At this year’s Game Developers Conference® (Booth BS506, Moscone South), Dolby Laboratories has announced new tools that will soon make it possible for gamers to enjoy Dolby Axon surround voice chat on more of their favorite gaming platforms — including the Mac.
Dolby unveiled new software developer kit (SDK) ports that enable game developers to integrate the Dolby Axon surround voice technology to Mac OS X, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360versions of multiplayer online game titles. General availability of these ports is planned for April.
According to Matt Tullis, marketing director, Games, Dolby Laboratories, already adopted by several online games, including the most recently announced Dragon Nest by Nexon Corp., as well as ZT Online (Giant Interactive), Mission Against Terror (Kingsoft) and Jumpgate Evolution (NetDevil), the Dolby Axon SDK enables game developers to raise the online gaming experience to a new level through a number of features:
° Voice communication complete with surround panning and distance attenuation;
° Advanced occlusion engine that maps voices to the game environment;
° Voice fonts for added fun and improved role-playing;
° Proprietary audio technologies to deliver a clear voice experience;
° A flexible application programming interface for creative integration and game-play options.
Dolby Axon’s advanced server mixing and networking technology — in combination with a proprietary Dolby codec — make it possible for game publishers to support thousands of users per server and scale seamlessly across servers to support extremely large virtual worlds, Tullis says. Moreover, Dolby Axon achieves these results at very low bandwidths — as low as 16 kbps per player for complex surround scenes, he adds.
Dolby Axon also offers game operators server and abuse monitoring tools to make operating voice servers easy. It offers hosting options, as well. Inquiries related to the Dolby Axon SDK should be forwarded to games@dolby.com .
