In all console games, voice chat is just on a one-dimensional level, which means that no matter where you or your team mates are in the game it all sounds the same. Now imagine playing your favourite game in multiplayer and getting a sense of direction to where your team mates are talking from - being able to tell the difference from a team mate in front of you, behind you, or to the left of you will soon be a reality.

Dolby are currently working with developers to incorporate ‘Axon 3D’ into their games to help make in-game voice live up to the rest of the gaming experience.

Quoted from the Dolby Axon Fact Page:

Dolby Axon transforms in-game communication, putting you right in the middle of the game, immersing you in sound, and making the whole experience more realistic and exciting. It’s a true surround sound experience over 5.1 or 7.1 channels, or even over standard headphones.

Dolby Axon accounts for players’ locations, movements, and their relationship to in-game objects by mapping voices to the unique geometry of each game. When you move in the game, Dolby Axon accurately depicts the location of other players’ voices around you. This gives you a huge tactical advantage over those players who hear everything from just one direction.

The Dolby Axon software development kit (SDK) will be made available to all game developers in April, with a current beta test in place already for a small minority. No developers have been detailed and no future games have yet been announced using the experience on consoles, but this has been available on PC Games for over a year.

What do you think of 3D Sound being implemented in games - will we have to shout even louder on our microphones to talk to an enemy far away?

Source: Spong