Hello, I was wondering if anyone has any info or official confirmation: will The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom have 3D audio support on the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2?
I know Switch 2 is said to support spatial/3D audio through both its upgraded speakers and compatible headphones, but I haven’t seen anything confirming whether TOTK will actually make use of it—or if it’ll just reuse the original stereo mix from the first Switch version.
Has anyone seen news, dev statements, credible leaks, or just have an educated guess?
Thanks in advance!
Both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom support 5.1 surround sound, if you have 5 speakers and a subwoofer, so they don't have just a stereo mix. (And given how much environmental sounds are part of these games, playing them with surround really does enhance the gameplay.) I dunno how hard it would be to convert the 5.1 surround mix into a spatial audio mix for two speakers, though.
@Polvasti Thanks for the info, I actually didn’t know that Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom supported 5.1 surround. That’s really interesting, and it makes sense considering how much effort they put into ambient sounds and environmental detail.
That said, my original question was more about the new 3D/spatial audio feature on the Switch 2, especially when using headphones. I was wondering if TOTK (when played on Switch 2) would actively support that new spatial audio system, like a virtual surround experience through two-channel headphones, similar to PS5, Dolby Atmos for Headphones or Apple Spatial Audio.
Since TOTK already has a 5.1 mix, I guess it might be possible for the Switch 2 to convert that into Spatial Audio, but I’m not sure if the system does that automatically, or if it requires the developers to patch the game.
Has Nintendo said anything about backwards compatible games taking advantage of the new 3D audio? Or does anyone have more technical insight on how that could work?Thanks again!
@Ultra128 Nintendo's marketing makes a general statement, like all games would get 3d spacial sound - I assume maybe it's for games that have surround sound. Maybe it's an audio processing thing that would work with any decent headphones.
"Sound quality is more natural and clear with better balance. Hear the difference for yourself, whether you're playing with the built-in speakers or your headphones (sold separately)."
Nintendo's marketing makes a general statement, like all games would get 3d spacial sound - I assume maybe it's for games that have surround sound. Maybe it's an audio processing thing that would work with any decent headphones. "Sound quality is more natural and clear with better balance. Hear the difference for yourself, whether you're playing with the built-in speakers or your headphones (sold separately)."
AFAIK true spatial sound with a stereo setup requires a special mix made specifically for the 3D effect. You can't just automatically convert a regular stereo mix (which most Switch 1 games have) into 3D sound. The game needs to have an appropriate surround mix (which BotW and TotK do have), which can then be converted into spatial audio. I think nowadays some devices with a spatial audio function can do this conversion automatically from a 5.1 surround mix, but I've never tried it, since I have a 5 speaker setup for true surround sound.
So I guess it's possible the Switch 2 can automatically provide a two-speaker spatial audio mix from those Switch 1 games that include surround sound (such as the aforementioned two Zeldas, Nier Automata, Monster Hunter Rise, etc.), but Nintendo's marketing isn't very clear on this.
If it works anything like it does on Xbox or Playstation the Spatial Audio it works regardless of the game. It works through headphones makes a surround effect on stereo headphones.
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That's interesting if it works with any game. If a game only has a stereo mix of its soundtrack, how does the spatial audio system know where to place individual sounds in a 3D "field"?
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Topic: Will Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom support spatial/3D audio on Switch 2?
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