Full surround sound not working in Vista

Greenboi · 21 Aug 2008 at 19:49

Hey all, as title really..

I use surround sound headphones, and it just doesnt seem to be 5.1 in Vista (But works fine in XP), the sub doesnt really kick out much bass (In XP the headset vibrates when bass is on) and the rear and centre speakers dont kick out much sound at all, so its just the two front speakers working it seems.

Is there a patch or is this a known issue? Would a better soundcard enable it? (Only using an olde soundblaster live 24bit, could get an X-Fi though if it would make much of a difference.)

Thanks in advance

Uriel · 21 Aug 2008 at 20:03

If you're after surround sound in most games you're scuppered using Vista. Microsoft changed the way that DirectSound3D is implemented.

OpenAL games will still work. These include (from Wikipedia)

id tech 3 and 4 engine based games such as Doom 3, Jedi Knight 2, Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, Quake 4 and Prey.
Unreal Engine 2 and 3 based games such as Unreal 2, Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004, Unreal Tournament 3, Postal², and America's Army.
Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2142, Freedom Fighters, Hitman, Psychonauts, Colin McRae: DiRT and Race Driver: GRID.
Numerous free software/open-source games also use OpenAL. Some examples include War§ow and Warzone 2100.

If you need a new card for Vista I recommend the Xonar D1 or DX.

Edit: because you said you're using surround sound headphones, I expect there will be a flood of replies telling you to drop them and get a better stereo set. I would advise sorting out the soundcard as a priority first.

Greenboi · 21 Aug 2008 at 20:21

So theres no way of getting proper surround sound, or even just all speakers working properly in Vista? Seems a waste of the headphones... which btw i wont be ditching

Thanks for the info btw

Uriel · 21 Aug 2008 at 20:59

You should be able to get 5.1 in movies and games that don't use DirectSound3D.

And if you like your headphones I wouldn't ditch them either. I have a set of Medusas and still use them for gaming, despite having tried more expensive stereo sets (they're not as good but they serve a different purpose). It's just that 5.1 headphones are about as popular here as Gary Glitter hanging around a primary school.

Edit: Creative have released a fix for the X-Fi and Audigy series but have chosen not to provide support for older cards.