Real-time Dolby Atmos was a key component to giving the player those feelings with a custom surround experience that preserved creative choices, even in different listening environments. If the user had upward-shooting speakers or in-ceiling speakers we knew the original artistic intent was maintained and rendered to the individual player.
Things don't always go as planned. Did you run into any challenges?
The Spatial Audio API that Microsoft uses to expose this functionality was easy to use as it's very similar to the existing Windows Audio Service API (WASAPI) that we already use. After some DSP and mix optimizations in our own proprietary audio engine, we flipped the switch and all the game audio objects started rendering in 7.1.4.4 without any hitches. Our engine is already set up to handle multi-channel audio object spread and special panning, so it felt like the sound field just opened upwards and outwards.
The biggest challenge was getting the game’s level designers to create gameplay moments and geometry that could take full advantage of Dolby Atmos’ ability to render audio elevation changes. It means presenting the player with set pieces and moments that aren’t necessarily in front of the player’s view, and might be offscreen.
Do you have a favorite Dolby Atmos scene in the game?
That’s tough, because there are so many moments the player can experience in real-time. The environmental emitters throughout all sound great, and there are great overhead set pieces. But my absolute favorite Dolby Atmos moment in campaign is when you are walking up the stairs in the mission “Clean House.” You are quietly infiltrating a home, going up these old stairs. All the quiet foley creates this great tension, only to be broken by the sounds of people running around and yelling to each other upstairs.
