Driving sound synthesis from a physics engine

This paper describes the development of a framework that allows virtual object contact sounds to be synthesised in real time from information provided by a governing physics engine at physics refresh rate. The objects can be modified during run-time by their physical or perceptual parameters and both impact and continuous contact sounds can be created. The new contributions are features designed to give the user control over how objects look, sound and behave physically. This is to help pave the way for innovations involving object manipulation and sounding and in particular a tool/game in which composers/gamers can create sounds and music that is driven by physics and accompanied by animation is envisaged.