counter-strike, quake 3, doom 3 sound (differences)

[brent4president]

<stupid_question>
i finally got the surround sound working in doom 3 (Dolby 5.1) with my audigy gamer. do any other first person shooters (counter-strike / quake 3) support 5.1? i havent found any options for surround sound in these games. if they dont, why are people so excited about having a 5.1 sound system that doesnt even work with such popular games?
</stupid_question>

 

[tenken]

When you're referring to surround sound in games with an Audigy card, you're usually referring to EAX, which isn't just 5.1 support. So to start off you may want to look up EAX and what it actually does. The Aud Gamer should support Eax 3, so that would be the type to research.

Now surround sound in the games you've mentioned are each handled differently. Doom 3 seems to support 5.1 but it's completley software driven, that sort of game is rare. Most people just license the Creative EAX technology and use that to create a surround sound field. Quake 3 can support 4 speakers or more, but that game came out when 4.1 systems were popular, so I believe the surround in Q3 is optimized for 4 speakers. Counterstrike should follow whatever EAX Half Life supported, which may be EAX 2.

A general rule of thumb is don't expect great surround sound in older games, while pretty much every new game has surround sound support. When you hear people talk about Dolby Digital 5.1 in games, that's specifically for people using nForce 2 motherboards which have Soundstorm. There are dozens of threads about Soundstorm, so its best to read up.

 

[brent4president]

thanks, eh

 

[IdiotInCharge]

Not necessarily for the Dolby Digital comment; many times, the game is just using DD 5.1 as a compression technique akin to MP3. I'm sure there are other uses, but unless the game is on Xbox, that is probably what it refers to.