Image credit from left to right: Ruth West, Aaron McLeran, Felipe Romero, and Max Hayes
In this episode of SIGGRAPH Spotlight, SIGGRAPH 2024 Courses Chair Ruth West engages in an insightful conversation with audio and graphics experts Aaron McLeran, Felipe Romero, and Max Hayes. Together, they delve into the fascinating realm of synesthetic connections between real-time audio and graphics within games, contemplating the future landscape of spatial and multimodal immersive experiences.
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About Our Guest
Aaron McLeran (@aaronmcleran) is the director of Unreal Engine Audio. He has 15 years of experience in audio programming, sound design, and composition for video games. He holds degrees in both physics and music, combining technical expertise with creative artistry. Aaron is dedicated to advancing real-time audio technology for interactive applications, transcending the boundaries of gaming to enhance all forms of media. His work continues to push the envelope, ensuring immersive and innovative audio experiences across the industry.
Felipe Romero (@romeroadames) is currently a software architect at Theorycraft Games, leading development on Project Loki. Previously, he was the product technical lead for VALORANT at Riot Games and an engine lead at ArenaNet. Felipe is an engine generalist with a player-first approach.
Max Hayes (@maxhayes) is an audio engine programmer at Epic Games with a passion for building tools and technologies to facilitate the creation of immersive and innovative audio experiences. He studied music production and sound design as dual major at Berklee College of Music before transferring to DigiPen Institute of Technology. There he graduated with a degree in computer science and digital audio. Along the way, Max has worked as a front-of-house mix engineer, freelance composer for independent films, and an instructor for both guitar performance and music production. Through these experiences he acquired a deep understanding of the creative and technical aspects of audio, which he now applies to his work at Epic Games. At Epic, Max is contributing to core audio engine technologies in the Unreal Engine including caching systems, ambisonics decoding, MetaSounds, DSP optimizations, and the Quartz scheduling system.
