With the Endwalker addon came a new feature to Final Fantasy XIV called Immerse Spacial Audio. But for it to work, you have to take a picture of your ear.
This is Immerse Spacial Audio: This special sound software from the manufacturer Embody was developed in collaboration with FFXIV composer and audio director Masayoshi Soken.
It is specifically tailored to FFXIV and provides a 360° surround sound experience in the game, aimed at enhancing the experience for fans.
The software costs a one-time fee of 20 €, but there is a free trial version that can be used for 2 weeks. Once the software package is purchased, it can be used in FFXIV for an unlimited time. You can also create multiple different profiles if you wish.
That’s why the game wanted a photo of my ear: The special aspect of Immerse Spacial Audio is that it is personalized for each user. It is a personalized sound software created by an AI that needs nothing more and nothing less than a photo of your ear.
Although it may sound funny, our ears are almost as unique as our fingerprints. It is a biometric characteristic that distinguishes you from others. This also means that the way you perceive sounds can be completely different.
The AI from Embody scans your ear shape in the photo and deduces how sound reaches your eardrum. Based on that, a customized software is created that is specifically tailored to your ear.
To activate the feature, I had to take a kind of “ear selfie” with the front camera of my smartphone. It took a few attempts to get a suitable photo, but in the end, the program accepted my ear.
But aside from the ear selfie, using the software is very simple. If you’ve downloaded it from the Embody site, just follow the instructions in the client, and once the personalized profile is created for you, you can go to the sound settings in the game and activate the feature at the bottom.
Definitely a different sound experience
This is what the feature sounded like: After the software was recommended by composer Masayoshi Soken, whom I respect greatly, I was naturally curious how great it would sound in the game now.
I had high expectations for the feature. When I activated Immerse Spacial Audio, it was initially neither better nor worse. It was “different” and not something I could form an opinion on after just a few hours.
In the past 1.5 weeks, I’ve repeatedly turned the feature on and off in various situations to make better comparisons:
- In cities and hubs full of players
- Alone in various landscapes
- In dungeons and during raids
- During story cutscenes
What I noticed was that I could hear the “space”. The environment around me had more depth. Without the feature, there is still surround sound, and you can clearly hear from which direction the sounds come, but they feel much closer, somewhat “flatter”. The sense of distance and the expansiveness of the areas was better conveyed with the feature.
The finer sounds were also more audible, and the sound is more detailed. For example, when I stand in Limsa, I can hear the splashing of the waves more clearly. Without Immerse Spacial Audio, the background noise is much more pronounced.
On the other hand, the general sound atmosphere in the game seemed “dampened”, as if a filter had been applied. I missed the clarity of the sound but can’t say whether this damping is “a bug or a feature”. Whether it’s due to the software’s lack of quality or if that was the intention.
It is worth noting that the changes do not affect music or system sounds, only sound effects and background noises.
Is that good or bad? Since sound is a highly subjective experience due to the uniqueness of our ear shapes, everyone has to decide for themselves. I’m sure your impressions will differ greatly from mine.
It is definitely worth a test. Try it out, give yourself enough time for the test, visit different content, and make your own decision. I’ve already gathered some impressions from players in my circle of friends in-game, and opinions were divided. Some found Spacial Audio great, while others thought it was terrible.
I myself am actually still undecided. On one hand, the richness and depth of the space is a cool thing. But on the other hand, it’s precisely the “flatter” sounds that are closer to the camera that I rely on when raiding.
Without Immerse Spacial Audio, I could hear the sound cues of upcoming attacks more clearly, which can sometimes determine the difference between a kill and a wipe.
Most FFXIV players will surely know this from the fight against Leviathan, where its water fountains indicated from which direction it would attack. Often, it was thanks to the sound that you could dodge the attack quickly enough.
By the way, we interviewed a blind player for whom such surround sounds are particularly important:
