Lesson 4

Table of Contents

Using 3D Spatialization

As in the real world, objects in a game make sounds, like the footsteps of an approaching monster. Anything in the game that makes a sound is conceptually referred to as an emitter. Having an emitter in a game isn’t very useful unless there’s something that’s going to receive or hear those sounds. The listener is usually associated with the main character in a first person perspective game, like the Wwizard you are playing in Cube. Emitters and listeners are connected to game objects that have x, y and z coordinates, as well as other information to indicate the direction the object is facing. Wwise uses all this information to effectively set properties, such as volume and pan, to achieve the appropriate settings for the volume and pan properties of these sounds based on the spatial relationship between the emitter and the listener. All of this is achieved instantly and these properties are constantly being updated as the spatial relationships change when the various objects in the game move around. Because these decisions are based on the positions of objects in a 3D space, this type of system is known as 3D Spatialization.

Using 3D Spatialization does not mean that you, the sound designer, are taken out of the equation. In fact, you must make important decisions that provide a framework for how you would like Wwise to react based on those spatial relationships. For example, you could describe how quickly you want a sound to fade out based on how far away the emitter is from the listener.


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