Our paper “Evaluation of individualized HRTFs in a 3D shooter game” (J.S. Andersen, R. Miccini, S. Serafin, S. Spagnol) has been accepted for presentation at the 1st International Conference on Immersive and 3D Audio that will be held fully virtually on September 8-10, 2021. We will be there to present the final results of IT’S A DIVE.
The paper proposes a method of using in-game metrics to test the hypothesis that individualized HRTFs improve the experience of both expert and novice players in a First-Person Shooter (FPS) game on a desktop environment. The FPS game provides players with a localization task across three different audio renderings using the same acoustic spaces: stereo panning (control condition), generic binaural rendering, and individualized binaural rendering. Collected metrics from the game include localization error, spatial quality attributes, and an extensive questionnaire.
The individualized HRTFs for each participant were synthesized using the hybrid structural model described in our previous publication. Results show that the 22 participants performed significantly better in the localization task with their individualized HRTF. Increased localization accuracy with respect to the generic HRTF was recorded both in azimuth and elevation perception, and especially in the case of expert game players.