Conference Paper
Using texture maps to procedurally generate sound in virtual environments
AES Conference: AES 2024 International Audio for Games Conference · Paper 8 · April 2024
Abstract
Audiovisual occurrences in virtual environments are governed by data streams that are often shared, but processed separately by the graphics and audio engines. In a common video game scenario, virtual physics interactions among objects in the scene project their visual effect through animated graphics rendering. Independently to this process, the same interactions trigger and control the corresponding sonic output. However, in the natural world, this group of events is a unified causal phenomenon. In an attempt to model audiovisual phenomena within virtual worlds more thoroughly, the use of texture maps for sound effects generation is investigated. Wavetable synthesis is employed for this purpose, as it features certain characteristics that facilitate intuitive image to sound translation. This approach aims to take advantage of the cross-modal affordances of sonification, the realism of physically inspired sound synthesis and the dynamicism of generative audio.
