I’m facing a problem while trying to achieve spatial audio effects in my iOS 18 app. I have tried several approaches to get good 3D audio, but the effect never felt good enough or it didn’t work at all.
Also what mostly troubles me is I noticed that AirPods I have doesn’t recognize my app as one having spatial audio (in audio settings it shows "Spatial Audio Not Playing"). So i guess my app doesn't use spatial audio potential.
- First approach uses
AVAudioEnviromentNode
withAVAudioEngine
. Chaining position of player as well as changing listener’s doesn’t seem to change anything in how audio plays.
Here's simple how i initialize AVAudioEngine
import Foundation import AVFoundation class AudioManager: ObservableObject { // important class variables var audioEngine: AVAudioEngine! var environmentNode: AVAudioEnvironmentNode! var playerNode: AVAudioPlayerNode! var audioFile: AVAudioFile? ... //Sound set up func setupAudio() { do { let session = AVAudioSession.sharedInstance() try session.setCategory(.playback, mode: .default, options: []) try session.setActive(true) } catch { print("Failed to configure AVAudioSession: \(error.localizedDescription)") } audioEngine = AVAudioEngine() environmentNode = AVAudioEnvironmentNode() playerNode = AVAudioPlayerNode() audioEngine.attach(environmentNode) audioEngine.attach(playerNode) audioEngine.connect(playerNode, to: environmentNode, format: nil) audioEngine.connect(environmentNode, to: audioEngine.mainMixerNode, format: nil) environmentNode.listenerPosition = AVAudio3DPoint(x: 0, y: 0, z: 0) environmentNode.listenerAngularOrientation = AVAudio3DAngularOrientation(yaw: 0, pitch: 0, roll: 0) environmentNode.distanceAttenuationParameters.referenceDistance = 1.0 environmentNode.distanceAttenuationParameters.maximumDistance = 100.0 environmentNode.distanceAttenuationParameters.rolloffFactor = 2.0 // example.mp3 is mono sound guard let audioURL = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "example", withExtension: "mp3") else { print("Audio file not found") return } do { audioFile = try AVAudioFile(forReading: audioURL) } catch { print("Failed to load audio file: \(error)") } } ... //Playing sound func playSpatialAudio(pan: Float ) { guard let audioFile = audioFile else { return } // left side playerNode.position = AVAudio3DPoint(x: pan, y: 0, z: 0) playerNode.scheduleFile(audioFile, at: nil, completionHandler: nil) do { try audioEngine.start() playerNode.play() } catch { print("Failed to start audio engine: \(error)") } ... }
- Second more complex approach using
PHASE
did better. I’ve made an exemplary app that allows players to move audio player in 3D space. I have added reverb, and sliders changing audio position up to 10 meters each direction from listener but audio seems to only really change left to right (x axis) - again I think it might be trouble with the app not being recognized as spatial.
//Crucial class Variables: class PHASEAudioController: ObservableObject{ private var soundSourcePosition: simd_float4x4 = matrix_identity_float4x4 private var audioAsset: PHASESoundAsset! private let phaseEngine: PHASEEngine private let params = PHASEMixerParameters() private var soundSource: PHASESource private var phaseListener: PHASEListener! private var soundEventAsset: PHASESoundEventNodeAsset? // Initialization of PHASE init{ do { let session = AVAudioSession.sharedInstance() try session.setCategory(.playback, mode: .default, options: []) try session.setActive(true) } catch { print("Failed to configure AVAudioSession: \(error.localizedDescription)") } // Init PHASE Engine phaseEngine = PHASEEngine(updateMode: .automatic) phaseEngine.defaultReverbPreset = .mediumHall phaseEngine.outputSpatializationMode = .automatic //nothing helps // Set listener position to (0,0,0) in World space let origin: simd_float4x4 = matrix_identity_float4x4 phaseListener = PHASEListener(engine: phaseEngine) phaseListener.transform = origin phaseListener.automaticHeadTrackingFlags = .orientation try! self.phaseEngine.rootObject.addChild(self.phaseListener) do{ try self.phaseEngine.start(); } catch { print("Could not start PHASE engine") } audioAsset = loadAudioAsset() // Create sound Source // Sphere soundSourcePosition.translate(z:3.0) let sphere = MDLMesh.newEllipsoid(withRadii: vector_float3(0.1,0.1,0.1), radialSegments: 14, verticalSegments: 14, geometryType: MDLGeometryType.triangles, inwardNormals: false, hemisphere: false, allocator: nil) let shape = PHASEShape(engine: phaseEngine, mesh: sphere) soundSource = PHASESource(engine: phaseEngine, shapes: [shape]) soundSource.transform = soundSourcePosition print(soundSourcePosition) do { try phaseEngine.rootObject.addChild(soundSource) } catch { print ("Failed to add a child object to the scene.") } let simpleModel = PHASEGeometricSpreadingDistanceModelParameters() simpleModel.rolloffFactor = rolloffFactor soundPipeline.distanceModelParameters = simpleModel let samplerNode = PHASESamplerNodeDefinition( soundAssetIdentifier: audioAsset.identifier, mixerDefinition: soundPipeline, identifier: audioAsset.identifier + "_SamplerNode") samplerNode.playbackMode = .looping do {soundEventAsset = try phaseEngine.assetRegistry.registerSoundEventAsset( rootNode: samplerNode, identifier: audioAsset.identifier + "_SoundEventAsset") } catch { print("Failed to register a sound event asset.") soundEventAsset = nil } } //Playing sound func playSound(){ // Fire new sound event with currently set properties guard let soundEventAsset else { return } params.addSpatialMixerParameters( identifier: soundPipeline.identifier, source: soundSource, listener: phaseListener) let soundEvent = try! PHASESoundEvent(engine: phaseEngine, assetIdentifier: soundEventAsset.identifier, mixerParameters: params) soundEvent.start(completion: nil) } ... }
Also worth mentioning might be that I only own personal team account