Predict: The Next Generation Console Tech - AUDIO

The xfi dsp is rated at 10,000mips I did once find a chard of cpu's rated in mips and it put a 2.8 northwood at the same level, no idea if its true or not.

Really hard to compare DSP instructions/cycle with general purpose CPUs.

DSPs are usually optimized for convolutions; A single instruction can really do a lot of operations, like:
1. Load one value from memory with address base+index
2. Load second value from memory with address base2+index2
3. Increment index modulo some size
4. Increment index2 modulo some size2
5. Multiply the values and add to accumulator.

On top of that you can often add modifiers to the loading of values (saturate, format convert) and you can often have the whole shebang execute conditionally.

To do the same on a general purpose CPU, you'd need dozen(s) of instructions.

DSPs are, unsurprisingly, good at digital signal processing. At everything else they're mostly scalar in-order RISCs, with correspondly pitiful performance.

Cheers
 
Would it be difficult to add signal-processing instructions to a CPU instead of using a separate chip for audio stuff?
 
Would it be difficult to add signal-processing instructions to a CPU instead of using a separate chip for audio stuff?
Not at all, it's called VMX, or SSE, or AVX.

Most audio functions are implemented as vector operations or matrix operations. A DSP can sometimes add extra stuff like clipping detection for free to those operations, but in the end it's really just FMA most of the time.
 
Very nice indeed. I would love to have it be required reading for some hollywood professionals I know.

If my time at [REDACTED] has taught me anything, its that the REAL professionals in any industry don't need to read a damn thing. They just pull it straight from there ass. :LOL:
 
We had one movie maker who insisted that copying a WAV file from one drive to another changed the audio enough that he could hear it. We tried to point out that copies are bit-accurate, and cannot, logically, be different, or the entire computer industry could not exist. He stuck to his guns, and insisted that copying an audio file introduced jitter in the bits, because you can't guarantee that the bits will be the same distance apart on a different disk.

Seriously.

Now, he's not completely wrong, playing audio back on a machine with a different clock rate than the machine recording the audio _could_ introduce jitter, but it has nothing to do with the storage medium. I'd have hated to be the dude's audio engineer. He always insisted they just ship him the drives containing the master mix, to reduce the amount of copy-induced jitter in the final product.

I suspect we could have sold him these cables. (Read the first review, my all time favourite amazon review)
 
Surely his theory could have been blown apart by subsequent copies failing to introduce increasing levels of jitter? Although of course, those sorts of people are completely unreasonable, like people who think expensive HDMI cables give them better picture. the only thing we can really do with such people is just exploit them. :p Start a company that sells acoustic HDDs that copy the wave data without introducing jitter and you can charge any mark-up you want, and you can be absolutely sure he'll hear the difference using his new $2000 HDDs.
 
Now, he's not completely wrong, playing audio back on a machine with a different clock rate than the machine recording the audio _could_ introduce jitter, but it has nothing to do with the storage medium.

Didn't know that was even a possibility! :oops: Then again I don't deal with audio or audio issues much (just people complaining about unacceptable jitter in domain time :mad:).

I suspect we could have sold him these cables. (Read the first review, my all time favourite amazon review)

:LOL:

That's going in the favorite reviews pile.
 
Regarding games and audio:

When will racing games finally feature realistic engine sounds?

Can't wait for that to happen. Long overdue IMHO.

There are number of technical difficulties to getting it right. Obviously the most basic problem is that the sounds made by the engine are going to change on how many RPM, the amount of fuel going through the valves and the timing of ignition. Then you have cases where some engines might have other things changing the sound like a turbo, or being able to turn off cylinders among other things. Then you have non engine noises like wind (changing based on speed the car is travelling, the wind speed and direction) and tyres against the ground (varying based on speed, the type of tyre and what the car is driving on). Its all really complicated.
 
Hilarious, thanks a lot for this! By far the best Amazon review I ever read... His/her (Whisper) Bulletstorm review is also very good.

Cheers...

Brilliant!

At first glance, this gem of 21st century Marxist-Leninist dialectic appears to be nothing more than a violent game, which tells the simple story of large, burly men who wished to be professional wrestlers, but failed the intelligence test, and took up soldiery instead.

That first line pretty much sums up this entire gen.
 
When will racing games finally feature realistic engine sounds?

Can't wait for that to happen. Long overdue IMHO.

These guys have some real talent! Polyphony, hire them ffs


If GT7 still has vacuum cleaners I will lol and cry. We need physically based audio just like all the graphics guys are moving on to physically based rendering. Sample and pitch and blend seems so damn archaic for this kind of problem in 2013. Although I have to say EA NFS et al games was a standout in engine/car sounds this gen, unrealistic or not.
 
If the next box has really advanced sound maybe we can see audio cards come back to the pc. I miss high quality sound to be honest. Back in the early 90s I remember jumping from sound card to sound card and being blown away each time . Wish it was like that again
 
Killzone: Shadow Fall is using 553 MB for sound! That... is a lot.
http://www.guerrilla-games.com/publications/

uFIZCsr.jpg
 
I am not expecting much, as Jaguar will probably be too occupied with graphics anyways, but at least please do restore proper HRTF next gen. My ears cringe every time I play Xbox 360 with Dolby Headphone, as only X and Y axis are represented. The first Xbox with proper DirectSound3D presented all X,Y, and Z axises!
 
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