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Tomcat · Apr 30, 2013

http://www.vgleaks.com/durango-sound-of-tomorrow/

One of the few components that remain unveiled in Durango is the sound block. This article is intended to describe this important part inside the system.

Maximilian Kolbe · Apr 30, 2013

The numbers mason,what do they mean!?

Wario64 · Apr 30, 2013

will it play mp3s

Alpha_eX · Apr 30, 2013

Sounds good.

Montresor · Apr 30, 2013

Maximilian Kolbe said:
The numbers mason,what do they mean!?

LOL!

Fivefold · Apr 30, 2013

yeah but how many megafloppies is that

Alx · Apr 30, 2013

While in the foreground, an application has full access to the SHAPE hardware. When that application is pushed to the background—pinned, picture-in-picture, or other scenarios—it relinquishes hardware control. By default, its hardware state is suspended, and resumes when the title returns to the foreground.

Did we have info on multitasking examples before ?
Also, that's a big amount of hardware dedicated to audio indeed.

Niwa · Apr 30, 2013

Wario64 said:
will it play mp3s

more importantly will it play them even if you are offline?

Toki767 · Apr 30, 2013

What does tomorrow sound like exactly?

Backfoggen · Apr 30, 2013

Wario64 said:
will it play mp3s

Wma only.

sangreal · Apr 30, 2013

About time they got around to releasing this part... people have been asking for ages

gofreak · Apr 30, 2013

The more interesting bit to me was the little tidbit about OS management of running software and ways in which software can be suspended etc.

Audio and the Durango App Model

While in the foreground, an application has full access to the SHAPE hardware. When that application is pushed to the background—pinned, picture-in-picture, or other scenarios—it relinquishes hardware control. By default, its hardware state is suspended, and resumes when the title returns to the foreground. This also is true for Exclusive Resource Applications [ERAs] where the software graph is suspended.

edit - beaten by Alx

NewFresh · Apr 30, 2013

Toki767 said:
What does tomorrow sound like exactly?

Expensive.

PhatSaqs · Apr 30, 2013

Must be online to hear anything. Right guys?

Maximilian Kolbe · Apr 30, 2013

Backfoggen said:
Wma only.

I think they support mp3?
"Additional audio formatsfor instance, MP3 or OGGfor game assets can be provided through title or middleware software codecs running on a CPU."

bobbytkc · Apr 30, 2013

I doubt the sound hardware will be terribly interesting. I mean, you have 5.1 audio. What else do you need? Sound is more limited by the speakers you use than anything.

oVerde · Apr 30, 2013

The Microsoft Cross-Platform Audio Creation Tool (XACT) and DirectSound are not supported in the Durango environment.

So DirectX is slowly fading away.

mugurumakensei said:
No, more of the functionality that was previously relegated to libraries in Direct<Moniker> is being homogenized in DirectX. DirectX has audio facilities separate from DirectAudio.

Oh! Thanks for clarifying

statham said:
Xbox Infinity powered by Beats Audio

:lol that's would be funny

BloodMoney · Apr 30, 2013

ogg vorbis or lossless FLAC?

statham · Apr 30, 2013

Xbox Infinity powered by Beats Audio

Reiko · Apr 30, 2013

bobbytkc said:
I doubt the sound hardware will be terribly interesting. I mean, you have 5.1 audio. What else do you need? Sound is more limited by the speakers you use than anything.

Yeah, read the link.

Jack_AG · Apr 30, 2013

Alpha_eX said:
Sounds good.

Leaving satisfied.

mugurumakensei · Apr 30, 2013

oVerde said:
So DirectX is slowly fading away.

No, more of the functionality that was previously relegated to libraries in Direct<Moniker> is being homogenized in DirectX. DirectX has audio facilities separate from DirectAudio.

Edit: Nvm, Audio has been moved to the Universal Audio Architecture.

Bowler · Apr 30, 2013

statham said:
Xbox Infinity powered by Beats Audio

I lol'ed

sangreal · Apr 30, 2013

Durango’s audio output pipeline eliminates the DAC (digital-to-analog converter) found in previous generation consoles. All audio is output strictly in the digital realm either through HDMI 1.4a or as S/PDIF optical output.

no analog out? I imagine this means no analog video too (though not necessarily)

Kaako · Apr 30, 2013

PhatSaqs said:
Must be online to hear anything. Right guys?

My insider source(s) via PM say negative.

bobbytkc · Apr 30, 2013

Reiko said:
Yeah, read the link.

Browsed through the link, didn't see anything really special, but there is a lot of jargon inside, so it may have just went over my head.

enzo_gt · Apr 30, 2013

so how may GDDR5s is that exactly, out of 8

But seriously, how does this stack up against Sony's counterpart? Pretty sure the PS4 is supposed to have a component with similar functions, but I don't suppose we have as much detail.

The_Monk · Apr 30, 2013

You are the sound.

gaming_noob · Apr 30, 2013

I read that sound uses a surprisingly amount of resources. Halo 4 for example had severely low music volume...probably to offset from the better graphics...

squidyj · Apr 30, 2013

Toki767 said:
What does tomorrow sound like exactly?

Like this.

charsace · Apr 30, 2013

oVerde said:
So DirectX is slowly fading away.

Oh! Thanks for clarifying

:lol that's would be funny

Direct anything or XNA anything is being rolled directly into Windows now. They are just killing all the branding names. The functionality still exists.

