If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
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) ? |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy Advanced HD Audio | Clark Martin | Dell Computers | 4 | May 1st 06 06:26 PM |
Stuttering sound & games on a P4SGL-VM | Tim | Asus Motherboards | 1 | April 23rd 05 08:30 AM |
Muddy sound all of a sudden from games | timmons | PC Soundcards | 4 | July 5th 04 01:18 PM |
SOUND PROBLEMS IN ALL GAMES | Orhan | Gigabyte Motherboards | 13 | February 21st 04 08:00 PM |
Configuring sound card to old games | Sverre Johnsen | PC Soundcards | 1 | February 12th 04 01:10 AM |