I've played FPS games for at least 15 years now and never heard about even one pro fps player using other than stereo with headphones.
Not even one.
Not even at home, from where a lot of pro players stream nowadays and play the vast majority of their matches they use anything different than stereo.
Not even using in-ear, that another user mentioned saying it's impossible to get directional from it. It isn't. The highest level FPS pro tournament matches makes professional players to use in-ear earphones to listen to the game sound because they need to use ear muffles over them to damp casters and crowd sound. So if anyone can't get positions by stereo with in-ear, the problem isn't the earphones or stereo sound.
All pro players use stereo. They can use headphones or in-ear earphones depending on situation. No pro fps player ever used any kind of surround emmulation like 5.1 or 7.1.
Surround emmulation may be used to improve immersion. And that's it. Not performance. Not positional.
I'm writing just to clarify that due to ppl claiming they have the best performance in games due to surround emmulation. You don't. And won't ever. If you think otherwise, you're welcome to showcase your competitions here where you used surround emmulation. And when you attach emmulated surround to better performance you're basically misleading people through wrong advice and information.
@sneak310 @3stun @Mad Lust Envy @panzerfan
And, well, there's no difference between normal stereo headphones and emmulated surround headphones other than software.
Just going to put it out there.......
If you are going to back up your claims, bring in the proof. Otherwise you sound like wikipedia. Just saying.....
In regards to what you say and to what little know about pro players and in terms of playing competitive FPS is that.............
Whether you play in emulated surround sound or regular stereo, it isn't going to turn your crappy -2/1 KD ratio into a 10/1 KD. This is a fact of which I have told many in MLE's thread.
However, this whole debate about whether emulated surround sound does help players be more competitive or give them that edge in FPS game is still very debatable. There really needs to be a test run, placebo (stereo) and non-placebo (emulated surround sound), to really find out what the final outcome of this really complicated debate we been having for a while.
Now from personal experience...going from stereo to emulated surround gave me a new kind of immersion in the game. Let's keep it at that, let's keep it simple.
In terms of directional cues, for me its evident that emulated surround sound gives me better positional cues than what regular stereo offers. There have been a few where it has saved my arse from being killed from behind or it has lead me to nearby gunfight just by following those gunshots. This is mainly concerning to the rear positional cues, to which until now....I have not been able to distinguish them while using stereo. It could be that I am use to emulated surround sound or I dont know what but stereo isn't doing it for me anymore when it comes to positional cues.
But the real question is, has it made me a better player? And I do play competitively to an extent...I am casual player with a good amount of competitive heart when playing a game....
But the answer is NO!.....why? Because I have played with Stereo and have gotten the same amount of kills. I have played with no sound and yet I'm at the top.
Now that doesn't mean emulated surround sound doesn't help me besides giving a way better audio experience compared to stereo but like I said before, the directional cues from emulated surround sound has gotten me out of some situations in game like BF4, CS GO, War Thunder, and other games that have 5.1/7.1.
If anything....if people want to actually want to say that an FPS player does get a slight edge with emulated surround sound. I can fairly say that emulated surround might help me get an additional 2 or 3 kills tops....an average maybe.
This is just my honest opinion and this whole debate about stereo is better or emulated surround is better is really getting out of hand. I know there is a lot of misinformation out there, especially the noobs out there. But I dont recall MLE or others stating that using emulated surround sound or VSS or whatever you want to call it, gave them and others a huge advantage in games or anything of that sort.
But let's not forget, technology is progressing and fast.....thinking Stereo is the ultimate when it comes to game audio will make you look close minded. Im pretty sure there was a time when everyone said Mono was the best, the standard and that Stereo wouldn't work well and look where it's at. Then we got 5.1 surround sound systems (physical) and people thought that was a gimmick and that it wouldn't offer something that stereo doesn't already do and look at where 5.1, 7.1, 5.1.2, 7.2.2, etc, etc is at and those systems are doing great if not better than expected.
Emulated surround sound at it's current stage is still not the best but its the best we had from several years ago or from when it started.
In the end, it's personal preference. Nobody is obliged to use just stereo or emulated surround sound but saying that one is better than the other isn't really the right way to clear things up, it just makes it worse.
Both stereo and emulated surround sound has it's pro's and con's....so just use what you think its best for you and in your opinion sounds the best.