[BlueNinja0]

  of course you get an effect, but it's not the sum of calculations based on multichannel-input(from the game -> into windows mixer-> into mb3 software).

 
There is a clear distinction from sounds coming from the front vs the back. The MB3 application is clearly getting the 7.1 channels somehow. I'll record a video to show you guys later. I also thought it would not work.

 

[thuNDa]

   
There is a clear distinction from sounds coming from the front vs the back. The MB3 application is clearly getting the 7.1 channels somehow. I'll record a video to show you guys later. I also thought it would not work.

But have you set BF4 to "surround" in the audio options?
That's where it is outputing multichannel.

 

[BlueNinja0]

  But have you set BF4 to "surround" in the audio options?
That's where it is outputing multichannel.

Yes I did ofc. Otherwise I would only be feeding 2.0 to the SBX Surround.

 

[StudioSound]

   
I thought that too, but somehow I'm clearly getting surround sound. I don't know how the Windows sound API works, but apparently games can output 7.1 sound to a 2.0 device. Now, I've only tested it with 2 applications: Battlefield 4 and Foobar (with a 7.1 speaker test file), and there's a clear distinction between SBX ProStudio Surround enabled and disabled. I can record a video on BF4 to show you if you're curious.
Games that follow Windows configuration to decide to output stereo or surround might not work. Can you suggest me a small game or application to test it?
 
These are the settings I'm using:
 

Open up Windows' Audio Control Panel and see whether the "Sound Blaster X-Fi MB 3" audio device is configured as Stereo or 5.1/7.1
Unless this has changed in a recent update, it only lets you select 5.1/7.1 if you're using a supported audio codec as the output device.

 

[BlueNinja0]

  Open up Windows' Audio Control Panel and see whether the "Sound Blaster X-Fi MB 3" audio device is configured as Stereo or 5.1/7.1
Unless this has changed in a recent update, it only lets you select 5.1/7.1 if you're using a supported audio codec as the output device.

 
 
Yes, only Stereo when choosing the ODAC as the output device, and it allows me to select 7.1 if I set the output device to the Realtek, but only if I also set the Realtek for 7.1 output.
 
That would not make much sense though. If the only output it allows is the Realtek, then why would it allow me to choose the ODAC in here?

 
 
And the first option also doesn't make much sense, since we can only select MB3 as the only option...

 

[StudioSound]

Yes, only Stereo when choosing the ODAC as the output device, and it allows me to select 7.1 if I set the output device to the Realtek, but only if I also set the Realtek for 7.1 output.  
That would not make much sense though. If the only output it allows is the Realtek, then why would it allow me to choose the ODAC in here?
 
And the first option also doesn't make much sense, since we can only select MB3 as the only option...

 
You can still apply all the other effects if you're outputting to another device, but if you want 5.1/7.1 downmixed via SBX Surround for headphones, you need to output to your on-board audio codec.
It's a stupid limitation, but that's how it is. I speculated why that might be earlier in this topic.
I don't know why there's a section to select an input device.
 
Your on-board audio codec may have a "what you hear" or "stereo mix" device that you might be able to forward the output of to your ODAC.

 

[BlueNinja0]

   
You can still apply all the other effects if you're outputting to another device, but if you want 5.1/7.1 downmixed via SBX Surround for headphones, you need to output to your on-board audio codec.
It's a stupid limitation, but that's how it is. I speculated why that might be earlier in this topic.
I don't know why there's a section to select an input device.
 
Your on-board audio codec may have a "what you hear" or "stereo mix" device that you might be able to forward the output of to your ODAC.

 
I thought that's how it worked too. But I tested it with just the ODAC and somehow it's working...
I made this video to show you, first with virtual surround off, and then on:

 
Either I'm crazy or there is clearly back/forth audio cues when SBX is on.
 
And know what's even funnier? You don't even need any onboard audio active at all, I completely disabled my internal Realtek soundcard on the BIOS to test it out and the virtual surround works the same... (you have to circumvent a certain DRM though)
 
Now, how could this be working? I'm on Windows 10, which I know have some sound API improvements and new functionality. It's also worth note that Creative updated recently the X-Fi MB3 application to be fully compatible with Windows 10. What's your thoughts?

 

[Evshrug]

Just a theory... Maybe the game is producing sounds in all directions, passing along all the "voices" to the X-Fi MB3, which processes the sound and outputs in processed stereo (thus 2.0 output), which is then sent to the ODAC?

I don't know all the engineering details, but at some point the game's audio director/conductor decides where a sound is coming from. In console games, this direction is jammed into 5 or 7 directional "channels" before encoding the 5.1 or 7.1 bitstream down into Dolby (digital live) or DTS (Connect) for the purpose of eventually reproducing the sound in a home theater surround system. PC games are different... Or at least, I think it's logical that they should be. They're usually NOT connected to AVRs, but they are usually connected to two desktop speakers or a pair of headphones, no need for Dolby/DTS theater-style reproduction. If the X-Fi MB3 is the sound processor (which doesn't come with Dolby/DTS license), then it makes sense that the output would be stereo and said output would work with an ODAC or any DAC.

 

[Yethal]

Just a theory... Maybe the game is producing sounds in all directions, passing along all the "voices" to the X-Fi MB3, which processes the sound and outputs in processed stereo (thus 2.0 output), which is then sent to the ODAC?

