Point Cloud Sound for irregular shaped audio sources

In video game development, we're used to sound coming from single positions in space, but how do we handle sound coming from an irregular shape? Visualization of two point cloud sounds for water streams and foliage, respectively. One technique is to move a regular point audio source to the position inside a volume that's the closest to the listener. This works fine for convex shapes, and I've used it myself in my game Eye of the Temple for the sound coming from a rumbling ceiling trap that's lowering down, and for the lava floor in a big chamber. But for non-convex shapes, the closest-point approach has some issues. Imagine a heavily winding river where a single point on land is equally close to two completely different spots on the river. Here, the closest-point approach will switch abruptly from one position to another if the player moves just a tiny bit in one direction or the other. Two points in a non-convex sound source may be equally close to the listener while being located in…