Realtime GPU Audio 157
CowboyRobot writes "Two researchers at San Francisco State University has successfully implemented hardware acceleration for realtime audio using graphics processing units (GPUs). 'Suppose you are simulating a metallic plate to generate gong or cymbal-like sounds. By changing the surface area for the same object, you can generate sound corresponding to cymbals or gongs of different sizes. Using the same model, you may also vary the way in which you excite the metallic plate — to generate sounds that result from hitting the plate with a soft mallet, a hard drumstick, or from bowing. By changing these parameters, you may even simulate nonexistent materials or physically impossible geometries or excitation methods. There are various approaches to physical modeling sound synthesis. One such approach, studied extensively by Stefan Bilbao, uses the finite difference approximation to simulate the vibrations of plates and membranes. The finite difference simulation produces realistic and dynamic sounds (examples can be found here). Realtime finite difference-based simulations of large models are typically too computationally-intensive to run on CPUs. In our work, we have implemented finite difference simulations in realtime on GPUs.'"
Oh the possibilities! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Yawn (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually I think this is pretty cool. It's always bothered me how repetitive sounds can get in games, it would be a neat trick if you could model object's for sound the way you model them for graphics. Each door, window, rock, etc, could have a subtly different sound from the one next to it. I'm sure they're not to that point now, but they are spelling out the possibilities.
Re:Yawn (Score:2, Interesting)
It's standard fare for science press releases. If the actual advance you're making is boring (using different hardware to speed up processing), then tell them about the part that's been done all along and take credit for it. (Alternatively: take credit for being "just about there" from some far off future goal, to which you've just made a non-trivial but still minor advancement.)
Most "science" journalists eat it up, slightly rewriting it and passing it over to their editors so that they can knock off early and grab a beer. One would hope for slightly more from a web site "for nerds", but their editors also would like to knock off early and grab a beer.
Impossible geometries? (Score:4, Interesting)
What do they mean by "physically impossible geometries"? Are they talking about things that have a higher or lower number of physical dimensions (eg: a 4 dimensional object or a 2 dimensional object)? A weird combination of Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry?