Efficient externalized audio reverberation with smooth transitioning

Audio for immersive or simulated environments such as virtual reality (VR) matches the acoustics of the environment being simulated. Reverberative effects of a simulated environment are reproduced in a manner consistent with a corresponding real-world environment. For example, in a VR game, a user moves between a cathedral and a small room which are virtual environments that have substantially different acoustics. Providing audio reverb that matches a current virtual environment and smoothly transitions between virtual environments is essential for a quality VR experience. Providing smooth audio requires implementing a change in reverberation settings, e.g., filters, synchronously with gameplay which imposes a large computational load. This disclosure describes techniques to provide realistic audio reverberation with smooth transitions between simulated environments and low computational load. The techniques present different reverberation at each ear and position sound sources external to the user