Surround sound PC gaming

ic1male · 15 May 2006 at 23:46

Almost ready to nab myself a set of 5.1 speakers but I was just wondering how does this all work on a PC. I'm surmising that on consoles the programmers work to the Dolby Digital spec and hence you automatically get DD 5.1 surround on speakers which support it.

But PCs don't have that - they mainly use EAX. Is it the same thing - just Creative's take on it? Do the EAX games automatically have the 5.1 channels for surround speakers? Just by enabling EAX 2/3/4 HD in the games will I get surround sound?

Ta.

DaveyD · 15 May 2006 at 23:53

It's not just EAX I don't think, but I'm not massively clued up on it. I'm under the impression EAX is more of an effects system, though it probably is the main thing behind creatives surround sound output, somebody can correct me if I'm talking rubbish though.

Games need to have surround sound options built in, but the vast majority of them do now anyway I believe, so just selecting surround sound in the options will be enough to get full surround sound, then your soundcard drivers + DirectSound will then do the rest.

Generally PC surround sound is of analogue output, so no card is required to convert the signal into digital. Therefore the vast majority of PC surround speakers use multiple outputs through the 3.5mm jacks. So one for Left / Right, one for rear left/right and one for centre/sub.

ic1male · 15 May 2006 at 23:56

DaveyD said:
Generally PC surround sound is of analogue output, so no card is required to convert the signal into digital. Therefore the vast majority of PC surround speakers use multiple outputs through the 3.5mm jacks. So one for Left / Right, one for rear left/right and one for centre/sub.

Yes, that's right. I was planning to hook up the sound card on my PC using these three jacks and then connect the Xbox 360 via the digital optical connector.

skullman · 16 May 2006 at 00:14

ic1male said:
But PCs don't have that - they mainly use EAX. Is it the same thing - just Creative's take on it? Do the EAX games automatically have the 5.1 channels for surround speakers? Just by enabling EAX 2/3/4 HD in the games will I get surround sound?

Ta.

Yes. EAX has supported 5.1 since version 2.0, so I reckon most games nowadays will support it.

FrenchTart · 16 May 2006 at 00:52

Often EAX isn't needed for surround sound output... Either way, having a 5.1 setup really adds to a lot of games (I love FEAR's 5.1 implentation tbh)