Another idea for games....
While this isn't actually a game concept (i.e. some new type of game I might have thought up), I think it will help video game developers create a more immersive environment.
For as long as I can remember, the going trend in computer gaming was making it as realistic an experience as possible. Graphics get better, physics get better, sound improves, etc.
One thing I haven't heard much about (and it could be because it just isn't all that exciting for most people), well, haven't heard anything about it, really, is applying a doppler effect to sounds.
Most games have one or two sounds that they play whenever something happens, and depending on your proximity to that sound is either loud (when close) or softer (when farther away). Sounds do get louder as the object making the noise gets closer, but sometimes you can't tell if it is just getting louder (an engine reving) or if it is actually getting closer! By applying a doppler effect to sounds, slight pitch adjustments to the sound would tell you if it was getting closer or moving away. For slow moving objects, there wouldn't be much of an effect, and there wouldn't need to be. Faster moving objects though, say a howitzer shell or the like, it would make a huge difference. A shell that is always approaching you will always sound higher in pitch (volume here would be key in telling you how close it would land). A shell that passes overhead will be get higher in pitch, and then, after it passes overhead will come back down. The only shell that would remain at a constant pitch would be one that stays tangential to the sphere of which you are the center!
Hearing that in games would be outstanding!
For as long as I can remember, the going trend in computer gaming was making it as realistic an experience as possible. Graphics get better, physics get better, sound improves, etc.
One thing I haven't heard much about (and it could be because it just isn't all that exciting for most people), well, haven't heard anything about it, really, is applying a doppler effect to sounds.
Most games have one or two sounds that they play whenever something happens, and depending on your proximity to that sound is either loud (when close) or softer (when farther away). Sounds do get louder as the object making the noise gets closer, but sometimes you can't tell if it is just getting louder (an engine reving) or if it is actually getting closer! By applying a doppler effect to sounds, slight pitch adjustments to the sound would tell you if it was getting closer or moving away. For slow moving objects, there wouldn't be much of an effect, and there wouldn't need to be. Faster moving objects though, say a howitzer shell or the like, it would make a huge difference. A shell that is always approaching you will always sound higher in pitch (volume here would be key in telling you how close it would land). A shell that passes overhead will be get higher in pitch, and then, after it passes overhead will come back down. The only shell that would remain at a constant pitch would be one that stays tangential to the sphere of which you are the center!
Hearing that in games would be outstanding!