What is the optimum delay between visual and auditory stimuli that is perceived as synchronous for video game SFX? : A methodology for testing synchronization of audiovisual stimuli in video games.

Sammanfattning: Synchronization of visual and auditory stimuli is important for creating a convincing sound designin games. Understanding the factors that constitute synchrony is both a question of synchrony inthe physical space but also an experience based on perception. Developing on a simpleflash-and-click test used by Eijk (2008), a test was designed to determine the point of synchrony in agame engine environment, a system that inherently has latencies. Test subjects were tasked withfinding a point of subjective synchrony (PSS), meaning the point where they perceived auditoryand visual stimuli to be synchronized. The visual stimulus was a commonly occurring rifle modeland three sound designs with different characteristics were implemented into the Unreal 4 Engine.The latencies of the system were calculated and summed with the PSS value of van Eijk’s (2008)flash-and-click test to create a hypothesized PSS. The results showed that the PSS for the testsubject group aligned with the PSS values given by van Eijk (2008) and that this test has potentialfor testing synchrony in game engine environments.