With VR, audio has become more important for gaming immersion than ever before. So, when word that the new Unreal Audio Engine was coming online late last year, the Robo Recall team, working on Epic’s first VR game, jumped at the chance to put it through its paces. After a smooth and easy transition upgrading to the new audio engine, Robo Recall will be one of the first games to ship that takes advantage of its many improvements.
In a recent Unreal Engine livestream, I was joined by Epic’s Audio QA, Dan Reynolds, to chat about the new audio engine, some of its new features, and what we can expect in upcoming Unreal Engine releases 4.15 and 4.16.
In the video below, we explain some of the motivations for the new Unreal Audio Engine and discuss a number of highly requested out-of-the-box improvements such as full 7.1 Dolby surround sound support and audio device hot-swapping among many other improvements. We then profile some of the more exciting features, such as a brand new reverb effect that supports dynamic wet-level sends as well as real-time content-browser previewing. Then as a preview of things to come for 4.16, we highlight a glimpse of a brand-new subtractive modular synthesizer generating audio in realtime.
Like what you hear? Check out the video below for all the latest on Unreal's Audio Engine.