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What Happened To PC Gaming Audio?
Thanks to The Adrenaline Vault for its feature discussing why computer audio has become a critically undervalued part of a PC purchase. The author indicates the worry that "computer audio is taken for granted, and that other components make the difference between high- and low-end systems", and voices concern that "most new [PC] computer games - including major releases - don't take advantage in any significant way of the capabilities of the latest generation of audio cards." He ends with the heartfelt wish: "I'm waiting for the day when I hear someone say, 'That game sounds so great, I have to buy it!' I hope people become more educated about audio so they can talk about it with the same enthusiasm that they discuss 3D video hardware acceleration or high definition plasma screens."
The answer is very simple - audio drivers are *SO* incredibly bad that they can't be relied upon for anything more than the absolute bare minimum functions.
Working at a well known PC game studio, we (and many other studios) have had to implement all audio mixing in software, only using the soundcard for raw playback.
That wonderful audio card you have? It's no more useful than on-board audio.
Don't like the situation? Neither do we - blame Creative and the other manufacturers who constantly pump out junk drivers.
..is plenty.
almost all modern mobos have that built in, if the da's shit it's still good enough. very few of us are hifi freaks, people just don't care that much about something that isn't going to save a crappy game anyways. If the audio would be the only thing making you want to play the game, why the hell not just put some music on?
on the other hand there's plenty of games with superb audio, but audio isn't just about 'quality' as such - the one game I played shitloads just for the audio was Star Control 2.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
its easier to tell the difference between a DVD and a Divx of the same movie than it is to tell the difference between an audio cd and an mp3 of the same song. heck, most people cant even tell the difference if you play the one after the other.
now why exactly is that sort of person going to fork out more cash for better hardware with features they probably wont even notice? I know im not paying the extra bucks for an audigy3 (or whatever the latest and greatest may be) when these days built in sound or an old SBLive sound exactly the same to my ears
TIAEAE!
1. DOOM3 is using an extremely advanced (and impressive) audio system. There is an excellent write-up of it here. For an atmospheric game like DOOM3, that sounds absolutely perfect.
2. Beware the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum if you are a gamer. It sounds fantastic, but the live drive (or whatever the Augidy 2 generation 5.25" sized input access is called), consistantly crashed games in my system (3000+, 9800 Pro, 1 GB RAM). To my surprise, when I disconnected the live drive and left the PCI card in, everything ran beautifully again. I always thought it was my viedo card acting up, but when Quake3 started crashing consistantly I had to do some investigation and to my surprise the Audigy was the guilty party.
And who on EARTH has surround sound on their PC?
A lot of people who bought 4-speaker or 5.1-speaker sound cards, that's who. I run my ASUS A7N8X Deluxe's SP/DIF output into a receiver and play stuff in 5.1
As a side note, it seems more and more games _are_ handling audio better. Max Payne 2 sends all "vocal" content to the center channel (like a movie) if you have 5.1 -- True Crime does something similiar. Counter-Strike works in 5.1 mode via EAX emulation. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic also utilizes 5.1, similiar to how Max Payne 2 does it. MP2 is probably the best "5.1" game I've found so far, though. I'm sure Half-Life and Doom3 will change that..
Ultimately it comes down to what sound provider these games use.. if they're using DirectSound through hardware, odds are it will support many a speaker configuration. It's when they use lame crap like Miles in software that it starts to suck.
Also, Creative has made some of the overrated soundcards ever. They're like the Bose of sound cards now. What's really funny is that I cannot get my Audigy Deluxe working on my computer. Everytime I attempt to install the drivers (which, by the way, are a pain in the ass to download. Who is going to BUY a drivers CD? Gimme a break!) the machine blue screens. Creative's tech support was no help either, basically saying the Audigy Deluxe was incompatable with my A7N8X Deluxe motherboard.
Riiight.
Not All Who Wander Are Lost
So most spiffy new games require spiffy new and FAST computers. Most new fast computers have a baseline noise level which is not so quiet, expecially after you drop in your turbine powered GPU.
Most audiophile-type distinctions in terms of fine quality can only be made in relative silence. I am not an audiophile, but I can tell a nice system when I hear it, but only with no background noise.
Therefore, for most people not blessed with silent hardcore gaming PCs (and even those who are but live in loud areas), the distinction is virtually impossible to make without the sound turned up so far that neighbors in the next zip code are complaining.
This is exactly why when I went to visit someone and they had an $8,000 plasma TV with a cooling fan I thought it was the dumbest thing ever. It totally defeated the purpose of the $5,000 sound system's capabilities.