Battlefield 3 announced

[Davros]

I use a dedicated soundcard not for audio quality but because i value eax (used in a lot of old games) plus being a headphone user good positional audio is a must

Go here :
http://www.creative.com/soundblaster/alchemy/
select the video tab watch the example videos (with eax/without eax) and then tell me that isnt worth having
ps: best with headphones.

when done well eax rocks imho

 

[Dresden]

Sorry to derail the topic to sound cards but yeah the quality is night and day. I used to have a gigaworks s750 7.1 hooked up to the PC but now its doing audio duty on the PS3 as my home theater speakers. I just need an HDMI receiver (Denon here I come) and that will then allow me to get the 2.1 setup to a 7.1 setup like it was but I will probably stick with 5.1 for space purposes. I wish I still had them hooked up to the PC though because the sound was amazing especially in games like Crysis and Battlefield and so on.

It's not really derailing when you think about it. DICE puts a TON of work into audio, made apparent by a lot of the videos I've seen on the topic of audio design. The Battlefield series has unsurpassed audio. It's the only game series that makes me long for my old 5.1 setup, which I ditched because I didn't like it that much. I'm back to 2.1's, which are all I really need. Surround sound promedia is a pain in the ass to set up. There's virtually no space behind my computer for additional speakers, so they used to just hang out on the floor. Plus, I hated draping the wires around my room.

 

[Andrew Lauritzen]

I use a dedicated soundcard not for audio quality but because i value eax (used in a lot of old games) plus being a headphone user good positional audio is a must

Basic effects that could easily be done in software (like they are in modern games). Sure it's useful to have a layer like that for legacy applications, but there's zero need for dedicated hardware to do these sorts of things going forward.

Hell someone enterprising could totally write their own software EAX layer that worked on any audio interface (even integrated) if it's well-documented enough.

 

[homerdog]

Hell someone enterprising could totally write their own software EAX layer that worked on any audio interface (even integrated) if it's well-documented enough.

I think someone tried, and Creative's lawyers put a stop to it.

Creative can get fucked. If I buy a dedicated audio card (not likely) it will be anything other than Creative.

 

[Malo]

Isn't that what OpenAL was for?

 

[Jedi2016]

Hm. I'm only a little behind on the GPU for recommended specs, and I've got the rest in the bag. I think I'll be okay. Sweet.

 

[N_B]

I wouldn't get too comfortable..

http://twitter.com/#!/zh1nt0/status/116140116820504576 (dev)

recommended is usually medium

 

[Davros]

Basic effects that could easily be done in software (like they are in modern games).

Not as basic as you may think (look how many parameters there are just for the reverb)
and are the effects being done in modern games (i think there being left out)

 

[Svensk Viking]

My HD4870(512MB model...am assuming BF3 would benefit of the 1GB model) is about twice as powerful as the HD3870 IIRC, so hopefully it will manage pretty decently somewhere between low and medium(I go for 30 FPS in the single player part, but aim for 60 in multiplayer)

The recommended GPU requirement may scare alot of peple though...Do they really mean the non-Ti version of the 560? I find it odd when the AMD recommended one is the HD6950

 

[Andrew Lauritzen]

Not as basic as you may think (look how many parameters there are just for the reverb)

Parameters != complexity. Load up a real DAW tool these days and layer on many more accurate and complicated effects at higher sampling rates than games and watch it take 1% of your CPU or less these days...

Sound is just not a lot of data and thus not a particularly performance-intensive thing these days. That's a good thing; it means you need less special-purpose hardware.

And yeah, of course they are being done in modern games. This is a BF thread... go play Bad Company 2 on a nice sound system and enjoy Other games have used middleware audio solutions like Rapture3D, etc. for various things. That sort of thing is more the future of sound than hardware DSPs for the reasons I mentioned.

 

[Davros]

And yeah, of course they are being done in modern games.

many modern games ?
for example just fired up 2 games avp 2010 and hard reset and fired a gun both indoors and out and and the gunshots sounded the same.

 

[Andrew Lauritzen]

many modern games ?
for example just fired up 2 games avp 2010 and hard reset and fired a gun both indoors and out and and the gunshots sounded the same.

That has nothing to do with the technology. Lots of old games didn't do this either. Just depends how much time and money is spent on the audio in a game. Anyways I fully expect BF3 to have great sound, since the sound in BC2 was very good (and didn't require any special hardware).

 

[Davros]

I know, but I think its not being done because there is no standard free api for enviromental audio that has a software path

and this imho is where openal failed hugely, I have no idea how much its been promoted to game devs but they have done absolutely nothing to promote it to end users
gamers generally dont care about openal, support for openal is not something they look for in a souncard/mboard sound chip/codec and they have no idea what features openal supports
even a visit to the openal website tells you nothing

 

[Dresden]

Anyways I fully expect BF3 to have great sound, since the sound in BC2 was very good (and didn't require any special hardware).

Since they're bringing back the commo rose, I hope to be able to hear players barking out commands, especially if they're on the other team. You can hear friendly/enemy players yelling throughout BC2, but only when they're hit, yelling after killing an enemy or requesting ammo/medical attention. Also, subtitles would be nice, especially when playing as the Russians. With the return of the commo rose, the commands will be more in depth, and it's hard to realize what players need off the bat when they're speaking in another language.

 

[RobertR1]

Got my 2600k oc'd to 4.6ghz
GTX 580 running at 900/1800/2200

My body is ready.

If recommended is medium then either we're looking at something downright amazing or poorly optimized. We shall soon see!

 

[Dresden]

Got my 2600k oc'd to 4.6ghz
GTX 580 running at 900/1800/2200

My body is ready.

If recommended is medium then either we're looking at something downright amazing or poorly optimized. We shall soon see!

What company card type are you using? I've got dual EVGA's, the 3gb models, and was thinking about OC'ing them with Precision. Also, do you use air cooling? How's the temp at that spec?

 

[neliz]

What company card type are you using? I've got dual EVGA's, the 3gb models, and was thinking about OC'ing them with Precision. Also, do you use air cooling? How's the temp at that spec?

My 580 at 832 maxed out at 71 Degrees Celcius this summer! I did an 8 hour RAR password attack
At 19 degrees room temp and 975 on the core you're looking at ~70 as well (24 hours Heaven 2.0)

No cookie if you guess which card.

 

[Lightman]

My 580 at 832 maxed out at 71 Degrees Celcius this summer! I did an 8 hour RAR password attack
At 19 degrees room temp and 975 on the core you're looking at ~70 as well (24 hours Heaven 2.0)

No cookie if you guess which card.

Can I enter?

three letters company and stormy card name

 

[Andrew Lauritzen]

I know, but I think its not being done because there is no standard free api for enviromental audio that has a software path

There's no need for a standard API when it's all software, that's the (great) point! Games aren't licensing middleware or doing it themselves simply because the vast majority figure it's not worth it to their end users. This is a communications/user problem not a technical one. People simply need to emphasize their desire for better sound to developers more. There are zero technical barriers in the way here.

 

[RobertR1]

What company card type are you using? I've got dual EVGA's, the 3gb models, and was thinking about OC'ing them with Precision. Also, do you use air cooling? How's the temp at that spec?

The card is a zotac 580gtx amp which actually uses the stock cooler.

MSI afterburner. Bumped the voltage upto 1.075 and then moved the clocks accordingly. Do the core/shaders first (keep them locked). Once stabilized on the core, move to the mem. Core upgrades is where the speed seems to be. Temps peak out at 80 running Heaven benchmark.

I'm quite comfotable with my oc and temps so I'll just leave it this.