Forza Horizon 5 Will Have Ray-Traced Audio That Bounces & Echoes

The developers of Forza Horizon 5 have revealed the upcoming game will feature ray-traced audio to provide players with a unique and fully immersive experience. After being announced earlier this summer, Forza Horizon 5 won “Most Anticipated Game” at E3 2021. The racing adventure will take players to Mexico, promising to improve on the already highly realistic Forza Horizon 4.

The Forza series provides fans with the chance to explore incredibly detailed and realistic worlds from the safety of a range of luxury (and not-so-luxury) vehicles. The 2018 addition to the series, Forza Horizon 4, is a must-play for racing fans, whisking drivers off to Britain for the “world’s greatest automotive festival.” As well as providing dynamic and adrenaline-pumping racing action, the game has been praised as a driving simulator that allows players to explore different areas and discover real-world beauty spots from the comfort of their own homes. While Forza Horizon 4 hasn’t beaten Mario Kart 8 as best-selling racer in US history, fans are eagerly awaiting the release of the next title in the series.

In a new developer interview on the official Forza YouTube channel, it’s been revealed that Forza Horizon 5 will use ray-traced audio. Episode three of the ongoing “Let’s ¡Go!” developmental deep-dive with Playground Games introduced the game’s lead audio designer, Fraser Strachan. Explaining just how ray-traced audio works within Forza Horizon 5, Strachan said:

“We’re using ray-tracing to detect walls, ceilings, buildings, which means you’ll hear your car bouncing off of all the buildings around you, and that will change with the environment. It’s really cool. As soon as we turned it on, it grounded you in reality. It made the world feel really alive.”

Elaborating on the mention of ceilings, the developer explained: “Things like tunnels for instance, if you’re listening with spatial audio, something like Dolby Atmos with your headphones on, you’ll actually be able to hear your car bouncing off of the roofs.” Players will also be able to detect different changes in audio depending on their environment, with bounce-back sounds of rainforests sounding different from concrete. The ray-traced audio is explored in the video below, at around the 26:00 minute mark.

Players looking to play the game on Xbox Series X/S will be able to play Forza Horizon 5 with Xbox Game Pass on day one, making it yet another new Xbox game to come to the subscription service from release. The game will take full advantage of new Xbox hardware to create the series’ most immersive and realistic addition yet, utilizing unparalleled load-times with 4K Ultra HD and 60fps on Xbox Series X. Along with its ray-traced audio and visuals, Forza Horizon 5 promises a “vibrant and ever-evolving open-world” for players to explore at their leisure.

Xbox Series X/S gamers will have a lot to look forward to in the coming months, with Halo Infinite finally launching this year. The Xbox exclusive was originally planned to release alongside new-gen consoles in 2020 but was delayed until late 2021. While no solid release date has yet been confirmed, players can expect to see it on store shelves by holiday 2021. The game will be the first in the series to feature free-to-play multiplayer, with the first season of content titled “Halo Infinite: Heroes of Reach.” Likely, Halo Infinite won’t release until after Forza Horizon 5, but only time will tell.

Forza Horizon 5 comes to Xbox consoles and PC on November 9, 2021.

Source: Forza/YouTube

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