[benbenkr]

You wouldn't think Nvidia would have something up their sleeves in regards to hardware audio on their cards?
 
But unlike TRUFORM and the more recent TressFX, audio is an essential part to a gaming experience. Both TRUFORM and TressFX wasn't, it was just an addition but wasn't an essential part to game design.
Developers should see the need in supporting TrueAudio because since consoles do have something similar as well, then there's no common denominator anymore — though there needs to be more info on the PS4's audio capabilities, otherwise we're still back to square one again. Nvidia users (me included) might feel left out, but let's see how the green camp turns it way around it.

 

[DJINFERNO806]

To be honest I'm surprised by AMD last few months. They are just on a roll. Frame pacing, an increase in betas and more Gaming evolved titles than ever. Now gou accelerated audio... I'm a big time Nvidia fan but I have to admit they are lagging behind lately in innovations. TXAA is the only thing nvidia has done recently... And surprise surprise, it blows.

The real question is, what does Microsoft have to benefit from including true audio in their console? Most people still use tv/speaker audio. Not only that but its not like you can use whatever headphones you want. No jack.

So is this gonna be sent out by optical? USB? Will there be some USB control box we have to buy?

So many questions still.

 

[benbenkr]

Lol i think you meant 3D coordinate based  HRTF?  Like directsound3d or OpenAL?  HRTF algorithms never went anywhere, they were just made from premixed signals.  Dolby Headphones, CMSS3D(fed from 5.1), SBX surround are examples of  these.


But ya, I am excited for this but at the same time as an Nvidia user, Im not

Question is, will this be useable from lets say my sound blaster zxr's headphone port?  Or only through motherboard jacks and USB devices?  The only way I can see this work through anything would be to do what RAZER does with its surround and creates a "virtual" sound devices in your control panel. 

So I get this correctly, AstoundSound is the technology behind AMD's TruAudio right?

P.S. Coincidence given AMD hardware and a dedicated spu in the Xbox one? On one hand Microsoft usually use their own API(XAUDIO updated version) but on the other hand it just seems so coincidental.

UPDATE:

Well the AstoundSound guy mentioned this will be available for windows and next gen consoles as well.

So seems that Xbox one will indeed feature this.

My theory is the new xaudio api for the console will allow hardware acceleration and 3d coordinates and its main method of HRTF will be astound sound.

 
@bolded
Regarding this...
 

 It bears mentioning that AMD’s audio DSP is not part of a stand-alone audio card, rather it’s a dedicated processor created so that developers can take advantage of the hardware to process their audio, and then passing that back to the sound card for presentation.

This means that the audio DSP can be utilized regardless of the audio output method used – speakers, headphones, TVs via HDMI, etc
 
 
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7370/amd-announces-trueaudio-technology-for-upcoming-gpus

 
So yeah, whatever your soundcard is the audio that has been processed on the GPU will still be passed to your soundcard regardless.
In theory, it'll work with external DACs too since all that was passed through is the processed info onto the DAC.

 

[Fegefeuer]

  Funny thing is, I've been thinking about GPU-processed audio ever since GPGPU designs started becoming a reality about six years ago. I mean, if they can trace rays of light, how about tracing waves of sound like Aureal did in the late 1990s?
 
However, if it's exclusive to ATI/AMD, that's going to be a problem. Vendor-specific graphics card tech rarely sees much adoption, like ATI's old TRUFORM tessellation tech back in the Radeon 8500 days. NVIDIA's PhysX is a strange exception, possibly because it can still run on the CPU, albeit inefficiently and at reduced detail.

 
Remember that AMD has basically both next-gen consoles in its pockets in terms of hardware infrastructure and direct access. With AMD Mantle it will deliver a similar approach to consoles. They're on a very very good position in the future while NVIDIA is busy being salty about lost console deals. I expect a good chunk of AMD in the future graphics card market. 
 
Edit: Finally we get something we've been waiting for all these years and it's a giant like AMD, not Creative or anyone else. 

