[openal] HRTF B-Format decoding
Chris Robinson
chris.kcat at gmail.com
Sat Feb 14 16:08:53 EST 2015
Recent Git commits have added the ability to directly decode B-Format
ambisonics using HRTF. This allows for retaining full 3D spatialization
features provided by HRTF with the sound field stored by ambisonics. The
relevant code generating the HRTF coefficients is here:
<http://repo.or.cz/w/openal-soft.git/blob/b4c9744d6ae8e768614ae911c69f49f7f341e94c:/Alc/hrtf.c#l316>
Some notes about it:
* It's first-order only, for now. In theory it could support second- and
third-order, although there appears to be some scaling applied at
different orders (the default coefficients as generated by ADT,
<http://repo.or.cz/w/openal-soft.git/blob/b4c9744d6ae8e768614ae911c69f49f7f341e94c:/Alc/panning.c#l303>,
seems to show the X/Y/Z coefficients are scaled up by about 1.2 when
second-order coefficients are present, and by about 1.3 when third-order
coefficients are present).
* The HRIR contributions are likely being calculated incorrectly. In
particular, <http://www.blueripplesound.com/decoding> warns:
"It is tempting to build multichannel decoders by feeding simple virtual
microphone responses in the directions of the various speakers. This
does not work well, particularly for speaker layouts that are not regular."
but this is basically what it does, with each HRIR functioning as a
speaker that's added to the overall output, and its position relative to
the given B-Format channel direction determining how much it contributes
(0 degrees = 100%, +/-45 degrees = 70%, +/-90 degrees = 0%, +/-135
degrees = -70%, +/-180 degrees = -100%). The result sounds pretty good
though, so perhaps I'm misunderstanding the warning? Or it isn't as good
as it should be.
* There is an unlisted config option to make all mixing go to B-Format
channels, which get decoded with HRTF for output ('hrtf-mode' set to
'basic'). This option is off by default (so sound sources will mix
directly with HRTF), and it's unlikely this will be exposed "publicly",
but it's there to help test listening to the HRTF B-Format decode.
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