> spherical harmonics can have uses beyond lighting

This math is also used in Ambisonic surround sound though newer techniques use planewave expansion.

For games, the full-sphere encoding of Ambisonic B-format can be decoded for arbitrary speaker locations and the soundfield rotated around any axis. I'm not sure if its ever been used for a game though.

▲

analog31 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

... also quantum mechanics. The textbook solution for the wavefunction of the hydrogen atom involves spherical harmonics.

	▲	hackingonempty 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		That fact is betrayed by the the similarity of the shapes of atomic orbitals and the sensitivity patterns of Abisonic B-format channels. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambisonics#Higher-order_ambiso... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_orbital#Orbitals_table ...and the same patterns appear on the unit disk with the Zernike polynomials, used to describe optical aberrations and more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zernike_polynomials

▲

vatsachak 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Ambisonics can give one end game audio

	▲	bschwindHN an hour ago \| parent [-]
		end-game audio? Or it can give game audio to one end?