Sound Advice: Aureal3d An Interview with Skip McIlvaine, Developer Relations Manager, Aureal Inc.
	Q: I read a discussion somewhere that stated that placing an EAX label on a game box can be as simple as implementing reverb, where placing an A3D label on a game box means supporting full interactive acoustics. Is this true? And if so, isn't that intimidating to developers? I think this is related to your previous question about how Creative claims A3D 2.0 is hard to implement. A certain degree of concern for the quality and reality of the audio experience is necessary for a developer to undertake the implementation of A3D 2.0. To get it all up and running is a bit more work then simply activating EAX and setting a single EAX reverb preset. Whether it's just to get Creative off their back, just to slap an EAX logo on the box, or simply boredom and a bit of laziness, developers can very easily activate EAX and turn on a single reverb and leave it on for the entire game. This certainly does not give the gamer a very real or engrossing audio experience, and it is Creative's image and the EAX user who will lose out in the end. (This is the case with at least one EAX title that will remain nameless.) Aureal considers the A3D logo a guarantee of a high-quality audio experience. We expect our brand and company image to indicate this well into the future. We are not going to do anything to tarnish our image, like this situation will create for EAX. If the developer has to do a bit more work to make it so, great: they can spend the time to implement quality or they can skip A3D altogether. Ultimately this benefits Aureal, A3D, and the A3D user. If a developer simply wants a quick audio "fix" and a logo on their box, they aren't going to utilize our technology and that's totally cool; all the better for gamers who want an immersive experience and who know that the A3D logo means "this oughta sound awesome!" Q: Is it possible that A3D features will be incorporated into DX7? Not in DirectX 7; it's almost done. Maybe in DirectX 8 or later; it's certainly possible. Q: If I buy a Vortex 2 based board will I have to sacrifice EAX compatibility? Not once we release EAX support in an upcoming driver. It's getting very close, and while some people have complained that it is taking a long time, our very good excuse is that, "you wouldn't want a crappy implementation would you?" We are taking our time crafting a reverb effects engine that is on par or better than what Creative and EMU created. Our PC-based reverb has benefited immensely from the work on our upcoming home-theater products (that will represent as ground-breaking an advance in technology in the consumer electronics space as A3D and Vortex have in the PC space). Q: Let's talk about in game implementation. How many DirectSound3D channels should a game use to be compelling? We have done some studies into how many sound sources a human brain can track effectively in 3D space and while it wasn't conclusive, the indications are that once you have more than 32 sounds playing, a normal person will shift their attention to sound sources that change or are newly introduced. The brain also notices as these sounds "turn off." Certain acoustic effects like reflections and occlusions help to make a sound source more "noticeable" because they are constantly changing and updating the sound's sound waves based on the environment. Click to continue		While current Aureal hardware supports sufficient sound channels, there are still many interesting things left to be done with each sound channel (like sub-mixed complex sounds - like a car engine or crowd noise) and there will be more sources available to developers to create more realistic and immersive sound effects. A finite limit may be hit, but a good rule of thumb that we have been trying to promote (now that we have sufficient hardware resources) is: "Quality over Quantity." Sixteen 16-bit 44KHz sounds are probably going to sound better than thirty-two 8-bit 11Khz sounds. We'll keep pushing both boundaries until no one can tell the difference between Vortex / A3D and "real life." Q: 3d graphics seem to be the cutting edge in game development. How are developers doing in the sound area? How many are pushing the technology? Many are catching on, and immense talent has migrated to game audio, but audio is still way behind graphics in terms of developer dedication to realistic gaming experiences. The audio quality of Myth II, Half-Life, Thief, Heretic II, Unreal and Jedi Knight are testaments to this growing focus on quality sound. While there are sometimes as many as 10 (or more) people dedicated to enhancing the graphics in a game, there is generally one or two devoted to the audio (and the audio programmer generally does double duty on networking, AI, gameplay, design, or something else). This is slowly changing, and this is precisely the change Aureal hoped to affect. Things will only get better from here. As more developers, like DMA Design and LucasArts, realize that audio is an immense part of the gaming experience, the allocation of resources to audio programming and design will increase. Personally I dream of the day when every game project has at least one dedicated audio programmer. Q: What is 3DML? It's what VRML was supposed to be. :) 3DML stands for Three Dimensional Markup Language. It allows for very easy creation of beautiful and realistic 3D worlds to be rendered over even the lowest bandwidth internet connections. While this is not my area of expertise at all, Aureal has partnered very closely with the innovator in 3DML, Flatland Online. Check them out at http://www.flatland.com. Their site will explain this infinitely better than I could. Q: What does the future look like for in game sound on the PC? What is coming up next? I'd imagine that gaming audio is set to catch up to movie theater quality audio very soon. After that I cannot say: we're hard at work implementing the next thing, and we'll be sharing it with the world soon enough. Thanks for the interview and the opportunity to clear up a LOT of misconceptions! Join a discussion forum on this article by clicking   HERE.
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