What is "Spatializer Plugin" in audio setting?

I don't understand what is this.
Asking for help.

 

"The audio spatializer SDK is an extension of the native audio plugin SDK that allows changing the way audio is transmitted from an audio source into the surrounding space. The built-in panning of audio sources may be regarded as a simple form of spatialization in that it takes the source and regulates the gains of the left and right ear contributions based on the distance and angle between the AudioListener and the AudioSource. This provides simple directional cues for the player on the horizontal plane."

Choosing another spatializer plugin adds spatialization to the sounds in Unity when placed in 3D.

http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/AudioSpatializerSDK.html

 

Still don't understand from that text :|

 

From my understanding it's a plugin that convert the 2D audio to another type of audio like 3D sound or virtual surround.
For example if you would want to have binaural audio in Unity you could write your own spatializer plugin that apply the binaural audio techniques to create the effect.

 

If i set the audio to 5.1 and "none" in the spatialization plugin, if something is behind the player will it still be played behind them?

 

A little late on my reply as I'm just starting to use the forums.

"Spatialization" is a broad term that means the process of adding a sound source into space, or alternatively, assign spatial attributes on the sound source.

The current implementation of the spatializer plugin in Unity is a rather simple one, and my understanding is that it's released as an example for anyone to build upon and create better spatializations of their own.

Right now the only thing that the plugin is doing is to pass every sound separately from a filter that simulates two things:
1) The delay between a sound wave arriving on the first of our ears and the second that is further.
2) The "acoustic shadow" which is a filtering effect from the occlusion of the sound arriving from the first ear to the second, happening because our pinnae, head, and shoulders absorb some of the frequencies of the sound wave.

This happens separately for each sound source to enhance details of the experience.

Apart from that there is nothing more at this time, unless you find somewhere a better version of the plugin.

To answer your questions, it's not exactly virtual surround, as this would need also the simulation of "fake" speakers and virtual room acoustics, as the ones they use in professional audio to emulate how their music will sound in different environments like studio, car, etc.

It's virtual 3D sound, but at the current state is only capable to provide the simulation only for headphones. So the spatialization plugin would actually ruin your 5.1 mix. And as we are already on the topic, take note that in 5.1 setups, and any other setup for the matter, any speaker configuration that places speakers around the listener with more than 60 degrees between them has a "hole in the middle", and this is derived from how we humans perceive the sound around us. So in a 5.1, the configurations are still optimized for film/home theater use, leaving a hole in the middle of the back side and two holes in the middle of each of the sides on the right and left of the listener. Not the best scenario if you design a game experience which position localization is critical for the balance of the game.

In that scenario your best bet for now is to provide the player with a simple choice between two systems of rendering positional sound:

1) Stereo and surround speakers in which you will just keep your fingers crossed on how your system will work. You can of course do some experiments with a focus group and see the performance. Don't forget that in some cases players use speakers to hold the door open in the summer or hold books standing, so they don't always have an optimal setup in their rooms.
2) Headphones, in which case you use a spatializer to enhance positional sounds.

Have in mind that there are better implementations of binaural rendering for headphones such those from Blue Ripple Sound's Rapture3D, or Google's Resonance, while Wwise and Fmod also provide their own solution philosophies.

It was nice to see this great question as I'm in the process of developing a course on the subject.

If anybody likes, you can also join a Discord server that I made for my company in which I try to answer any questions related to sound and audiovisual fusion. You can find it here: https://discord.com/invite/XHq9adf

So if you have more questions about the sound of your projects, I'll be happy to help.

My company is SoundFellas Immersive Audio Labs and we offer sound collections in the Unity Asset Store.

Anyway, hope I helped and I which everybody good luck with your projects!

Cheers!

 

I'd be happy to join your discord but the invitation link is not valid anymore.

 

Well it is a bit of a necro reply.