Ok so HL2 is finally recognizing 5.1!!! I have no clue as to why it has decided to cooperate. I *think* it could be because when I went to configure for 'Speakers' and set it to 5.1 (nitpicking, 7.1 doesn't work still), I didn't click 'next' all the way to 'finish'.
Ok so that part is solved...
Well I want to output through the optical, but I've tried both the "x fi speaker" with the card's L/R jack and "x fi spdif" with optical. Also I have a generic "soundmax speaker" and "digital output". Those have been disabled on the control panel.
Ok so I've got HL2 running on Win7 x64, and I've just decided to try out surround sound with it using a new x-fi titanium card, but for some reason, I cannot get HL2 to let me change the speaker configuration. It stays on 2 speakers. When I try to change it, close the audio window, and reopen...