[MUD-Dev] Skotos Proximity System - a Technical Summary (LONG)

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <o.f.grostad@notam.uio]

Christopher Allen wrote:

> it says in our article, "The impression of the strength of a noise does not
> always follow the sound (dB) level, especially at high or low frequencies and
> sound intensities" -- high (but audible) frequencies have a 5 to 15 dB
> 'advantage' in perceived loudness (roughly doubling their sone level) -- which
> is the whole point of the Fletcher-Munson curves.

I think the comprehensible name is "equal loudness contours". These are
different for different loudness levels. (the difference between a 50Hz
tone at 60 and 100dB is perceived as equal to the difference between a
1kHz at 10 and 100dB).

> (2) The son level already takes frequency into account. No, we're not going to
> go out with decibel meters and tone generators, but the use of the sone does
> 'level out' the difference in loudness due to frequency. A 40 dB tone at 200 Hz
> has the same loudness (sone value) as a 1000 Hz tone of 20 dB.

Most sounds are not steady tones of course...

How do you represent background noise?  And more importantly how do deal
with the fact that what you hear depends on what you focus on (cocktail
party effect)? Do you take the attack of the sound into account?

Masking based on sound quality (timbre) and focus has some game
potential, so I think you should consider including this. Not suggesting
that you should go into the details of critical bands and such though...
Or that timbre is affected by distance or some timbres are more
difficult to locate than others or that rooms with long decay time will
respond with "sustained" noise or aural illusions or...

However, won't you kill off atmospherical potential and expressiveness
by aiming for a simplified physical simulation?  Wouldn't it be better
if you aimed for something that supported emotional dimensions? "You
hear a piercing cry which appears to come from everywhere. Nothing.
Deafening silence." "The sound of fear strikes down your spine. Sensing
danger. You run." Your audio model would make sense for an audio-visual
world where the user is on his own when it comes to interpretation, but
with text you have to do the interpretation, so you may as well take
advantage of that and make it emotional (and if applicable race
dependant)...

--
Ola




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