 

[DJINFERNO806]

Ya but at least creative isn't making you chose between your preferred video card or hardware hrtf... I really hope this isn't the case.


Some more info,


So TrueAudio won't work unless its coded into the games audio engine either from beginning or patched in later. And its not its own API , its a plugin for wwise and Fmod to use hardware accelerated 3D sound. It will most likely use the windows 8 WASAPI and perform direct hardware calls bypassing the mixer. So its logical to assume no TrueAudio for windows 7 as no hardware sound support. Although they didn't mention this so who knows for sure.

 

[Fegefeuer]

 The advantages of utilizing the DSP are fairly straightforward. Simple audio calculations are cheap, and even simple 3D effects such as panning and precomputed reverb can be done similarly cheaply, but real-time reflections, reverb, and 3D transformations are expensive. Running the calculations to provide 3D audio over headphones and 2.1 speakers, or phantom speakers and above/below audio positioning in 5.1 setups is all very expensive. And for these reasons these effects aren’t used in current generation games. These are the kinds of effects AMD wants to bring (back) to PC gaming.

 

 

“We focus on 3D audio, but to bring professional grade audio to the industry requires processing horsepower,” he said. He said AMD’s TrueAudio technology is finally making it possible to deliver professional grade audio in games.

 
Sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKnhcsRTNME&hd=1

 

[DJINFERNO806]

So it seems from the AMD conference that they will include a DSP either on the die itself or a separate DSP chip elsewhere on the PCB.

I'm leaning towards on die just due to less latency. However I wouldn't be surprised if it were separate due to thermal reasons.

Now my other question is will the GPU itself do calculations or will this be all done on the DSP? Or both? GPU -> DSP for remainder of smaller fx to be added.

Does anyone know what where the current HD audio codec is on the gpu's? Maybe it will be added to this.

 

[genclaymore]

AMD uses Realtek codecs while Nvidia uses Intel Codecs.

 

[DJINFERNO806]

Ya but is it on die or is it on the PCB somewhere else?

 

[genclaymore]

It's on the PCB

 

[DJINFERNO806]

OK thanks. I figure they would replace that HD audio chip with their dsp which does basic digital audio and the astound sound DSP.

 

[Prava]

I'm interested in trying some Dolby stuff with my collection of cans. The thing is I already own an Objective 2.
 
Question:
 
Is the Asus U7 able to deliver Dolby Headphone through line out? I know for a fact that the thing won't be able to power many of my cans. So, I'll use it as a DAC for games, and thus I'll plug it into my Objective 2.
 
Of course, if the thing won't do any Dolby stuff through line out... can I use just the headphone jack as a line out?
 
Thanks!

 

[pietcux]

I am facing the problem, that with my U7 the DOLBY effects completely quit working. So it does not make a difference if I turn DOLBY on or off. But I think you need to use the headphone out to get a DOLBY signal to the O2. Since the U7 delivers a very clean signal there, you should be satisfied with the result.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

The U3 is cheaper and does Dolby through the spdif out. Granted, you'll need an Spdif dac to hook up to the O2 (cheapest being the Fiio D03k).

I assumed the U7 would also have an spdif out that could retain Dolby. If it does, I'd just keep the U7 and order something like the Fiio D03k for a cheap spdif dac that will feed the signal to the O2).

Though I'm assuming you need an analog line out (which makes sense that it wouldn't do Dolby, as Line Out to two channel should never be touched by any software. Pre-amp out however is a different story.)

 

[pietcux]

I need to correct myself. I uninstalled the latest driver Xonar_U7_0_11_17. With this driver all DOLBY settings where not affecting the signal at under Windows 7 64. Then I reinstalled the Xonar_U7_0_11_15_Win7 and all was back up and running. Now I have Dolby Headphone / DOLBY virtual Speaker also @ the line out stereo port. So you can choose, either get the Dolby signal out of the line out or the headphone out. And you can set the sample rate up to 192KHz/24 bit. That is accompanied by a very good signal quality. I put the FIIO E12 on the line out and this sounds very good. So your O2 will be a perfect match.