Forza Horizon 5 developer shows improved car engine sounds

PlayGround Games has made several videos where the developer shows and how the new engine sounds in Forza Horizon 5 sound and are recorded. These sounds and dynamics seem to be significantly improved over predecessor Forza Horizon 4.

The videos feature the newly appointed lead audio designer Fraser Strachen. He says that Playground Games has added more than 320 completely new audio recordings of cars to the already existing library of sounds. According to him, this means that cars in Forza Horizon 5 will sound as good as possible. In one episode you can see how the developer has recorded engine sounds from real cars and the necessary cars also come along to demonstrate their engine sounds.

Strachen goes on to explain that Forza Horizon 5 will not only feature ray tracing in the visual sense, in the Forzavista mode for viewing cars. The game will also use ray tracing for the sound, with 90fps. Strachen says it is used to detect walls, ceilings and buildings, as if it were echolocation. This means that the car sounds will be audibly distorted and reflected by buildings and other elements in the environment. In addition, urban environments with hard materials such as asphalt will reflect the sound more and louder than, for example, a jungle environment. This is because different absorption coefficients are used for the materials in the environment.

Players will also have to better hear where other cars are in relation to their position and those sounds will change dynamically under the influence of the environment. Furthermore, the so-called granular synthesis technology in Forza Horizon 5 is used for all cars, where in the predecessor it was the case in 10 to 15 percent of the cars. This technology cuts audio recordings of real cars into thousands of very short audio fragments in which certain rotations of the engine can be heard. Those can be used very precisely in the game and that happens at 90fps, which is higher than the video frame rate of 60fps. According to Strachen, this means the cars will also feel more responsive.

In general, players of Forza Horizon 4 were not always happy with the engine sounds of the different cars. According to many, they were also a regression compared to Forza Horizon 3. For example, engine sounds would sometimes be too similar and not always unique and recognizable.

Forza Horizon 5 was announced a month ago and the game is set in Mexico. The predecessor was set in the United Kingdom and part three had Australia as its setting. The new game is part of the Game Pass subscription and will be released on November 9 for Xbox consoles, Windows 10 and via Xbox cloud gaming.