Tutorial #5, X3D4 Sound and Audio
Extending X3D Realism with Audio Graphs, Acoustic Properties and 3D Spatial Sound
Abstract. The last few years a growing interest in virtual environment technologies have been witnessed and their inclusion have been seen in a wide variety of different applications, including distance learning (e.g. serious gaming), the entertainment industry (e.g. online games, live events), architectural design, the production of art, various training scenarios, along with scientific and engineering research. As a result, work documented in relevant recent literature has focused on improving the realism and the sense of immersion within a Three Dimensional (3D) Virtual Environment (VE), taking into account not only the realistic visual rendering but also the spatial sound propagation. The fact that sound rendering constitutes an integral part of the production of realistic VE is not a coincidence, because it can offer additional details and visceral sense to a 3D immersive world.
Motivated by the above, the purpose of this tutorial is to present the introduction of new nodes in X3D Graphics specification in order to be extended both with spatial sound attributes and with physical effects. The proposed structure is harmonized for use with the Web Audio API and HTML5.
The tutorial provides an overview of fundamentals of sound and acoustics, the improved X3D4 Sound Component, and an overview of the W3C Web Audio API. Multiple example scenarios are shared for evaluation of the proposed approach, using the new X3D nodes in an interactive Web 3D scene.