Planetary Dispersion
A procedural sound system for exploring how sound behaves across planetary and speculative atmospheres.
Planetary Dispersion is a real-time atmospheric acoustics modelling system built with Unreal Engine and MetaSounds. It features 46 planetary, lunar, exoplanetary, and reference environments, 10 configurable atmospheric gas species, dynamic weather and flux systems, and physically inspired nine-band acoustic modelling. Each world functions as a playable acoustic environment in which users can explore how atmospheric composition, pressure, temperature, altitude, absorption, filtering, delay, dispersion, and the speed of sound reshape audio in real time.
Featured Demonstration
Audio example
Listen as the Auto Play feature generates a soundscape by cycling through sounds and changing planetary environments.
Best experienced with headphones or dedicated studio monitors.
Open audio fileAccess Planetary Dispersion
Choose the version that best matches how you want to use Planetary Dispersion. It is available through the Microsoft Store, as a direct standalone download on itch.io, and as a complete Unreal Engine project on Fab. Use the standalone versions for listening, teaching, recording, and demonstration. Use the Unreal Engine project to inspect, modify, or build upon the MetaSound, Blueprint, and procedural audio systems.
Recommended for Windows
Microsoft Store
The recommended way to install Planetary Dispersion on Windows, with streamlined installation and access to future Store-managed updates.
- Streamlined Windows installation
- Built-in test sounds and live microphone input
- User WAV playback through the planetary system
- Master WAV recording of processed output
- No Unreal Engine installation required
Direct Download
itch.io
Download the standalone Windows or macOS version directly. This option is useful for macOS users or anyone who prefers a manual download outside the Microsoft Store.
- Windows and macOS standalone builds
- Built-in test sounds and live microphone input
- User WAV playback through the planetary system
- Master WAV recording of processed output
- No Unreal Engine installation required
Unreal Engine Project
Fab
For Unreal Engine users, sound designers, educators, researchers, and developers who want to study, modify, extend, or repurpose the system.
- Full Unreal Engine project format
- Blueprint and MetaSound systems included
- Editable planetary sound-design framework
- Procedural audio and atmospheric controls
- Suitable for modification, teaching, and research
For Educators and Researchers
The system supports teaching in speculative acoustics, procedural audio, sound design, planetary atmospheres, and listening-based comparison. The project may also be useful for practice-based research, experimental composition, game audio education, and interactive sound studies.
With 46 distinct world and reference-atmosphere models, the application supports comparative listening across terrestrial planets, gas and ice giants, moons, dwarf planets, exoplanets, and controlled gas references.
The system uses dispersion, absorption, filtering, pressure, humidity, altitude, seismic activity, wind, and time-of-flight behaviour to create subtle but perceptible differences between planetary environments.
This project was built in Unreal Engine using MetaSounds, modular patches, and a custom interactive widget for real-time control.
Teaching and Creative Research Resources
The application includes downloadable teaching and creative research resources for educators, students, sound artists, composers, performers, game audio practitioners, and researchers. These resources frame the project as a structured way of moving from technical sound exploration into creative practice, listening, and critical reflection.
Introductory Student Activity
A guided activity for creating a short sound work using instrumental, vocal, electronic, sampled, recorded, or built-in sound material. This activity focuses on listening-based decision-making, planetary transformation, creative intention, and the ability to explain
the thought process behind the work.
Creative Research
An open-ended brief for developing a sound work using one or more planetary environments. This resource focuses on speculative acoustics, planetary acoustic translation, creative research, original ideas, and critical reflection.
Technical Resources
Optional documentation for examining the calculations, preset data and report exports used by Planetary Dispersion.
Gas Composition Formula Guide
Equations, constants, Blueprint implementation details and limitations of the gas-composition model.
46-Preset Reference Guide
Atmospheric composition, environmental values and calculated properties for all 46 planetary and reference presets.
