Hands-On with Dolby's Axon
- March 27, 2009 18:31 PM PST
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The Xbox Live service has helped bring in-game voice comm to the masses but chatting with your friends and opponents during a deathmatch or epic raid isn't anything new to PC gamers. Dolby's looking to change all that with their Axon technology.
The Xbox Live service has helped bring in-game voice comm to the masses but chatting with your friends and opponents during a deathmatch or epic raid isn't anything new to PC gamers. But one thing remains the same: in-game voice chat is still an afterthought to developers and gamers alike. It sits on top of the gaming experience, the technological equivalent of duct taping walkie talkies to your chest when you go out to play with your friends. But Dolby's looking to change all that with their Axon technology. It integrates in-game voice comm with the main audio stream, delivering higher fidelity and effects that bring the words of every player to life. GamePro sat down with representatives from Dolby for a hands-on demo of Axon and walked away singing its praises. It might raise your gaming blood pressure like a hot new CPU or graphics card but Axon has the potential to change the way we communicate with each other as well as the way we interact with our games.
Can You Hear Me Now?
The main benefit of Axon is noticeable right away: the clarity of the voice chat is crystal clear. We were treated to a demo of an Axon enabled version of Unreal Tournament 2004 and the fidelity of the in-game chat is pretty damn impressive. No more garbled mumblings and static-filled shrieks from your fellow players. And because it?s integrated with the in-game audio, it sounds like a natural part of the gaming experience; you no longer need to hack up a Skype session or message your fellow Xbox Live teammates to get on the same page before the match starts. But then the demo really got going and we began to see the true potential of Axon.
One of the most promising features of Axon is the fact that it adds positional audio to the voice chat stream. The effect is especially impressive with a properly configured 5.1 surround sound speaker set but the true surprise was how good it sounded through a pair of headphones.
One of the most promising features of Axon is the fact that it adds positional audio to the voice chat stream. Imagine you?re a battlefield with two teammates, one on your right and one on your left. Someone shouts out a warning of an in-coming attack?with current voice chat, your teammate?s voice comes at you from front and center, so you have no way knowing where the threat is; with Axon, the voice is properly fixed relative to your position, so if the teammate on your left spies and enemy, you?ll hear his voice coming from your left speaker. The effect is especially impressive with a properly configured 5.1 surround sound speaker set but the true surprise was how good it sounded through a pair of headphones. Dolby has a virtual surround sound tech called Dolby Headphone and it works perfectly with Axon. Those of us who have 2.1 sets or the speakers on our TV's need not worry ? Dolby has virtual surround tech that will create the effect out of whatever audio equipment you have as well.
Talking Heads
Axon also features spatial audio (the further away a voice source is, the harder it is to hear) as well as occlusion and geometry based effects (in-game architecture changes the way voices sound). There's also push-to-talk chat that works like a traditional walkie-talkie; you can set up channels with your teammates then push a pre-defined key that opens up the lines of communication. You can also layer on pre-set effects ? the UT2004 demo's walkie talkie had a nice dose of realistic sounding static and there were ?audio fonts? that altered voices on the fly.
The best part is that Axon is all software dependent: your system won't come crashing to a halt just because you said hello to a member of your raid party in WoW.
The best part is that Axon is all software dependent, which means you won't need to invest in specialized hardware, and there's little overhead involved; CPU utilization and bandwidth consumption is negligible on both the server and client end, meaning your system won't come crashing to a halt just because you said hello to a member of your raid party in WoW. Developers can not only add enhanced voice chat to games, they can use the positional and spatial audio to create new in-game effects. One of the possibilities brought up by the Dolby reps was an in-game booby-trap consisting of a mini-speaker and a remote detonated bomb; one imagined scenario consisted of a player placing the booby-trap then hiding somewhere nearby. All the player would have to do is to speak through the mini-speaker, drawing the attention of unsuspecting enemies. Of course, thanks to Axon, they'll have no trouble finding the source of the audio; unfortunately for them, they'll also discover the bomb that it's attached to as well.
Everybody's Talking At Me
There's no doubt that in-game voice chat is an overlooked aspect of gaming. There's also little doubt that if it's done right, it can add an incredible sense of immersion and depth to the overall experience. Axon is a promising technology that could possibly fill this small but important niche. The tech is already available to PC developers and will be coming to games soon; we were also told that they are working with Microsoft on getting Axon onto the 360. Walkie talkie functions will work through the Xbox headset while the 3-D positional effects will pipe through the TV speakers or your surround sound set up. Regardless of how it shakes out, we can't wait to experience Axon in a real game setting. If it pans out, it could help make games a more social experience and bring out the true potential of online multiplayer gaming. The best part is that it?s in the hands of Dolby, one of the most respected developers of audio technology; from our short demo, it's obvious that they're bringing all of their experience to bear and we can't wait to "hear" the results.
