[Released] Binaural/3D audio engine for games and VR

Hi all,

We’re proud to present 3Dception, a real-time binaural/3D audio engine that is extremely efficient and works anywhere. It is currently available as a native plugin for Unity (OSX / Windows / Linux), with more platforms to follow.

* Efficient room modelling for enhanced spatialisation
* Desktop and mobile support
* Easy to integrate into existing workflows
* No additional hardware or expensive headphones
* High resolution HRTFs

It is a free public alpha release for now (LOTS planned ahead) and we’d like to know what you think. Download it and give it a go!

More info: http://twobigears.com

 

Ive been waiting for this to be in my hands for years, bookmarking, downloading, alphaing every chance i get, perfect excuse to stick audiosources on random gameobjects for the sheer fun of it, i always thought of it like the oculus rift for your ears, although i knew about binaural stereo long before the or appeared. They are, i think, a perfect marriage

 

The email made me worry a bit cause i'm not sure this would be an asset store item and if it were to be, wether it would be within my means, which would be a bit disappointing, i don't intend to make a commercial product with it for years, but generally, in a perfect world, it would be in everything

 

Very nice! ^_^

I will have to play around with it a little more.

 

If more people don't get onto this I will be very disappointed, audio can be a bit overlooked when everyones focussing on shinies and making their code perfectly formed but this is absolutely essential audio technology for some cases, i'd say for real single player experiences, absolutely essential, amazed it's taken so long

I have this driver on my desktop for the chipset including the sound of course and it has an approximate analogue to this idea that you can enable and get some agreeable settings for but it never quite hits the spot and it often feels more confused than really locational, and im partially deaf in my right ear which seems to ironically notice more when things are a bit off

The demo above is absolutely spot on, i think it obviously needs some broader testing and i'm going to attach it to gameobjects as standard when i'm making something that makes sense to have these elements in play mode just to get a feel for it, and maybe then be able to give better feedback, but to be honest its just pure fun if nothing else, worth getting some nice headphones for and really filling in another piece of the jigsaw puzzle of how to bring full immersion into a computer generated experience

So put your headphones on folks and watch the darn video

 

I'm very interested in this for iOmoon... Will this be an asset store item when it gets to beta or 1.0?
The demo scene in Unity is very compelling, but the audio seems to get confused about where the sphere is when facing forward.
The fx are a sound Ive never heard, so its a bit tough to make out whats really going on...
I understand its early, I am very interested in seeing where this goes! Good stuff

 

hi,
great work. it's stereo sound or 7.1 or 5.1 sound?

 

You really should replace the audio clips with your own. The "voices" clip in the project is also much easier to listen to.

Note that in the trial version, the effect is shut off from time to time, that might add to some confusion.

 

Thanks ill try that sometime. Will this be an asset stire item or custom license situation? ( going to keep asking the tough question)
Will this integrate into current audio tools? (Secrt audio, soundmanager)
Do you have a roadmap? Is a first usable release targeted to for sooner or later? (Weeks or months).
Im asking since it can impact productions.

 

Binaural simulation is an attempt to simulate things like dummy head recordings - it usually works with headphones only so this should work with 2 channels (stereo).

If you look in the mirror you've might have noticed that you have only 2 ears but you can localize up/down/rear/front directions with it - hence you don't need any surround setup for localisation - there is a science field in audio which is called Psychoakustik (in germany, I don't know the english word). Basically one of the most important things in audio is the response time, phase and frequency of reflections. I'm a bit rusty with theory, but I think for example reflections that reach your ear in less than 30 milliseconds won't be noticed by the brain as a reflection at all but it will add a lot to the localisation of the source, and increasing the volume of audio signals around 2khz will tell the brain they are closer. etc. etc.

When you are listening to a "normal" stereo recording the signals closer to the center (or pure mono signals) will be detected by your brain as if they are coming directly OUT OF YOUR HEAD - which is just a weird unrealistical experience. That's why headphone are pretty much useless for a real stereo experience which always (whatever marketing idiots will tell you, anything else is a lie) will work only when you are sitting in front and in the center of of the speakers (at one peak of a thought equilateral triangle)
There were some special headphones on the market in the 90s from AKG to fight this problem but you looked like an idiot with a speakers beside each ear while wearing them.

