Surround Sound Issue

Hello

Just got Arma2 and i must say (i havtn played it much yet) it looks fantastic and plays well. However i have encountered a problem in regards to the sound when i have surrund sound enabled. Just so you know i have an up to date patched Sound Blaster Audio 1x PCI-E card and Logitech z5500 speakers.

When i have surround sound enabled, when i look straight at a character which is talking, or they are behind me, no sound is played through the speakers. If i turn slightly left or right then the sound comes out the side speakers, but none from the center or rear. Suggesting the game does not work with 5.1, 7.1 surround sound and only stereo speaker set up works.

When i turned on my sound card settings it to 2.1 sound then there is no problem, but then i dont get surround sound which makes the game sound boring, and directional sound is no longer usefull (i.e. cant hear guns shots unless it is to my left or right, which is somewhat limiting).

This is not a problem with the sound card or speakers, as i have not encountered this on any other game. Anyone else have this issue or know how to solve it?

I would like to also repeat the fact i the sound card is patched, the game is patched, my graphics card is patched, VIsta is up to date etc etc. So i would appreciate none "Technical Support" out of the box answers as i have had enough of them in work this last week :) ;)

Regards

Whisky

Correct the games 3D sound engine is borked

IF i use 5.1 , sound volumes and directions are screwed

IF I use quadraphonic ( 4 speakers) , sound volumes and directions are screwed

IF is use plain olde stereo , sounds are OK , BUT I have lost the immersion ( as in I cant tell where I am being shot at from )

It a pity BIS appear to be unable to fix this ( maybe their sound programmer was let go ?) or maybe they dont care once they have our money off us ?

Well I got the game sat and I have been playing it since with full surround sound working. So I can only guess that it is something to do with your hardware and not the game.

And about BI just wanting your money off you, if that was true I don't think they would have bothered making a patch for the 505 release, instead they would of just left it how it is and started working on ArmA 3, just like infinity ward with the cod series.

Correct the games 3D sound engine is borked

IF i use 5.1 , sound volumes and directions are screwed

IF I use quadraphonic ( 4 speakers) , sound volumes and directions are screwed

IF is use plain olde stereo , sounds are OK , BUT I have lost the immersion ( as in I cant tell where I am being shot at from )

It a pity BIS appear to be unable to fix this ( maybe their sound programmer was let go ?) or maybe they dont care once they have our money off us ?

Do you have a sound card? Tonight i will plug my speakers into my on-board soundand see if the problem repeats. If it does, it must be a Arma2 glitch, as like i said there is no problem with other games films, music etc

Regards

Whisky

i have a full 7.1 surround sound set up and , i had to make sure that it was set to 7.1 sound in windows, Control Panel\Hardware and Sound then it worked fine in arma 2 , im on windows vista with creative xfi pro gamer card , with the GigaWorks S750 7.1 speakers

Well I got the game sat and I have been playing it since with full surround sound working. So I can only guess that it is something to do with your hardware and not the game.

And about BI just wanting your money off you, if that was true I don't think they would have bothered making a patch for the 505 release, instead they would of just left it how it is and started working on ArmA 3, just like infinity ward with the cod series.

Are you meaning surround sound or 5.1 ?

Arma 1 works fine with my set-up

So do my other games with 5.1

So for some weird reason my hardware "breaks" with arma 2 , interesting idea that one :-)

Are you meaning surround sound or 5.1 ?

Arma 1 works fine with my set-up

So do my other games with 5.1

So for some weird reason my hardware "breaks" with arma 2 , interesting idea that one :-)

I am exactly the same. I had no problem with Arma 1, my 5.1 surround sound worked fine. This problem is just with Arma2.

Regards

Whisky

What exactly is the model of your sound card?

What are the connections? Analogue?

I use a creative xfi titanium PCI-E and 5.1 surround works just fine. Even more so in the new patch when they tweaked the subwoofer sounds.

It is a Soundbaster X-Fi Audio 1x PCI-E, and i am using the analogue mini jacks connected to my Z5500

I am just re-installing the drivers.

Regards

Whisky

Iam running with onboard sound using a Realtek Azalia audio chip ALC888

Using analogue output

I also use a X-Fi Titanium in my primary box and a regular X-Fi in the older one. Vista64 and XP respectively. The surround works fine on both. The older box also has Vista64 on it, which also seems to work fine.

Hope the re-install works for ya Whiskey. What OS? And did switching jacks change anything for you?

Gnome

Are you meaning surround sound or 5.1 ?

Arma 1 works fine with my set-up

So do my other games with 5.1

So for some weird reason my hardware "breaks" with arma 2 , interesting idea that one :-)

Yea I'm meaning 5.1, I am using a Creative Labs SB Audigy SE PCI card with Analogue connections.

I'm using an ASUS Xonar D2X (analog 5.1 output). Works fine both with my surround system and 5.1 headphones (Sharkoon Cosmic 5.1). No "missing channels", positional audio works perfectly. :)

Well i re-installed and patched. Made no difference. I then installed my Sigmatel Onboard drivers and it works fine. No problem, other than the sound is now not as punchy and there will be a performance hit, so it must have been my sound card.

