X-Fi CMSS-3D and Headsets

[elrasho]

I have an X-Fi Extreme Gamer sound card and Creative HS600 head set. Ive got the Xfi setup as follows:

Mode: Entertainment Mode
Speakers: Headphones
Eax Effects: Enabled
X-Fi CMSS-3D: Enabled as 50%
X-Fi Crystalizer: Disabled

With these setting I expect to get the virtual surround sound when playing games like COD4 and TF2. I do but after reading around on the net other people are getting better results. Is there something Im missing here? I set the in game sound option to 5.1 and have tried the Gamer mode with MacroFX and ElevationFilter both ON and it sounds just the same.

There must be something Im doing wrong

 

[-Psy-]

Why are you setting a headset to 5.1 sound? Unless it's one of those 5.1 headsets then set it back to 2 speakers/headphones.

 

[giant384]

cmss makes it virtual surround, set your in game setting to 2.0/headphones.

 

[Asus]

Yeah, creative does the sound separation for the fake surround sound. Don't tell the game to do it as well.

 

[The Brick]

The 'proper' way to use the CMSS 3D feature is to UNCHECK the 'synchronize with control panel' and then set the windows control panel to 5.1/7.1. In the X-fi control panel, you have you put the speakers do 'headphones'. That should work. Thing is, it's complete crap. There's no proper in-between the speakers. Either it's from the front left, or the rear left. There's no fluid transition between them. Other than that, it's pretty convincing. Sadly it distorts the sound too much for enjoyable music. If you enable cmss with the sync option checked, it'll just make the sound complete crap and muddy.

For music, the best settings in my opinion are:
cmss 3d disabled
speakers: headphones
eax: enabled (doesn't do anything at all)
crystalizer: enabled (I keep it at 45%)

I also keep it to Game mode. Mostly because it has the handiest control panel. Not sure if there's actually any difference between them. I think they're mostly just two profiles. But the drivers/software really hate switching between modes a lot. I had all sorts of bugs happen. Btw, I use the above settings at all times, except for competitive css, but that's a different story.

 

[elrasho]

cmss makes it virtual surround, set your in game setting to 2.0/headphones.

Ive tried this and it doesnt make a difference.

Thanks for the advice Brick, unchecking 'synchronize with control panel' has made a big difference. Ive got Control Panel sound set to 5.1 and the same in COD4 aswell. Now the sound does appear like its coming from all directions

Is there anything else you can recommend? What are MacroFX and ElevationFilter for?

 

[The Brick]

No clue, I've tried experimenting with them, but I couldn't tell what they did. I just left them on auto.

Further recommendation? Use the settings I provided for music/movies. It provides a much clearer, more detailed and satisfying sound image. Other than that, get proper headphones. If by then you need more, replace the opamps on the soundcard with LM4562/LM4572.

 

[elrasho]

Having read some other forums it appears the sound settings you must use are different depeding on which game you are playing.

In COD4 Ive found having Windows sound set to 5.1, Creative Console set to Headphones with CMSS-3D on. This works perfectly although I do find the sounds coming from the rear are a little weak.

For Bioshock, they have included some special EAX instructions for the Xfi cards so the sound is much deeper and clearer. However CMSS-3D doesnt seem to work, I dont here the splicer talking behined me, they just sound as though they are in front of me. So im gonna ahve to mess about with the settings once again. Its a shame one setting doesnt work for all games.

 

[The Brick]

It should, any game that supports a multichannel output (4.1/5.1/7.1) can be used with cmss3d.