Garin Hiebert wrote:
Eventually, I think a new OpenAL function call must be add to change
from panning, to real 3D localization.
Once fully developed, there wouldn't be any good reason I can think of
to default to panning over a more realistic rendering -- we don't give
the option right now on implementations which have HRTF, we just use it
if it's there.
Isn't it the case that:
a) HRTF is somewhat compute-intensive if it's not supported in
hardware. So some people might prefer to turn it off.
b) HRTF is intended for headphones and actually degrades audio quality
for loudspeaker users.
c) HRTF is only acoustically better than panning when it's set up
for a particular headphone setup - eg 'ear-buds' need different
HRTF than lightweight phones - and are different again from large
'cup' type headphones. If we don't know which the end user is
wearing, defaulting to panning might be the better option.
...those seem like pretty good reasons for wanting to provide the end
user (and perhaps the application developer) with the option to force
it off.
Having said that, properly set up HRTF is very impressive and I'm
keen to see an HRTF implementation for Linux.
|
