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Paris, May 19, 2005
INRIA and Eden
Games, a subsidiary of the Infogramme/ATARI group,
have signed an agreement for the use of an INRIA technology to
optimize sound simulation in the game engine developed by Eden
for next generation game consoles. "Test Drive Unlimited",
one of the main launch titles of Microsoft's new Xbox 360 console,
is the first game that integrates this technology. The game was
presented today at the largest video game trade show worldwide,
E3 in Los Angeles.
INRIA and Eden Games, a subsidiary of the Infogramme/ATARI group, have signed an agreement for the use of an INRIA technology to optimize sound simulation in the game engine developed by Eden for next generation game consoles. "Test Drive Unlimited", one of the main launch titles of Microsoft's new Xbox 360 console, is the first game that integrates this technology. The game was presented today at E3 in Los Angeles. It will be followed up next year by an episode of the famous "Alone in the Dark" series, also for next generation game consoles.
The technology was designed under the leadership of Nicolas Tsingos, a research scientist of the REVES team (Rendering and virtual environments with sound) at INRIA Sophia Antipolis. It makes possible to drastically increase the number of sound sources simulated interactively, while optimizing the perception of audio rendering and the use of the computing power of the new consoles. The technology is able to identify in real time during the simulation, the audible sound sources and their importance for the listener. The human ear does not always perceive all the sounds. Low volume sounds are often covered by louder sounds. This is why the system designed by INRIA researchers studies the various sound sources and assigns them degrees of importance that respect human perception. Inaudible sounds are then eliminated and the computing power of the console is focused on the most significant sound sources. The technology also optimizes the spatial effects of the sound, or surround effect, that makes it possible to reproduce the localization and propagation of sounds in space. Instead of individually processing each sound, which requires a lot of computing power, the technology creates groups of sound sources that are close to one another, while respecting the degrees of importance attributed to them. Using these sound groups, or “sound impostors”, the technology simplifies sound representation, makes it easier to simulate, while guaranteeing a realistic sound rendering. These two kinds of functions (attributing degrees of importance and creating sound impostors) optimize the console's computing resources and thus allow for more sounds to be processed in order to improve the realism of the scenes. “INRIA technology allowed us to make the soundscape of our video games a lot more realistic,“ says Jean-Yves Geffroy, Technical Director at Eden Games.
With video games that simulate more and more physical phenomena,
such as falling or exploding objects, INRIA technology has a lot
to look forward to, since it makes it possible to increase the number
of events while guaranteeing a very realistic rendering.
INRIA, the national institute for research in computer science and control,
is dedicated to fundamental and applied research in information and communication
science and technology (ICST). Throughout its six research units located
in nine major regions (Aquitaine, Bretagne, Lorraine, Île-de-France,
Nord Pas de Calais, Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur, Rhône-Alpes),
the Institute has a workforce of 3,500, 2,700 of whom are scientists from
INRIA and its partner organizations. INRIA has
an annual
budget of 135 million euros, 20% of which comes from its own research
contracts and licences. The Institute plays a crucial role in five areas
of research: communicating systems, cognitive systems, symbolic systems,
numerical systems and biological systems.
INRIA develops many partnerships
with industry and fosters technology transfer and company foundation in the
field of ICST - some eighty companies have been founded. Startups are financed
in particular by INRIA-Transfert, a subsidiary of INRIA that supports four
startup funds.
INRIA's international collaborations are manifested through
welcoming and recruiting foreign students and by significant research exchanges.
Priority is given to geographical areas with strong economic potential -
European Research Area, Asia and North America - while maintaining a continuing
activity with South America, Africa and the Middle East.
More information: http://www.inria.fr.
Version
PDF of the Press Release
| INRIA Vincent Coronini Tel.: +33 1 39 63 57 29 Fax: +33 1 39 63 59 60 |
Stratéus for INRIA Laurence Hermant Tel.: +33 1 40 41 56 11 |
