Music and sound features...

[Incoming]

What are your guesses about the sound and audio-features in HL2 ? I have no doubt that it will support at least 5.1 surround and EAX (maybe even Advanced HD).

What kind of level of audio quality and features can you expect from HL2 - will it be like TR-The Angel Of Darkness, Unreal II - The Awakening and HALO (PC) or a few bars below or over ?

As a conclusion - Will owners of Audigy II ZS and Creative's Inspire T7700 be the luckiest people on earth when HL2 arrives or won't the soundsystem matter at all ?

 

[ComradeBadger]

We just don't know mate.... sorry

 

[maleficarus™]

My guess is it will support the Audigy2 THX sound cards with full EAX HD support. I would be really surprized if it didn't come with 5.1 support either. Valve knows that the sounds are what convinces people to be apart of there virtual reality so it makes sense it will come with the latest offerings...

 

[Majestic XII]

Bah for surroundsystems... i have all my power on 2 stereo speakers

(and no crappy compy speakers)

 

[The Dark Elf]

If you check the FAQ on that Valve ERC site, I'm pretty sure sound gets a mention. and I could swear I've seen interviews with Doug where he mentions something about the sound. It's bound to have EAX and 5.1, didn't HL1? I'm not sure, I just use the onboard sound at the moment, old mboard so nothing special. But I'm sure HL2 will make use of whatever is currently cool in the sound world

I'm just happy when something is stereo, I'm so easily pleased lol

 

[poseyjmac]

im happy when games have 44khz sound files

 

[marksmanHL2 :)]

WEll I have brand new 5.1 surround sound with one hell of a sub. Heheh the base sub is bigger than my tower. Much bigger!!!


- Me happy!

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by marksmanHL2
WEll I have brand new 5.1 surround sound with one hell of a sub. Heheh the base sub is bigger than my tower. Much bigger!!!


- Me happy!

heh same here, only I can't use them fully until I get a decent sound card.. and my subwoofer isn't as big as the computer, can be loud though, great for getting back at the neighbours when the silly cow plays those 50's LP's really loud while I'm trying to work! haha

Be just my luck they'll break the day I finally get around to sorting a decent card out though lol

 

[marksmanHL2 :)]

lol yeah,


Well mines "kinda" loud. ie I have the sound on the first notch on the windows control slider thing and its allready fairly loud. :O

Cool eh!!!


:cheers:

 

[Incitatus]

HL2 sound will support/emulate the doppler effect, which LGW will of course be taking advantage of.

:afro:

 

[marksmanHL2 :)]

heheh, the mod i'm working on will also have that. For a specific purpose. But I wont tell you yet. Just watch this space. Details on my mod will be released soon ish...

 

[GhostValkyrie]

Originally posted by Incoming

As a conclusion - Will owners of Audigy II ZS and Creative's Inspire T7700 be the luckiest people on earth when HL2 arrives or won't the soundsystem matter at all ?

Yes, we will.
Mwuhuhahahahah!

 

[Impute]

Originally posted by poseyjmac
im happy when games have 44khz sound files

Maybe you will be happy.

 

[Incoming]

Yeah, there's not much beating a good subwoofer in an action-packed FPS ! (Actually, my 7.1 system is made up of seven subwoofers and one tweeter !!!) M A N, do my ears feel alive when I try dodging those rockets a sec too late !

And for Fenric1138 and e-body else who's thinking about upgrading their soundcard - I can warmly recommend the SB Audigy 2 ZS - it's not that expensive and delivers the best audio effects/features seen today with a woppin' soundquality with no less than a 108 SNR !

 

[Typhon]

happiness comes from low expectations. I use head-phones. :cheese:

 

[NucHaz]

I really hope they include some headphone specific modes, like HRTF (Head-Related-Transfer-Fuctions) modes or dolby headphone like modes or binaural modes.
I emailed gabe about it a few times the last month or so, but have yet to get an answer. Perhaps Ill try agin tomarrow.
Im a huge headphone nut thou, sporting a pair of Grado SR-325's and a custom quad opa627 META42 w/ gilmore PSU. Completely blew away my Klipsch 4.1's I used to use. Headphones also rock becasue your ears dont have struggle to compete aginst 2 different acoustic environments (the one in your house and the one thats created via the audio source), theres only a small, predictable cavitiy of air between the headphones and your head, so its easyer to get a better recreation of the origanal audio.
but ya, Im really interested in learning if HL2 supports headphone specific modes, casue that would rock for us headphone guys.

 

[Tyl3n0L]

Gabe said the game will fully support 5.1 and EAX

For EAX I think Half-life1 support it... Not quite sure but I think you have an option for it.
Look at the "Info From Valve Only" thread. The reply from Gabe is inside...

And I heard Doom III Will be the first game to fully support 6.1.

 

[NucHaz]

I just recived a reply about headphone specific audio modes, I posted it in the "info from valve only" thread, but am also posting it here since it directly related to the topic of this thread:




There is no current plan in HL2 to directly support HRTF or other
driver-provided headphone modes. However, there is an embedded headphone
mode which enhances spatialization of mono audio sources by providing a
left/right differential delay based on room size.

-----Original Message-----
From: Gabe Newell
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2003 11:33 AM
To: Kelly Bailey
Subject: FW: headphone specific audio modes?



________________________________

From: NucHaz [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2003 11:26 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: headphone specific audio modes?


Howdy, Is there gonna be any headphone specific audio modes in HL2 ?,
if there is, feel-free to elaborate if you have time, im very curious if
theres any HRTF modes or dolby headphone like modes or binaural modes.

thanks!

-NucHaz



So nothing fancy, just a variable crossfeed modeled after the size of the room your in.

 

[iamironsam]

I wanna get a surround sound setup going for my comp, but I don't anywhere to put the rear speakers. Where do you guys put them? I've seen them up on peticels, but I couldn't do that. I've heard if you mount them up on the wall too far away from you it throws off the whole 3D sound effect.

 

[Incoming]

Originally posted by iamironsam
I wanna get a surround sound setup going for my comp, but I don't anywhere to put the rear speakers. Where do you guys put them? I've seen them up on peticels, but I couldn't do that. I've heard if you mount them up on the wall too far away from you it throws off the whole 3D sound effect.

First of all it depends on if you have a 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 system. If you're gaming with 5.1, the rear speakers should be standing at your sides and not behind you since the rearmost sattelites produces the sounds from your sides and not from behind. With 6.1 and 7.1 the rearmost speakers DO give the sounds from behind you and thus should be placed appropriately.

If you have a bookcase or similar behind you, place 'em there at a convenient level, maybe on a windowsill (??) or do like I've done, build your own stands. It don't cost much (depending on material of choice) and you can easily build four stable ones in a day and enjoy optimum positioning for all eternity !
:cheers: