[mattpwill]

As in the long title lol

Are there any games with better 3D sound with headphones than surround speakers?

Thanks
Matt

 

[Emon]

Headphones typically just sound better (one for being close to the ear, two because headphones aren't as expensive as speakers)...but a surround setup has the advantage that you know where stuff is coming from. Not sure how much it really matters.

 

[Drakemoor]

depends on whats being used, turn on all the fancy stuff like EAX and HRTF and it can sounds very good.

 

[mattpwill]

To me it matters a lot if I'm trying to overcome my lacking abilities in games!

Is 3D positioning better in any games using headphones rather than 5.1 speakers? I'm interested because headphones are the only way to get 360 sound

Will there ever be a sound engine using binaural technology?

What's the best HRTF engine around lately?

Is binaural different from HRTF?

Thanks
Matt

 

[Emon]

5.1 will certainly get you a better sense of direction. The speakers behind you are producing the sound, you don't really get better than that without binaural sound. And no, there are no realtime binaural sound engines that I know of, at least not in games. There will be someday though.

 

[luukas]

You might want to give Doom 3 a shot. It was the first game which had, to my ears, quite natural positioning - usually the extreme separation you get with headphones snaps you back to 'reality', but that wasn't the case with Doom. Maybe I was too immersed in it to notice.

And since it has a proprietary sound engine, you won't need a fancy gaming soundcard.

 

[mattpwill]

Doom 3, I haven't got that thanks. Are there any other good ones?

Do you think that sound engine APIs in the future will become more proprietory (if I can spell it?!!), instead of just EAX being the standard?

I think that all sound cards should be allowed to "play" games, and that no company should limit it to their own brand of crappy soundcard (Hello Creative!). The best engine producers will make the most money by selling it to other sound card manufacturers as well as game developers, which is how it should be. The best motivator is competition, and software based HRTF or binaural won't be a problem as PCs are becoming faster and faster. End of rant lol

What's the difference between binaural and Head Related Transfer Function?

Thanks
Matt

 

[Helter Skelter]

I would be much more interested in seeing a completely open source/free standard alternative to EAX rather than more proprietary (<-correct spelling

) solutions (which is what EAX is).

Binaural sound is recorded as such (microphones placed on a dummy or live head over or in the ears), while HRTF tries to simulate binaural sound with varying degrees of success depending on the implementation.

 

[johnnysize]

I will say for serious gaming there is absolutely nothing better than headphones. I play counter-strike online and the only way to get pinpoint accuracy is with headphones. Its crucial if you are being silent and listening to someones footsteps so you now where they are. If your not that serious about your gaming then 5.1 might be a funner solution, but even then i think i might still prefer headphones.

 

[juni0r]

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnnysize I will say for serious gaming there is absolutely nothing better than headphones. I play counter-strike online and the only way to get pinpoint accuracy is with headphones. Its crucial if you are being silent and listening to someones footsteps so you now where they are. If your not that serious about your gaming then 5.1 might be a funner solution, but even then i think i might still prefer headphones.

Seconded with 100% confidence.

 

[Talonz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnnysize I will say for serious gaming there is absolutely nothing better than headphones. I play counter-strike online and the only way to get pinpoint accuracy is with headphones. Its crucial if you are being silent and listening to someones footsteps so you now where they are. If your not that serious about your gaming then 5.1 might be a funner solution, but even then i think i might still prefer headphones.

Third, from a CS:S OGL player

 

[Halbyrd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnnysize I will say for serious gaming there is absolutely nothing better than headphones. I play counter-strike online and the only way to get pinpoint accuracy is with headphones. Its crucial if you are being silent and listening to someones footsteps so you now where they are. If your not that serious about your gaming then 5.1 might be a funner solution, but even then i think i might still prefer headphones.

Fourth-ed, from a UT2k4 addict who watched the Frags Per Hour counter jump up by an average of 50 or so after I started using my HD280's to game

 

[Jodiuh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnnysize I will say for serious gaming there is absolutely nothing better than headphones. I play counter-strike online and the only way to get pinpoint accuracy is with headphones. Its crucial if you are being silent and listening to someones footsteps so you now where they are. If your not that serious about your gaming then 5.1 might be a funner solution, but even then i think i might still prefer headphones.

Fifthedadeed...um...


Now would you all agree on a sound card? I've gone from an Audigy 1 to an M-Audio 5.1 and to be honest...the halo frags are a bit less...

 

[Erukian]

I can't believe anybody mentioned Call of Duty, with it's Miles Audio positioning technology that Half-Life 2 uses as well.

Call of duty's sound effects are INSANELY realistic. And i'm a huge gamer since the doom series, nothing comes close to Call of Duty.

Doom would of been okay, if it wernt for the 24kbps/mono encoded OGG's, it just sounds _bad_ to me. Especially the shotgun (which has a lot of mids and highs-- the human ear sensitive range) sounds muffled because of the audio compression.