Surround sound?
- Thread starter Graywing
- Start date
It did when I was on Win7 but when I upgraded to Win10 I found out that Win10 has a bug with 5.1 through optical out DTS and only gives you the option of stereo when using DTS. That is a Win10 issue thou and not an Elite issue. below is a link to the bug I'm talking about.
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...g/e9fba1be-06d6-44a1-86b8-7290f88032b9?page=1
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...g/e9fba1be-06d6-44a1-86b8-7290f88032b9?page=1
this is not a windows 10 issue specifically, optical out is limited in terms of bandwidth, there are certain ways to get around it yes, but mostly it is a limitation of optical bandwidth, so yeah.
HDMI and other ways of transferring sound have more then enough bandwidth for it, if you are using HDMI output from your graphic card they can drive your sound perfectly.
Regular headset is fine. With headphones, the surround sensation is in the mix, not in the speakers. Surround headphones may spread the soundfield more but it's like that stereo wide button on cd-radios. Try a binaural Youtube video with 2.0 headphones and you will realize all the possibility for surround is already there.
Edit: you might get software that downmixes 5.1 audio to 2.0 with surround headphones that is good though. But such software is also available separately.
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Works great through Xonar Essence 7.1 and Fiio E17k for amplified support through Sennheiser GameZ4ro Headphones 
freakin awesome actually
freakin awesome actually 
It certainly supports 5.1, I'd need to check on 7.1 but I'd verge on the side of yes.
ED has the best audio in virtually any game I've ever played!
It would be great to have some kind of setup check feature in ED, you can't really check if it works as intended.
That's odd that you would say it's a bandwidth issue when it worked on win7.
There is no "surround sound" with headphones. There IS a wide spacial effect but positional audio does not exist on any surround headset.
CMSS 3d was a spacial gimmick along with all the so-called surround headphones offering positional audio.
CMSS 3d was a spacial gimmick along with all the so-called surround headphones offering positional audio.
Not a specialist, however I do go to a great extent to have as good a audio experience as possible.
7.1 headset with multiply drivers are they not surround sound?
Never tried one myself but it seems to be a widespread opinion among experts that multi driver 5.1 or 7.1 headsets are just nonsense and not able to produce better surround sound simulation than traditional stereo headsets. And stereo headests will have naturally have higher quality drivers than 7.1 ones for the same price.
They are vague buzzwords. Spatially wide sound can certainly be classed as surround sound but "7.1" is pure deception. With speakers; 7.1 will give you pretty good positional audio (being able to hear distant aircraft in front of you or bullets whizzing from front to behind). What you get with any surround headphone is totally fake. You will NEVER hear sound projected in front of you. Only ever to the sides or seemingly from behind. Thus "positional audio" and "5.1", "7.1" are deceptive and not applicable.
Palmer claims that his purchased sound tech company has cracked "3d" sound but I really doubt that. Certainly the demos the company posted before Oculus acquired were just run of the mill spacial effects.
Same applies to these "binaural" demos.
What you're getting is a wide spacial effect. One feature brought to headphones that is genuine is vibration. Some headphones fitted with vibration transducers are able to deliver truly stunning bass. Bass that you can feel. Ordinary headphones by comparison sound thin and the bass can sound rather flat and artificial. A good pair of headphones with vibration feature can really bring music, movies and games to life.
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You guys are discussing this in the VR subforum, which makes it totally moot.
A VR experience will use spatial mapping on the audio to give you surround with headphones (rotates with your head movement), or surround with speakers (fixed positioning).
Those arguing against headphone surround are only partially correct. Binaural sound works just fine with headphones, when recorded using a proper physical model (literally a model of a head with mics inside ear canals). The problem is not in the fact that it's two speakers, as we only have two ears anyways. The issue is that the software to simulate it isn't perfect, and can't compensate properly for the actual shape of a human ear and your orientation. However, with VR the engine can be fed head position data and adjust levels and timings to more or less properly simulate the slight volume and millisecond timing changes that occur in the amount of time it takes sound to travel the width of your head.
Speakers are "best" for surround, but the spatially mapped audio is pretty damn convincing to me.
A VR experience will use spatial mapping on the audio to give you surround with headphones (rotates with your head movement), or surround with speakers (fixed positioning).
Those arguing against headphone surround are only partially correct. Binaural sound works just fine with headphones, when recorded using a proper physical model (literally a model of a head with mics inside ear canals). The problem is not in the fact that it's two speakers, as we only have two ears anyways. The issue is that the software to simulate it isn't perfect, and can't compensate properly for the actual shape of a human ear and your orientation. However, with VR the engine can be fed head position data and adjust levels and timings to more or less properly simulate the slight volume and millisecond timing changes that occur in the amount of time it takes sound to travel the width of your head.
Speakers are "best" for surround, but the spatially mapped audio is pretty damn convincing to me.
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I run the Sennheiser PC 363D 7.1 and the surround sound effect is great in ED. I can discern different virtural speaker placement in all of the surround positions. The fact that this is software programming to accomplish the effect versus having separate speakers for each position is unimportant. Maybe a purist's viewpoint says it is totally fake. So is everything one sees in a Hollywood action movie. I don't care. I can hear left-right front-back fly-bys and even the mail slot front-back sound as I pass through. It works very well and is worth the investment.
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"convincing" doesn't mean anything. It's either positional audio or it isn't. Palmer believes they have positional audio for CV1. If so that would mean you could accurately determine if something was in front of you, above, behind, below. Anything less is just a spacial effect and pretty useless. "pretty damn convincing" is rather vague and subjective.
I would love to have positional audio over headphones and if it ever comes I will be first in line to purchase.
Pick any number of binaural sound demos or positional audio and tell me when the sound is in front versus behind. In all of these demos there is no difference in sound from front to back and there is no above or below.
Apparently ED sounds great with "surround sound" headsets, which was the entire point of my OP. Thank you very much to everyone who replied.
I wasn't looking for a doctoral thesis on the pros and cons of hardware vs software audio implementations but if you guys want to keep debating such, feel free to use the rest of this thread to do so. My question has been answered.
I wasn't looking for a doctoral thesis on the pros and cons of hardware vs software audio implementations but if you guys want to keep debating such, feel free to use the rest of this thread to do so. My question has been answered.
Well if you're just looking for a nice spacial effect then go ahead...
I like headphones. If I bought a new set I'd make sure they vibrated.
Bear in mind, with head tracking the whole game changes. The positional audio is as much about leaning in to hear a sound better, and having it move in the sound field appropriately. That's what surround sound will never be able to replicate in VR. Perhaps not as important right now in Elite, but for space legs or anything else like that it'll be the optimal solution.
Think, walking down a hall and hearing the klaxon right next to your ear, or someone walking up next to your chair and whispering in your ear. Can't to either as well with 7.1 as with headphones.
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