I cought myself pondering about sound physics engines, or what ever they are called. I mean programs that simulate soundscapes, sort of like raytracing for sound. I’m pretty sure those exist, but to what extent, I do not know.
What I’m looking for is a 3d modelling program that can simulate the sounds travelling in the space, bouncing around. One could model a house for instance, place soundobjects around, and walk around hearing what the place actually, acoustically, sounds. The program should take into consideration the barriers, “air” density (the density of the prime - “air” - matter) and - to some degree - sound reflection… hmm… what else…
Anyways… does that kind of programs exist, and if so, what are they (free preferred), how “heavy” are they, and could that feature be implemented in Blender?
I had a similar idea, except it was simpler. The idea is to take a grayscale image, a bumpmap, then rub a plane againgst it, and see if it sounds like anything. It could be a python script.
This is something I have thought about on and off for many years. It is a good idea but I suspect it would be even harder to do than even raytracing. There are no wavetracers that I know about.
Koba
henrymop: lol that’s funny. why don’t you take sandpaper, rub it on a python and see what it sounds like.
Blender should start with basic 3d positional sound. In the add menu, we could put “sound object”. then we could move the object around and adjust volume. it would be great for cars driving by, etc. After that, we could do fake environment effects. Many games use these very effectively. ie driving in a tunnel. Eventually we could get more acurate systems, and add a material property of sound reflectivity, etc.
That’s it. Step by Step is the way. Basic 3d sound could be implemented in a couple weeks.
Yes that would be nice for blender, something similar to what you find in most FPS editors(like UT), positionable sound objs, instead of trying to manualing mix everything.
Halo 1 for PC has what you’re talking about- modifies sounds in real time depending on where you’re standing in the landscape around you.
I too would like to have this… and wanted something like san_diego_james said…
Aaron
I think the point of EAX is to make sound sound different according to where you are (BF2 has it) it makes it echo, and changes frequency and stuff depending on what the shape of the area you’re in is (I think) in Half-life 1, it had an editor that didn’t simulate sound according to geometry, but at least let you modify frequencies/echos per room via a list.
I am in the process of leaping from 3D Max to Blender, and a plug-in for Max called Foley Studio does exactly what seems to be described here: You place sound emitters in the scene (any number you like) and materials can be made to dampen and/or reflect sound at varying levels. Not to mention you get to ignore the whole timeline in your sound file; a sound begins when you say it does.
I really would like to see something like this for blender, since it is one of the final reasons for me to keep Max around at all; with a nice sound suite for Blender, it has outdone Max on nearly every level I need! And if it exists for Max, it can be made for Blender:cool:
See
http://www.boomerlabs.com/cart/home.php?cat=1
for descrip of Foley Studio, and
http://www.boomerlabs.com/gallery_foley_1.php
and
http://www.boomerlabs.com/gallery_foley_2.php
for some examples of its use.
Now, do we have some top savvy Python programmers out there that can handle this? It would be soooo yummy!
EDIT: Thinking about it, this should be a fairly reasonable task for someone with Python and OpenAL (Open Audio Language) experience, shouldn’t it?
Perhaps of interest, since Blender supports Verse (although, not yet audio):
http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Uni-Verse:Uni-Verse_Sound_Renderer
http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Uni-Verse:Acoustic_Geometry_Reduction
/Nathan
I’ve thought about this before. Basically, for it to be accurate, there would need to be a high-resolution 3D array for air compressions to travel through (similar to a fluid simulation). I have thought about real physics based sound also – objects made from materials with properties similar to the real world (sound reflection, absorbtion, refraction, etc.). A brass horn could have vibrations flow through it and sound like a trumpet, a string could vibrate and sound like a guitar, etc.