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Sound questions when gaming

flood950flood950 Member Posts: 447
in The Pub at MMORPG.COM
Let me start by saying that hopefully I havnt crossed the line with what can go into this forum.  This is an issue related to playing MMO's but I do realize its a little outside the normal scope.  I have posed this question in forums on other sites which may be more appropriate but have not received any solid responses.  I know there are a lot of long time PC gamers here so I am hoping maybe someone has encountered this.  I do feel like I have a better shot here on AV forums as those guys tend to lack knowledge specific to gaming.



I am wondering if anyone knows if it is even remotely possible to get raw sound data to work over an Optical Sound connection?



The issue that I have is that I have recently got an Optical connection going between my sound card and my speaker console.  It works perfectly for non-gaming needs.  It supports Dolby Digital Live and DTS Interactive.



The problem with this, is that when playing games, LoTRo as example in my case which uses true 5.1 Direct Sound, the Dolby/DTS encoders are really toasting the native surround sound in the game.



I am hoping there is a way to use this fiber optic connection but still in a raw 5.1 method for gaming.   I cannot see any way to do this, whenever I use the optical feed all of the standard digital sound drivers stop functioning...I can only use Dolby or DTS.  It may just be a backwards compatibility type of deal due to the nature of fiber optic data transfer.



Likely I am going ot need to connect both the optical cable as well as the direct sound and switch connections via the console for when I game but right now I am hoping that doesnt damage anything as I am not sure that is a recommended situation for the sound card. Waiting to hear back from the manufacturer which could take a while....



If anyone has any experience with this please let me know.  Feel free to PM as I know this topic is a little off-topic but it does without question relate to my ability to play LoTRo with quality surround sound :)  Thanks in advance.

Comments

  • GreenChaosGreenChaos Member Posts: 2,268

    Well that was totally over my head.  I just realized two months ago that a sound cards makes a difference.

  • flood950flood950 Member Posts: 447
    Originally posted by GreenChaos


    Well that was total over my head.  I just realized two months ago that a sound cards makes a difference.
    It would have been over my head about a week or so ago also.  :)



    I realize its rather complicated and unless someone has personally tried this before I doubt I will get an answer.  Thats why I tried asking here, so many gamers, I was hoping someone also was using their PC as a media center as well, that is about the only situation when this would come up as generally one wouldnt be trying to get so much out of their sound.



    This will probably just fall away in the threads and thats fine, I sort of expect it but wouldnt be doing my proper research if I didnt try asking here :)
  • GhozerGhozer Member Posts: 35
    It partly depends on your card..



    I have a Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty, which using the Digital output (either via coaxil, digital jack or optical) the sound card (and games) doesnt support surround sound, or anything more than 2.1 sound via these outputs...



    the DVD Software I use works perfect in 5.1, as it uses "dolby bitstream" out, which allows passage of the raw digital data to my decoder, this goes out via the same digital/optical socket as always...



    the only way round it all I have found, (but still, yet to do) is to invest £50 in a Creative DTS-610...  basically you connect your 3x 3.5mm (standard) mini jacks to the DTS-610, which then encodes the DTS from the (working) analog 5.1 signals, and passes it out via Coaxil or optical to any DTS decoder... I have tested this with a friend (he has a DTS-610) and it works perfectly for all games and everything...



    It is quite annoying why more games dont support raw "dolby bitstream" technology, especially now theres high definition audio, and 99.9% of PC's and sound cards now have some form of digital output, even if its simply coaxil...



    so yeah, hope this answered your question. or at very least provided SOME insight!

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  • flood950flood950 Member Posts: 447
    Thanks Ghozer, I believe that does help.



    I am using a Barracuda AC-1 which uses the C-Media Oxygen HD chipset.  It is definitely crossing to the receiver in surround as I can run a 5.1 3D Sound test and its mixed properly, and also during DVD playback. 



    I think maybe the issue is that the game in question..LoTRo does not support Dolby Digital.



