14 DAY TRIAL // The wildest announcements are being made just 12 days before Halo 3 officially launches. According to blokes over at xboxusersgroup.com, the world's leading developer of professional audio signal processing tools, Waves, has revealed that Bungie's first-person shooter will be the first video game using "its audio signal processing technologies in real-time." They say it's the next best thing in audio for video games... A bunch of official statements can be found below.
Nothing else provided details concerning what exactly this technology does, so you'll just have to settle with official word from Bungie, Waves and Microsoft's reps for divisions involved with Halo 3:
"I have used Waves tools extensively in the sound design of earlier Halo titles, but using these tools real-time is an exciting new step for Halo 3 and the video game industry," said Marty O'Donnell, Audio Director of Bungie Studios. "These tools bring a higher level of audio realism and emotional immersion then has ever been possible before. I believe the use of Waves real-time signal processing tools represents the next major breakthrough in audio quality for the video game industry."
"Waves is pleased to be working with Bungie, adapting our products to real-time video game rendering," said Paul Bundschuh, vice president sales & marketing, Waves Semiconductor and OEM Licensing Division. "Several Waves technologies including the L360 Surround Limiter and Q10 Paragraphic Equalizer have been implemented in the Xbox 360 plug-in format for Halo 3 and other Xbox 360 game titles."
"Microsoft welcomes Waves as an Xbox 360 middleware provider," stated Brian Schmidt, Xbox program manager for Microsoft. "Waves has done a great job delivering their technologies and support for Halo 3. We're thrilled to have Waves audio processing available only for the Xbox 360 platform, providing these highly requested professional audio technologies to our game developers."
Thanks xboxusersgroup.com again for the information. Now, as I'm sure you want to see - better yet, hear with your own ears - what Waves is exactly doing for Bungie's Halo 3, here's their official webpage. We'll be doing some listening ourselves, but for updates on Halo 3. Who knows, maybe Bungie has a surprise for its fans and is waiting to make the big announcement the day before September 25.