Games with advanced sound
 

I have stormed through Bioshock and through a part of Dead Space, and
enjoyed their sound-rich atmosphere. (By the way, are there any other
such games ? This appears to be the only games I get excited.) I used
onboard sound (Realtek HD, Azalia 1.0 spec). But now people tell me
that my experience with those games (and other games) would be much
richer if I used a sound card.

I did a search on the Internet. Here are my findings:

-- The main reason of having a sound card in gaming is the surround
sound. This gives one an opportunity to pinpoint the source of sound.
It is not clear to me yet whether onboard sound adapter can provide a
surround sound as well.

-- Sound quality from Realtek HD is almost as good as a sound card (we
are talking about gaming in here, not music or movies).

-- Games like Bioshock use EAX 2.0-5.0, which is a fancy way of saying
that the game engine generates directional sounds and pumps through
2-5 speakers. Quality of sound reproduction improves. (One of the
features of EAX is that the sound can reflect several time in a
corridor from a stone wall or other material, and one can hear that.)

-- There is a separate 5.1 standard (pumping sounds through 5
speakers) to play non-EAX games. The sound card should have a Dolby
surround sound for that; onboard sound cards apparently do not have
it.

-- Creative Labs is a manufacturer of sound cards, and they came out
with an "X-Fi", which is s set of sound technologies, one of them
being EAX effects.

-- Creative Labs is virtually a monopolist on the sound card market,
and they have an XtremeGamer card which is for the gaming (around US
$100). A recent contender is ASUS which came up with a Xonar line of
sound cards. The cheapest but able contender is the "DX" card (around
US$80) (and that's what I recently ordered).

It is still unclear to me whether one can get surround sound (via the
headphones) using only the onboard sound card. I need this function to
play the games such as Dead Space or TF2. It seems to me that the
onboard sound adapter provides such a capability, but I am not sure if
the sound cards have some additional sound technologies which provide
an enhanced sound experience (such as directional sound etc).

On the whole, I've come to the realisation that the immersion depends
heavily on sound atmosphere (gameplay), and this is likely to be the
direction of the development of the future games. Is anybody aware of
the new such games in development (so that I could look forward to
them) ?

Games with advanced sound
 

"Antonio Huerta" wrote in message
...

-- Games like Bioshock use EAX 2.0-5.0, which is a fancy way of saying
that the game engine generates directional sounds and pumps through
2-5 speakers. Quality of sound reproduction improves. (One of the
features of EAX is that the sound can reflect several time in a
corridor from a stone wall or other material, and one can hear that.)

Another EAX feature is audio 'occlusion'... i.e., sounds coming through
some sort of barrier such as a wall sound are filtered such that the low
frequencies make it through the wall, but not the high frequencies. Stand
outside hangar's wall in BF2, for example, and you can hear the low muffled
rumble of grenade explosions and whatnot going off inside the hangar, but
not alot of the high-pitched popping of small arms fire.

Games with advanced sound
 

"Antonio Huerta" wrote in message
...
I have stormed through Bioshock and through a part of Dead Space, and
enjoyed their sound-rich atmosphere. (By the way, are there any other
such games ? This appears to be the only games I get excited.) I used
onboard sound (Realtek HD, Azalia 1.0 spec). But now people tell me
that my experience with those games (and other games) would be much
richer if I used a sound card.

I did a search on the Internet. Here are my findings:

-- The main reason of having a sound card in gaming is the surround
sound. This gives one an opportunity to pinpoint the source of sound.
It is not clear to me yet whether onboard sound adapter can provide a
surround sound as well.

-- Sound quality from Realtek HD is almost as good as a sound card (we
are talking about gaming in here, not music or movies).

-- Games like Bioshock use EAX 2.0-5.0, which is a fancy way of saying
that the game engine generates directional sounds and pumps through
2-5 speakers. Quality of sound reproduction improves. (One of the
features of EAX is that the sound can reflect several time in a
corridor from a stone wall or other material, and one can hear that.)

-- There is a separate 5.1 standard (pumping sounds through 5
speakers) to play non-EAX games. The sound card should have a Dolby
surround sound for that; onboard sound cards apparently do not have
it.

-- Creative Labs is a manufacturer of sound cards, and they came out
with an "X-Fi", which is s set of sound technologies, one of them
being EAX effects.

-- Creative Labs is virtually a monopolist on the sound card market,
and they have an XtremeGamer card which is for the gaming (around US
$100). A recent contender is ASUS which came up with a Xonar line of
sound cards. The cheapest but able contender is the "DX" card (around
US$80) (and that's what I recently ordered).

It is still unclear to me whether one can get surround sound (via the
headphones) using only the onboard sound card. I need this function to
play the games such as Dead Space or TF2. It seems to me that the
onboard sound adapter provides such a capability, but I am not sure if
the sound cards have some additional sound technologies which provide
an enhanced sound experience (such as directional sound etc).


I have on board Realtek HD audio and it has surround sound. I have a 5.1
surround speaker setup and when I test each speaker with the Realtek speaker
setup utility you can hear the sound from each speaker independently, that
is you hear the 5.1 surround sound working. It also works well with my
Zalman surround sound headphones that have four separate speakers, two front
and two rear (the center and subwoofer speakers sounds are simulated ). The
surround sound is good, but not having a subwoofer leaves out some of the
bass, but that's OK with me. I have read about other headphones with too
much bass.
Most other surround headphones have only two speakers and all the surround
sound is simulated. I believe that for a good simulated surround sound from
two speaker headphones, it need to be Dolby or maybe the X-fi. Some
headphones have USB and built in sound card with Dolby surround sound, that
way you don't need a sound card in the PC. I have read a lot of mixed
reviews on these other headphones and its hard to know if they work any
better than the Zalman for surround sound.

I have tested the surround sound in games also by standing near a constant
sound like a radio and then I turn around and hear it in all speakers. Works
well with both my 5.1 speakers and with the Zalman headphones.

try to search the hardware setup by searaching internet

I have on board Realtek HD audio and it has surround sound. I have a 5.1
surround speaker setup and when I test each speaker with the Realtek speaker
setup utility you can hear the sound from each speaker independently, that
is you hear the 5.1 surround sound working.