Interactive Acoustic Modeling of Complex Environments

A primary challenge in acoustic modeling is computation of reverberation paths from sound sources fast enough for real-time auralization. This paper describes a beam tracing method based on precomputed spatial subdivision and “beam tree” data structures that enables real-time acoustic modeling and auralization for sound sources at fixed locations in interactive virtual environment applications. The proposed beam tracing method: 1) supports evaluation of reverberation paths at interactive rates, 2) scales to compute high-order reflections and large environments, and 3) extends naturally to compute paths of diffraction and diffuse reflection efficiently.