What PC games are in Dolby Digital?
- Thread starter Oyeve
- Start date
I dont know about Dolby Digital, but there are tons of games in 5.1, basically everythign out there worth playing.
Yep, you just need to use the 6 _analog_ out channels of your soundcard / motherboard instead of a digital cable.
Dolby Digital 5.1 is just a scheme for encoding and compressing multichannel audio to send as a digital signal. Aside from simplified cable hookup, it's actually inferior to uncompressed analog 5.1 surround [ unless your soundcard has awful DACs on the output ].
So you should really be asking "what games offer 5-point surround instead of just stereo or 4-point?" assuming you've connected your soundcard using analog cables.
- Oct 18, 1999
- 21,917
- 828
- 126
I know all this. I am interested as to which games actually HAVE DD. I have been using 4.1, 5.1, 7.1, PLII, etc...I wonder why the PC game market doesnt make more DD games. Or DTS games for that matter. I am sure most serious PC gamers have systems capable of DD and DTS so why are there not more games utilizing this? Take Doom 3, it has proprietary sound in the programming so it basically sounds the same on any semi decent sound card, the downside being more CPU processes and slower FPS. If it was encoded with DD or DTS then the sound card would do the work and offload the pressure of the CPU. JMO.
Most Sound Cards dont decode Dolby Digital/DTS in Hardware anyways right? That why to get true dolby digital you have to connect you soundcard to a Home Theather Reciver\Set of Speakers that decodes the signal for you. I might be mistaken though. Plus Its going to sound exactly the same (or worse) so why bother?
Since no soundcard has hardware DD encoding, the encoding would need to be done in software with the CPU.
Most games now generate sound data (location, volume) and feed it to the soundcard, which then might do additional processing before sending the sound to the analog outs.
What you're wanting would add extra steps of running the results through a CPU-based software DD compressor / encoder driver and feeding a DD stream to the soundcard to pass through as-is to the digital out jack.
Most games now generate sound data (location, volume) and feed it to the soundcard, which then might do additional processing before sending the sound to the analog outs.
What you're wanting would add extra steps of running the results through a CPU-based software DD compressor / encoder driver and feeding a DD stream to the soundcard to pass through as-is to the digital out jack.
If you have a Soundstorm, you can use digital. It's the only soundcard out there that does realtime Dolby Digital encoding, meaning it can take the 5.1 signal from a game and encode it in real time into a DD stream and send it out digitally.
With any other sound card, you'd have to use the analog outs.
HDA Digital X-Mystique does DICE too. Difficult to justify at twice the price of an Audigy 2 though -especially sans full EAX support and knowing that the software is immature.
*ripped from the Creative site*
"Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro features built-in DTS-ES and Dolby Digital® EX decoding to deliver captivating audio playback in 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 surround with DVD movies."
There is no mention of its use in games though.
"Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro features built-in DTS-ES and Dolby Digital® EX decoding to deliver captivating audio playback in 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 surround with DVD movies."
There is no mention of its use in games though.
That is the exact opposite of what many people want it to do. They want Soundstorm style real time DD encoding. This allows a single cable to run from the computer to the receiver/speaker control pod, rather than doing 5 or 6 separate runs.
DD is just a digital unchanging stream of sound audio that decompressed and sent to the appropriate speakers during playback. EAX is for positional sound, that changes as the player of the game moves through the environment. EAX does the switching between speakers to give real-time 5.1 sound. EAX (not sure on X-Mystique) is only done through the analog ports, as digital does not carry the discrete sound channels.
Moving from an Nforce 2 board, to a Audigy 2 ZS, makes a huge difference in EAX playback. Sounds are greatly improved while, clarity in positional audio comes back in greater detail.
Moving from an Nforce 2 board, to a Audigy 2 ZS, makes a huge difference in EAX playback. Sounds are greatly improved while, clarity in positional audio comes back in greater detail.
Muse
Lifer
- Jul 11, 2001
- 37,523
- 8,107
- 136
So, I guess what you're saying is that the sound in the game (on the CD) is analog and to send a digital signal from the soundcard to your sound system (e.g. receiver), that 5.1 analog would have to be converted to digital and then have to be converted back to analog for output to the speakers after amplification. Is that right? If it were digital on the CD, it could be sent directly (via optical or coaxial digital connection) to an amplifier (e.g. receiver) where the onboard DAC would take care of it.
So, I guess what you're saying is that although I have my soundcard connected to my receiver with a digital connection, I should also connect it with analog connections if I want 5.1 from my PC games.
Doom, EQ2, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory... are the recent games i've played with it. Infact, i personally think it's better than EAX3 (or was it 4) on my laptop (iXPS2 which is using Azalia). I bought the Creative Labs PCMCIA Audigy 2 ZX for my laptop, but actually found i liked the Azalia much better... and saved a couple of hundred bucks in the process.
The data for the sounds in a game come from a CD, but are mixed together in real time to make new sound. For example if a monster is behind you one second that's where the "Rawrrr!" comes from, then you turn around and it's now sent to your front-left speaker and mixed with a sword slash sound. The CD data might have one "rawrrr" fragment (stored as a WAV file or another format) that is never actually played quite like it is on the CD.
Because the sound is being created newly second-by-second it's different from a movie where there is fixed sound pre-recorded on the DVD using Dolby 5.1.
But yes, for game surround sound you need to use the analog connectors.
PS - some games that say "dolby 5.1" might mean for the pre-rendered cut scene mini-movies rather than actual sound during gameplay. I've not bothered to check which ones are actually doing their own real-time dolby encoding with the CPU.
http://www.dolby.com/consumer/games/games_and_consoles2.html
Dolby keeps track of all the console titles that support it. Since most PC games are ports you may find that the PC versions of these titles share the same DD trait. Unfortunately most ports are bad so they may have stripped it. It's a place to start at least.
Dolby keeps track of all the console titles that support it. Since most PC games are ports you may find that the PC versions of these titles share the same DD trait. Unfortunately most ports are bad so they may have stripped it. It's a place to start at least.
TRENDING THREADS
-
Discussion Intel current and future Lakes & Rapids thread- Started by TheF34RChannel
- Replies: 23K
-
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)- Started by DisEnchantment
- Replies: 10K
-
Discussion Speculation: Zen 4 (EPYC 4 "Genoa", Ryzen 7000, etc.)- Started by Vattila
- Replies: 13K
-
Discussion Intel Meteor, Arrow, Lunar & Panther Lakes Discussion Threads
- Started by Tigerick
- Replies: 7K
-
Facebook
Twitter