Cigam on 28/10/2013 at 22:58
Is it just me or does this not sound quite right?
I can faintly hear guard conversations coming from my rear in my front speakers if I lean close to them. Also I have heard sounds that are coming from my front in my rear speakers. Also the whole sound experience seems a little 'off' somehow.
I am using Tafferpatch if that makes a difference. Has anyone else noticed anything like this.
TheDuriel on 29/10/2013 at 05:35
one of the flaws with eax and thief is the insane echoing
i also belive that 5.1 !surround!(with rear speakers) is not supported
DrK on 29/10/2013 at 19:55
Yep, I use a wireless headphone, a Sennheiser HDR 130 with surround sound. It's freaking amazing, great bass, in Thief the sound location is pretty spot on, the surround effect works very well.
ticky on 29/10/2013 at 20:13
Quote Posted by DrK
Yep, I use a wireless headphone, a Sennheiser HDR 130 with surround sound. It's freaking amazing, great bass, in Thief the sound location is pretty spot on, the surround effect works very well.
Drk, what is your audio card? Just because I'm planning to buy one instead of the motherboard one. Also, my old sound blaster live! doesn't work any more (I loved Thief with it).
DrK on 29/10/2013 at 20:39
I don't have an audio card, it's a laptop. I have a NVIDIA High Definition Audio driver for the sound, so it's managed by the motherboard or the graphic card I don't know.
However, a wireless headphone uses a transmitter station to connect and recharge the headphone, I think it's the station which handles the surround. Basically, as long as you have a RCA or a 3.5mm jack plug to connect the station to your computer, you don't need an advanced audio card. I'm no technician though, I might be wrong. I can't use EAX with my laptop, but the surround feature of this headphone is still a great compromise, I barely make the difference with my homecinema setting.
Inline Image:
http://www.sennheiserfrance.com/fr/icm.nsf/resources/C12570D8006EC7C4C125743600453F5B/$File/RS130_view.jpgIt's been years I'm using wireless headphones, before I had a cheap Sony. I bought this one a couple years ago and it's really amazing, but since then I guess there are better products now.
Cigam on 30/10/2013 at 04:56
Quote Posted by Albert
So you're saying that you've got a 5.1 surround system and you're having problems with OpenAL positioning? Interesting.
Not sure of anyone else experiencing this. I just have a typical stereo setup, myself. If I ever get a 5.1 surround setup, I'll have to check this out.
It's a 4.1 to be accurate. Another oddity is that if I lean out of a doorway so that I am facing a guard who is walking towards me to my left, I will sometimes hear his footsteps from my right. Until I stop leaning and go back into the room I was leaning out of, and then I hear the footsteps from my left as I should.
On another note, I couldn't imagine playing in stereo. Surely you need to hear whether the footsteps are approaching from behind you or in front of you. Otherwise how would you know in which direction to retreat. You could "retreat" down the corridor only to turn the corner and walk right into him or her, as it was the corner in the opposite direction that was clear?
DrK on 30/10/2013 at 19:11
Quote Posted by Albert
Are you telling us that you haven't tried OpenAL with Thief yet, DrK? It's pretty easy to get working, even w/ Windows I think. Just need to hunt down the old OpenAL audio drivers on the internet for software EAX (Or as it's called with OpenAL, EFX) support. Or maybe there's a dll you can use? Not sure, but there's been talk on this.
Yep, I remember about 10 years ago I tried to setup EAX but it sounded horrible, probably because of my install back in the days. I didn't try again since then, because I'm fully satisfied by the surround headphone. Basically it's a 4.1 system directly into my ears, I can tell if an AI comes from behind.
The wireless headphones can be pricey, but it's totally worth it. Even though I had a nice subwoofer, I got rid of my old 4.1 speakers, I only use the headphone now.
Hit Deity on 2/11/2013 at 11:42
Interesting. Thanks, Albert. I had been wondering about this. It was something that was glaringly obvious at first, when I started playing on more recent hardware and newer systems, that I wasn't running in EAX anymore. Back in "the old days", it was so obvious where enemy AIs were and where sounds were coming from with positional audio around the time Thief1/G and T2 launched. Later, on newer systems and OSes, I noticed the EAX setting was always greyed out in my Thief settings menu, and I could no longer get that clear audio indication of where sounds were coming from.
I'm going to try this out and let you know my results. As soon as I can tear myself away from Batman Arkham Origins (awesome game, bugs and all) that is. I had all but given up being able to have the "old" positional audio working again, when years later it was always a greyed out option in Thief and nothing I did corrected it. Everything sounded so dull and "generically positioned" in my head when playing with headphones. It was always something I was so proud of when concerning the Thief games, that someone had finally gotten the sounds of AIs and environmental effects perfected and you could use your ears as much as your eyes to "see" around Garrett's world.
Child Of Karras on 7/11/2013 at 11:45
Quote Posted by Cigam
Another oddity is that if I lean out of a doorway so that I am facing a guard who is walking towards me to my left, I will sometimes hear his footsteps from my right. Until I stop leaning and go back into the room I was leaning out of, and then I hear the footsteps from my left as I should.
This is a familiar phenomenon. It's related to the way Thief handles sound areas ("rooms"). If they're not overlapping enough or overlapping too much it can cause weird audio symptoms while passing the transition zone.
Hearing the guard right side while he's left side can be caused by a missing room link to your left. Thief then thinks that the only acoustic way is from the right side. @.@
However, a complete channel swap left right front rear sounds rather like a driver issue. I suppose it's not happening in any other sound-supporting game or application?
sNeaksieGarrett on 8/11/2013 at 14:48
I have OpenAL for my machine but I've never been able to get EAX to work properly, see below. OpenAL doesn't do anything either, or at least I can't tell that it's doing anything other than giving me regular stereo sound.:erg:
What you describe Cigam is sorta similar to what is wrong with my setup, although I've never actually used a real 5.1 surround sound setup. I've just been using 2.1 stereo, but Thief always sounded echoey and so I just decided to never use EAX.
