Valve Company announced about opening the source code of tools for working with surround sound Steam Audio SDK and all related plugins. The code is written in C++ and published under the Apache 2.0 license, which allows you to adapt Steam Audio to your needs and use modified versions in various products, including commercial ones, without the need to open the source code of the changes made. Developers from the community interested in the development of Steam Audio also had the opportunity to participate in the development and submit their changes to the project. At the same time, Valve will continue to support and develop Steam Audio as before, but as an open project. Supports work on Linux, Windows, macOS, Android and iOS platforms.
Steam Audio provides a wide range of tools for working with 3D surround sound in applications and simulating the sound environment, taking into account how it is perceived by the listener's hearing aid. Steam Audio can be useful in computer games and virtual reality systems to create a realistic adaptive sound environment that changes depending on the position of the listener, turning or tilting the head, changing the distance from the sound source, sound reflection from objects and the appearance of obstacles between the listener and the sound source.
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Key features of Steam Audio:
- Support for integration with game engines Unity 2017.3+ And Unreal Engine 4.27+as well as with an environment for creating sound effects FMOD Studio 2.0+. A module for integration with a sound creation system is under development Wwise.
- Automatic real-time simulation of sound propagation in the environment and its interaction with objects.
- Calculation of sound reflection and absorption by objects standing in the way, taking into account the geometry of the scene.
- Tracking the rotation and position of the listener when used in virtual reality systems to create a realistic sound environment. Support for various hardware for virtual reality systems.
- Generating binaural 3D audio using HRTFchanging the shape of the signal for each ear, taking into account the characteristics of the perception of sound waves by the auricle and the position of the head relative to the sound source.
- Surround format support Ambisonicstaking into account the propagation of sound not only in the horizontal plane, but also in the vertical (to determine the sound source from above or below).
- Support for Baked Propagation of sound for static scenes, allowing you to pre-generate and save sound effects at the stage of scene design to improve quality and reduce resource consumption during execution (no need to calculate on the fly the parameters of reflection, absorption and refraction of sound if the scene does not change).
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