No 5.1?

[Subs]

I have 5.1 logitech speakers. In any other game i hear all of these speakers correctly (like explosions behind me come from rears, talkin comes from center)..


...however IN DX2 only the front 3 work. Rears are inactive. How do i turn on the eax or ac3 or whatever 5.1 system dx2 has? I must know cause even games like bf1942 and CS have my rear's working properly. Dx2 doesn't have them on at all.

[Subs]

bump....i need help! I hope dx2 doesn't have crap sound which doesn't support 5.1 which even cs does.

[HunterZ]

Looking at other threads and my own personal experience with DX:IW, it seems that Ion Storm nerfed or scrapped the Unreal Tournament sound engine, resulting in no other option than simple stereo sound.

The DirectSound3D option in the INI files seems to have no effect at all.

I'm as stunned by this as everyone else. My guess (as I've said elsewhere) is that they heavily optimized the game for XBox and then did a rushed port to the PC. It's a shame since the Unreal engine they used can do so much better on PC than DX:IW lets it.

[Subs]

how pathetic. I actually like this game but the stereo sound really sucks. I can't hear my rears! I have to set my soundcard to stereo (yuck!) to hear them in dx2 probably.

[Subs]

how pathetic. I actually like this game but the stereo sound really sucks. I can't hear my rears! I have to set my soundcard to stereo (yuck!) to hear them in dx2 probably.

[avonnied]

what sound card?

i have full 5.1 sound working with my Audigy2

[Jong]

There are I think only 3 people (you being the third!) across Eidos and Ion Storm boards who have 5.1 sound working with an Audigy card. You are very lucky!

First (sorry about this) can I check it is real 5.1 sound - eg. if you speak to someone and rotate around their voice moves clearly to each of the rear speakers - not just to the left and right. If there are just background sounds from those speakers it may just be CMSS (creative's fake surround sound).

But assuming it really is working for you can you please tell us the driver version you are using, any .ini tweaks you have done to DX:IW, and if possible full other details of you system (O/S, chipset, BIOS, etc.)

Honestly, there are a lot of Audigy, Audigy 2 and Audigy 2 ZS people who have not got this to work. It would be great to know how you got it to work.

[HunterZ]

I'm almost positive that they're being fooled by either their sound card or speakers doing a 2.0->5.1 upmix (CMSS or otherwise), and I'll also bet that if they listen, they will realize that sounds that should come from behind them actually come from all around them instead.

If not, then could these people please post the audio settings section of their INI file(s), since a specific combination of settings is probably needed?

[WAKIM]

As an FYI, I found this post while looking for an older post that had instructions for activating 5.1 surround in the .ini file. I followed these instructions, and my 5.1 surround seemed to work. As I rotated during a dialog cut-scene the sound of the speakers clearly shifted to the rear (not great but works). I could not tell much differance between left rear and right rear, but there was a notable shift to the rear.

I have an Audigy 2, with driver version 5.12.1.383 dated 04/11/2003. This is the driver that came installed on the computer I got around Thanksgiving. There is a more current driver available, but I haven't installed it.

I followed the instructions in a post that said at one point something like:

You should probably change xxx as well.


I should probably say that the number of crashes per session drastically after doing this so I reversed it. After installing the patch yesterday I was going to give it another try. I just need to find those instructions again.

WAKIM

[Subs]

well if you find them post them here.

by the ways i have a in-built soundcard, but its good and 5.1 works in every other applications. (a soundmax 4xl i think)

[blackeye]

5.1

i thought there is currently no game that supports real 5.1, they only support 4.1 ...
this is because 5.1 (like movie sound), is based on splitted channels and not on environmental positioning (like sound in games), basicly this means there is a different channel for each speaker encoded in the movie sound like the one for your 'center speaker' ...

games are based on realtime environmental positioning, wich is then directed to your speakers:
front= left and right front-speakers
back= left and right rear-speakers
left= left front and rear speakers
right= right front and rear speakers

and any variantion between them depending on the position of the sound source/waves ... when you turn around you should be able to hear it coming form the correct direction and 'fading' from each speaker to the other ...

so center speakers make no sense unless the sound for the center channel is just a 'fading between left and right', which wouldn't be really useful either, unless you have an 8.1 sourround system, which would probably be the next level

maybe there ar some games that use it, but then it should be a splitted 'center only' channel, which could be nice for dialogues (if the other person is in front of you :D)

(i'm not 100% sure about this, but it sound logical, so it could be right :D)

anyway, the qusetion still remains:
is "4.1" possible in DX:IW ?

[HunterZ]

No, DirectSound3D supports 5.1 sound, which means 6 discrete channels:

front left
front right
rear left
rear right
center
subwoofer

If your speaker system has fewer speakers then one or more DS3D channels has to get mixed in with the proper other channels by either your sound card or your speakers.

The Center channel is useful for establishing the center point in the stereo field. It exists because of Dolby 5.1 because Dolby apparently discovered that having a center channel makes movies sound better when you're not sitting exactly in the middle of your speaker system. The center channel usually puts out the sound that is in common between the left and right channels, but movies and games that actually have true 5.1 support can do whatever they want with each of the 6 channels.