Spatial audio settings?

Lucy

k6ps
Hi there,

We plan to add support for spatial audio after two major releases. Besides, we hope you can share with us a video and tell us your desired surround sound effect.

k6ps

Watching 3d movies on quest is all new to me. I think I got the video part from blu-ray to mkv pretty good. Full side by side, high quality preset etc. It's amazing. But I'm not quite sure about the audio yet. What happens to 5.1 audio in headphones and Skybox or any alternative vr player? is it worth keeping the original 5.1 from Bluray?
I'll see if it's possible to create binaural audo from 5.1 and add that to the video.

Spatial audio is about making it feel like the audio is coming from certain locations of the room so if you move your head you feel more like in a real theater?

Lucy

k6ps ewok79
Thank you for your replies! I'll keep you updated when there's any progress.

ewok79

For me, as I remember, I felt both effects... directional spatial audio from certain spot (when moving your head, hearing the center sound always from the virtual frontside direction) AND surround sound, when watching for example starwars, you hear the tie fighters coming from behind. It was awesome and almost perfect, thats why I miss it so much. In the current version I also have the feeling its more like stereomix

k6ps

Example video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3txhT2ncNOU (headphones needed). So if your movie has 5.1 track this should be possible with.

k6ps

Maybe I understand this 3d audio concept all wrong. I've been now trying to convert 5.1 to 3d audio (binaural) and in the end it kind of seems the same that's in Skybox. Eg I tested this clip where an animal moves from right to left and the audio moved smoothly from right to left. So I think Skybox is aware of 5.1 audio track and makes use of it well.
Maybe 3d audio is more better with the objects actually moving in all directions on 3d scale. 5.1 audio is more static, speakers in static locations and the moving of things is already calculated in it.
Maybe only pro side of 5.1 to 3d audio for headphones is that there's less data and the file would be smaller? And I guess you can add environment effects like cinema, big room or even car to it but not sure if it's better than original..

Lucy

k6ps
Hi there, thanks for sharing the video. We downloaded it and found that it was 2-channel audio not 5.1 surround sound. Never mind, we got some videos with 5.1 audio.

Now you may be unable to hear the surround sound from different directions when you use SKYBOX to play a movie with 5.1 surround sound. We'll try to optimize the feature in future releases. Thanks for your understanding and support!

k6ps

Yes, it was stereo but it was compiled with binaural algorithm so it should give this feeling like the audio is coming outside of your headphones from all kinds of directions. You probably can't make a difference when you try on speakers. That's what I'm kind of trying to understand if converting to binaural would be better than 5.1 in headphones. But anyways, looking forward to those audio updates from Skybox! 🙂

YuriXkit

Hi, this quest video player has the spatial implemented. I'm not sure it still working, Devs abandoned it. But it had the effect that sound was coming from a specific place giving you an impression you are in a real cinema
https://sidequestvr.com/app/1523/cinevr

ewok79

Ok we have 1 year later and and lots of new cool features within the meta quest app.... but unfortunately still no progress regarding spatial sound.... the technology was already there in this app... why it's so hard to integrate it again? Meanwhile, there's already an app for the apple vision pro which has the spatial audio integrated... why not on the meta quest app? Regarding sound compatibilty, you just could make a switch to turn it on and off, so in case the soundfile won't play with spatial on you just can turn this option off. Despite the missing spatial option, you guys are really doing great work!

Lucy

ewok79
Hello, we're refactoring the spatial audio function for the Quest version. Thanks for your patience.

ewok79

Lucy Thx! We will talk again September next year... 😉