 

Hi all,

Thanks for your responses and apologies for a delayed reply — all the notifications from this forum went to my spam folder!

A couple of updates:

On monday we will release a new build with a few bug fixes and the time limitation taken off. We've realised that it hardly helps anyone!

We will be releasing details about the non-commercial license on Monday — which will be free to use across all platforms. We will be releasing the commercial details within the next ten days as they currently being finalised. As you all are game developers you know how fragmented the industry is as far as budgets are concerned, so we want to get this right! Being game devs ourselves we've faced the same problems.

The roadmap: developing is ongoing and active. We want to take 3Dception places, and more importantly places that you find useful and valuable! This alpha release is to help us get this feedback so we can position 3Dception appropriately (and we already have received a LOT of useful feedback in the past 24 hours).

Integration: More platforms will be announced and this *will* work with other toolchains, so you can rest assured. We don't want you to change your workflow

Keep the tough questions and feedback coming —*it is the reason why we have a public alpha and not a self declared 'final' product. We iterate very quickly and plan to release frequent updates — so stay tuned!

Thanks for the feedback so far, we are absolutely stoked and encouraged to be better!

 

The free for non commercial license is music to my ears! Just made something planned an even more enjoyable prospect, esp given intentions to use it along with an Oculus Rift

Do you have any quick descriptive demos of it running with an OR (Making a quick demo myself wouldnt exactly be hard but getting my desktop sorted would be a pain atm)? Im very keen to see these things working together, along with the talks valve recently gave regarding advances made in the valve/oculus OR collaborations its an exciting time

Do you know when you'll be changing or removing the limit on audiosources in the evaluation or will that be a limit of the non commercial version anyways?

 

We should be releasing a precompiled OR demo very soon, so stay tuned.

A new build will be released on Monday without the time limit but will have a limit of two sources. At this point the non-commercial version will have a limit of 5 sources.

 

Agreed. Evaluating it is much more difficult with the time limit.

Looking forward to hearing the details on both licenses.

 

We released an update on Monday night:

* The time limit has been taken off and the evaluation version has a limit of two active audio sources
* A few bug fixes
* Includes pre-built OVR and non-OVR demos so you can try it out before spending time integrating it into a project
* Non-commercial licenses are free, with a limit of 5 active audio sources. Get in touch with project details and we'll hook you up with a license.

More coming!

 

Are there any details on commercial licenses yet?

Thanks

 

I would also like more info on this, holding off putting into my game until i know its feasible.
Thanks!

 

Echo above sentiments, if it's technology you're selling as a solution equivalent to very heavy hitting middleware, like speedtree or euphoria, even despite my enthusiasm i just can't go anywhere like that. If its the price of a typical strong well featured asset (typically 50-100 dollars), count me well and truly in, and the sooner i know the better! Because it's something that would have a significant aspect in the design of a game and since i'm just starting something new, the use of which is actually in itself to get more familiar with tools i have that i'll probably be using a lot over the coming years (or equivalents), getting extremely familiar with something like this would be a boon. Well, assuming i can grab my OR devkit mk2 before the preorders run dry

 

Any updated info guys?

 

Hi all,

We just published the licensing details here. The commercial version will be available from April 14th when we transition to beta.

I also just published a quick post on the blog summarising some of our upcoming plans. You can read it here. If you downloaded the alpha build you should get an update this week with improvements and bug fixes.

Thanks for your patience and support with all the downloads and feedback! If you have any questions feel free to email us (hello@twobigears.com) or post here.

Cheers
Varun

 

Subscription? Ill have to hold off until theres a non sub version or i get a bigger budget.
Bummer... This is not very indie friendly but i respect your decision.

 

I think you should clarify if you still can sell those products which were already created with 3Dception when you don't renew the subscription after 12 months.

 

Thanks VIC20, I seem to have read your mind and just updated the copy!

Depending on the size and requirements of your project(s), you could just pay anywhere between £108-228 and use 3Dception for as many projects you want indefinitely. Continuing on the subscription would only guarantee you the latest version and with the newest features (and we definitely have a lot of that planned!)

 

Also, depending on your screen resolution you might also miss the FAQ below the pricing.

