[Silver]

My friend will be in the market for a sound card for playing Counter-Strike almost exclusively in Jan next year. He bought HD600s a while ago. However, pairing with the build-in sound card they just sound hardly satisfactory. His budget is "as much as the card cost". I am thinking about M-Audio Revolution+ASL MG Head(as it is available locally) for his need. However, it just seems to be a bit strange to use tube amp for gaming...

 

[dd3mon]

Quote:

Originally posted by Silver My friend will be in the market for a sound card for playing Counter-Strike almost exclusively in Jan next year. He bought HD600s a while ago. However, pairing with the build-in sound card they just sound hardly satisfactory. His budget is "as much as the card cost". I am thinking about M-Audio Revolution+ASL MG Head(as it is available locally) for his need. However, it just seems to be a bit strange to use tube amp for gaming...

It works quite well (I used this setup for a long time, now I've upgraded to a standalone CDP for my music source and an audigy 2 for my gaming source). The only problem is the long hours gaming will drain the long, but eventually limited life of your tubes. If your MG Head is quiet, gaming is great though it though.

-dd3mon

 

[taoster]

wow, a dedicated amp(MH Head) for gaming purpose.

 

[Thump]

My computer is my source, both for economic purposes and because I do a lot of gaming while I listen to music. My son plays a lot of Counterstrike with the headphones on. I use a M-Audio Revolution card, set to digital output into an unmodified (for now) Art DI/O into my headphone amp to my Senn 600s. The only drawback with this setup is that by using digital output I cannot also have speakers hooked up, so that computer is a headphones only system.

You could skip the ART DI/O, as it would certainly be overkill for gaming.

I'm extremely happy with this setup.

 

[djooky]

get the latest audigy2 for gaming, the sound is more clear and detailed, superior 3d sound. I think Creative provides the best support for gaming atm.

 

[cadobhuk]

Did he buy HD600s to play counter strike?

I mean,there are games with a good quality sound,but I dont think CS is among them.If he never listens to music he shouldve bought hd590s and no amp-where do people get so much money to waste?

 

[tortie]

Strickly speaking of a computer soundcard for games, Creative's audigy 2 is better because it is the only card that supports the newest EAX standard and also has low CPU utilization vs. other cards out there.

 

[badmonkey]

Hell, what, are you people kidding... Counter-Strike?

Most of the sounds for Counter-Strike are 8-bit 22Khz mono PCM. I mean **** an M-Audio revolution for that?!

And you wanna use headphones too, which means you don't even need to worry about surround sound. Well if you do care at all about surround sound, don't get an M-Audio, as I can't convince mine to play the rear channels from Counter-Strike (works fine with everything else). The Sensaura/Game Mode with the M-Audio is a joke, it introduces a delay of at least 200 or 300ms into the sound. Don't think of using a Revolution for gaming.

The thing with Counter-Strike specifically is you want to avoid EAX if possible.

EAX (the version used in Half Life, anyway) amounts to nothing more than altering the sound depending on your location in a map within the game. I.e., inside a tunnel, add echo. It also allows for basic 3D positioning.

This means you want a card which supports A3D version 2.0, which is the other technology Half-Life supports. A3D is far superior to EAX; it uses a much more sophisticated engine which takes into account the position of the sound rather than the position of the player (unlike EAX). This means sounds are softened by walls, etc. A3D also has the strange advantage of being more sensitive. You will hear an enemy's footsteps before he will hear yours if you use A3D and he uses EAX.

Unfortunately Creative bought A3D and shelved it a few years ago, to remove competition to their EAX. This means the only cards you find nowadays support A3D 1.0, not 2.0. You need 2.0 for Counter-Strike.

There are some cards around which do support 2.0; you'll have to look on the 2nd hand market. A search on this board might yield which cards; otherwise someone else may know.

Oh and Counter-Strike tends to suffer from low-bass, so if you're looking at other headphones make sure they give good bass. Using an equalizer to turn the bass up may help a little too. Forget worrying about fidelity, the weapons sounds in CS are anything but realistic (although various customizations can help).

 

[tortie]

I know this is off topic, but I just wanted to add some EAX games like Theif & System shock has excellent 3D positioning

But I dont know anything about the sound in counter strike

As I said, Im off topic

 

[badmonkey]

Quote:

Originally posted by tortie I know this is off topic, but I just wanted to add some EAX games like Theif & System shock has excellent 3D positioning But I dont know anything about the sound in counter strike As I said, Im off topic

Firstly, Counter Strike uses an older version of EAX so new versions (up to 4.0 now aren't they?) will no doubt be better.

Secondly, though, 3D positioning was not what I was talking about. My point was that all EAX does is 1) position the sound and 2) adjust it depending on where YOU are, not where the sound originated from.

(It's also buggy in CS, just as an aside... once the game switches to tunnel mode with a lot of echo added, EAX will stick there and won't remove the echo when it should...)

Silver, if you're interested in replacing the default CS sounds with some more realistic alternatives, I can provide you with links if you'd like.

 

[NetRunner]

This is really offtopic too, but.. I think that the Aureal A3D 2 surround sounds was better, but it also was more technical. As I recall it needed a 3D model (simplified, though) of the real environment for 3D audio, so I think it would be harder and harder to do, as environment details continue to increase. *It was really really good though.. Ah the memory of Half-Life on Aureal..*
Now, Creative has made the EAX significantly better (with Audigy series) in that it has the possibility to create sounds in multiple enviroments (although somewhat artifical sounding as you said), apply oclusion to them and position of the actual environments (so that you can e.g. hear a tunnel sounds coming from your left). Also they have a possibility for a smooth transition between environments.
Seems that many developers can't yet fully use the possibilities of Audigy..

Maybe it's akin to the lowest common standard with enough support in the wild, as it is with 3D graphics..

*PS. here are the missing periods from the above........

*

 

[funnytimes]

I play Counter Strike quite a bit. The sound effects are not quite hi-fi, a tube amp would be an overkill. Also, EAX is a requirement for many leagues, whereas A3D is prohibited, so you might want to stick with eax.

 

[HanssoN]

Quote:

Originally posted by cadobhuk Did he buy HD600s to play counter strike? I mean,there are games with a good quality sound,but I dont think CS is among them.If he never listens to music he shouldve bought hd590s and no amp-where do people get so much money to waste?

Haha, I bought my HD600s with the intention to use them when playing CS... Then I immediately realized how good they sounded, and now I'm stuck here...

Needless to say I don't play Counter-Strike very much anymore, I listen to my music through headphones instead, and the HD600 + classical combo is just incredible...