How to output game to Dolby Digital thru HDMI?

[homerdog]

I could have sworn there was one point where Creative sold a software upgrade to enable DD Live on some of their soundcards, and I remember thinking it was weird Dolby just didn't sell a virtual driver themselves that was hardware agnostic to add the capability to any system.

They never offered a Dolby Digital encoder I don't think but these days you can get Dolby Atmos for 15 bucks.
https://www.dolby.com/us/en/apps/access/pc-xbox.html

Object based surround like Atmos is they way surround should be done.

 

[BRiT]

Some users like the Windows Sonic for Headphones, it's free and is object-based surround like Atmos.

Dolby Atmos for receivers is free, as the license cost is payed by the hardware provider.
Dolby Atmos for Headphones has a minor cost, but it is cross-license if you tie it to xbox live account, so it'll work on console and PC.

On the other side, DTS Sound Unbound has a minor cost and provides DTS:X and DTS:Headphone-X. https://dts.com/sound-unbound/faq