    I believe all I need to do is put the standard 3 cables into the sound card and into the receiver and switch between Direct Sound 96/24 and Dolby Digital for gaming/movies.



    Now if the manufacturer would confirm that its ok to have two outputs at the same time I would go right ahead, but for some reason I just want to wait and hear that it is safe to do so...I dont know enough about the circuity level of the board to know if this is harmless or not.



    Thanks for replying! 
  • GhozerGhozer Member Posts: 35
    The razer barracuda AC-1



    I have been thinking about investing in that card myself.... how is it?





    if that card is anything like 99% of other sound cards, there shouldnt be an issue using 2 differnt outputs at the same time, hell, Im using 4 on mine..



    Digital Jack

    3x Analog

    headphones (front panel)

    and optical (front panel)



    they all work together for everything, but some work for others that others dont.. heh, you know what i mean



    as for LOTRO - I had similar issues with it, aswell as Crackling / popping sound and really poor sound quality no matter what setting...



    this was during the BETA, (final beta)



    I diddnt like the game much any way so havent bought it, but still :)

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  • flood950flood950 Member Posts: 447
    It is a fantastic card if you are interested in video and non-gaming audio playback.   Even when I had really cheap-o speakers when I first puchased it, the sound coming out of the whole 75 watts sounded more clear than my 600 watt car system. 



    Now that I have a set of Z-5500's I find myself watching more DVD's on the computer than on the HD LCD TV just because of the sound.



    Now, this doesnt mean that its bad for gaming.  It is quite good for that too but there are two areas of concern for some people.  It is lacking anything above 2.0 EAX.  That wasnt really an issue for me though.  I was playing BF2142 for a while with this card and even with the lower EAX capabilities...the sounds were so incredibly clear and distinct that I had zero complaints.  I used the same headset on my brothers PC which has a X-Fi Fatal1ty, then on my system and the footsteps and sounds in the distance were more distinguished with the AC-1.   There may have been more "cool" sounds with the HD EAX, but the overall quality I prefered the AC-1.  I feel like personal opinion is going to play in there though, depends on your "ear".



    The other is as of yet there are still no Vista Drivers.  There are beta drivers out there that people have working, but I hear that it is a lot of trouble.  On the other hand..I hear that X-Fi users are having issues as well...so who knows about that..I wont be seeing Vista on my system for a while yet.



    I didnt play LoTRo during beta but did during the World Tour (which for whatever reason you could say I almost hated the game then) and the sound was very good at that stage.  I tried a buddy key a few weeks ago and have since purchased.  The sound quality is very good in that game and it is mixed in 3D very well which is why I immediately noticed something was wrong with the Optical/Dolby Digital connection.  It played, sounded extremely clear...but the surround was borked.



    I will probably just get impatient and try connecting both outputs tonight.  I dont think I would have concerns if the card was using "normal" connections.  The typical 3x analog uses their proprietary HD-DAI connection (it looks idential to a monitor DVI plug) so who knows what will happen...I figure it will be fine but I am always cautious when it comes to this type of thing!




  • GhozerGhozer Member Posts: 35
    well, my "ear" can hear hissing interference in a club, clubs here ask me to come regular (i get in free etc) and listen out for any problems..



    the X-Fi was the best card I had ever heared, the main reason i get the Sound Blaster range is the internal Front bay connections as I do some music creation and editing too, its perfect, I dont want another external box, or extra cables coming to/from the back of the PC really



    as for the X-Fi on vista, its because of microsoft dropping the Direct sound layer, due to no HAL, so games have to use OpenAL, any Audigy 2 or below will NOT work with EAX in games on vista, the X-Fi works to an extent, but only if you download Creative Alchemy, which takes the Direct Sound calls, and converts them to OpenAL to allow the card to render EAX, but even then, not all games detect EAX as available using this..



    its silly tho, cause since the SV L!ve 5.1, they say they fully support OpenAL... strange :)



    I might check out the AC-1 then.. :) thanks for the heads up.. and hope you get things sorted :)

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