Planetary Dispersion
A procedural sound system for exploring how sound behaves across planetary and speculative atmospheres.
Planetary Dispersion is an Unreal Engine and MetaSounds sound design system that models planetary atmospheres as playable acoustic conditions. The project uses procedural audio, interactive sound control, atmospheric modelling, and speculative planetary environments to explore how sound propagation, filtering, delay, absorption, pressure, and medium might change across different worlds.
Featured Demonstration
Start here:
Watch the full demonstration video below, download the standalone app, or access the Unreal Engine project.
Which version should I use?
Standalone App (itch.io)
Use the standalone app if you want to listen, compare presets, teach, experiment, or explore the planetary acoustic environments without Unreal Engine.
Unreal Engine Project (Fab)
Use the Fab project if you want to inspect, modify, or build upon the MetaSound, Blueprint, and procedural audio systems inside Unreal Engine.
Standalone app on itch.io:
https://danporto.itch.io/planetarydispersion
Unreal Engine project on Fab:
https://www.fab.com/listings/f8af172e-9d01-4c82-86ce-555a7b8ed85d
For Educators and Researchers
Planetary Dispersion can be used as a classroom demonstration tool for 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.
“Rather than treating delay, filtering, pitch, and attenuation as isolated effects,
Planetary Dispersion organises them as interconnected atmospheric conditions.”
The system models dispersion, absorption, filtering, pressure, humidity, altitude, seismic activity, wind, and time-of-flight behaviour to create subtle but perceptible differences between planetary environments. It can be used for sound design, experimental audio, education, research, and creative exploration.
Planetary Dispersion was built in Unreal Engine using MetaSounds, modular patches, and a custom interactive widget for real-time control.
How to Use Planetary Dispersion
“Planetary Dispersion is intended for listening-based comparison. Users can move
between planetary presets, adjust propagation parameters, and hear how changes
in atmosphere, medium, distance, filtering, and dispersion reshape the same
source sound.”
Full Documentation Video
Access Planetary Dispersion
There are two ways to access the project, depending on how you want to use it.
Download the standalone app
The standalone Windows and macOS versions are designed for exploring the planetary audio system with the included test sounds. They allow users to compare presets, adjust propagation controls, test filtering, dispersion, wind, seismic layers, reverb, flux, dry/wet balance, and atmospheric tuning without installing Unreal Engine.
Microphone record/playback banks are not currently supported in the standalone builds. Users who want to inspect, modify, or extend the recording system should use the Unreal Engine project version on Fab.
Download for Windows and macOS on itch.io
Use this version if you want to:
- test the included sounds through the planetary processing system
- explore the controls and presets
- use it as a listening, teaching, or demonstration tool
- run the system without installing Unreal Engine
No additional libraries or programs are required. Unreal Engine is not required to run the packaged app.
Get the Unreal Engine project on Fab
For Unreal Engine users, developers, sound designers, educators, and researchers who want to inspect, modify, or build upon the system, the full Unreal Engine version is available on Fab.
View Planetary Dispersion on Fab
Use this version if you want to:
- open the project in Unreal Engine
- study the Blueprint and MetaSound systems
- modify the planetary sound model
- integrate the system into your own Unreal project
- adapt the widget, parameters, or sound design framework
The Fab listing includes the Unreal Engine project format and presents Planetary Dispersion as a procedural sound system for modelling dispersion, absorption, and temporal behaviour across planetary atmospheres.
What the system does
Planetary Dispersion allows users to explore and compare different planetary acoustic conditions through real-time controls and preset environments. The system includes nine atmospheric presets: Jupiter, Mars, Earth, Venus, Titan, Moon, Saturn, Sci-Fi, and Neutral.
The project models how environmental conditions can influence sound propagation, spectral behaviour, temporal dispersion, spatial localisation, and atmospheric tuning.
Propagation and Atmospheric Conditions
Pressure, temperature, humidity, altitude, speed of sound, and atmospheric intensity.
Spectral Dispersion and Temporal Behaviour
Per-band filtering and temporal offset controls, amplitude contrast, transition interpolation, dry/wet balance, and signal bypass.
Environment and Medium
Air and water propagation modes, wind layers, seismic activity, environmental reverberation spaces, and dynamic flux modulation.
Source and Atmospheric Tuning
Included test sounds, atmospheric tuning controls, and air-column pitch shifting for wind-instrument behaviour.
The standalone application includes a collection of built-in test sounds. Advanced users can also replace a local UserSound.wav file to audition their own material through the system.
Scientific background and references
Planetary Dispersion is a creative atmospheric audio model informed by acoustic and planetary research. It brings together 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.
Selected sources
Garcia, R. F., Brissaud, Q., Rolland, L., Martin, R., Komatitsch, D., Spiga, A., Lognonné, P., and Banerdt, B. “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, 2017.
https://hal.science/hal-01447014/file/Garcia_17286.pdf
Leighton, T. G., and Petculescu, A. “The Sound of Music and Voices in Space, Part 2: Modeling and Simulation.” Acoustics Today.
https://acousticstoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Article_3of4_from_ATCODK_5_3.pdf
Maurice, S., Chide, B., Murdoch, N., et al. “In situ recording of Mars soundscape.” Nature 605, 653–658, 2022.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04679-0
NASA Science. “Jupiter Facts.”
https://science.nasa.gov/jupiter/jupiter-facts/
NASA Science. “Venus Facts.”
https://science.nasa.gov/venus/venus-facts/
NASA. “Sounds from Beyond.”
https://www.nasa.gov/sounds-from-beyond/
Petculescu, A., and Lueptow, R. M. “Atmospheric acoustics of Titan, Mars, Venus, and Earth.” Icarus 186, no. 2, 413–419, 2007.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0019103506003381
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. Broadband sounds, such as pink noise, percussion, and complex recordings, make the differences between atmospheres easier to hear because frequency-dependent absorption and dispersion are more noticeable across a wide spectrum. The system includes test sounds such as pink noise, sine tones, percussion hits, and piano recordings.
Links
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/.