Radec · Apr 30, 2013

statham said:
Xbox Infinity powered by Beats Audio

And you get to see Beats by Dr. Dre ads before the game launches!

androvsky · Apr 30, 2013

Maximilian Kolbe said:
I think they support mp3?
"Additional audio formats—for instance, MP3 or OGG—for game assets can be provided through title or middleware software codecs running on a CPU."

In short, it doesn't support mp3 in hardware. Obviously, a program can decode them in software and output the decoded audio. Not a big deal, really. It already supports custom codecs in hardware for game use.

I guess the short version of this is that there's nothing special in the Durango's audio support, it just won't require any CPU to run any of it. I suspect most of what it does is already handled by modern game engines, but current systems have to burn some CPU to use it. And there's no analog output.

bobbytkc said:
I doubt the sound hardware will be terribly interesting. I mean, you have 5.1 audio. What else do you need? Sound is more limited by the speakers you use than anything.

We could have binaural modeling for headphone users which would be amazing with modern hardware. That's the main thing I was hoping for, but Creative Labs is still probably shitting on the patents.

SirIgbyCeaser · Apr 30, 2013

The ps3 had way better sound capabilities than the xbox and nobody cared.

sangreal · Apr 30, 2013

bobbytkc said:
Browsed through the link, didn't see anything really special, but there is a lot of jargon inside, so it may have just went over my head.

Okay, but do you see why it's a bit strange to post in a thread saying "I doubt [the topic] is interesting" ?

SniperHunter · Apr 30, 2013

SirIgbyCeaser said:
The ps3 had way better sound capabilities than the xbox and nobody cared.

yea, sound isn't as important as graphics. Plus most people don't invest in audio equipment that can take advantage of the tech anyway...

KidBeta · Apr 30, 2013

lack of analog audio is a bummer

oVerde · Apr 30, 2013

Usually how much of processor load an AAA game generates on audio alone?
Just to people know how much flops could be saved with this (or not).

bobbytkc · Apr 30, 2013

sangreal said:
Okay, but do you see why it's a bit strange to post in a thread saying "I doubt [the topic] is interesting" ?

I am just saying that I doubt there is anything particularly new or interesting you can do with sound tech in general. I don't think that is a controversial statement, and I don't see anything wrong? If someone more knowldgeable can point out that I am wrong, well great.

Alx · Apr 30, 2013

enzo_gt said:
But seriously, how does this stack up against Sony's counterpart? Pretty sure the PS4 is supposed to have a component with similar functions, but I don't suppose we have as much detail.

I don't think we've had precise information on the audio hardware of the PS4, but I remember reading here a comment from an insider (yeah I know) about how the 720 had a surprising amount of hardware dedicated to sound processing (hence my comment above). So it may be reasonable to think that Sony has less dedicated hardware for such tasks, with a more conventional architecture.

oVerde said:
Usually how much of processor load an AAA game generates on audio alone?
Just to people know how much flops could be saved with this (or not).

up to one third of the CPU, IIRC.

KidBeta · Apr 30, 2013

oVerde said:
Usually how much of processor load an AAA game have on audio alone?

To many variables to give meaningful answer.

Enough to move it to separate FF hardware clearly.

Bowler · Apr 30, 2013

wait the article states that the 360 has LPCM? I'm pretty sure I have never been able to pull Lpcm on my 360?

Miles Quaritch · Apr 30, 2013

While in the foreground, an application has full access to the SHAPE hardware. When that application is pushed to the backgroundpinned, picture-in-picture, or other scenariosit relinquishes hardware control. By default, its hardware state is suspended, and resumes when the title returns to the foreground. This also is true for Exclusive Resource Applications [ERAs] where the software graph is suspended.

This is interesting.

AgentP · Apr 30, 2013

The Microsoft Cross-Platform Audio Creation Tool (XACT) and DirectSound are not supported in the Durango environment. Titles that previously used these technologies should consider the solutions identified above, or use approved Durango audio middleware options.

More copy and paste from their SDK docs I see. VGAleaks is running dry, audio stuff is not very exciting.

phosphor112 · Apr 30, 2013

I don't know shit about audio processing. Someone explain. Lol

BloodMoney · Apr 30, 2013

sooooo, i can't hook my record player up to the Nextbox?

sixteen-bit · Apr 30, 2013

SirIgbyCeaser said:
The ps3 had way better sound capabilities than the xbox and nobody cared.

heh, first-gen PS3s even had SACD playback

androvsky · Apr 30, 2013

bobbytkc said:
I am just saying that I doubt there is anything particularly new or interesting you can do with sound tech in general. I don't think that is a controversial statement, and I don't see anything wrong? If someone more knowldgeable can point out that I am wrong, well great.

Like I said, binaural support would be a huge step up for anyone with stereo speakers really, but especially headphones. Also, hardware accelerated wavetracing of echoes like the Aureal 3.0 soundcards were doing a decade ago would be huge. Some modern game engines will do the wavetracing I think, but obviously with a big CPU hit.

Izick · Apr 30, 2013

Can't wait to hear Rock Band 4 on this.

V_V

Klocker · Apr 30, 2013

This is more about dedicated hardware that takes load away from the cpu as in typical hardware situations.

Shows not only the powerful tool but how the power in the box is spread out to separate processors

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