Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launches later this month, and now Activision has revealed the audio innovations Treyarch has implemented into the game. The publisher claims gameplay audio will be even more dynamic and accurate than ever before. It also includes a new accessibility setting to help people with tinnitus.
Activision says Treyarch’s audio team has greatly enhanced the 3D sound for Call of Duty, allowing players to better sense the location, speed, and direction of nearby activity, which are all crucial elements for audio in a competitive shooter game.
The developer’s goal for Black Ops 6 audio is to create a more “purposeful and directional soundscape” that focuses on the information players need, while reducing the clutter of extraneous noise. More specifically, the team has been focused on distant firing sounds, giving players information on directionality, distance, and threat level so they can more easily identify where their enemy is firing from.
Treyarch achieved part of this by working with Microsoft Project Acoustics to make more realistic and immersive sound for Black Ops 6. As shown in CharlieIntel‘s clip below, the characters’ voice-lines now echo and carry through the environment for a more realistic sound.
NEW: Audio updates in Black Ops 6
Treyarch worked with Microsoft Project Acoustics, voice lines now echo and carry through hallways, alleys, and more to sound more realistic. Listen with headphones to the video. pic.twitter.com/qoeWol9Ojj— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) October 14, 2024
“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,” says Treyarch’s lead audio designer Collin Ayers.
Expert audio engineer William Cornell elaborates by saying, “Players will hear gunshots and grenades that realistically fill the space around them. Footsteps will echo down long hallways.”
Greater immersion is also added to Black Ops 6 with the use of Head Related Transfer Function (HRTF) technology to better simulate how sound is transferred from the game world to a player’s ears. Cornell explains by saying, “HRTF emulates the way that sounds are affected by the shape of your head and your ears before you actually hear them. It’s the gold standard for maximizing directional perception when you’re listening on headphones.”
An advanced headphone mode for the game makes use of HRTF and Immerse Spatial Audio technology to increase the directional accuracy of sounds played in the world. The developer says Immerse Spatial Audio is compatible with any headphone or earbud model and greatly improves the player’s spatial audio experience. This new mode will be available in Black Ops 6 at launch. Optionally, players can also choose to enhance this HRTF experience even further by creating a personalized profile that takes into account their physical attributes, such as the shape of their ear or head.
The developer also works to provide more audio accessibility options with Black Ops 6, including the Reduce Tinnitus Sound setting. This new audio setting will replace the sound from concussion and flash grenade shellshock with a dimmer audio cue to help people who suffer from tinnitus, a condition that causes ringing or other sound to be present in one or both ears without any external audio source present.
Make sure to check out the blog post to hear more of the audio samples given for Black Ops 6’s footsteps and character voice-lines.
Black Ops 6 releases on October 25 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC. The game will have a campaign, multiplayer, and Zombies. Here is everything we know about Black Ops 6 Zombies so far.