Rendering walk-through auralisations using wave-based acoustical models

Room acoustic simulations using wave-based models offer several advantages over more established geometric acoustic approaches such as simulation accuracy at low frequencies and wave-propagation effects such as diffraction and occlusion. However, geometric approaches can be adapted for real-time implementation and hence are more appropriate for applications that demand real-time interactivity such as walk-through auralisation or scene rendering for computer game audio. This paper presents a method that facilitates real-time dynamic auralisation for wave-based approaches based on a pre-computed spatial subset of B-format encoded impulse responses for a given environment. Different methods are explored for post-simulation processing of this dataset to enable real-time dynamic auralisation based on both interpolation and Ambisonic-style manipulation of the resulting B-format impulse responses. Comparisons are made against a simple pre-computed walkthrough and demonstrate that this approach has significant potential for facilitating dynamic auralisation for wave-based room acoustic simulations.