Configuration and Audio Report
An example TXT export documenting the Venus preset, processing settings and available audio measurements.
Full Documentation Video
What the system does
Planetary Dispersion includes 46 planetary, lunar, dwarf-planet, exoplanetary, speculative, and reference atmospheric models. These range from familiar Solar System environments to hydrogen-rich worlds, ocean-world models, rock-vapour planets, dense CO₂ atmospheres, exospheres, plume environments, and pure-gas reference conditions.
Full list of 46 atmospheric environments
- Earth Reference
- Mars
- Venus
- Mercury (Exosphere Model)
- Jupiter
- Saturn
- Uranus
- Neptune
- Moon (Exosphere Model)
- Io
- Europa
- Ganymede
- Callisto
- Titan
- Enceladus (Plume Model)
- Dione (Exosphere Model)
- Rhea (Exosphere Model)
- Iapetus (Model)
- Triton
- Pluto
- Ceres (Vapour Model)
- Eris (Seasonal Model)
- Makemake (Seasonal Model)
- Haumea (Vapour Model)
- WASP-121 b (Model)
- WASP-39 b (Model)
- HD 189733 b (Model)
- HD 209458 b (Model)
- 55 Cancri e (Rock-Vapour Model)
- GJ 486 b (Rock-Vapour Model)
- LP 791-18 d (Volcanic Model)
- K2-18 b (H2-Rich Model)
- GJ 1214 b (Steam-Haze Model)
- TOI-270 d (H2-Rich Model)
- LHS 1140 b (Ocean Model)
- TRAPPIST-1 e (Temperate Model)
- TRAPPIST-1 f (Cold CO2 Model)
- TRAPPIST-1 g (Dense CO2 Model)
- Proxima Centauri b (Temperate Model)
- TOI-700 d (Temperate Model)
- Kepler-452 b (Earthlike Model)
- Kepler-186 f (Temperate Model)
- Kepler-62 f (Ocean Model)
- Pure CO2 Reference
- Pure N2 Reference
- Pure CH4 Reference
Propagation and Atmospheric Conditions
Controls for pressure, temperature, humidity, altitude, speed of sound, and atmospheric intensity shape how sound travels through each planetary environment.
Environment and Medium
Air and water propagation modes are supported alongside wind, seismic activity, environmental reverberation, and dynamic flux modulation. These controls allow the sound field to move between atmospheric, underwater, geological, enclosed, and unstable planetary conditions.
Recording
The application includes master recording for saving the processed output of the simulation as a WAV file.
In the standalone version, users can work with built-in test sounds, live microphone input, or a user-supplied WAV file, then record the final processed sound field. Saved recordings are written to the application’s Saved/BouncedWavFiles folder, and the exact saved path is printed on screen after recording stops.
Spectral Dispersion and Temporal Behaviour
Per-band filtering, temporal offset controls, amplitude contrast, transition interpolation, dry/wet balance, and signal bypass allow users to shape how sound is dispersed, delayed, filtered, and blended.
Source and Atmospheric Tuning
Atmospheric Tuning / Air-Column Shift
Applies a pitch shift based on the speed of sound in the selected planetary atmosphere. This is intended for air-column sound sources such as voice, flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and other resonating air-column instruments. The shift changes the tuning while keeping playback speed unchanged.
Voice Formant Colour
Applies an optional vocal colour effect after the air-column pitch shift. This does not deliberately transpose the source audio. Instead, it moves a set of formant-like resonances using a biquad filter bank, allowing the voice to sound darker, brighter, larger, or thinner while leaving the main pitch-shift path unchanged. This is an approximation rather than true vocal formant analysis or resynthesis.
Scientific background and references
Planetary Dispersion is a creative atmospheric audio model informed by acoustic and planetary research. It combines atmospheric composition, speed of sound, attenuation, filtering, altitude, wind, seismic activity, tuning shifts, and planetary presets.