 

Ah ok, so basically the price per year is for continued support and updates for that year. After you would be limited to that version but still have a valid usable license, for that final version? That would be reasonable...
Read it on my phone, missed the faq.. Thanks!

 

Yes. Your only commitment is the initial 12 months. You are free to unsubscribe after and can continue using the version you have indefinitely and it will continue being valid.

It is our job to woo you back after that with better/awesome/mind-melting improvements Keep us our on toes.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

This is damn interesting.

On your pricing page it says that non-commercial can have 5 active sources, while here and in the e-mail with the download link, it says 2. I assume 5 is the new number and you haven't updated the e-mail.

It does yeah, thank you.

 

The download that you get in the email is for the *alpha* evaluation only and has a limit of two sources. The non-commercial version (with 5 sources) will be available from 14th April along with the commercial versions when we upgrade to beta. Does this clear things?

 

Hmm, i checked out the website, its a bit broken for netbooks! 1000px across doesnt accomodate it well, worth noting for the modern age

Was I correct in understanding you only get 5 active sources whatever sub you took? Since my work isnt intended to make money I suppose it's no skin off my shin but is this a technical issue and will this develop? I can imagine theres probably a balance needed to avoid cacophany but 5 does seem slim

 

Yes, that table did break. Being fixed, thanks!

The 5 active sources limitation is for the non-commercial and the medium commercial package. It isn't because of a technical issue at all. The unlimited pack gives you unlimited audio sources (or how many ever your device can handle).

 

Hello Guys!

We have transitioned to BETA and now have the commercial and non-commercial versions available for download from our website. Download it, give it a spin, and let us know what you think! Thanks for all the support so far!

 

I just tried out the free version demos, and wow! This is great. It seems to work quite well. It's nice to finally see a working binaural solution!

I did have a couple of issues however. When I first ran the demo app with the black drone and the grey sphere, the room with the grey sphere didn't have any sound. As soon as I crossed into the room, it made a "pop" sound and then it was silent. The second time I tried the demo, it worked as expected. However I also noticed that sometimes when I started the demo there would be this same "pop" sound played at the start.

Secondly, whenever I run the demo my firewall says that it seems to connect to a remote server? Google Analytics I think? Could you explain what it's doing here? Whatever it's doing, I'd definitely need to be able to deactivate that before distributing a commercial game, or customers would be asking me the same question.

As some others have mentioned, I'd prefer an Asset Store plugin (even if it was at a higher price), but I'll still be purchasing this plugin when it's got some of the kinks worked out.

Great job guys!

 

Thanks Andy!

None of our other users have reported to the popping noise so could you email us at support@twobigears.com so we can follow it up? It would be great to get the version of your OS, version of Unity and the version of 3Dcepton.

As for server connections: 3Dception only does a license check with the server when you first need activate the plugin within the Editor only. That check doesn't happen post-activation in any builds of the game. The same is with analytics — but I'll make sure to double check anyway.

 

If it was an asset store plugin, i would already own it...hoping that can happen someday

 

It would be great to know why you guys prefer the asset store. We are all ears.

The only reason why we have it on our website is that given the number of platforms we support and the number we will support it just makes it easier for us to streamline the release cycle across all target products.

 

For me its about being as uncomplicated and secure as possible...

 

Thanks!

Definitely not! It isn't fair to anyone if we change it every month. Once you buy, it is a fixed price every month for that 12 month period. Think of it is a fixed price paid in instalments.

 

Hello, Two Big Ears devs! I'm very interested in 3Dception, though I ran into a snag when testing out your noncommercial version:

Your demo scenes include a FPController, but the audio effects don't appear to keep up if I change the orientation of the main camera (the one with your audio listener setup). While looking to the left and right, the audio coming from the floating robot still sounded like it was coming from directly in front of me. At least, there was no audible change.

Is this a known issue? User error? What could be going on here?

Thanks! I'm looking forward to using 3Dception in some of my own projects.

 

Hi guys. When I put two sources on the same object they both don't play. The second one interrupts the first one when it's playing. This forces me to arrange my hierarchy so that there are distinct objects per source even if there is conceptually only one game object (ie a ball that makes a whizzing sound as it goes by as well as a bouncing sound when it hits something). Is this a limitation of the non-commercial version or is this just the way it is for now or am I doing something wrong? Thanks and amazing work!!