Dolby Atmos and Audio Objects for Narrative 360 VR

By
Kent Bye
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1

joel-susalSound is probably the second most important part of creating a compelling immersive VR experience, but it’s also usually put off to the end as an afterthought. The visual system is so dominant that this is not a huge surprise, but I thought that it’d be worth focusing on trends of immersive sound on the next four episodes of the Voices of VR podcast starting with Dolby Atmos’ solution for creating spatialized sound with audio objects.

Just as Unity and Unreal are able to create 3D sound environments for interactive games, Dolby Atmos has an ProTools plug-in with a 3D interface that allows you to mix 3D audio objects for narrative, 360-video content. I had a chance to catch up with Dolby Lab’s Director of Virtual and Augmented Reality Joel Susal to talk about their audio spatialization solution, how it’s being used in both Hollywood Blockbusters and cutting-edge narrative VR experiences, and why it’s important to have granular control over individual audio object files rather than just relying upon 4-channel, ambisonic sound fields for 360 video productions.

LISTEN TO THE VOICES OF VR PODCAST

I’ve explored audio in VR in previous episodes including in episode #222 with Jaunt’s Arthur van Hoff, episode #80 with AJ Campbell, and in episode #232 with Two Big Ears & their Spatial Workstation, which has since been bought by Facebook.

Here’s a trailer with a demo of a Dolby Atmos sound mix

Here’s the highlights from the Sundance panel on Immersive Sound for Virtual Reality

Support Voices of VR

Music: Fatality & Summer Trip

In Search of the Pyjama People: VR’s New Wave of Bedroom Coders

By
Matthew Magee
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6

Matthew Magee ponders virtual reality’s potential impact on game development culture and how immersive technology may encourage a renaissance in independent, disruptive bedroom coders a.k.a the Pyjama People.

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Snapchat Hires Hollywood Effects Artist as “Augmented Reality Designer”

By
Paul James
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0

Social media company Snapchat have just appointed a Hollywood effects artist Raffael Dickreuter who joined in June as a “Concept and Augmented Reality Designer.”

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DiRT Rally VR – 4 Minutes of Oculus Rift Gameplay

By
Paul James
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4

DiRT Rally, one of the finest driving games out there, has finally arrived with official Oculus Rift CV1 support and it’s elevated our opinions of the Codemasters developed game even higher. Here’s 4 minutes of direct feed gameplay captured from the new release to give you an idea what it’s like to be at the wheel.

See Also: ‘DiRT Rally’ VR Review

Review: ‘DiRT Rally’ VR

By
Dominic Brennan
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39

Available on the Oculus Store today (and via an update for the existing Steam version), DiRT Rally is the latest driving game to receive a VR makeover with Oculus Rift support. Originally drifting its way onto PC in April 2015, developer Codemasters took the plunge into rally simulation for the first time. The Early Access beta, which itself was unusual for the studio, resulted in plenty of community engagement and saw some experimentation, including early VR support for the Rift DK2, hence the huge anticipation for the official release supporting the consumer Rift ‘CV1’ headset. Launching into what looks like a giant grey sphere with a tyre tread pattern, it’s a promisingly polished start.

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‘Konrad the Kitten’ Aims to Add Presence to the Virtual Pet Genre

By
Michael Glombicki
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4

The virtual pet craze that started with the Tamagotchi is entering a new era with virtual reality, and leading the charge is a new project that aims to give you very own virtual cat, it’s called Konrad the Kitten and it uses SteamVR’s lighthouse technology to track a plush toy for a fairly unique, if somewhat amusing, VR experience.

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‘Waltz of the Wizard’ Update Adds Social Two Player “Troll Mode”

By
Paul James
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2

The immensely fun virtual reality wizarding simulator Waltz of the Wizard for HTC Vive has been updated with a new two player feature that lets a second non VR player join you in your spell-casting shenanigans.

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This is Gamecube Classic ‘Super Mario Sunshine’ Running in VR

By
Paul James
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4

Another Nintendo classic title from the past makes it into virtual reality courtesy of Gamecube emulator Dolphin VR. This time it’s the turn of Super Mario Sunshine, returning here complete with high resolution texture hacks and running at 60 FPS.

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How VR Video is Being Used to Help Kids Conquer Fear of Swimming

By
Paul James
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2

A new Swedish initiative hopes to encourage the country’s children, one fifth of which cannot swim, some suffering anxiety and fear of water, to take the plunge using a 360 VR video experience.

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PlayStation VR Game Boxes Will Look Like This

By
Paul James
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6

Sony have released example artwork for PlayStation VR launch titles that gives us a look at how the company intends to let consumers know they’ll need $399 worth of additional hardware before they buy the games.

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Official ‘Fruit Ninja’ Hits the HTC Vive on Early Access

By
Scott Hayden
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2

Fruit Ninja, the popular franchise from Halfbrick Studios, has officially made its way into VR. Now available on Steam Early Access for HTC Vive, Fruit Ninja VR lets you slice and dice with the best of them using dual katana swords that are bound to have you playing the part of fruit assassin in your living room.

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‘Sequenced’ & the Challenge of Interactive VR Narratives

By
Kent Bye
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1

Emilie-JolyThe first time that I experienced Sequenced, I had no idea that my gaze directions might have been triggering different branches or small events within the story. Experiencing an interactive drama, but not knowing it was one of the design challenges that Valve’s Chet Faliszek has previously described to me. But there are many other challenges with balancing interactivity and narrative that Apelab CEO & Sequenced producer Emilie Joly explained to me at the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality conference in April.

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Does the VirZOOM Exercise Bike Solve the VR Locomotion Problem?

By
Kent Bye
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21

Eric-JanszenVR on exercise bikes like VirZOOM is going to be AMAZING… for some people, and I may not be one of those people. Movement within virtual environments is a hard problem, and while VirZOOM addresses some of the challenges of VR locomotion, people who are sensitive to simulator sickness will likely still have issues with some of the games developed by VirZOOM.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the physical action of moving my legs was enough activity to trick my mind into making some types of VR locomotion a more comfortable experience. However, there were still a number of other game design decisions that triggered motion sickness in me including tilting the horizon line, lots of vection and optical flow, accelerating and decelerating, and moving up and down hills.

I had a chance to up with founder Eric Janszen at GDC after going through their different game prototype demos to hear more about their design intention, how they were integrating interval training within their gameplay design, and some of their future plans of integrating more mobile VR headsets.

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Searches for “HTC Vive” Have Caught up with “Oculus Rift” and May Be Accelerating

By
Ben Lang
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10

When it comes to Google searches, “HTC Vive” has recently matched “Oculus Rift” and may be continuing to rise.

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