Rift users: are you still manually switching Windows audio?

CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE

CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE
I have a Logitech speaker set plugged in to the 3.5mm jack. Before I start playing ED in the Rift I have to set the Rift Audio device to be the default device that Windows uses otherwise I do not get audio in ED.

According to his KB FAQ article this issue was going to be fixed in 2.1. EDIT: as there is nothing in the patch notes I assume it hasn't.

I have tried the suggestion in this thread https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...on-for-users-with-VR-headsets-or-audio-issues and forced the audio to use the WASAPI API but it made no difference. The comments in the new AudioConfiguration.xml file say "Changing this might be useful if you experience Elite taking exclusive ownership about Windows' audio environment or silent Oculus Rift headphones" (and yes I removed the comment tags).

Is everyone else having to do this or am I missing a setting somewhere? Whilst I consider myself PC-literate audio is not my strong point. Does this only affect people with external speakers?
 
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[HJ]-RedRaven

[HJ]-RedRaven
I'll be in this situation soon too. I also have a Logitech Z-55 set plugged in, although I'm usually using headphones plugged into the head unit (kids asleep etc).

Interested to hear others setups for Rift vs normal 2D audio switching.
 

Katkon

K
MAIN SEQUENCE said:
I have a Logitech speaker set plugged in to the 3.5mm jack. Before I start playing ED in the Rift I have to set the Rift Audio device to be the default device that Windows uses otherwise I do not get audio in ED.

According to his KB FAQ article this issue was going to be fixed in 2.1. EDIT: as there is nothing in the patch notes I assume it hasn't.

I have tried the suggestion in this thread https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...on-for-users-with-VR-headsets-or-audio-issues and forced the audio to use the WASAPI API but it made no difference. The comments in the new AudioConfiguration.xml file say "Changing this might be useful if you experience Elite taking exclusive ownership about Windows' audio environment or silent Oculus Rift headphones" (and yes I removed the comment tags).

Is everyone else having to do this or am I missing a setting somewhere? Whilst I consider myself PC-literate audio is not my strong point. Does this only affect people with external speakers?
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting this OP. I've been using my CV1 with normal speakers, and didn't try the headset until yesterday. I noticed no sound, and had to do exactly as you described and manually assign the Rift headset as default device. With my Astro headset I would assign my surround set up as "default device" and my headset as "default communication device", which would have the effect of me getting sound only through the headset when turned on. Turning the Astro headset off would restore surround sound. I was going to tinker with it again tonight with the Rift headset, but your post made me realize this is a bug or missing feature of sorts in the Oculus front. Truth be told, I wish I could take off the blasted integrated headset for the Oculus. I have a much better headset and am a bit annoyed that I have to use an inferior headset just to use the Rift - which doesn't even work properly!
 

CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE

CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE
Katkon said:
but your post made me realize this is a bug or missing feature of sorts in the Oculus front.
Click to expand...
To be clear, it's an issue for FD to fix not Oculus (all other apps have audio through the Rift headphones).

Truth be told, I wish I could take off the blasted integrated headset for the Oculus. I have a much better headset and am a bit annoyed that I have to use an inferior headset just to use the Rift - which doesn't even work properly!
Click to expand...
You can remove the headphones from the Rift - I've seen a guide somewhere I think it was on the Oculus support pages - looked straightforward enough. Personally I'm happy with the sound but then I've never had a high-end headset :) For me the convenience outweighs the quality on this point.
 
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drkaii

drkaii
I have made some batch files to switch between headphones and speakers. I'll probably be adding one for the CV1 audio too.
 

X-Terminator

Banned
X-Terminator
I had been using Audio Switcher until it gave me severe stutters in ED. A Windows Update had re-enabled the Monitors Speakers which had 1 Driver but 5 instances of Profiles it created after re-installs of Nvidia and trying to remove their auto generated Nvidia Audio which always took over the one I had disabled. So after the Update it enabled them all thus taking up much needed bandwidth and it must have been a 32bit program as it actually re-installed Redist C++2015(x86) after I had deleted it to enable Oculus re-install which only adds the OS same bit (x64). Now this messed all it's switching icons to show correctly but at least Windows shouted "I seem to be having problems with this Sound Driver dude. Do you wish to disable it again as you did before mate?" - BLEEDING YES!!! Thus VR was saved and ED is now playing once again.

Now, I wanted another switcher but then found Win10 already has it right there on the Speaker Icon! You LEFT-CLICK and select from a drop menu above.

OMG - it was right there all along!
 
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GMANTOR

G
I am fairly sure that Windows has no API for an application to set the default audio device which makes it difficult for FD to apply code to allow you to select an audio device of your choice either on startup or during the game. Not sure why (or even if I'm correct - although I have been dealing with a developer over many years very knowledgeable in audio that told me this - maybe its changed). This might explain why a seemingly trivial bit of code has not been added by FD to make audio selections easier.
 

