Forza Horizon 5 uses ray-traced audio to enhance audio immersion

Playground Games’ upcoming Forza Horizon 5 will use ray tracing to enhance the in-game audio experience.

So far we know that the next installment of Forza Horizon will use ray tracing when navigating the cars of Forzavista. Fans of the game will be happy to hear that this won’t be the only ray tracing implementation in the game – as revealed by the developer, Forza Horizon 5 will use ray tracing audio to enhance audio immersion. (thanks VG247).

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“So we’ve taken ray tracing and we’re using it around the world,” lead audio designer Fraser Strachan explained on the last episode of Forza Horizon 5: Let’s Go.

According to Strachan and Creative Director Mike Brown, Forza Horizon 5 is constantly detecting objects in the world to determine how audio bounces from each object as a result.

“In fact, we send beam traces to detect walls, buildings and ceilings. “

The lead audio designer added, “which means you will hear your car bounce off all the buildings around you and that will change with the surroundings”.

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“It made the world really come alive. Like when you cross Guanajuato for example. You know you can hear it hit all the buildings and I also mentioned in it that we detect ceilings, so things like tunnels for example. If you are listening in spatial sound, something like Dolby Atmos through your headphones, you will also be able to hear your car bouncing off the rooftops.

Creative Director Mike Brown further explained, “What I love is that when you’re in town and it’s like a really hard surface you get like a sharp echo, whereas when you’re in. the rainforest in the jungle is that it still bounces off all the trees and foliage, but it’s much more muffled.

A really interesting take on the use of ray tracing in the upcoming episode of Forza Horizon. Interestingly, this ray tracing implementation was also mentioned by Zoink Games lead sound designer Marcus Klang in 2019.

“It can be used to enhance the sense of realism by making more precise adjustments to the audio based on the environment surrounding the player, in real time,” Klang said.

Forza Horizon 5 is slated for release on Xbox and PC on November 9. Interested in the minimum PC specs for the game? Check them out here.