All I know is the potential of a sound system that you can plug in figures and have it simulate engines is crazy. Next they have to actually record actual engine sounds for reference to ensure that they are on point with the engine sounds. This sounds like one crazy algorithm, I wonder who designed that program.
You can buy at least one book that details a simulation approach from the physical principles, although the one I have glosses over the numerical computation part (which is an engineering core subject anyway, these days, and is the chief difference from an engineering solution and a game solution). The trick is shortcutting that simulation to get it to work in real time.
I've played with cheap dyno software that is probably based on such information (and a whole lot of original research, and data for correlation / accuracy), and its output can be coerced into producing decent sounds, albeit band-limited - that would be easy to fix with access to the source code. It's not suitable for a game application, though.
Once they fine tune this thing, oh boy I have a feeling that we'll be in for a treat. I wonder what the program code looks like and I can only image the amount of parameter vectors they use when creating points for sound variation and vibration as well as pitch and modulation. I'm going to buy a 7.2 system just to accompany my eventual purchase of my PS4 in expectation of GT7.
Hopefully they'll demonstrate the full-fat version on PS4 before you make that purchase, just in case!
Anyone besides me want to get down to the guts of PD's simulations for engines and sounds after hearing about this new apparently PD designed sound replication system. PD needs a second team, perhaps cloning since it seems that the guys who created the system are the same guys building the game.
There have been two "sound simulation" credits since GT5P (which raised my suspicions back then, and I've been crowing about the potential ever since). It's likely it is they who are working on the system, and will probably be DSP / physical modeling specialists.
The Viziv sounds good but there is some odd distortion so I guess that the system isn't fully refined as yet or it's just really intensive on the PS3's SPU's.
I think that's the main reason, it's deliberately low precision to save calculation costs. It's also compensating for the lack of intake.
I'm just tickled that this means no more large rack of sample sounds for anyone's information GT6 has over 30k in sound samples alone...yea that's absurd. Also this also allows for real time addition of variables like air temperature causing the engine to change sound slightly (assuming PD includes that). I'm just amazed at the things these guys are working on despite having one of the largest driving games on their production table.
It's actually the most sensible approach to take, given the car count is only set to climb, and we're used to customisation, as effective as it is or isn't at the moment. In order to expand that customisation further, this is really the only viable option no matter how many cars there are.
PD already have an exhaust temperature parameter; however it's the same for all cars I've seen, and I don't know why they've included it.
It has a few effects in real life, all of them subtle in a racing context.
As Griffith said seem like intake is missing, this could be an oversight or it might be downplayed, who knows but it is needed in order to get sounds right. I wonder if we ask PD about it will they divulge anything? Hey Griffith where'd you come upon this information, I would like to read up on it myself just to add to information in my head since I like learning things for the hell of it.
I expect PD will explain what they did, as a continuation of the blog articles at some point. The intake is a deliberate omission for the time being, I'd say, because the game has never had intake, and adding 16 extra sources with their computational cost of synthesis is probably not easy with the other changes still due (rendering for the course maker, AI for B-Spec).
I have slowly assembled knowledge from trying to do the exact same thing PD has achieved. For an insight into how you might approach the synthesis, even if not from physical simulation (e.g. old school
additive synthesis), it might be best to start with engine configurations; it's where I started, at any rate. E.g.
why does a boxer sound like a boxer? Or,
where does the V8 burble come from?
From there, you just look into how the engine produces sound in the first place (gas dynamics), and what things (other than configuration) affect the final sound, and how.
Most of it is in the domain of automotive engineering, specifically engine design and research. Ricardo (as in
Sir Harry Ricardo) have a few
technical papers that might give an insight as to the depth of understanding out there, and it should be clear that it's already far in excess of what is required for a game. Their WAVE program is representative of the kind of software in use at most car / engine manufacturers, so the art is well developed already, including real-time applications.