kamyk on 12/2/2011 at 09:40
I wasn't sure if this belonged in the sticky about sound fix or not. If it fits, I suppose someone will put it there...
Here's the issue. I have a lovely 5.1 surround card that worked fine with all the LGS games, but I am stuck using headphones for all my sound needs due to a neighbor with radar ears. This has caused me minor difficulties with sound in Thief for some time, however recently I got a new headset - Razer Megalodons - which I thought would solve the problem since they advertise 5.1 and 7.1 surround.
It doesn't solve the problem at all. In fact it made things more complex. To use them (they are usb) I have to select them as the primary audio device, so now my sound card doesn't figure into things at all. I now can no longer turn on EAX in any LGS game, and the virtual surround mode of my Megalodons doesn't do crap for Thief's positional audio. They were very expensive and are 3 months new, so any suggestions other than getting a new headset?
Thief was actually the main reason I bought them >.<
Brian The Dog on 12/2/2011 at 20:59
EAX is a Creative system, so you'd need a Creative soundcard to generate EAX properly. Some USB surround-sound headphones emulate EAX, but I don't know of one that Thief is happy with. Certainly I run into the same problem with my Logitech G35 7.1 headphones. I can get surround-sound perfectly happily, but no EAX. The only thing I can suggest is to get a 5.1 set of headphones that doesn't have a soundcard, but relies upon the soundcard they plug into - an example of this is Zalman's (
http://www.zalman.com/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=214) ZM-RS6F+M.
kamyk on 12/2/2011 at 23:42
See theres the thing. I can't even get surround out of Thief, and I'm more concerned with that than eax, truth be told. I thought they were interlinked somehow in Thief. I guess I'll change the thread title thx.
I can't get positional audio out of Thief at all. If I am facing a sound source (guard, generator, etc) it's loud. Same with facing away from it. But if I am facing sideways on either case the sound becomes soft and distant.
I do have a creative sound card in my computer, however I have to bypass it to use my Megalodon headset, but point noted about eax..
Brian The Dog on 13/2/2011 at 07:31
Ah, I see. After plugging in the USB headphones, go to the audio properties in Windows and make sure that the speaker configuration is 5.1. Other than that, I'm out of ideas :(
gunsmoke on 4/3/2011 at 10:54
What you need is a headset with an audio jack, not USB, as a USB actually becomes its own soundcard. An audio jack will allow you to plug right into the Creative solution you have, just as you do your speakers. There are dozens of good headphones with a jack out there that don't cost an arm and a leg.
inselaffe on 5/3/2011 at 01:11
Why do companies make microphones, headsets and (i hope not but can only assume) speakers that are usb, rather than actual digital / analogue jack devices?
What are the actual pros to this?
For example i got a mircophone that is usb connected from ebay, which is okay unless you want to record it plus say for example the audio from you computer. In order to do this with a normal mic i could perhaps do a "what you hear" recording and unmute the mic in playback. This would have the annoying side effect of being able to hear my audio, but it would work.
Unless anyone knows of a work around when a microphone is a seperate device?
Is it possible to make usb microphones / headphones and all that that do actually use your inbulit / onboard soundcard? Or is this impossible? You would think it could somehow send the sound to the soundcard and that there would be mechanisms to do this?
Brian The Dog on 5/3/2011 at 15:17
The whole idea of USB speakers/headphones is to replace the soundcard in the computer. "Audio" is one of the standard USB hardware types, and is specifically for this purpose. The manufacturers do this for portability. You can use it on ANY Windows hardware that supports USB, and you will get identical audio.
If you want "normal" headphones, then they're actually cheaper, as you're not paying for the soundcard technology to be included.
USB speakers might have the soundcard integrated, or might not. They need powering, and so low-power speakers can get enough power via a USB socket rather than a power plug - a very useful thing if you're using a laptop in a train/car.
inselaffe on 5/3/2011 at 18:26
Okay but what about a microphone then? i can't see the point of it becoming its own device.
Also, to the original poster, maybe these will be of use:
(
http://software.muzychenko.net/eng/vac.htm)
(
http://www.shiningmorning.com/VirtualAudioStreaming/index.html)
Sadly not free but at least you can try out the demo.
You could then set the usb headphones as to the thing that you output from the "virtual audio cable" to and take input from your creative sound card. Then set your normal sound card as the default audio device and it should hopefully work.
Of course i am guessing here... i haven't tried it myself but hopefully it would work.
Just concerned that such a process would cause lag in the sound though? Or at least some latency?
Brian The Dog on 5/3/2011 at 22:13
Yeah, I can't see the point of a USB microphone, I've never seen one without being part of a USB headset.
inselaffe on 5/3/2011 at 23:27
Yer the only reason i could think is that it apparently has noise cancelling (though it doesn't appear to work very well as i can still hear hiss, probably from my computer fans). Mind you i would have thought it processes out the 2 mic signals itself inside before it sends them to the computer. So yer dunno why really.
