A Review of Spatial Sound in the Java 3D API Specification (v.1.2)

The Java 3D API specification is one of the most popular API sets for multimedia development. This paper is a review of the specification’s implementation of sound spatialisation techniques. The various sound nodes are examined using the Dual Mode and Auditory Framework systems. Although it has certain spatialisation capabilities, the specification is found to be lacking in any sophisticated techniques for spatial sound rendering. To compound the issue further the techniques that are used are rather limited in their implementation.