Known Limitations
Planetary Dispersion is a speculative and creative acoustic modelling system rather than a mission-grade scientific simulator. The project simplifies many aspects of atmospheric acoustics and does not attempt to fully model terrain interaction, turbulence, atmospheric chemistry, fluid dynamics, or validated planetary propagation data.
Instead, the system focuses on transforming environmental conditions into interactive and playable sonic behaviours for sound design, education, and artistic exploration.
The following scientific and public-facing sources informed the conceptual and acoustic design of Planetary Dispersion, particularly its treatment of atmospheric composition, speed of sound, attenuation, filtering, altitude, wind, seismic activity, and planetary environmental differences.
AI usage disclosure: Generative AI tools were used to create limited decorative visual elements, including the promotional artwork and interface frame. All acoustic models, audio content, programming, MetaSounds, Blueprints, research, functional interface design and creative decisions were developed by Daniel Portelli.
Selected Research Sources
Atmospheric and Planetary Acoustics
- Garcia, R. F., Q. Brissaud, L. Rolland, R. Martin, D. Komatitsch, A. Spiga, P. Lognonné, and W. B. Banerdt. 2017. “Finite-Difference Modeling of Acoustic and Gravity Wave Propagation in Mars Atmosphere: Application to Infrasounds Emitted by Meteor Impacts.” Space Science Reviews 211: 547–570. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-016-0324-6.
- Leighton, T. G., and A. Petculescu. 2009. “The Sound of Music and Voices in Space, Part 2: Modeling and Simulation.” Acoustics Today 5 (3): 27–29. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.3238123.
- Maurice, S., B. Chide, N. Murdoch, et al. 2022. “In Situ Recording of Mars Soundscape.” Nature 605: 653–658. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04679-0.
- Petculescu, A., and R. M. Lueptow. 2007. “Atmospheric Acoustics of Titan, Mars, Venus, and Earth.” Icarus 186 (2): 413–419. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2006.09.014.
General Acoustics and Planetary Atmosphere Theory
- Kinsler, L. E., A. R. Frey, A. B. Coppens, and J. V. Sanders. 2000. Fundamentals of Acoustics. 4th ed. John Wiley & Sons. Publisher record.
- de Pater, I., and J. J. Lissauer. 2015. Planetary Sciences. Updated 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316165270.
- Catling, D. C., and J. F. Kasting. 2017. Atmospheric Evolution on Inhabited and Lifeless Worlds. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139020558.
- Madhusudhan, N. 2019. “Exoplanetary Atmospheres: Key Insights, Challenges, and Prospects.” Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 57: 617–663. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-astro-081817-051846.
Solar System Atmospheres, Exospheres, and Plumes
- Waite, J. H., Jr., W. S. Lewis, B. A. Magee, et al. 2009. “Liquid Water on Enceladus from Observations of Ammonia and 40Ar in the Plume.” Nature 460: 487–490. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08153.
- Gladstone, G. R., S. A. Stern, K. Ennico, et al. 2016. “The Atmosphere of Pluto as Observed by New Horizons.” Science 351 (6279): aad8866. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aad8866.
- Küppers, M., L. O’Rourke, D. Bockelée-Morvan, et al. 2014. “Localized Sources of Water Vapour on the Dwarf Planet (1) Ceres.” Nature 505: 525–527. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12918.
- Ortiz, J. L., B. Sicardy, F. Braga-Ribas, et al. 2012. “Albedo and Atmospheric Constraints of Dwarf Planet Makemake from a Stellar Occultation.” Nature 491: 566–569. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11597.
Exoplanet Atmospheres and Climate Models
- Evans, T. M., D. K. Sing, T. Kataria, et al. 2017. “An Ultrahot Gas-Giant Exoplanet with a Stratosphere.” Nature 548: 58–61. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature23266.
