Re-enable directional audio for Browser users

In the past the direction of audio was present in Spatial for browser based users (not just the falloff). At some-point it was raised that the direction of audio being tied to the avatar meant odd behavior when in first person on a web-browser (turning camera didn't move audio source and walking left or right shifted it 180 degrees as avatar turned independent of camera).

It was then moved to be tied to the camera orientation & position which worked well in first person but caused issues in 3rd person as you could (with camera zoomed out) now hear things near your camera halfway across a room, and not hear what was beside your avatar.

Audio direction was then disabled for both voice and object sources leaving only distance falloff.

However directional audio is vital for events, as it allows multiple conversations to exist at once in a space and be 'tuned out' naturally while still being tune-inable for natural conversation joining/switching between many users. This is a USP of a platform like Spatial which has been lost, as the distance falloff alone is not enough for natural conversation switching. Direction and distance based voice and objects are still in the VR app so its still doable.

I would suggest making the direction of the audio be tied to the camera orientation while tying the distance to the avatar. If this is not possible I would request that the SDK lets content creators pick which of the previous systems they want to use. Personally i would rather have directional audio with some oddities than just distance falloff alone.

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Status

New Feedback

Board

πŸ’‘ Feature Request

Date

Almost 2 years ago

Author

G

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