I have always had an issue with my soundcard, in that when i do the speaker location test using the X-FI software where a woman says the location of each speaker, it only ever worked for the front left and right speakers. If i clicked on the central, rear left or right speakers no sound would come out of them. I have done loads of googleing but this issue has not been found by anyone else. So i am relucatant to get another replacement card as the same problem may occur.

Any ideas?

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Creative-Labs-SB-X-Fi-Xtreme-Audio-PCI-Express-x1

This is the card btw, and i am using Vista x86

Regards

Whisky

Well, respecting the fact that you mentioned the card works with other games, my first thought is that it's not likely the card is suffering from a hardware fault. The assumption on my part being the other games play fine in 5.1 surround.

That being said, and knowing that you have already tried the re-install/patching game, and are still getting the same results ... we're left with the in-between stuff.

While almost none of this applies from reading your posts, here's a basic troubleshoot:

1.) Based on the scenario of the playback testing, it would lead me to think your speaker setting in the Creative control panel is set to 2.1 instead of 5.1. But you mentioned clicking the other channels ... so

2.) In Vista you can also select your speaker configuration. Control Panel, Sound, Playback Tab, right click your prefer'd device and select configure speakers. I would assume that this reflects your creative settings. Is this true?

3.) If the correct speaker setting is selected and you are not hearing the center, and rear channels, I would first check the physical connections. Colors matched and fully inserted. But you said the onboard is fine so ...

3.) You may try disabling the onboard sound. While not always a solution for this particular type of issue, conflicts have been known to occur.

4.) Hope for someone smarter than me to reply.

On the topic of getting a new card, supposing we can't sort this out, and finally blame it on bad hardware ... I would not be to concerned about a repeat failure. And depending on where you buy your hardware, while a pain and time consuming, if you plug it in and have the same results, take the card back.

Sorry this is more of general help type reply, but it's about all I could drag out of the brain at the moment.

For some reason, your speakers are only receiving the left and right channels. How you're getting "5.1 in other games" is beyond me.

Just go over all the creative bloat and turn everything off: graphic equaliser, CMSS, and so on. Then try again. I believe there may be a setting that controls what is sent over a few of the outputs on the card, see if you can find that and experiment.

It'd be easier if you could print-screen some images of your options setup and maybe one of us will spot something.

soundblaster Xfi here .. set the card to Gaming mode and you should have zero sound isues.

Thanks Gnome your post was most uswfull and i have yet more confusing resultd after looking into your suggestions.

I have already mentioned in Arma 2 voices and some, but not all sounds, only play through the front left and right speakers. In the example i first noticed, other characters talking to you, if your back was to them, you wouldnt heara thing. I f i change to onboard this issue goes away and i do get full surround sound playing through the correct channels/speakers, but obviously there are performance and quality issues associated with on-board.

Now i also mentioned that when using the X-Fi Volume Panel, where you can get sounds playing through each individual speaker, only the front left and right speakers get that sound coming out of them. This is after chaecking all the phsical connections.

Now the even stranger part. When i connected my speakers up to my on-board, which i now works in all manner of games, movies etc with the 5. surround sound, when i used the Vista speaker configurator, i again only get sound coming out of the front left and right speakers. So just to re-iterate, although Arma2 works fine wiht on-board i still get the issue that something is not accepting the fact i have 5.1 speakers connected whether it is to my sound card or on-board......AAAARRRGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Any ideas gentlemen?

Regards

Whisky

try disabling the onboard and restart so that the only working audio card is the XFI, see how it goes then. (if you haven't already done so).

...

2.) In Vista you can also select your speaker configuration. Control Panel, Sound, Playback Tab, right click your prefer'd device and select configure speakers. I would assume that this reflects your creative settings. Is this true?

....

Well...the plot thickens...after a bit more digging i have no foudn that on-board sound is actually no better than my sound card with this problem. After you led me to the speaker configuration in Vista i set my on-baord to 5.1 and when i started playing the game again the same original problem i have remains.

The reason i thought on-board worked was because when i turned it on, it did not automatticaly detect my 5.1 set up so defaulted to 2.1. So i turned it back to 2.1 and the problme dissapperared, which is identicaly to when i use the soundcard. So i have now determined it is not hardware related but purely software, whoihc is no biggy as unfortunatly the more i play Arma 2, the more i feel it is just Arma 1.5.

My hardware is a q6600, 4 gig of ram and a nvidia 260 yet in places no matter what my graphics settings are i get reallty low fps. I suppose this is going to be like Arma 1, where you have to wait for a year before it is actualy in a playable state.

Shame

Regards

Whisky

Try something out for me

Start -> run -> dxdiag

hit enter

Go to sound tab

Directx features move slider to Basic acceleration

Check your audio manager to see that 5.1 is still on

Give arma2 a go , report back

Well i have 3 Soubd tabs in Dxdiag and none of them have a slider for Direct x

:(:(

Regards

Whisky

there is no slider in Vista.

Well...i am starting to give u hope, as i dont think i can determine what is causing this surround sound issue. Whether i use my soundcard, with all the drivers installed or not, or if i use on-board, i can never get the Vista speaker configurator to sound off any other speakers other than the front left and right. I just strted up Splinter Cell Chaos theory and a simialr issu, of if people are talking at my and i either face them or have my back to them, no sound is emitted from the speakers.

I am starting to wonder if this is a hardware thing but i god knows how to determine or sort that out!

Any ideas?

Regards

Whisky