Oculus development idea with Binaural Audio

The Virtual Barbershop is one of the first things I imagined to someday experience in VR. Audio is half the experience, and that one proves it.

Real-time calculated binaural audio with the Rift is very possible and works great to get a real 3D audio impression as the head orientation is tracked well. We already did this with a student project and presented it last year at the gamescom in cologne.
I hope to see more binaural audio in Rift games in the future :-D

Given that binaural audio processing mostly includes slight phase delay and damping/amplifying specific frequency bands, there's nothing challenging with it from technical side. The real challenge there is to obtain the perception curves to apply them to sound sources - for some reason nobody publish it on the internet. As if it was some industry secret, hah.

Yeah why is this so hard to find a practical solution for VR devs? The HRIR (Head Related Impulse Response) and HRTF (Head Related Transfer Function) data is definitely out there ( http://recherche.ircam.fr/equipes/salles/listen/ ), but the problem seems to be that there is no easy way to integrate this technology into Unity (or other familiar engines) for real-time use within a game.
We have all these half-baked solutions, and people are always talking about how they have already implemented this in their demo's or previous projects.. Ok, well how about one of you kind souls who have apparently already done this, provide a solution to the rest of us so we can get to work making great audio experiences in our VR projects??
I BEG OF YOU!!
I have messed with CSound (via http://marte.me/site/binaural ), MAX/MSP (http://cycling74.com/project/procedural-audio-and-binauralisation-using-maxmsp-and-the-unity3d-game-engine/
We've all seen the youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dzsVjn8hNc&hd=1 video of the supposed implementation, but the developer was killed by the CIA or something as he has fallen off the face of the Earth completely.
I've looked into Slab3D (NASA technology) http://slab3d.sonisphere.com/ and OpenAL Soft (http://kcat.strangesoft.net/openal.html) not to mention other 3rd party drivers like Rapture3d (http://www.blueripplesound.com/) and WWise integrating plugins like the Genaudio AstoundSound3d etc..
I have the Blocked-In guy claiming he has cracked this and will 'eventually provide a writeup' .. We have the Genaudio guy saying they have a solution, but no way to get our hands on a demo or working example without forking out $600 for a minimal license... I could go on and on..

So far, after my countless hours of research and testing - I haven't been able top get anything even semi-practical up and running in Unity for Binaural or HRTF - and to say the least this is BEYOND DISSAPOINTING. :(

Audio does need to be included, and I say it is actually a must have. What people don't seem to understand is that the power over our senses varies from person to person. For some, the auditory sense is stronger or rivaling in strength of vision.

To create a better VR you NEED to have clear, high quality audio.

"tykjen" wrote:
The Virtual Barbershop is one of the first things I imagined to someday experience in VR. Audio is half the experience, and that one proves it.

This. I was kinda disappointed nobody has tried making a 3D scene to go along with the audio! This would be such a trip, even if you couldn't move your head.

Hey Guys! New to this forum and this is my first post. Love this thread that you guys have got going. Does anybody have any clue of what happened to the devs who implemented spatial audio in unity?Can't track them down at all. Also, from a research perspective, what do you think are the stumbling blocks to implementing standard HRTF functions in real time? Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.
:)

Some people have a hard time distinguishing 3d audio from binaural audio, the difference its the same or more that the step from mono to stereo.
Its more complex that it may appear, the binaural audio files that exist now are just recordings from a head figure with microphones attached to his ears.

The way I understand it is like this:

3d Positional sound: gives you a sense of, say.. 7.1 surround sound with no interference (from walls, people, air, etc..)

Binaural audio: Has 3D positional and also (from what I've researched) something akin to raytracing / pathtracing that can reflect/subdue/amplify sounds based on the material applied to it.

And yes, finding a methodology to accomplish this is next to impossible, probably due to patents on Creative's end. They could boost their reputation immensely if they made the software-based technology open-sourced, and then charged something small, say, $25 per developer seat. Or heck.. just sell the !@#% thing in the Unity store for that. Good lord could they make a bundle of cash by doing that.

Its far from impossible, the algorithms for doing binaural audio is free to use for anyone as far as i know since its pretty old tech really.
I have been working on trying to integrate OpenAL Soft into Unity which supports Binaural audio, but without any luck getting the Binaural part working, just getting stereo sound. Any one else is free to try though : )