Black Ops 6 developers Treyarch have spoken out about the audio in the upcoming Call of Duty title, saying that there are some big improvements on the way that should make gameplay even more immersive and accurate than ever before.
Audio is a feature in shooter games that has always been difficult to get perfect, no matter who developed the game or what kind of shooter it is – or even if you apply the best settings for the game.
From Fortnite to Warzone, and everything in between, there have been frequent complaints from players that they can’t hear enemies, or certain sounds are too loud and a distraction, among other annoyances.
Now, though, Treyarch are hoping to have got as close to perfect as possible, with a promise to “deliver one of the most technically impressive soundscapes possible.”
They explained in a blog post: “Treyarch is enhancing the 3D soundscape to new levels, allowing players to better sense the location, speed, and direction of nearby activity, helping them to respond more effectively and become even more immersed in the world of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.”
Improved “adaptive” audio
One thing the team has been laser-focused on is distant firing sounds, giving players information on directionality, distance, and threat level so they can more easily identify where the enemy Operator is firing from and then formulate their plan of counterattack.
Lead Audio Designer Collin Ayers said: “The goal for the audio team on Black Ops 6 is what we’re calling the adaptive battlefield, a more purposeful and directional soundscape that focuses on the information players need when they need it while reducing the clutter of extraneous noise.
“We want to make sure that the soundscape in this game will adapt to each player as they play, creating a living and breathing play space.”
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Ayers and Expert Audio Engineer William Cornell added that they have been utilizing Microsoft’s Project Acoustics to make sure everything is perfect. Whether it’s footsteps down a hallway, rain through a window crack, or even how sound waves bounce off of different surfaces, everything has been tested and fine tuned.
Enhanced Headphone Mode
NEW: Audio updates in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Footstep audio now echos and carries through hallways thanks to a work with Microsoft Project Acoustic.It will "simulate the way that sound waves bounce and propagate through the world down." Listen to this with headphones: pic.twitter.com/lLONCRLcgZ
— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) October 14, 2024
Black Ops 6 will also aim to “emphasize the most important sounds to the player at any given moment.” For example, the sound of enemies moving toward you is emphasized more than the sound of teammates at your back.
This will be exacerbated by the new Enhanced Headphone Mode, which “uses Head Related Transfer Function (HRTF) technology to better simulate how sound is transferred from the game world to the player’s ears.”
Players can even choose to enhance this by creating a “profile” that takes into account the player’s physical attributes, such as the shape of their ear or head.
Accessibility support
Finally, Treyarch have promised to offer more accessibility support in Black Ops 6, with Asymmetrical Hearing Compensation and Reduce Tinnitus Sound options, the latter of which will “replace the Tinnitus sound from Concussion and Flash Grenade shellshock with a dimmer audio cue.”
Evidently the audio team at Treyarch has been hard at work trying to bring Black Ops 6 to the pinnacle of video game sound, bringing in a number of features and changes that should hopefully help players up their game even further.