Valve releases Steam Audio - Spatial Audio Solution for video games, VR, etc. free of charge.
47 replies, posted
[url]http://steamcommunity.com/games/596420/announcements/detail/521693426582988261[/url]
[QUOTE]Steam Audio is now available, delivering an advanced spatial audio solution for games and VR apps. Steam Audio includes several exciting features that significantly improve immersion and open up new possibilities for spatial audio design.
[B]The Steam Audio SDK is available free of charge, for use by teams of any size, without any royalty requirements. [/B]Steam Audio currently supports Windows, Linux, macOS, and Android. Just like Steam itself, Steam Audio is available for use with a growing list of VR devices and platforms.
Download the tools at Steam Audio on GitHub, then visit the Steam Audio Community Hub for the latest news and discussions, or to just share your thoughts and feedback. [/QUOTE]
Stuff that Steam Audio can do is listed in the PR link above.
[video]https://youtu.be/9lywYAGSgdc[/video]
[video]https://youtu.be/y2vqK6pDYa0[/video]
Neat. It would be cool if someone could mod it into running inside wwise.
I think audio in games is more important than graphics, so this is fucking great.
Now that's pretty sweet - especially for free. Isn't Valve starting to do that with a lot of its stuff now? I remember them saying Source 2 would be free so long as you put stuff on steam, or something like that.
While it's cool, it isn't particularly realistic. the sound cuts to almost nothing when he stands behind a wall even slightly.
Too bad it seems to have a non-free license.
[QUOTE=Hogie bear;51865339]While it's cool, it isn't particularly realistic. the sound cuts to almost nothing when he stands behind a wall even slightly.[/QUOTE]
Watch the second video. First one has indirect audio turned off.
I guess this is why they bought that audio company.
[url]https://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1548531[/url]
Damn that was quick.
I wonder how long it'll take for this to follow the same fate as Source Filmmaker and inexplicably be used for greasy vidya porn :v:
[QUOTE=Aphtonites;51865365]I wonder how long it'll take for this to follow the same fate as Source Filmmaker and inexplicably be used for porn :v:[/QUOTE]
Surround Sound Sucking.
[QUOTE=Intoxicated Spy;51865335]I think audio in games is more important than graphics, so this is fucking great.[/QUOTE]
Dishonored 2 was amazing but one thing I noticed is that the audio design isn't existent
I could hear things above and below me and it seemed like they were in the same room as me even though they were basically in an entire different section
fucking beyond jarring
[QUOTE=Aphtonites;51865365]I wonder how long it'll take for this to follow the same fate as Source Filmmaker and inexplicably be used for greasy vidya porn :v:[/QUOTE]
Honestly it would be great if we could stick a proper renderer in the SFM, that would be a pixar presto level tool if you add in the source2 tools like the model editor.
[QUOTE=Intoxicated Spy;51865335]I think audio in games is more important than graphics, so this is fucking great.[/QUOTE]
Audio can make or break literally anything.
[QUOTE=eirexe;51865379]Honestly it would be great if we could stick a proper renderer in the SFM, that would be a pixar presto level tool if you add in the source2 tools like the model editor.[/QUOTE]
Say, whatever happened to that film that was being made in SFM? It was something set underwater i think.
Nice. Grabbing this immediately!
All the HRTF stuffs I've seen so far have been either not that great or have cost a lot more than I'm willing to spend.
I do find it funny that Valve can screw up with so many things and yet do some really good things like this. They feel incredibly inconsistent.
Not complaining about this though. Hope that devs will find it very useful!
It's rather neat that Valve decided to follow Aureal path in terms of 3D audio. I just can't play without HRTF on when I use headphones.
I just hope Creative won't step in and perform a mass sue as they did to Aureal.
If anyone has the money to throw at a big lawsuit these days, it's Valve.
Seeing HRTF in CSGO im glad this is a thing
[QUOTE=eirexe;51865347]Too bad it seems to have a non-free license.[/QUOTE]
[quote]The Steam Audio SDK is available free of charge, for use by teams of any size, without any royalty requirements.[/quote]
??
Anyway it's great to see these tools being released. Oculus has their own (free) spatial audio solution with the Oculus Audio SDK (also usable for any type of project, not just for VR), but it doesn't handle occlusion and reflection automatically based on in-game geometry yet.
when I opened the thread I was expecting they made a surround simulation program akin to creative's cmss3d or razer surround
I'm so glad that proper audio processing is coming back.
For those who don't know, a company called Aureal had technology called A3D 2.0 back in the late 90's. It did all the stuff that Steam Audio does now, except this came out in 1998. Here's a demo for Headphone users:
[video]https://youtu.be/-oSlbyLAksM[/video]
This shit was absolutely amazing back in the late 90's and a ton of games used it. In fact, Creative thought it was so amazing that they bought the company in 2000 and immediately killed it. Fuck creative.
[QUOTE=dustyjo;51865560]In fact, Creative thought it was so amazing that they bought the company in 2000 and immediately killed it. Fuck creative.[/QUOTE]
You mean thought it was so amazing they sued them, lost the case but bankrupted the company, bought the remains and then proceeded to sit on the tech and do nothing with it.
[QUOTE=GammaFive;51865606]You mean thought it was so amazing they sued them, lost the case but bankrupted the company, bought the remains and then proceeded to sit on the tech and do nothing with it.[/QUOTE]
or that yeah
Still, I went and built a late-90's gaming PC, and got an Aureal Vortex 2 card just so I could experience this. Even though shitty satellite speakers it sounds incredible.
[QUOTE=redBadger;51865380]Audio can make or break literally anything.[/QUOTE]
I can and will bitch about the gameplay of Elite: Dangerous, but the audio in that game is by far one of the best examples of excellent sound design and audio engineering, from the sounds themselves to the various compression/normalization settings in the audio options menu. Hopefully, SDKs like this and the increasing presence of VR stuff will lead to better audio in more games.
[QUOTE=Clavus;51865510]??
Anyway it's great to see these tools being released. Oculus has their own (free) spatial audio solution with the Oculus Audio SDK (also usable for any type of project, not just for VR), but it doesn't handle occlusion and reflection automatically based on in-game geometry yet.[/QUOTE]
Free to use isn't quite the same as "free" to GNU freaks. Freedom to them is the ability to take the software, view the source code, make modifications and redistribute it as they see fit (usually with some kind of crediting to the original author).
[editline]23rd February 2017[/editline]
[QUOTE=paindoc;51865618]I can and will bitch about the gameplay of Elite: Dangerous, but the audio in that game is by far one of the best examples of excellent sound design and audio engineering, from the sounds themselves to the various compression/normalization settings in the audio options menu. Hopefully, SDKs like this and the increasing presence of VR stuff will lead to better audio in more games.[/QUOTE]
Someone a while ago linked to a fairly lengthy talk they did entirely on their audio design. And even with bits cut out for the sake of time, they barely scratched the surface. It's a really neat system of layering contextual audio whilst providing the user a decent amount of control over said audio.
That sound propagation is the tightest of tight butthole.
[QUOTE]
With Steam Audio, sound appears to flow and wrap its way around mazes and corridors accurately, and adapts to changes in geometry and materials on the fly.
It's pretty great.
[I]Emily Ridgway
[B]totally unbiased Valve employee[/B][/I]
[/QUOTE]
:v:
Well this confirms they've completely dumped EAX.
I mean, the option to use it has not been selectable for a while but there was always rumors they would use it again.
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