There’s good news for fans of horror video games, as it’s been revealed that the PlayStation 5’s 3D Audio technology will be specifically beneficial for games in the genre. The 3D Audio innovation promises for an immersive gameplay experience by creating realistic, dimensional sounds. If an enemy is about to sneak up behind a player, for example, they’ll be able to hear footsteps directly behind them. Or, if the player is engaged in combat, they may hear weapons clashing on one side and agonizing screams from the injured on the other.
“Audio is a key feature to really push the next-gen experience with PS5. It’s almost as if 3D Audiotech was made specifically with horror games in mind,” Jun Takeuchi, the Executive Producer for Resident Evil: Village, explained. “It used to be that in order to get that spatial audio, players would have to invest a lot of their own time and money. Now, just putting on a headset, they can get a full 3D audio experience.”
Perhaps the best aspect is that players don’t need to own a fancy sound system, like speakers or a soundbar, to get an excellent experience. According to a Sony blog post, the 3D Audio technology allows players to simply put on a headset to get the most immersive experience. For the best experience possible, players may want to consider investing in a Pulse 3D Wireless headset, Sony’s official PS5 headphones that were specifically made to work excellently with the PS5’s 3D audio.
How Does The PS5’s 3D Audio Technology Work?
Sony’s PlayStation 5 will incorporate new 3D audio innovation that will make it seem as though the sound is coming from all around, regardless of where the player is sitting relative to the screen. It will be possible to tell if the sound is coming from behind, above, or to the side of the player, allowing for a much more immersive and realistic gameplay experience. “With the next console the dream is to show how dramatically different the audio experience can be when we apply significant amounts of hardware horsepower to it,” Mark Cerny, who’s spearheading production on the PS5, told Wired in 2019.
This is in comparison to most games on the PlayStation 4 and older consoles, in which volume increases as the player gets closer to its origin, thereby providing depth to the sound in order to make it seem like it’s coming from a specific locale. Some games even support surround sound, which provides a more realistic experience. But the PS5’s 3D Audio will take this a step further by creating a fully multi-dimensional soundscape for every game playable on the console, thus drastically improving the sound quality.
The PS5’s Tempest Engine, which features AMD graphics processing technology, is the feature that allows the enhance 3D audio innovation to simulate sounds coming from a multitude of directions. The engine is a small hardware chip located inside the console. It incorporates a Head-Related Transfer Function (HRTF) to tailor the sound experience to each individual’s head and ear shape. Reports say that there will be five profiles available to choose from, which were based on a selection of 100 different people.
In the future, players may eventually upload photos of their own ears to truly personalize the feature.”Maybe you’ll be sending us a video of your ears and your head, and we’ll make a 3D model of them and synthesise the HRTF.,” Cerny explained, Tom’s Guide reports. “Maybe you’ll play an audio game to tune your HRTF, we’ll be subtly changing it as you play, and home in on the HRTF that gives you the highest score, meaning that it matches you the best. Ultimately, we’re committed to enabling everyone to experience that next level of realism.” Clearly, there’s a lot to look forward to with the upcoming PlayStation 5, especially for horror game fans.
Sources: Wired, Tom’s Guide, PlayStation Blog