Dielos

Dielos
X-Terminator said:
I had been using Audio Switcher until it gave me severe stutters in ED. A Windows Update had re-enabled the Monitors Speakers which had 1 Driver but 5 instances of Profiles it created after re-installs of Nvidia and trying to remove their auto generated Nvidia Audio which always took over the one I had disabled. So after the Update it enabled them all thus taking up much needed bandwidth and it must have been a 32bit program as it actually re-installed Redist C++2015(x86) after I had deleted it to enable Oculus re-install which only adds the OS same bit (x64). Now this messed all it's switching icons to show correctly but at least Windows shouted "I seem to be having problems with these Sound Driver dude. Do you wish to disable the again as you did before mate?" - BLEEDING YES!!! Thus VR was saved and ED is now playing once again.

Now, I wanted another switcher but then found Win10 already has it right there on the Speaker Icon! You LEFT-CLICK and select from a drop menu above.

OMG - it was right there all along!
Click to expand...

I found about this just yesterday as well, so uninstalling Audio Switcher, which is constantly crashing on me lately anyway.

Really surprised I didn't notice this before either. Was it there really all along, or did it get added with a recent update? Anyway, it's extremely useful!
 

X-Terminator

Banned
X-Terminator
Dielos said:
I found about this just yesterday as well, so uninstalling Audio Switcher, which is constantly crashing on me lately anyway.

Really surprised I didn't notice this before either. Was it there really all along, or did it get added with a recent update? Anyway, it's extremely useful!
Click to expand...

It does look rather new. I wonder what else is under the hood...There's a new Windows 10 Creator OS BETA out now - I got no idea. Oh cool, it has a new GAME MODE for optimizing! @ 15'00"
Free to all Win 10 Users in April.
[video=youtube;XCj-wJB5j4c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCj-wJB5j4c[/video]
 
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Khaldur

K
Still switching manually between Rift audio and monitor speakers. Only need this for ED.
I've just put a shortcut to the audio settings on my desktop. That way it's just a minor annoyance.
 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
There's a nice little utility called "Oculus Tray Tool" which lets you easily switch audio sources (along with a whole bunch of other stuff) ..

https://forums.oculus.com/community...pling-profiles-hmd-disconnect-fixes-hopefully

Alternatively you can install a little utility called NirCmd ..

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html

This is what I use. It's a command line utility, so there's a command called 'setdefaultsounddevice' which you can use to specify the audio device you want. I have two shortcuts on my desktop called "Stop Oculus" and "Start Oculus". These point to batch command files which do two things: they stop and start the Oculus Windows service called OVRService (stopping this service when your Oculus is not in use prevents Oculus Home starting up when running non-VR Elite and also prevents the HMD's sensor from accidentally powering on the headset when it's not in use) and they switch the audio device.

n.b. the commands to stop/start the Oculus service are:

net stop OVRService

.. and ..

net start OVRService
 

TorTorden_VR

T
MAIN SEQUENCE said:
To be clear, it's an issue for FD to fix not Oculus (all other apps have audio through the Rift headphones).


You can remove the headphones from the Rift - I've seen a guide somewhere I think it was on the Oculus support pages - looked straightforward enough. Personally I'm happy with the sound but then I've never had a high-end headset :) For me the convenience outweighs the quality on this point.
Click to expand...

Just a flat head screw driver and three turns and they pop off.
 

TheChafing

T
MAIN SEQUENCE said:
I have a Logitech speaker set plugged in to the 3.5mm jack. Before I start playing ED in the Rift I have to set the Rift Audio device to be the default device that Windows uses otherwise I do not get audio in ED.

According to his KB FAQ article this issue was going to be fixed in 2.1. EDIT: as there is nothing in the patch notes I assume it hasn't.

I have tried the suggestion in this thread https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...on-for-users-with-VR-headsets-or-audio-issues and forced the audio to use the WASAPI API but it made no difference. The comments in the new AudioConfiguration.xml file say "Changing this might be useful if you experience Elite taking exclusive ownership about Windows' audio environment or silent Oculus Rift headphones" (and yes I removed the comment tags).

Is everyone else having to do this or am I missing a setting somewhere? Whilst I consider myself PC-literate audio is not my strong point. Does this only affect people with external speakers?
Click to expand...

I don't have this problem. SteamVR has a setting where it will switch the audio device to something else when launching a VR application, so I just use that.

However, even before I had that turned on, I don't think that I ever had that problem with ED. It just seemed to know that it should use the Rift headphones, and not the speakers connected to the sound card or monitor.
 

BaronVonDoon

B
I just launch Elite mine from Oculus home, and you don't need to switch. Unless you use voice attack, so I now have to switch anyway, or Astras voice comes through the speakers, while the rest comes through the headphones.
 

Cutter_Rubio

C
I added a command to Astra. Using the phrase "Reset Audio Device" the command runs a built-in Voice Attack function under the Other|Windows category to change the audio devices to what I want. When I exit Elite, I just give that command before shutting down Voice Attack.
 

WTFover

W
I have a set of speakers, my Bose headphones, and my rift and I am always going into "playback devices" to switch default settings to get the sound to happen where I like. Running windows 8.1 pro.
I've been doing it so long now that I don't think about it much.
 
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