VR surround sound

[CMDR Rison]

The Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive are both supposed to have built-in headphones with 3D sound.
Does anyone know if the headphones take into consideration which direction you face?
Surround sound headphones work fine as long as you're always facing the screen.
But with VR you turn your head and normal surround sound headphones wouldn't know to re-position the sources of sound.
Do the headphones of these HMDs respond to rotational/positional tracking?
If there is a loud sound to my right, and I turn around, will I hear it to my left?

 

[CATPAIN KIRK]

That's what the setting Oculus Rift (Headphones) / Oculus Rift (Speakers) is for in the graphics settings. With OR (headphones) it rotates the soundscape around in accordance with positional information, whereas it doesn't with the speaker setting.

Not sure if the headphones option restricts the sound to stereo though, but I doubt it.

 

[CMDR Rison]

Wow, that's awesome. I was hoping that was the case. Thanks.

 

[Jake Savage]

I am pretty sure the vive does not come with built in headphones. But it does come with it's own headphone jack to plug headphones into.

 

[Beavis Tingleball]

oculus rift (headphones) simulates surround sound if you dont have a surround setup. there is no difference between the sound direction.

 

[CMDR Rison]

I am pretty sure the vive does not come with built in headphones. But it does come with it's own headphone jack to plug headphones into.

Not sure what to think on this one. I've heard from a couple sources that there would be but if HTC is telling some people, they don't seem to be telling many. Why would they be so quiet about it? It seems like it would be a selling point. Anyway, here is one of my sources, skip to 1:20 to hear it mentioned in passing:
[video=youtube;_Jjm42-4rK4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jjm42-4rK4&feature=youtu.be&t=81[/video]

 

[grammatonfeather]

The Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive are both supposed to have built-in headphones with 3D sound.
Does anyone know if the headphones take into consideration which direction you face?
Surround sound headphones work fine as long as you're always facing the screen.
But with VR you turn your head and normal surround sound headphones wouldn't know to re-position the sources of sound.
Do the headphones of these HMDs respond to rotational/positional tracking?
If there is a loud sound to my right, and I turn around, will I hear it to my left?

I will eat my bowler hat if Oculus has accurate 3d positional audio because all of the systems in use to date have been fake. Creative CMSS is fake. The surround headphones using multiple drivers are fake. The 7.1 surround headphones are fake. What they all give you is a spacial audio effect. The sound will never ever be heard in front of you. It only ever appears "behind" or to the sides. The 3d sound company Palmer assimilated had some 3d surround sound demos on their site and I gave them a listen... surprise! they were no better than the other fake positional audio systems out there. I had a brief chat with Palmer about this and he assured me those demos were "early versions" (before the company was acquired by Oculus) but the fact remains that 3d sound company had posted those sound demos believing they offered "3d sound".

I really want there to be positional audio over headphones.. I'd love it to be true but none of the systems I've used to date offer anything like positional audio. To quality as positional audio the sound has to be able to travel all around you and headphones just can't project in front.

 

[buyback]

Does someone here have an Asus Strix 7.1 Headset or similar (with descrete drivers for each channels and not just a virtual model). I never had such a headset for testing but due to room restrictions I am interested in such a thing as its out of question currently to build a SimPit with a real surround setup for me.

 

[Jake Savage]

Not sure what to think on this one. I've heard from a couple sources that there would be but if HTC is telling some people, they don't seem to be telling many. Why would they be so quiet about it? It seems like it would be a selling point. Anyway, here is one of my sources, skip to 1:20 to hear it mentioned in passing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jjm42-4rK4&feature=youtu.be&t=81

go to vives website. It says no built in audio, but comes with a jack for your own headphones.
Also if you Google Vive VR news, then all the latest info is there.

 

[CMDR Rison]

go to vives website. It says no built in audio, but comes with a jack for your own headphones.

Where does it say this? I'm on their site now and all I see is this:

Plug your favorite set of headphones into a jack located on the side of the Developer Edition headset.

which specifically mentions it is talking about the developer edition. I know the developer edition doesn't have built-in audio. But is there built-in audio in the final version? Did you follow my link and listen to the video?

 

[Jake Savage]

Yes I did watch the vid. But from all the sources I checked out they say no built in audio. I even read an article a few months back, where Vive said they wanted to focus on the VR, not mess around with audio in the limited space they had in the product.
I really hope I'm wrong though. It makes good sense to have built in audio.
You never know, seeing that the rift will have it built in, then maybe they will change their minds.
Guess we'll have to wait and see!

 

[CMDR Rison]

I like Oculus's strategy: Built-in audio that can be disconnected and replaced by whatever you want. That's perfect.