Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption w/ EAX & 3D spatial sound (OpenAL Soft HRTF audio)
Channel: I Drink Lava - 3D Game Audio
Date: 2018-10-28

Use headphones only with any virtual surround features turned off. Best HRTF effects at 0:35 and 15:13.

This is Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption with EAX and OpenAL Soft HRTF through DSOAL. This is the lesser-known attempt at a VTM video game before the universally-praised Bloodlines came out. It's somewhat of a Diablo-style game where you loot dungeons with the unique gimmick of the storyline progressing from the Dark Ages to modern day. This game is pretty divisive among gamers, with review scores ranging from an abomination to perfection. Either way you look at it, though, the AI is just horrible all-around and the point-and-click controls are tedious as hell. I ended up cutting this demonstration short because 27 minutes in, some jerk in a robe smote my whole party with lightning and left me with 1HP left. Sorry if you were enthralled by this captivating footage up until then.

The spatialization in this game is pretty odd. The listener position is very arbitrary, so characters who are clearly in view will sound as if they're behind you and much farther away. It's most noticeable when all four party members line up to attack an enemy and the two on the ends will only be heard in the left or right ear. There's a conspicuous lack of ambient sounds, though the EAX 2.0 reverb makes up for it partially.

*FUN FACT: the same studio that made this game went on to create Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified for the PS Vita, which is widely considered to be one of the worst games of all time.


HRTF grade:
A

Settings:
Windows Control Panel: Stereo
IRC_1037 HRTF tables placed in %APPDATA%/OpenAL/HRTF
(in alsoft.ini located in %APPDATA%)
channels=stereo
frequency=44100
stereo-mode=headphones
cf_level=0
sample-type=float32
periods=3
period_size=128
default-hrtf=irc_1037_44100
hrtf=true
resampler=linear
drivers="-dsound,"

Links:
https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/65094
http://repo.or.cz/dsound-openal.git
http://recherche.ircam.fr/equipes/salles/listen/
http://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/dgVoodoo2.html

Credits:
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/v__/images/9/91/Vampire_-_The_Masquerade_-_Redemption_%28Logo%29.png/revision/latest?cb=20141220192043&path-prefix=vtmb
(Credit to Night Vision. Use of this logo falls under fair use laws.)



#3dsound #spatialaudio #binaural #3daudio #hrtf #headphones #audiophile #gameaudio #halloween #retrogaming #vampirethemasquerade
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