Simplified source directivity rendering in acoustic virtual reality using the directivity sample combination

This contribution proposes a simplified rendering of source directivity patterns for the simulation and auralization of auditory scenes consisting of multiple listeners or sources. It is based on applying directivity filters of arbitrary directivity patterns at multiple, supposedly important directions, and approximating the filter outputs of intermediate directions by interpolation. This reduces the amount of required filtering operations considerably and thus increases the computational efficiency of the auralization. As a proof of concept, the simplification is evaluated from a technical as well as from a perceptual point of view for one specific use case. The promising results suggest further studies of the proposed simplification in the future to assess its applicability to more complex scenarios.