Dolby Digital PC Games (1 Viewer)

[Scott McGillivray]

Hi Gang.

Was wondering what titles are out there that are AC-3 encoded. I recall Wing Commander having a surround track (not sure if it was DD or not) and was wondering if there was any more titles incorperating a surround track. I think that would be reall useful in a 1st person shooter.

 

[Shayne Lebrun]

None. Lots of games have cinematics that are DPL, but because your average PC doesn't have digital out, there's no way to put on DD.

 

[Demetri K]

enviormental audio is pretty cool though

 

[Chris Rock]

Yeah, some games use EAX or Direct Sound 3D to get some pretty good positional audio effects.

 

[Shayne Lebrun]

Faugh. My Aureal2 card blows EAX away. Too bad they failed, commercially....

 

[Kelley_B]

A3D 2.0 was the shit! Totally blows EAX away....too bad Hercules couldn't fork out the cash for Aureal like Creative could. Its kinda like nVidia buying 3DFX, what better way to silence your competitor, BUY THEM!

 

[Scott McGillivray]

Thanks for the input guys.
I find it odd that surround sound has not made more inroads into PC gaming. I would think that for many games, DD would be just a fantastic addition. The fact that games are not in surround sound is really odd when you see the plethora of 5.1 sound cards and speaker systems being promoted. I have setup a nice PC with an Audigy Platium EX sound card and fed the coax signal into a Marantz Dolby Digital system. Certain games do have some sort of "surround" sound, such as Unreal Tournament, but it is not a true 5.1 system.
If anyone has more info, please share it with us!

 

[Shayne Lebrun]

"surround" cards have been around for five or six years; just not outputting Dolby Digital. Very few computers have a DD reciever sitting beside them.

Besides, DD is a hack. Go find a Aureal 2 sound card, put it into two speaker mode, then try the 3d sound demos.

 

[Camp]

A3D 2.0 was the shit! Totally blows EAX away

I agree. I still use my Aureal card in my 2nd PC. The demos are amazing. You'd swear 2 speakers were really 5.

 

[felix_suwarno]

i am not excited with 5.1 sound from my pc. i love to play videogames, it is the sole purpose i was born on this planet, but i simply think that 5.1 sound is unnecessary. the distance between my front left and right speaker is not great, phantom center channel is more than enough.

 

[Max Leung]

I have an nForce-based PC. I get DD5.1 output in all my games. However, in reality I get 4.1, as the center channel is almost never used. Not too big a deal right now.

I find the Jedi Knight 2 has the best 4.1 sound...full stereo rear surrounds (kinda neat hearing stormtrooper conversations panning in the rear channels!). Unreal Tournament works as well, but some of the game effects are muffled or very low in volume...such as picking up items like ammo, weapons, etc. The nForce handles JK2's audio beautifully. IL2 Sturmovik is not bad, however I still have trouble determining if there is stereo rear channels. Medal of Honor works in 4.1 as well, but your gunfire is severely muffled and bass is almost non-existant (this is the biggest complaint with MoH...the 3D sound support was disabled because it sucks, and on Audigy cards there is a bad performance hit).

Also, some games insist on enabling EAX, with no option to turn off the stupid echoes. Deus Ex gives me that trouble, even with the A3D software emulation drives (which convert the sound routines to DirectSound 3D calls that the nForce supports in hardware).

NVIDIA's nForce drivers are very bare-bones however...there is no option to disable EAX effects or tweak them, for example, which is incredibly irritating. Dungeon Siege and Deus Ex are almost unplayable with EAX on...the shitty echoes just drive me nuts. Walking on grass in Deus Ex induces a horrible echo! Arrrrgh!

It is really cool to play a DTS CD and have the normal windows desktop sounds mixed in at the same time. I'm having trouble having random sound dropouts however...I hope it is just my flaky and crappy Pioneer slot-load 105S DVD-ROM. What a piece of junk!

Remember, all the games that support DirectSound 3D will play back in DD5.1 (of course missing the center channel in 99% of the games/demos out there). My yamaha DSP-A1 displays "Dolby Digital" on its LCD display.

 

[Shayne Lebrun]

I have an nForce-based PC. I get DD5.1 output in all my games. However, in reality I get 4.1, as the center channel is almost never used. Not too big a deal right now.

You get DD output, but, unlike an xbox, the games don't have any idea what DD is. The game is using DirectSound3D with whatever multi-channel solution you have. In your case, this is DD. In my case, it's an Aureal 2 card with a whack of speaker jacks.