Unreal Tournament 2003 with 3D spatial sound (OpenAL Soft HRTF audio)
3Use headphones only with any virtual surround features turned off.
Up next on the list of HRTF-supported games is Unreal Tournament 2003, the smash-hit game from 2002. This game isn't sold by digital retailers anymore because it's essentially the World Warrior to UT2k4's Champion Edition, but I figured it was still worth recording since it technically runs on a different engine (UE2 vs UE2.5). UT2k3 was among the very first games to support OpenAL, but unlike Raven's FPS titles, it's actually a DirectSound3D-OpenAL hybrid. That means if you own an EAX-compatible soundcard, you still need to activate UT2003 in ALchemy to get 3D sound on Vista or later.
Fortunately, with OpenAL Soft we can get HRTF in almost every Unreal Engine 2 game on any soundcard. The binaural audio in UT2k3 is just fantastic. You get a really good feeling for where everyone is even if there's 8 players in a mid-size map. You do miss out on the reverb and occlusion effects since OpenAL Soft does not translate EAX calls, but the HRTF quality is far superior to CMSS-3D anyway. Plus, the occlusion effect is even more extreme than the UT99 patch if you could even believe it.
HRTF grade:
A- (C+ with CMSS-3D)
Settings:
Windows Control Panel: Stereo
FullscreenViewportX=1920
FullscreenViewportY=1080
UseEAX=True
Use3DSound=True
UseDefaultDriver=False
Channels=256
ReduceMouseLag=False
LevelOfAnisotropy=16
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=2
default-hrtf=irc_1037_44100
hrtf=true
resampler=bsinc24
Links:
https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Unreal_Tournament_2004#Use_OpenAL_Soft
https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/1fzonq/psa_for_games_using_openal_including_minecraft/cagd3lb/
http://recherche.ircam.fr/equipes/salles/listen/
http://kcat.strangesoft.net/openal.html
Credits:
https://www.digitalextremes.com/sites/default/files/title-images/UT2003_logoresize.jpg (Use of this logo falls under fair use laws.)
#3dsound #spatialaudio #binaural #3daudio #hrtf #headphones #audiophile #gameaudio #mod #unreal #unrealtournament
3D 3Д звук пространственный бинауральный 3Dサウンド バイノーラル 空間オーディオ Ilusión Auditiva Sonido 3D áudio audio espacial Som em 3D 3D zvok Son en 3D 3D geluid 3D zvuk 3d声音 双耳 เสียง 3D Âm thanh 3D Suono 3D audio spaziale 3d-ääni binauraalisen 3D lyd 3D dźwięk Suara 3D 3D 사운드 3 डी साउंड 3 डी ध्वनि صوت ثلاثي الأبعاد صدای سه بعدی Τρισδιάστατος ήχος 3D skaņa 3D garsai 3D ses צליל תלת ממדי דימוי שמע