THX True Studio pro surround isetup

[OFaceSIG]

So with CMSS-3d you were supposed to put windows at 5.1 and then turn on CMSS-3d headphone in the creative control panel.

Is this the procedure for THX true studio pro as well?

 

[dragonhawke]

RTM?

 

[spaceman]

I think it takes care of the windows change by itself. I don't use the pro studio for BF3 but other games might benfit from it.

 

[OFaceSIG]

Hey dragon I'm doing research before I have the device. 2nd if everyone read the manual there would be no need for forums. 3rd a lot of the time manuals don't cover all operational aspects of the device.

 

[kazaakas]

It's very true that the instructions on using these surround algorithms are pathetic, there's also some hacky stuff you need to do, almost no one is actually using CMSS-3D to it's full potential because of this.
For CMSS-3D headphone for instance, you need to alter:
C:\ProgramData\Creative\Spi\{00000001-00000000-00000000-00001102-0000000B-00621102}\THX\THX.ini
and change the first 8 lines into:

[Spatializer]
2=90
3=0
4=90
5=0
6=90
7=0
8=90

This changes all the angles of the speakers in the THX setup console to orthogonal angles, which is better for sound localization.

Now there's quite some other things too, first of all to get the best out of CMSS-3D headphone you need to have your card set to Gaming Mode (and enable EAX if the game supports it).

Next to that if you are playing a game with the DirectSound3D engine and you use any OS newer than windows XP you should configure ALchemy for that game so you can actually use the sound engine, because DirectSound3D is not supported anymore since Vista. But OpenAL is another sound engine that IS supported by Vista and later, and ALchemy translates DirectSound3D function calls to OpenAL function calls.
There's still quite a few games that use DirectSound3D, for example every game on the source engine, such as TF2, CS:S and CS:GO.
Enabling the use of this sound library makes a BIG difference, for instance, CMSS-3D bases the attenuation of the sounds on the exact distance measurements from the sounds source to the player, which is a value passed by the audio engine.
Long story short: better sound localization when you use DirectSound3D or OpenAL.

And yes the game also needs to "know" in a way that you want to have 5.1 output, some games let you configure this manually, but some just pick whatever is configured in windows, so then you need to have your windows speaker setup set to 5.1.

Next to THAT some games also need to have some options enabled to actually use hardware accelerated 3D sound to the fullest, for instance, with source games you need to type "snd_legacy_surround 1" in the console. Note that this only makes the sound worse if you don't use it's sound library (DirectSound3D, translated to OpenAL).

So for instance if you want to play a Source game with CMSS3D working at full power you need to:
- Have your X-Fi drivers set to game mode and headphones
- Have CMSS-3D enabled with macroFX en elevation filter to auto
- Enable EAX effects (I always keep the volume offset at 0dB)
- Have your THX.ini modded for 0 and 90 degree speaker angles like I said above
- Configure ALchemy for the game (if you use windows vista or later)
- Set the speaker setup in the game options to 5.1
- Open the console and type "snd_legacy_surround 1"

Yup, that's all you need to do to get CMSS-3D running with source games, I don't know much about THX TruStudio Surround other than it's only gotten good since the sound blaster Z series. CMSS-3D is perceived as better when you're using an X-Fi card.
If you do want to use TruStudio pro I suppose you should still do the THX speaker angle tweak and make it clear to your game that you want 5.1 output, either through windows settings or through game settings. As far as I know you can't do anything with OpenAL/DirectSound3D together with THX TruStudio Surround because THX TruStudio Surround needs your card to be set to Entertainment mode and OpenAL/DirectSound3D requires your card to be set to Gaming mode.

I've got a TiHD with some smokin' good cans too and I absolutely love it in games, in my opinion CMSS3D is better than THX Surround, mainly because the latter can't be used with OpenAL and I play a lot of games that make use of that.
The THX Surround of the Z series is a lot better, rivaling CMSS-3D, but I doubt if it's truly better.

I realize this is way too god damn complicated, so feel free to ask questions if you don't understand some stuff.

 

[Ocellaris]

Fantastic post and a good example of why PC audio is in a terrible state. Things were way easier back in the EAX days, people just enabled it and had great sound and great support right out of the box.

 

[spaceman]

Fantastic post and a good example of why PC audio is in a terrible state. Things were way easier back in the EAX days, people just enabled it and had great sound and great support right out of the box.

Huh? The new Z card is butt simple to enable compared to the X-Fi. It just works without any extra effort beyond enabling it.

 

[kazaakas]

Fantastic post and a good example of why PC audio is in a terrible state. Things were way easier back in the EAX days, people just enabled it and had great sound and great support right out of the box.

Thank you, I could make a clearer guide about this with screenshots and stuff, but that'd be a bit late since X-Fi is around for such a long time already and on the verge of being discontinued.

Also as a matter of fact, enabling EAX is of course also a step that has to be taken (given that the game uses it of course), I'll add it to my post.

Though using CMSS-3D won't get you the best crystal clear quality audio in games because it makes everything sound a bit muffled/muddy as well. When you're not playing very competetive and don;t need direction all that much I'd just disable CMSS-3D and set the game to headphones or 2.0/2.1.

 

[OFaceSIG]

Wow killer friggin post kazaakas. Thanks. I wrote all of it down.

 

[kazaakas]

I feel bad for kind of hijacking the thread though, post wasn't really about THX TruStudio pro at all lol

 

[Monstieur]

That enable EAX effects checkbox does nothing for output. It actually adds the same EAX effects that the game is currently using for output to your Microphone input. If the game is applying an echo EAX effect because you're in a cave, your voice on the microphone will also echo. You should disable it or your voice will be unintelligable. The newer cards have some dedicated microphone features, but the EAX checkbox right from the original X-Fi actually alters the microphone input.

On a related note, CMSS3D is completely broken for me on Windows 7/8. On XP when playing multichannel audio in Winamp I could clearly hear voices from all corners of the room and the ones at the back were distinctly and without a doubt from the back. Now it just changes the output so it sounds different but nothing really distinctly plays from the back. I am 100% sure of this because I recorded the headphone output during the XP days to play back on my MP3 player and I still have those recordings.

 

[OFaceSIG]

Kurian I would say you're not flowing the guide properly as laid out earlier in the thread. It works for me.