As anyone who has played games or made games for a long time will tell you, the game’s soundtrack and sound effects are critically important. The game wouldn’t be the same without these sounds. We may have started out in the gaming space with the most basic of noises, followed by 8-bit and 16-bit soundtracks, but it’s heavily evolved since then, and even games like Roblox know that if you don’t have the right kind of sound design, gamers won’t be as invested in what they’re playing. To that end, for creators making their own titles, they have a new option to help enhance the sound design in their world.
The Roblox dev team released a new blog that announced a special beta for “Acoustic Simulation.” Very basically, it’ll make sound effects more realistic by having them adapt to the environments around them. Here’s the team breaking down the feature:
“We’re excited to announce Acoustic Simulation as a new Studio beta feature! With this feature enabled, audio playback will automatically adapt to its environment. Specifically, any 3D audio emitted using the newer Audio Wiring API 167 (including audio assets, voice chat, and/or character sounds) will now behave similarly to the real world. You’ll hear these sounds being muffled by structures, as well as bending around and reflecting off of parts and terrain.
The best part? This is all automatic—no scripting is required. Sculpt a large stone cave that echoes emitted sounds within and throughout. Create a room that blocks noise when you close the door. Make a winding hallway where users can hear foes from around the corner.”
The dev team made it clear that this was only for Creator Studio and that being able to put it in the game’s universe would come at a later time. Even still, this is something for many developers to be excited about, not the least of which is because this could help add new levels to their games and gameplay. Imagine being able to craft titles where players truly have to rely on their ears and not just their eyes to get through. There’s a lot of potential in features like that.
As for how to use it, the blog went into detail about how to get everything to work within the studio, so be sure to read it in full. If more features like this are on the horizon, then you can expect the creator tools to be even more in-depth by the time the year ends.
