Xbox Series X. Source: MicrosoftApparently, in addition to the hardware of the new generation of Xbox, the Xbox Series X, there will also be significant improvements in terms of audio. In the new console from Microsoft there will be a chip dedicated to audio from games, which is capable of offering more possibilities to sound designers in games. With the new implementation, sound engineers did not need CPU processing to achieve sound and music effects during games.
Xbox Series X gets dedicated audio chip that brings innovative technology
It was already known that the Xbox Series X would have 3D audio acceleration through a dedicated chip, but what was not known was the potential of this technology and more, what this would mean for those who develop the sounds of the games. Through the use of Ray Traced Audio technology, it is possible to generate bidirectional sounds (would it be something similar or based on binaural audio?) That interact differently as the character walks through the scene, giving a realism and immersion never seen before.
Like Ray Traced Audio?
We know that there is Ray Trancing technology that improves the look of the game, by bringing an improved physics of light reflections on surfaces (read more about this article). But what would be Ray Traced Audio? Basically, a simulation of the interactions between the audio emissions, the character being controlled (as well as the actions with items), with the surfaces of the environment. With the dedicated audio processing chip, the console will automatically make the audio effects change according to the type of environment the player is in (including changing the sound when the character is indoors or outdoors).
For example, if you shoot inside a cave, the sound made by the weapon will be different compared to the type in an open environment, outdoors. This promises to give an even greater immersion in the games.
Check out two demonstration videos of Ray Traced Audio technology (use headphones preferably):
Confirmed details of the Xbox Series X (previously called Project Scarlett):
- 8-core, 16-thread Zen 2 CPU
- 12 Navi TFLOP GPU in RDNA 2 architecture
- AMD's highly customized 7nm SoC
- GDDR6 memory
- 2x 6 Xbox One X GPU FLOPOPs perf
- 4x CPU power of the Xbox One generation
- Can deliver up to 40 times more performance than Xbox One in specific use cases
- Adaptive synchronization supported
- Super-fast SSD that can be used as VRAM
- Supports 8K resolution (likely media reproduction)
- Games at 120FPS
- Variable refresh rate (adaptive synchronization / FreeSync)
- Variable rate shading
- Raytracing confirmed with dedicated raytracing cores
- Backward compatible with thousands of Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One games
- New controller with a dedicated share button
- Compatible with Xbox One accessories
Source: tweaktown
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