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v0.1.0-alpha.6 — Spatial audio

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@rubocopter rubocopter released this 25 Aug 18:39
· 25 commits to master since this release
v0.1.0-alpha.6
96944f3

v0.1.0-alpha.6 — Spatial audio

A complete spatial-audio chain for Penumbra VR: binaural HRTF, occlusion muffling, distance absorption, ambient reverb, and a low-latency head-tracked listener — on a bundled OpenAL Soft runtime, so it works identically on every machine.

Penumbra is about what you hear coming. This release rebuilds the game's entire acoustic pipeline:

  • Head-tracked listener without lag — positional sounds follow your head pose in real time instead of last frame's camera matrix
  • Binaural HRTF (new setting) — Options → VR Settings → Display → Binaural audio (HRTF): Auto (headphone detection), Headphones, or Off. Restart required
  • Occlusion that muffles — walls and closed doors now dampen treble with a smooth fade; a creature behind a door sounds held back until you open it
  • Distance absorption — audible sources lose treble progressively with range, so far things read as far even in line of sight
  • Mine-gallery reverb — a restrained global EFX tail (2.6 s decay, high diffusion) that gives corridors and caverns depth without washing out the mix
  • Bundled OpenAL Soft 1.25.2 — app-local runtime guarantees EFX/HRTF support everywhere; LGPL license included under licenses/

Fixed

  • Legacy Creative device names ("Generic Software") no longer break modern OpenAL runtimes
  • OALWrapper hardened for first-time EFX activation: per-source filters are created on demand (fixes a startup access violation), EFX manager thread state is initialized before any failure path, and failed device opens no longer fall into the silent NULL driver
  • Legacy sound thread disabled by default — it raced against OpenAL Soft's internal mixer once EFX was active

Known limitations

  • Reverb is a single global preset; per-zone environments remain future work
  • HRTF validated informally on PS VR2 Sense headphone output only
  • Occlusion raycasts sample ~2×/second; very fast doors can pop between muffled and clear

Full details in docs/RELEASES.md.

Install: extract the zip completely and run Install-PenumbraVR.bat (Steam install detected automatically; every replaced file is backed up). Remove with Install-PenumbraVR.bat -Restore.

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