In a recent announcement, Valve company has revealed that they have made the source code for working with volumetric sound, specifically the Steam Audio SDK and its associated plugins, open to the public. The code, written in C++, has been published under the Apache 2.0 license, allowing for adaptation of Steam Audio for various needs, including commercial products, without the need to disclose the modified versions. This move also allows developers from the community to participate in the development process and contribute their changes to the project. Valve will continue to provide support and further development for Steam Audio, now as an open project available on Linux, Windows, MacOS, Android, and iOS platforms.
Steam Audio offers a comprehensive set of tools for creating 3D sound environments that take into account the listener’s auditory perception. It can be utilized in applications, computer games, and virtual reality systems to create immersive sound environments that adapt to the listener’s movements, position changes, distances from the sound source, sound reflections, and obstacles. The key features of Steam Audio include:
- Integration with game engines such as Unity 2017.3+ and Unreal Engine 4.27+, as well as with sound effects creation software FMOD Studio 2.0+ and the sound creation system Wwise.
- Real-time simulation of sound propagation and interaction with objects in the environment.
- Calculation of sound reflection and absorption by objects based on scene geometry.
- Tracking of listener position and orientation in virtual reality systems for creating realistic sound environments.
- Binaural 3D sound generation using HRTF to replicate ear and head position effects on sound perception.
- Support for ambisonics for volumetric sound representation in both horizontal and vertical planes.
- “Baked Propagation” support for static scenes, enabling precomputation of sound effects for improved quality and reduced resource consumption.