Feature: Improved 3D Sound (OpenAL)

[jitspoe]

I'd like to spend some time and make some really good use of OpenAL for this game.  Some of the things that could get us:

- HRTF - where the sound is actually modelled like it's entering through an ear, so if you wear headphones you can pinpoint where a sound is coming from easily.  Example: http://dplogin.com/forums/index.php?topic=5899.0
- Hardware accelerated mixing.
- Improved resampling.
- Doppler effects for moving objects
- Reverb (different echos depending on the environment).
- Occluded sounds (so somebody on the other side of a wall sound muffled instead of like he's right next to you).

http://dplogin.com/dplogin/featurevote/feature.php?id=10170

[Eiii]

+1! Even without the HRTF stuff (which I didn't know could be done in real-time >_>) better sound would be fantastic.

[jitspoe]

It's done in hardware - something like the an X-Fi has close to the number of transistors of a Pentium 4.  It filters the sound based on how sound enters your ear.  Of course, it isn't perfect since everybody's ear is shaped differently, but it's a lot better than just putting sound in the left or right channel unfiltered.

[Eiii]

Aah, so it'd be a hardware thing. That's much more believable. I gotta get me one of those sound cards, I guess.

[y00tz]

I simulate how sound comes in through my ears by just unplugging the right speaker...

[Foxhound]

would this perhaps fix the problem where i can hear the other team moving around their spawn from my spawn? or is that because the map was mirrored? either way it's annoying.

[jitspoe]

I haven't exactly figured out what causes this.  I'm thinking it may be issues specific to certain maps (it's pretty bad on shazam22).  I don't think OpenAL will fix it.

[Foxhound]

I have a hunch it is happening to maps that are mirrored on bsp editor. not sure how you would fix that.