Sound Prioritization

eveonline.com:

Bass-Blasting Capsuleers,

We are excited to announce that the audio feature originally demoed at Fanfest is being released in October and is already available for testing on Singularity! Sound prioritization, previously known as "audio culling”, drastically reduces CPU usage from the audio system during large fights. Not only does sound prioritization save on the CPU, but it also significantly improves the overall sound experience of EVE Online by intelligently choosing the most important sounds to play, along with limiting the overall number of sounds allowed to be played at once. That means more nuance, clarity, and realism across New Eden’s soundscape.

We know that a common fleet doctrine suggests that players disable audio when going into a large fleet fight. We can speculate that this has always been both because of how much CPU audio takes in large fights, as well as the cacophony of sounds that can be produced in such situations. Tackling those problems was exactly what motivated the creation of the sound prioritization feature, with a view to letting pilots turn their sound on and experience more immersive combat with a rich, dynamic audio backdrop that brings the battle to life. But before we dive into sound prioritization itself, let’s explore the challenge of those previous limitations.

Have you ever had a boss that overloads you with so many tasks that you are constantly scrambling to keep up?

This is exactly what the relationship between EVE and its audio engine has always been like; EVE filling the role of demanding boss and its audio engine the devoted (if overwhelmed) employee. Let's see what a "dialogue" between EVE and its third-party audio engine, called Wwise, would look like:

The audio engine, while