I noticed something this evening that now that I've heard it, it's near impossible to "unhear" it. When I look straight ahead while driving a car, the audio seems to be properly spaced between the left and right channels. However, if I turn my head either with the in-game controls or through the use of head-tracking, the audio does not update to the new orientation. For example, if the front-left tire is squealing, it's predominately in the left channel. If I turn my head to to the left and effectively "face" the front left tire, the audio will still emit from the left channel at the same volume rather than pan more to the center to match where I'm looking. From my testing so far, the same seems to hold true for engine noise placement, crash sounds, other cars on the track... basically every sound output I could think of. This is in two-channel headphones, I will test with my 5.1 system this weekend and update my findings here. Is there any chance this could be implemented into rF2? A more dynamic, spatially oriented soundscape? As as user of head-tracking it's a small detail that goes a long way toward increasing the immersion factor. Oh, but there was ONE instance where the sound position would update. And that was whenever I used the button to look behind me. Whenever the camera would change, the audio channels would properly "reverse" so that the left was emitting from the right, and vise versa. This makes me think it might be possible on some level Thanks again for making rFactor 2 the awesome sim racing game it is! Bravo!
Probably a little bit like when you move a trackside camera and you continue to hear sound in relation to its original position (even if you subsequently move it to the other side of the track). Some sort of shortcoming or oversight in the sound engine, but it's a very good point you raise for VR, which no doubt will help bring a lot of serious gamers back into the rF2 fold. Not having dynamically located sound to match your head position would be a turn off for those with an audio inclination (sadly a minority I suspect).
Positional Audio is becoming a more common topic of discussion since VR's arrival. Both Oculus and Steam have development kits to make implementation easier for developers now and some of the more popular titles are including it. Most sound engines should be adaptable to use the technology.
