Voice chat is something that PC gamers often take for granted. Most games ship with some flavor of built-in voice chat, and almost every MMO guild sets up their own server for in-game voice. Dolby wants something more, however; the company is looking to take voice chat out of the bullet-list selling points and make it a more integral part of the game. With its upcoming Axon 3D Voice Technology, your voice is intended to become part of the game.

Dolby has just confirmed that the technology will ship with Jumpgate Evolution, an online space title that impressed us at GDC, as well as Mission Against Terror, an online FPS title. Ars spoke with Matt Tullis, Senior Manager of Marketing, Games Segment at Dolby Laboratories, to talk about the technology, and he explains why we should care about yet another voice chat program.

Tullis told us that Axon was designed to be integrated into the game itself, not simply to sit on top of it and offer communication. "When your teammate moves behind you and asks for cover, you will now be able to hear their voice from behind you," he explained to Ars.

The technology will also take advantage of the game's inner workings to add levels of immersion to voice chat. "Dolby Axon can include game geometry so that players will cut off when they go behind walls," Tullis said. "Best of all, game developers will now be able to use voice in exciting new ways: spy microphones, the ability to hear through walls, throwing your voice, and more."

In other words, the technology uses sound as an object, something that exists within the game. Tullis also promised that the technology won't come at a high price to your gaming rig. "Since we've built Dolby Axon specifically for games, we've kept these things in mind," he told Ars. "A full surround sound scene can be delivered in 16kbps. The CPU hit on a modern CPU (dual core) is less than 1 percent. The CPU hit on an 866MHz P3 is still well less than 10 percent." Mid-level system owners take heart, you'll be able to take advantage of the technology.

The technology can be added to any game, although the earlier it's implemented in the development process, the more features can be added to the gameplay. Tullis also wants to assure us that every microphone and headset combination will work fine with games using Axon, although surround sound systems will give you some advantage, for the obvious reasons.

Imagine playing Jumpgate and flying behind an asteroid, with the huge mass of rock causing communications to jump in and out. Electrical interference could cause actual interference, giving the game's settings actual tactical advantages and disadvantages.

The only problem is that you can counteract these effects by simply using Ventrillo or TeamSpeak, although that shouldn't be an issue on anything other than Player vs. Player areas. Penny Arcade recently weighed in on how group chat on Xbox Live hurt certain games—Chromehounds and Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow in particular—that used sound as part of the game design. Simpy put, you can't force others to use it, which makes its inclusion in competitive environments somewhat futile.

For those of us who are lame and prefer to role-play our online gaming, however, this sounds very cool. The ability to flow in a group, knowing where people are by the sound of their voice in your surround sound system, with items in space interfering with voice chat, should add much to the game experience.

"We've really tried to incorporate a lot of Dolby's audio expertise in the product," Tullis said. "We've added dialog leveling so that you won't constantly have to adjust your volume between players with quiet microphones and players with loud microphones. We've built in noise and echo reduction. We even created a special codec for Dolby Axon to deliver high quality audio at low bitrates." You'll be able to hear all that work when Jumpgate Evolution ships on PCs.

Release date: when it's done.