
Great stuff. Without correct speaker positioning and well-matching HRTFs for each listener, I feel that this won't fly.

Btw: I'm thinking about creating a 3D audio game where the HRTF model is constantly refined for the player while he is playing. Does anybody know whether there has already been work done in this direction, either academically or in the indie game world?
2 comments
ericmoritz 5529 days ago
http://connect.creativelabs.com/openal/default.aspx
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sp332 5529 days ago
Is Creative sponsoring this? I thought they killed A3D in favor of the (inferior) EAX after they bought Aureal.
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Geee 5529 days ago
Yes, Papa Sangre uses real-time binaural 3D sound, www.papasangre.com. I'm not aware of any other real-time binaural solutions. I'd like to know too if there's more. OpenAL and other out of box 3D sound engines are stereo, not binaural.
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Entlin 5529 days ago
Yes, I've tried Papa Sangre. Unfortunately, it uses a general purpose HRTF, which limits the immersion potential.
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Geee 5529 days ago
What do you mean by general purpose HRTF? Do you mean that the HRTF should match the player's head somehow? I haven't played Papa Sangre so I don't really know how well it works.
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Entlin 5528 days ago
Yes. A custom HRTF makes all the difference between "hey this is kinda cool" and "holy guacamole I can locate everything down to a tee".
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Geee 5528 days ago
Sorry for the late responses. Yes, I'd imagine it should work better. In my case I don't tend to hear frontal direction in most binaural recordings. How would you create such a custom HRTF? Measuring somehow or should it be manually calibrated? Seems like a pretty interesting problem, I might do some experiments with this some day.
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Entlin 5527 days ago
Exactly, many people cannot differentiate front/back and up/down with general purpose HRTF, something that is much better with a custom HRTF.

For basic experiments, put 2 small microphones into your ear canals, hit record, then go for a walk. The result will blow you away :-)

To record your custom HRTF, get an anechoic chamber, put 2 small microphones into your ear canals, then record impulse responses from all directions. Not quite as simple.

Good luck! Post your results here!

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