Hi guys. I've just finished writing a C++ DirectX 9.0c program to help you find first
reflection points in your theatre rooms.
Instructions
---------------
First of all, you can fly around the scene using W,A,S,D,Q, and Z on the keyboard, and left click and drag over the scene to pan your view around. It is very much like a camera from a first person shooter game.
To find your reflection points, first adjust the dimensions of your room, then adjust the size and location of the front/center channels. Each of these speakers is represented by a colored rectangle (acoustic energy is simulated coming off the front face of the speaker only -- but I think this is valid for first reflections). Next, adjust the front/rear listener position and size (the green boxes). Essentially you want these to completely cover all possible locations for people's ears in your theatre. The smaller these boxes the tighter your reflection zones will be. Adjust the screen if you want -- it is really just here to assist you with scale when setting up the room -- it is considered transparent as far as sound is concerned. Finally, click the "find reflections" button and watch it go. Save your room setup if you like and you can reload it later on.
It plays nice with others, so if you reduce it to the taskbar, CPU utilization will drop to 0.
edit: new version 1.02 posted, choose .rar or .zip:
http://www.kulkarnicorp.com/frv1.02.rar
http://www.kulkarnicorp.com/frv1.02.zip
It seems MS has some issues with some of their directX downloads and they are missing some DLL's. If you get an error about missing dlls, you can resolve that issue here (thanks to vipercompany for finding this):
http://www.toymaker.info/Games/html/d3dx_dlls.html
changes from v1.01 to v1.02:
Fixed bug causing "illegal operation" crash when starting up in less than 24-bit color depth (thx to ecrabb for finding it!).
Fixed bug where raytracer was not reset after room loaded from disk.
More raytracing speed improvements. v1.0 was 31 seconds, v1.02 is 11 seconds to trace 1,000,000 rays for default setup on my machine.
Listening positions can now be moved up to 20' forward off back wall
Rewrite of GUI rendering code makes it 10% faster.
Tweaked mouse click detection areas around buttons/sliders.
changes from v1.0 to v1.01:
A few more startup checks to help older video cards.
Major improvement in raytracing speed. On my machine, the default room took 31 seconds in v1.0. It takes 14 seconds in v1.01.
Requirements:
Windows XP SP2
DirectX 9.0c
I don't have Vista, but as far as I know it won't work, because MS has no plans
for backwards compatibility between DirectX 10 and DirectX 9.0c. Older versions
of DirectX will not work either.
I have done my utmost to make sure this program functions correctly, including testing on several machines, virus-scanning the archive before posting it, etc. I don't expect any problems, but please keep in mind that you use the tool at your own discretion.
Feel free to email me with any bugs, suggestions, or requests. My email
is in the title bar of the application (see the screenshot).
At the suggestion of a forum member, i've added a paypal email for donations.
If you feel the tool has helped you out and you'd like to support further development, you can paypal any amount to smith@kulkarnicorp.com . Thanks
reflection points in your theatre rooms.
Instructions
---------------
First of all, you can fly around the scene using W,A,S,D,Q, and Z on the keyboard, and left click and drag over the scene to pan your view around. It is very much like a camera from a first person shooter game.
To find your reflection points, first adjust the dimensions of your room, then adjust the size and location of the front/center channels. Each of these speakers is represented by a colored rectangle (acoustic energy is simulated coming off the front face of the speaker only -- but I think this is valid for first reflections). Next, adjust the front/rear listener position and size (the green boxes). Essentially you want these to completely cover all possible locations for people's ears in your theatre. The smaller these boxes the tighter your reflection zones will be. Adjust the screen if you want -- it is really just here to assist you with scale when setting up the room -- it is considered transparent as far as sound is concerned. Finally, click the "find reflections" button and watch it go. Save your room setup if you like and you can reload it later on.
It plays nice with others, so if you reduce it to the taskbar, CPU utilization will drop to 0.
edit: new version 1.02 posted, choose .rar or .zip:
http://www.kulkarnicorp.com/frv1.02.rar
http://www.kulkarnicorp.com/frv1.02.zip
It seems MS has some issues with some of their directX downloads and they are missing some DLL's. If you get an error about missing dlls, you can resolve that issue here (thanks to vipercompany for finding this):
http://www.toymaker.info/Games/html/d3dx_dlls.html
changes from v1.01 to v1.02:
Fixed bug causing "illegal operation" crash when starting up in less than 24-bit color depth (thx to ecrabb for finding it!).
Fixed bug where raytracer was not reset after room loaded from disk.
More raytracing speed improvements. v1.0 was 31 seconds, v1.02 is 11 seconds to trace 1,000,000 rays for default setup on my machine.
Listening positions can now be moved up to 20' forward off back wall
Rewrite of GUI rendering code makes it 10% faster.
Tweaked mouse click detection areas around buttons/sliders.
changes from v1.0 to v1.01:
A few more startup checks to help older video cards.
Major improvement in raytracing speed. On my machine, the default room took 31 seconds in v1.0. It takes 14 seconds in v1.01.
Requirements:
Windows XP SP2
DirectX 9.0c
I don't have Vista, but as far as I know it won't work, because MS has no plans
for backwards compatibility between DirectX 10 and DirectX 9.0c. Older versions
of DirectX will not work either.
I have done my utmost to make sure this program functions correctly, including testing on several machines, virus-scanning the archive before posting it, etc. I don't expect any problems, but please keep in mind that you use the tool at your own discretion.
Feel free to email me with any bugs, suggestions, or requests. My email
is in the title bar of the application (see the screenshot).
At the suggestion of a forum member, i've added a paypal email for donations.
If you feel the tool has helped you out and you'd like to support further development, you can paypal any amount to smith@kulkarnicorp.com . Thanks