Sonifying navigating through VR worlds.
Camille Goudeseune
Sparse VR worlds are easy to navigate. But if the world is cluttered
or dense, adding sound to the navigation tools can help orient the user.
For example:
- A simple click when their orientation passes a cardinal compass point.
- A periodic background beep whose pitch corresponds to altitude.
- Modifying an already existing sound to be "warped" or "low" when
the user is tilted sharply or upside down.
- A periodic sound which rises, falls, or pans left or right
(SetElev, SetPan)
corresponding to the direction of the user's motion.
More simply, a rising or falling swoop can indicate rate of
climb (perhaps only when climbing or falling faster than some
threshold).
- If places in the world have distinctive characteristics,
a distinctive quiet continuous sound localized to each place's position
can orient the user just like real-world background sounds do.
If there are many such places, play only the 5 or 6 nearest to the user.
This is particularly helpful for large or infinite worlds
where you can't see everything at once.
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