Sony remains tight-lipped ahead of the PS5 release. However, a developer has explained in a podcast that rain in games on the PlayStation 5 could soon provide a completely new experience.
Where does the information come from? In the Play, Watch, Listen podcast, Alanah Pearce from IGN spoke with composer Austin Wintory, game designer Mike Bithell, and voice actor Troy Baker.
They discussed the PS5’s engine and the PS5 Dualsense controller.
PS5 engine is said to offer enormous audio possibilities
Composer Wintory stated in the podcast that the new developments are absolutely fantastic for him as an audio designer. He explains in the podcast:
If you’re standing in a storm, someone has previously been outside recording it (…) as stereo audio. (…) NextGen will allow for the individual placement of each raindrop, and the hardware can manage millions of rain events, making it exponentially more immersive.
Austin Wintory, Source: Podcast on Playwatchlisten.libsyn.com (1:22:30)
Why is audio technology so important for the PS5? Especially, according to Wintory, the new hardware is very important for audio designers. They are provided with a whole new way to work with sounds and environmental conditions. For players, this is much more intense because they can perceive the weather in a completely different way:
- Previously, there was a large mass of sound that was represented as rain.
- The PS5 and NextGen provide the possibility to visualize each individual drop, which is a completely new experience for human perception.
A key factor, alongside the new hardware, is the improved 3D audio.
PS5: 3D audio could play an important role
What is 3D audio? Sony is also implementing 3D audio for the PS5. This technology allows individual sounds to be precisely positioned in a virtual space.
Each individual sound source, like here for example the raindrops, is assigned a specific position in the space.
In the official stream in early April regarding the PS5, Sony had previously explained what an important role audio would play in NextGen. And it’s not just audio that will be special: Epic’s CEO Sweeney was also impressed by the potential of the PS5’s SSD.
PS5 Dualsense controller could let you feel the rain
Subsequently, game designer Bithell explained that the PS5 Dualsense controller has tremendous potential:
You will love what you can do with the controller on the PS5, the Dualsense capabilities: perception. The raindrop thing, for example, the demos were really promising.
Game Designer Mike Bithell, Game Designer. Source: Playwatchlisten.libsyn.com (1:22:50)
Bithell also apologized that he could not reveal more. Many details are still under NDA, so he is not allowed to disclose them yet.
The raindrops that Wintory explained earlier could potentially receive a completely new form of perception through the controller’s haptics. However, this is pure speculation, as the developer was not allowed to say much.
What lies behind the capabilities of the Dualsense? A patent from Sony had already explained that the haptics of the Dualsense controller could be on a whole different level than with the Dualshock 4. One patent from Sony states that the PS5 controller should be able to evaluate your feelings.
