Directsound 3D & Future of 3D Audio Positioning

[swaaye]

There's a big discussion of the future of PC Audio going on over at Tech Report. It was sparked by a comparison of CS Source performance on various sounds cards over there.

I'm wondering what MS has done to DS3D in DX7/8/9?

If you play Painkiller you'll see that you can choose from TONS of 3D audio providers (thanks to Miles Sound System which the developers licensed smartly.) One of the options in there is DS3D 7 Full HRTF which is really pretty good and reminds me of the Aureal Vortex 2 (playing thru headphones, I haven't tried multichannel speakers). However, that would seem to say that DS3D has been unchanged since DX7!

 

[T2k]

I can't resist to bring some conspiracy theory here... what if it's not an accident? I mean it's the ONLY strong marketing point for Creative, namely their cards are the fastest in EAX v456783487...

PS: BTW isn't Longhorn/DX10 supposed to bring some new stuff in audio as well?

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

Doesn't audio sound good enough?

All audio sounds the same since 1997/1998 when I bought my SBLive.

The only difference between the SBLive and my onboard sound is that the bass is louder on my onboard and it sounds sharper due to some internal configuration or something.

Also not to forget that my onboard only uses 2% CPU time while using software DX Audio 3D even though it doesn't benefit my 2 speaker setup.

You could easily do the same through an equaliser on the SBLive.

 

[swaaye]

Well, I'm just playing Painkiller on my notebook's Realtek ALC250 2 channel AC97 garbage. Actually, I'm stunned at how often Realtek updates their drivers. I swear it's twice per month.

But, if you want to compare 3D audio technologies, Painkiller is one way to do it. It has the most cofigurable audio I think I've ever seen! Give it a shot!

The hardware EAX options totally pale in comparison to the Full HRTF. I think the HRTF options are much more CPU demanding though. And, remember, good HRTF and the audio wavetracing was what made the Vortex 2 kick the Live's ass in 3D audio. There is no comparison between what a Vortex 2 could do with headphones or two speakers and what we can do today with typical cards. Vortex 2 had to be heard to be understood. Sad that Creative did a buy-and-bury!