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Fallout 3 lousy audio

4

43st

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 8, 2008
Messages
201
Does anyone find Fallout 3's audio lacking? The positioning seems off, with no elevation cues and the distance when you start to pick up sounds seems to be 10-15 feet.

Are there any tweaks or mods that make this better? Even a little? I checked Tweakguides and nothing was mentioned about this.

I remember in Oblivion being attacked from the rear and never hearing it coming. It kinda made the game difficult to play.
 
I feel you should probably state your hardware, mode (ie. DDLive via optical, analog 5.1, headphones) and driver level to help people contribute.
 
Ah, ok. Good point Surly73.

I have Auzen Forte (just switched from Prelude) going to a modified Zero DAC via. coax. Headphones are Beyer DT880 (and sometimes AT A700's). I had a lessor system back when Oblivion was released and noted the same issues though (enemies sneaking up on you). One just gets poor sound cuing from the Gamebryo engine I suspect.
 
43st said:
Ah, ok. Good point Surly73.

I have Auzen Forte (just switched from Prelude) going to a modified Zero DAC via. coax. Headphones are Beyer DT880 (and sometimes AT A700's). I had a lessor system back when Oblivion was released and noted the same issues though (enemies sneaking up on you). One just gets poor sound cuing from the Gamebryo engine I suspect.
Click to expand...

Are you sure all of the EAX and ambient occlusion type cues can be passed to an external DAC? I am not so sure.
 
I just finished playing through the game and thought the audio was great. Have X-fi card and Grado labs headphones.
 
Blackstone said:
Are you sure all of the EAX and ambient occlusion type cues can be passed to an external DAC? I am not so sure.
Click to expand...

Prelude = no, Forte = yes.

I'll fiddle with it a bit more and see if I can up the distance or voices. In Vista does Fallout 3 get it's loudspeaker config from the Vista setting? (2.1,5.1, etc.)
 
In most games I get radically different positioning results depending on whether I am in two channel or headphone mode with CMSS. I only use CMSS in headphone mode. If you are using CMSS headphone mode with a game that does not really support it, the results will generally not be good. It will detract rather than enhance. For example, Source engine does not support it but Battlefield 2 and all Unreal Tournament games support it in a major way. Not sure about Fallout 3.
 
By the way is your DAC just a standard two channel music DAC or is it a home theater device?
 
I didn't notice positional effect issues but I noticed crackling audio and weird glitches.
 
Blackstone said:
By the way is your DAC just a standard two channel music DAC or is it a home theater device?
Click to expand...

It's a stereo only Amp/DAC.

thebeephaha said:
I didn't notice positional effect issues but I noticed crackling audio and weird glitches.
Click to expand...

Well the positioning is off in elevation only. If a sound is a below me and to my left.. it will sound like it's to my left in the game. This is fairly frequent in the interior areas. I have some little pops and buzzes, but hopefully they can be tweaked out with Alchemy.
 
How exactly would you encode elevation into the soundscape? I'm not sure that I've ever heard any elevation effects.
 
Surly73 said:
How exactly would you encode elevation into the soundscape? I'm not sure that I've ever heard any elevation effects.
Click to expand...

CMSS-3D has an elevation filter and it should work. Check here for what the effect should sound like.
 
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