Will it be worth getting an X-fi soundcard for ARMA3?

[EDcase 87]

I'm using onboard at the moment but I remember my old soundblaster had virtual surround that worked very well.

Would there be any benefit getting a proper sound card instead of using onboard?

[Dwarden 1125]

from performance standpoint it would not matter much, only for quality

we using now xAudio2 + x3Daudio (CPU driven) ...

OpenAL is dead in terms of none API evolution and support by the 'oversight board' (CL/NV)

i like my X-fi (quality and some other audio cards like CMI based one(e.g. asus make them)

[NeMeSiS 11]

It seems unlikely that Sadly, ArmA3 wil not support HW accelerated sounds, so probably no performance imporvements. However you may gain some sound quality in general if your speakers are decent enough.

The 'fake' surround of the X-fi's is supposed to be pretty decent, though i am not sure since i have a 5.1 set anyway.

[igneous01 19]

why not use ASIO4ALL? Best performance with good compensation for latency. audio production software uses it for this reason - it relieves the stress of latency and cycles of hardware acceleration (which is a big no no on my steinberg ci2)

edit: nevermind, it can only be adjusted within the audio settings dialog of said software. However my soundcard has its own asio control panel and I can use it with arma no problems.

Edited December 6, 2011 by Igneous01

[jumpinghubert 49]

x-fi has an excellent 3d headphone mode, called cmss. the more precise your headphones the more precise the acoustical ranging.

[mr burns 132]

We replayed ArmA1 recently, and the first moment when shots were fired i nearly shat myself in excitement over the range & deepness of what was coming through the speakers .. and that was before i loaded up HiFi again, which i did eventually, which led to me talking about sounds all the time while others surely wanted me dead for it in the meantime.

Everyone hates the complete cutting off of sounds in ArmA2 at distances above x-meters. It destroys any sense of a battle going on nearby, it takes away most of the sensation of GAU-8 blasting away in 1.5km´s above your head... instead you get weird sound occlusion issues where a shrubbery muffles the almighty Abrams gas turbine.

Sounds are a pillar in entertainment (see development of Surround & silly home cinema), yet they´re one of arma´s biggest turn offs.

X-Fi is very very sad.

[metalcraze 290]

why not use ASIO4ALL?

To put it simply - ASIO has nothing to do with 3D positional audio.

instead you get weird sound occlusion issues where a shrubbery muffles the almighty Abrams gas turbine.

I bet that's by design since stuff tends to occlude sound sources IRL as well. Although BIS needs to fine tuning it up close since a lone pine tree can silence Apache

[kordax 10]

It is better then to buy E-mu sound card and you will get Much better sound quality.

But in this case you'll require monitors.

Professional soundcards are way more advanced than x-fie, audigy, soundblaster and X2n series.

[igneous01 19]

To put it simply - ASIO has nothing to do with 3D positional audio.

yup, realized it after reading about what it actually does.

[mr burns 132]

With the level of outsourced api´s (?) BI are using nowadays (clouds in take on, xaitment in vbs2..), how about just purchasing DICE´s BC2 soundengine?!

edit: yes, i do realize that it´s not a HW engine either, but at least it makes the hair in my neck stand up :notify:

[Dwarden 1125]

@MR Burns the cost of that license would pay for enough sound engineers to build way better own engine ...

{seriously some ideas ...}

[metalcraze 290]

Some software reverb engine plus stereo 3D sound sources will be enough of an upgrade

[mr burns 132]

@MR Burns the cost of that license would pay for enough sound engineers to build way better own engine ...

{seriously some ideas ...}

That´d be fine aswell. And make sure to leave some $'s for netcode engineers :)

*yank *yank