Do audio listeners use rotational data, or just positional?

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I've got my audio listener attached to my main character, which is a sphere that will continually rotate as the character moves. The audio listener will of course rotate along with it. Will this cause positional audio issues, or is the audio listener (basically) an unbiased 360-degree microphone that will always make, say, a sound from the right of it sound like it's coming from the right even if it gets rotated off-kilter? (If not, I already know how to fix it, just will take a couple minutes more work.)

I also have another related question, though depending on the answer to the above, I may be able to figure this one out myself...

I have my default audio set to 5.1 surround in Unity. I of course have a 5.1 surround setup, and my Windows audio settings are set to 5.1 surround. Left and right seems to work perfect, but I never really hear anything coming from just in front of me or just behind me, even when I move around to in front of or behind an object giving off an ambient noise. Anyone know why that might be? Other 5.1 enabled games sound as they should.

Trying to provide a solid aural experience for fellow 5.1 users.

Answer 1

Answer by DaveA · Jan 27, 2011 at 10:11 PM

I believe the audio listener is binaural (but without phase adjustment :( ). If a sound is coming from the 'left' of 'you' it should be louder in the left speaker/ear, but unless the right ear is right on the edge of being out-of-range, you should hear it softer in the right as well. Play with the 'spread' option. I could be wrong...

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Jason B · Jan 27, 2011 at 10:31 PM 0

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Yeah, I haven't noticed much what spread actually does. I (think) I understand the gist of it; if spread is 180 degrees, you should always hear the sound in a 180-degree arc around you (where around you depending on its position in relation to the audio listener). But I think you can still hear sounds just fine when it's at 0 degrees, so that's a bit confusing.

Do audio listeners use rotational data, or just positional?

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