Real-Time Raytraced Acoustics
Impulse Response Synthesis and Time-Varying Convolution
Real-time acoustics in games is often a trade-off: either high-quality impulse responses (IRs) that are static and require significant manual setup, or dynamic, geometry-driven systems with limited detail that lack intuitive authoring workflows for sound designers.
This session explores a hybrid GPU/CPU approach that bridges that gap by generating detailed IRs from scene geometry, and using them to render acoustics in a real-time audio pipeline. To achieve this, the approach combines raytraced IR synthesis on the GPU with time-varying convolution on the CPU, making it practical for real-time use in modern game engines.
Beyond physical modeling, the talk also covers GPU-accelerated post-processing techniques that shape raytraced IRs into perceptually dense and controllable reverberation, enabling a more flexible and scalable authoring model for sound designers by focusing on materials rather than reverb zones. The system is currently integrated into the development of an upcoming open-world title at Elemental Games, using Elias Audio middleware.
Anton Lundberg
Software Engineer / Co-Founder
elias.audio
Anton Lundberg is a software engineer and audio programmer specializing in high-performance real-time audio systems and game engine architecture. He develops next-generation game audio middleware at elias.audio and leads development of the audio technology stack at Elemental Games, including GPU-accelerated acoustics for their unannounced open-world debut title.