Assessing Efficient Auralization Methods in Architectural Virtual Environments

Papadimitriou G, Meyer-Kahlen N, Järveläinen H, Xydis A, Daro, Carlotta, Kohler M, Gottfried R. Assessing Efficient Auralization Methods in Architectural Virtual Environments. In: AVARIG 2026: Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality and Immersive Games. Audio Engineering Society; 2026. Paper 10331. Available from: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23293

@inproceedings{Papadimitriou2026_23293,
  author = {Papadimitriou, Georgios and Meyer-Kahlen, Nils and Järveläinen, Hanna and Xydis, Achilleas and {Daro} and {Carlotta} and Kohler, Matthias and Gottfried, Rama},
  title = {{Assessing Efficient Auralization Methods in Architectural Virtual Environments}},
  booktitle = {AVARIG 2026: Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality and Immersive Games},
  note = {Paper 10331},
  year = {2026},
  month = jun,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  url = {https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23293}
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Assessing Efficient Auralization Methods in Architectural Virtual Environments
AU  - Papadimitriou, Georgios
AU  - Meyer-Kahlen, Nils
AU  - Järveläinen, Hanna
AU  - Xydis, Achilleas
AU  - Daro
AU  - Carlotta
AU  - Kohler, Matthias
AU  - Gottfried, Rama
T2  - AVARIG 2026: Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality and Immersive Games
M1  - Paper 10331
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/30
UR  - https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23293
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - Auralization enables multisensory evaluation of architectural designs in Virtual Reality (VR), yet physically accurate acoustic simulations remain computationally prohibitive for interactive workflows. This study investigates efficient artificial reverberation methods as lightweight proxies for different stages of VR-based architectural design. After assessing the predictive capabilities of geometrically informed models, a hierarchical 3-Alternative-Forced-Choice listening experiment with a transferring task paradigm was conducted in VR using binaural audio. In this experiment, the measured room impulse responses of a physical space in untreated and acoustically treated conditions were compared with those from five auralization techniques. These techniques ranged from industry-standard simulations to artificial reverberators. An initial investigation revealed that neither of the artificial reverberation methods that could take material parameters as input did not provide credible results. Thereafter, all methods were calibrated to the Energy Decay Curves of reference simulations. The results revealed that the pure Image-Source Method was easily detected, likely because the late reverberations temporal density was insufficient. When incorporating a dense late reverberant tail, no credible difference was detected at this sample size between efficient methods and high-fidelity simulations, although directional trends were observed. Participants prioritized the timbral quality of late reverberation over geometrically accurate early reflections. This suggests that computationally efficient models can serve as convincing, scalable rendering tools for interactive design and presents this audiovisual VR paradigm as an ecologically valid platform for multisensory architectural assessment.
ER  -