Creating Immersion with Sound

When thinking about VR, the visual aspect of VR is often the focus for many VR developers. The majority of our attention is given to the graphics, animations, and user interface design. However, sound is equally important in VR development, as it plays a crucial role in creating an immersive and believable experience.

Sound is an essential aspect of our daily lives, providing us with information about our environment, including the location, movement, and nature of objects around us. In VR, sound can be used to provide cues that can help users to better understand the virtual world they are in. For example, footsteps can indicate the presence of an NPC, while wind sounds can suggest the user is on a high mountain.

Sound can also enhance the sense of immersion in a VR environment. When the sound is well-designed and implemented, it can make the virtual world feel more real and believable. The use of spatial audio effects, for instance, can give users...

Technical requirements

The complete source code for this chapter can be found at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Enhancing-Virtual-Reality-Experiences-with-Unity-2022/tree/main/EnhancingVRExperiencesFullProject/Assets/_VRProjectAssets/Scenes/Chapter_7.

Getting to know Unity’s audio and sound system

Unity’s audio and sound system is a feature of the Unity game engine that allows developers to add and manipulate audio in their games. It includes features such as spatial audio, real-time mixing, and support for various audio file formats. Developers can use Unity’s audio and sound system to create immersive audio experiences in their games, including sound effects, music, and dialogue.

There are several core features and key topics related to Unity’s audio and sound system, including the following:

• Audio sources and listeners: These components are used to play audio and control how it’s heard by the player
• Spatial audio: This feature simulates the way sound travels in real life, creating an immersive audio experience that matches the game’s environment
• Audio effects: Unity’s audio system includes a range of built-in effects, such as reverb and distortion, that can be...

Adding background music with Global 2D audio sources

We can apply background music to our scene using a 2D audio source, similar to how we were able to apply global post-processing effects with a global volume. 2D audio sources play sound that appears to come from a fixed position in the game world, similar to the directional light but without any sense of direction or distance. They are typically used for background music, voice-overs, or sound effects that are not spatially relevant.

A key component of the Unity audio system is the Audio Source component. It allows developers to play audio in a Unity scene both globally and locally. It can be attached to any GO in the scene, such as a character or an object, and can be used to play sound effects, music, and other audio files.

The Audio Source component has several key features:

• Audio clip: This is the audio file that will be played by the Audio Source component. Developers can choose from a range of audio file formats...

Adding audio events to our VR rig

VR hand controller audio events are important because they help to create a more immersive and interactive experience in VR games and applications. By using audio events that are triggered by the movement of the user’s hands and fingers, developers can enhance the sense of presence and realism in the virtual environment.

For example, in a VR game where the user is holding a virtual gun, the sound of the gun firing can be triggered by the user pulling the trigger on the hand controller. This creates a more realistic and engaging experience for the user and helps to reinforce the sense of control and agency they have within the game.

In addition to enhancing immersion, hand controller audio events can also be used to provide feedback to the user. For example, in a VR sculpting application, the sound of a brush stroke can be triggered when the user makes a gesture with the hand controller. This tells the user that they have successfully performed...

Adding spatial audio with 3D audio sources

3D audio sources play sound that is perceived to be coming from a specific location in the 3D game world. This includes information about the direction and distance of the source, which affects how the sound is perceived by the listener. An Audio Listener component must also be present in the scene. Typically, this is attached to the main camera or the player character. The audio listener acts as the ears of the player, receiving sounds from the audio sources in the scene and outputting them to the player’s speakers or headphones. For example, a sound that is further away from the audio listener will be quieter, and one that is to the left of the listener will be heard more prominently in the left ear. For 2D audio, it doesn’t matter where the audio listener is in the scene because 2D audio does not compute distance and therefore will have a consistent volume level across the scene for the audio source.

By using 3D audio sources...

Summary

Sound plays a vital role in creating an immersive and believable VR experience. With Unity’s audio system, developers have a wide range of tools and features to create rich and immersive audio experiences in their VR games and applications. In this chapter, we have covered the basics of using Unity’s audio system to create background audio, sound effects, and spatial audio effects. We have also explored how to download sound assets from the Unity Asset Store and use them to enhance the audio experience in VR. In the next chapter, we will delve into C# code and input assets to show how to create more advanced experiences in VR based on the various systems Unity provides. With the right approach, sound can truly enhance the VR experience and create a more engaging and convincing virtual environment.