Is 5.1 Surround Sound Supported?

J

JimboC

Guest
I was just wondering if anyone knew if Valve was goingto support 5.1 or better surround sound in Half-Life 2. Seems like it's been largely ignored by most games, though that's starting to change as more and more people are getting better speakers.

Thanks.
 
I think there's a "Yes" answer to your question somewhere in the Info thread...
 
Here's the link
http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showpost.php?p=53050&postcount=136

We support Dolby 5.1 sound for the ultimate home theater sound and whatever comes beyond that. We know that Creative has talked about their 6.1 system. We'll migrate to that and support whatever state-of-the-art audio system is available to consumers to make the experience that much more compelling and richer."
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Ownage.
 
VeZ said:
yea i suppose so since its dx9
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dx9 doesnt have much to do with audio heh. look at doom3, it's openGL, and is supposed to have some of the best 5.1 surround sound. who would have thunk ;)
 
o well ive always noticed that dx9 have positional sound and i havent seen dx8 games have any of that :p
 
I looked all over the place, did a search on the forums and on Google and I came up with nothing. Never thought to check the info thread. My bad.

Brian Damage said:
"Positional" sound?

Someone clue me in, I'm not big on sound...
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Well, you basically postition a bunch of speakers around you. For example, my setup uses 3 in front of you and 3 behind you plus a sub woofer (Dolby 6.1 - 6 speakers + 1 subwoofer). The positional audio then plays the sound in the correct speaker(s) with the correct volumes so the sound give you the same effect as if you were actually in the scene. If it's done really well, you can almost play the game with your eyes closed.

For example, something shoots at you from over your left shoulder, but misses. You hear the gunshot from over your left shoulder and the ricochet in front of you to your right a little.
 
Oh, right. I knew about that stuff, just never heard it called by that name before... we always just use the blanket term "Surround Sound"...
 
DeltaBlast said:
5.1 is supported, but 7.1 isn't ;(
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Well, for me that's ok as my sound card only supports 5.1 audio anyway. ;)

Actually, I just read that article and Valve's promising to support pretty much whatever's available when the game ships. Audigy 2 cards are really popular now and 7.1 speaker sets aren't too far out there pricewise. I would be surprised if 7.1 support wasn't in the final version.
 
I think it's obvious enough Valve would support such a feature.
There was support for EAX in the original HL (which was pretty odd, since it was pretty new technology in those times), and I would guess that they won't miss 5.1 this time, as was approved by Mr-Fusion's link...
 
some of the positional sound in half life wasnt too great...some explosions went behind me but i heard them in front of me too, but hey it was an older game, i didnt know they even had positional sound back then
 
I'm sticking with my SB Live! platinum, with 5.1 surround speakers. But I'll use my headphones most. They sound as good as my 5.1 speakers.
 
well, i'll just stick to my good old multimedia speakers, i don't want to spend that much money on speakers, you know
 
I would think that means no EAX:

------------------------------------------------------

It currently uses a proprietary DSP engine to support surround sound etc.

Rick



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: XXX [mailto:XXX]
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2004 11:38 AM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: easy question, just takes 1 min of your time


Hi Rick,

I was wondering what kind of sound support will Half-Life 2 have for 3D Audio. Does it support EAX 4.0, EAX 3.0, Dolby Digital (for living room guys), Aureal Interactive, or Direct Sound 3D?

Thanks for your time, keep up the good work,

-XXX
 
x84D80Yx said:
dx9 doesnt have much to do with audio heh. look at doom3, it's openGL, and is supposed to have some of the best 5.1 surround sound. who would have thunk ;)
Click to expand...

DirectX is not just graphics, DirectX includes Direct3D, DirectDraw (2D) DirectSound, DirectPlay (networking API) and DirectInput.

And OpenGL is just graphics, a game can use an OpenGL renderer yet use DirectX for input or sound.
 
I'll use my so so 5.1 surround with my SB Live! Value edition card...

Yet, if I'll get lucky, and have a lot of money, I will buy an Audigy 2ZS and a new computer... :(
 
Man, I need to hook my comp up to my HT system via Digital coax to enjoy surround sound... :( That means buying a coax-to-optical converter.
 
just got Logitech 6.1 sound system for 70$ off newegg, even on my AC'97 they are REALLY good speakers. I'll be getting my SB Audigy 2 ZS next friday....then they should really shine. :)
 
hmm, i think my audigy 2 zs with klipsch promedia ultra 5.1 speakers will do nicely for hl2... :)
 
PvtRyan said:
DirectX is not just graphics, DirectX includes Direct3D, DirectDraw (2D) DirectSound, DirectPlay (networking API) and DirectInput.

And OpenGL is just graphics, a game can use an OpenGL renderer yet use DirectX for input or sound.
Click to expand...
who is your daddy, and what does he do?
as far as i know, you can use 3D Stereo Sound Rendering in openGL, which is basically surround sound or positioning sound as some here like to call it. :dozey: but yeah you probally can use directx for sound in openGL.
 
Uh, guys, anything that uses directsound output will have posistional audio as you put it, HL has it already, and thats what? DX7? or is it 6, i can't remember :/

Anyway, 5.1 would be nice, but a good quality 4.1 system won't be noticibly worse.

To the guy who had a creative and crackling sound, you were also running XP and the drivers were at fault, it was fixed a long time ago.

the AC97 chipset is a standard that's been around since, uh, well 1997 strangely enough, it was crap at first.
The 5.1 itterations of it now seem pretty good, but there are many different versions of it based of the original chipset, the best of which appears to be the Soundstorm version, its been listed as comparible to the Creative cards in quality.
Personally i'm sticking with the Creative stuff for at least the time being, they are a great balance in sound quality and have the lowest CPU usage in game of any card out there i know of.
 
from personal experience:
Soundstorm is HORRIBLE. theres a REASON I'm getting the Audigy2 ZS. It's called surround sound.

I've yet to even get proper front/back with the soundstorm, and it REFUSES to play the center channel. (Much less, center rear).

my mom's Intel onboard sounds much MUCH better then my AC'97 Soundstorm....
 
lol, ul, well, even though i have it, i still don't use it, aparently there was an issue with the mic input before the bios updates corrected it.
 
I think gabe said the engine supports up to 7.1
 
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