Surround Sound Issue with games

[MoreCowBell]

Well, to add to the title, my 5.1 setup wont even work in any of the Half Life 2's (everytime i set it to 5.1 in game, it reverts back to 2.1) but i was told this is due to the lack of DirectSound3d support of Vista?



Anywhoo.....i have an HT Omega Striker 7.1 and the Logitech Z-5500's. The sound is setup with both an optical cable outputting DTS and a 6ch direct cable (the 3 to 3 plug cable for front/rear/sub+center).

In windows sound control (Vista Home Premium), i have 5.1 enabled and the sound is coming out properly during the test.
True 5.1 sound is also working for DVD's and Call of Duty 4.

But when i play Crysis or Bioshock, all i am getting is 2.1 sound.




For Crysis, i created a System.cfg file to set the s_SpeakerConfig to 5 (5.1 sound) and in game when i ask for the value of this setting, it reports it at 5, but i only get sound out of the fronts and sub. Nothing else.
If i start a new game and watch the intro video of the CryTech Armor, that plays in 5.1, but the rest of the game does not.

Whats the deal?
(I have the latest patch and audio drivers and all that jazz).



And with Bioshock, i have 5.1 set in the audio options, but i only get 2.1 (during cutscenes and game play both).
have the latest patch for that as well.



Any suggestions?



And anyone have any idea how to get 5.1 to work in half Life 2, without having to by an XiFI card and use alchemy?

 

[error8]

Yes it's because of Vista. Microsoft uses openAL in Vista and directsound3d is gone. Almost all the sound cards on the market are made specifically for directsound3d so problems appear under Vista.

I have the same head aches with my Creative Soundblaster Live!24 bit. I'm using all sort of drivers made by people that have a passion for computers, because Creative doesn't really care about the consumer, they just like to make you buy their sound card and then if problems appear it's only Microsofts fault. In some games I have 5.1 sound in others it's just plain old simple 2.1. Maybe the next games that are about to be released are more compatible with this new type of sound crap.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: error8
Yes it's because of Vista. Microsoft uses openAL in Vista and directsound3d is gone. Almost all the sound cards on the market are made specifically for directsound3d so problems appear under Vista.

I have the same head aches with my Creative Soundblaster Live!24 bit. I'm using all sort of drivers made by people that have a passion for computers, because Creative doesn't really care about the consumer, they just like to make you buy their sound card and then if problems appear it's only Microsofts fault. In some games I have 5.1 sound in others it's just plain old simple 2.1. Maybe the next games that are about to be released are more compatible with this new type of sound crap.

Creative offers the only EAX capable Vista card at the moment. I bought an X-fi, installed the latest drivers (creative actually comes out with drivers every few months now, I remember back when it took them years) then installed Creative Alchemy. Boom, I had 3d sound in all my games, easy as pie!

 

[MoreCowBell]

Well, the questions were kind of answered.

I understand why Half Life 2 surround wont work...its built on DirectSound3D.



But Crysis and Bioshock are both built with different sound systems, considering their DX10 is the first give away (DX10 no longer has the DirectSound3D integrated, so technically its not Vista's fault but DX10's (which is still Microsofts fault).

So despite my soundcard, Crysis and Bioshock should still run in 5.1, but they are not.
Any reason why?

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: error8
Yes it's because of Vista. Microsoft uses openAL in Vista and directsound3d is gone. Almost all the sound cards on the market are made specifically for directsound3d so problems appear under Vista.

I have the same head aches with my Creative Soundblaster Live!24 bit. I'm using all sort of drivers made by people that have a passion for computers, because Creative doesn't really care about the consumer, they just like to make you buy their sound card and then if problems appear it's only Microsofts fault. In some games I have 5.1 sound in others it's just plain old simple 2.1. Maybe the next games that are about to be released are more compatible with this new type of sound crap.

Creative offers the only EAX capable Vista card at the moment. I bought an X-fi, installed the latest drivers (creative actually comes out with drivers every few months now, I remember back when it took them years) then installed Creative Alchemy. Boom, I had 3d sound in all my games, easy as pie!

I have to remind you that creative provides support ONLY for X-fi, all the other sound cards have just one driver, which is also a crappy one. It doesn't seem right to buy the latest creative card just to have better compatibility, but this seems to be the only choice.