Home » Tips & Tricks » Apple audio ray tracing explained

Apple audio ray tracing explained

It's been done with light in games, so why not audio in VR?

Updated: Jun 6, 2023 10:37 am
Apple audio ray tracing explained

WePC is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices subject to change. Learn more

With the introduction of Reality Pro, there are plenty of cool features, and one of them is sound, so we look at Apple audio ray tracing explained. A move away from light, the audio ray tracing aims to provide great surround sound over normal just like light ray tracing does.

Although the Apple Vision Pro release date is still quite a ways away, there are still some basics on what it has to offer. So we look at what that might mean for the experience of using that device and how it works when it comes to audio.

What is audio ray tracing?

Audio ray tracing is Apple’s Spatial Audio implementation for its mixed reality headset. The next improvement into what it had to offer previously of the feature. It hopes to improve how spatial audio works and make it seem much more realistic and immersive to your experiences, whether you’re watching a movie or in a meeting.

It would make it seem like those sounds are coming from your room in a particular place. Likely where you might place it through the headset.

How does audio ray tracing work?

Taking away from the light option we can get an understanding of what to expect from the Reality Pro. Running on the xrOS ecosystem it also implements a secondary R1 chip to help ease the latency of the sensors featured on the device.

So when it comes to spatial audio, ray tracing aims to create the audio from where it comes from in the virtual space. Drawing its path from there, it imitates how it is affected by the path and objects in the way. So the two dual-driver audio pods by your ears deliver personalized sound for your device.

The Vision Pro can analyze your surroundings and acoustic properties as well. So when it knows the acoustic materials, it can adapt and match the sound to your space. Which does give it a more realistic and immersive experience for your usage.


With a background in engineering and PC gaming, Seb is a staff writer with a focus on GPU, storage, and power supplies. Also one of tech supports in the office he likes helping and solving problems.

Trusted Source

WePC’s mission is to be the most trusted site in tech. Our editorial content is 100% independent and we put every product we review through a rigorous testing process before telling you exactly what we think. We won’t recommend anything we wouldn’t use ourselves. Read more