- Mikal-Evans, T., D. K. Sing, J. Dong, et al. 2023. “A JWST NIRSpec Phase Curve for WASP-121b: Dayside Emission Strongest Eastward of the Substellar Point and Nightside Conditions Conducive to Cloud Formation.” The Astrophysical Journal Letters 943: L17. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/acb049.
- Rustamkulov, Z., D. K. Sing, S. Mukherjee, et al. 2023. “Early Release Science of the Exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRSpec PRISM.” Nature 614: 659–663. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05677-y.
- Kempton, E. M.-R., M. Zhang, J. L. Bean, et al. 2023. “A Reflective, Metal-Rich Atmosphere for GJ 1214b from Its JWST Phase Curve.” Nature 620: 67–71. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06159-5.
- Madhusudhan, N., S. Sarkar, S. Constantinou, M. Holmberg, A. A. A. Piette, and J. I. Moses. 2023. “Carbon-Bearing Molecules in a Possible Hycean Atmosphere.” The Astrophysical Journal Letters 956: L13. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/acf577.
- Turbet, M., E. Bolmont, J. Leconte, et al. 2018. “Modeling Climate Diversity, Tidal Dynamics and the Fate of Volatiles on TRAPPIST-1 Planets.” Astronomy & Astrophysics 612: A86. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201731620.
- Turbet, M., J. Leconte, F. Selsis, et al. 2016. “The Habitability of Proxima Centauri b. II. Possible Climates and Observability.” Astronomy & Astrophysics 596: A112. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201629577.
- Suissa, G., E. T. Wolf, R. K. Kopparapu, et al. 2020. “The First Habitable-Zone Earth-Sized Planet from TESS. III. Climate States and Characterization Prospects for TOI-700 d.” The Astronomical Journal 160: 118. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/aba4b4.
Reference Data and Institutional Resources
- Linstrom, P. J., and W. G. Mallard, eds. NIST Chemistry WebBook, NIST Standard Reference Database Number 69. National Institute of Standards and Technology. https://doi.org/10.18434/T4D303. Accessed 24 July 2026.
- NASA Science planetary reference pages:Earth; Moon; Mars; Venus; Jupiter; Saturn; Titan; Io; Europa; and Neptune. Accessed 24 July 2026.
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “Sounds from Beyond.” NASA audio resource. Accessed 24 July 2026.
Installation
Standalone Windows version
- Download the ZIP file from itch.io.
- Extract the ZIP file before running the application.
- Open the extracted folder.
- Double-click
PlanetaryDispersion.exe.
Do not move the .exe file out of the extracted folder. The Engine folder, PlanetaryDispersion folder, and manifest files must remain together for the application to run correctly.
Standalone macOS version
- Download the ZIP file from itch.io.
- Extract the ZIP file.
- Open the extracted folder.
- Double-click the Planetary Dispersion app.
If macOS blocks the app because it was downloaded from the internet, right-click the app, choose Open, then confirm that you want to open it.
Listening Recommendations
For the best experience, use headphones or external speakers. Different sounds reveal different aspects of the planetary models. Sustained wind instruments, vocal material and spoken phrases make changes in pitch, resonance, formants and spectral colour especially noticeable. Environmental recordings including wind, seismic rumbling and lightning, help expose changes in low-frequency propagation, atmospheric filtering, spatial depth and reverberant character. Broadband and transient sounds make absorption and temporal dispersion easier to perceive, while sine tones, pink noise and familiar musical recordings provide useful analytical and comparative references.
Links
Download the standalone app: itch.io, Windows Store
Get the Unreal Engine project: Fab
Watch the demonstration video: YouTube
Feedback
If you use Planetary Dispersion in teaching, sound design, research, Unreal Engine development, or creative practice, feedback, comments, and discussion are very welcome.
Citation
Portelli, Daniel. Planetary Dispersion: A Procedural Sound System for Exploring How Sound Behaves Across Planetary and Speculative Atmospheres. 2026. https://danielportelli.com.au/planetarydispersion/.
