T-1: Acoustic Environment Synthesis for XR: Part 1

Simulation and rendering of environment acoustics enables to make the acoustics of a virtual space audible and is essential for providing a high level of immersion in AR/VR applications--without it, sound sources are perceived inside the head. While it is possible to simulate how sound waves physically propagate, scatter and diffract in an environment, this requires significant computational resources. In many cases, it is possible, and indeed desirable, to simplify the simulation and rendering of room acoustics by leveraging limitations of human auditory perception. This tutorial will provide an overview of the available classes of room acoustics models with a focus on models with low computational requirements that are particularly suitable for XR applications.