I don't know all the engineering details, but at some point the game's audio director/conductor decides where a sound is coming from. In console games, this direction is jammed into 5 or 7 directional "channels" before encoding the 5.1 or 7.1 bitstream down into Dolby (digital live) or DTS (Connect) for the purpose of eventually reproducing the sound in a home theater surround system. PC games are different... Or at least, I think it's logical that they should be. They're usually NOT connected to AVRs, but they are usually connected to two desktop speakers or a pair of headphones, no need for Dolby/DTS theater-style reproduction. If the X-Fi MB3 is the sound processor (which doesn't come with Dolby/DTS license), then it makes sense that the output would be stereo and said output would work with an ODAC or any DAC.

Games did that back in OpenAL times. Now sound engine renders the output already divided up into discrete channels.

 

[BlueNinja0]

Just a theory... Maybe the game is producing sounds in all directions, passing along all the "voices" to the X-Fi MB3, which processes the sound and outputs in processed stereo (thus 2.0 output), which is then sent to the ODAC?

I don't know all the engineering details, but at some point the game's audio director/conductor decides where a sound is coming from. In console games, this direction is jammed into 5 or 7 directional "channels" before encoding the 5.1 or 7.1 bitstream down into Dolby (digital live) or DTS (Connect) for the purpose of eventually reproducing the sound in a home theater surround system. PC games are different... Or at least, I think it's logical that they should be. They're usually NOT connected to AVRs, but they are usually connected to two desktop speakers or a pair of headphones, no need for Dolby/DTS theater-style reproduction. If the X-Fi MB3 is the sound processor (which doesn't come with Dolby/DTS license), then it makes sense that the output would be stereo and said output would work with an ODAC or any DAC.

 
As Yethal said, back then (and still today on Source games) games that used OpenAL or DirectSound had complete 3D sound. That means 360 degrees around you and even up and bellow. That 3D information was fed to the sound card and stuff like CMSS-3D could take advantage of that to create an awesome virtual surround experience. Today games pre-render the sound in-engine and output it at most as 7.1 channels (as is the case for BF4).
 
My bet is that games that have stereo vs surround settings in-game, can output surround sound even if the default output device is set to 2.0 in Windows. I have yet to test it on games that configure themselves based on the Windows configuration. Anyone wants to recommend me one game that does so that I can test it and report back?

 

[Yethal]

   
As Yethal said, back then (and still today on Source games) games that used OpenAL or DirectSound had complete 3D sound. That means 360 degrees around you and even up and bellow. That 3D information was fed to the sound card and stuff like CMSS-3D could take advantage of that to create an awesome virtual surround experience. Today games pre-render the sound in-engine and output it at most as 7.1 channels (as is the case for BF4).
 
My bet is that games that have stereo vs surround settings in-game, can output surround sound even if the default output device is set to 2.0 in Windows. I have yet to test it on games that configure themselves based on the Windows configuration. Anyone wants to recommend me one game that does so that I can test it and report back?

IIRC Rainbow Six Siege does that.

 

[BlueNinja0]

 
IIRC Rainbow Six Siege does that.

Unfortunately I don't have that game. Anyone knows a quick and dirty app or free game I can test this on?

 

[Yethal]

 
Unfortunately I don't have that game. Anyone knows a quick and dirty app or free game I can test this on?

Dirty Bomb?

 

[StudioSound]

 
I thought that's how it worked too. But I tested it with just the ODAC and somehow it's working...
I made this video to show you, first with virtual surround off, and then on:
 
 
Either I'm crazy or there is clearly back/forth audio cues when SBX is on.
 
And know what's even funnier? You don't even need any onboard audio active at all, I completely disabled my internal Realtek soundcard on the BIOS to test it out and the virtual surround works the same... (you have to circumvent a certain DRM though)
 
Now, how could this be working? I'm on Windows 10, which I know have some sound API improvements and new functionality. It's also worth note that Creative updated recently the X-Fi MB3 application to be fully compatible with Windows 10. What's your thoughts?

 
SBX is acting as a spatializer when set like this. It's a really good spatializer, but a spatializer nonetheless.
A game can't send 5.1/7.1 audio to a stereo device. The Windows device settings override anything that a game can do.
Your video doesn't sound like proper 7.1 SBX Surround at all.
 

Games did that back in OpenAL times. Now sound engine renders the output already divided up into discrete channels.

Correct. That's how things used to work with DirectSound3D/OpenAL and CMSS-3D on the X-Fi cards.
Now your sound card (or software) can only take a 5.1/7.1 signal and mix it down.
 
What a game can do, and I believe one or two games do this now (Overwatch and Battlefront) is do the virtual surround processing in the game itself.
This allows it to use the discrete 3D sound data before it's mixed down to 5.1/7.1, and output that to your headphones, but that's via the Dolby Atmos option, not the "surround" output.
The majority of games just output a basic stereo mix when the headphone mode is selected, which is why you need a sound card (or software) to take 5.1/7.1 from the game and create a binaural headphone mix.

 

[Yethal]

Originally Posted by StudioSound /img/forum/go_quote.gif
What a game can do, and I believe one or two games do this now (Overwatch and Battlefront) is do the virtual surround processing in the game itself.
This allows it to use the discrete 3D sound data before it's mixed down to 5.1/7.1, and output that to your headphones, but that's via the Dolby Atmos option, not the "surround" output.
The majority of games just output a basic stereo mix when the headphone mode is selected, which is why you need a sound card (or software) to take 5.1/7.1 from the game and create a binaural headphone mix.

Technology You're referring to is called Dolby Atmos and currently only Overwatch supports it for headphones (Battlefront is Home Cinema only).