Straight From the Source

[rec]

While replies from Valve have slown down considerably in recent times (for obvious reasons), genuinely interesting information is still sneaking into our "Info from valve ONLY" thread.

NucHaz: Howdy, Is there gonna be any headphone specific audio modes in HL2 ?, if there is, feel-free to elaborate if you have time, im very curious if theres any HRTF modes or dolby headphone like modes or binaural modes.

Gabe Newell: There is no current plan in HL2 to directly support HRTF or other driver-provided headphone modes. However, there is an embedded headphone mode which enhances spatialization of mono audio sources by providing a left/right differential delay based on room size.

As for the anticipation and speculatoion revolving around the rumored HL2 related announcement that will apparently be surfacing tommorrow (31/10), Gabe put this to rest, replying simply with "bogus".

 

[bastard_loud]

So um..

What does "Enhanced spatialization of mono audio sources by providing a left/right differential delay based on room size" mean exactly?

Great news though. I think.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by bastard_loud
So um..

What does "Enhanced spatialization of mono audio sources by providing a left/right differential delay based on room size" mean exactly?

means it'll sound cool



i think

 

[$pazmatazz]

It's just a delay effect on a mono signal. For example:

If the audio signal is represented on the left side of the stereo image, then it will be replecated on the right side but slightly delayed, and at a lower volume. Doing this gives a mono signal a very spacial sound. This effect can be applied to any mono sound placed anywhere in the stereo mix.

 

[XShrike]

So will the mic chat have an area where it is coming from. So if the guy next to you talks it would seem to come from him?

 

[NucHaz]

$spaz is right on the money
I still am curious if aside from emulating the spatial presence of a sound, if it will also emulate reflections and reverberations accordingly. That would really give some incredable depth to an environment while using headphones (and personaly, Im a huge headphone nut, and a headwize.com reguler)
But ya, im just happy valve finaly answered me after a month of trying once a week

And also I just want to add that I feel pretty honered that this made news here at halflife2.net and also now PHL.com, pretty sweet

but both of you seem to have overlooked that Gabe himself didnt answer the email, he forwarded it to Kelly Bailey (valves sound guy) and he was kind enough to answer it for me.

oh ya, and to try to answer XShrike's question, thats probly dependent on the situation, like if it was multiplayer, then I would imagine it would be just sterio, or possibly mono, since its probly assumed to coming from a small (virtual) speaker in your ear. If its normal speech in SP, it will most definitly be spatialized so you can localize the speech from who ever is speaking. But reguardless, im sure it would probly be a pretty simple mod

 

[Vermiform]

What actually became of the announcement? Did i miss something or was it never written?