5.1 Not Working

[RabidSmurf 10]

I recently decided it would be awesome to hook my computer up to my receiver and surround myself with speakers, so I did.

Surround sound is working fine in all cases except... ARMA II and Far Cry 2.

For some reason when these games load they automatically load using stereo (my receiver even tells me it's DTS 3/2.1).

However other games like Left 4 Dead work fine, and HD movies through my computer work fine.

I am using a realtek onboard sound device (Windows Vista/7), which is connected to my receiver via the optical output.

Any ideas? How do I set ARMA II (or Far Cry 2 or other games for that matter) to use 5.1 when they don't have these options in the audio settings?

Edited July 2, 2009 by RabidSmurf

[kylebisme 10]

The game just goes by the default windows speaker settings, configured though the sound options in control panel. 5.1 is working fine here.

[Whisky_Delta 0]

Right click your speaker icon on the desktop -> plyback devices -> select your realtek speaker setup -> right click-> speaker configuration -> then make sure 5.1 surroubnd sound is selected. I found when i used on-board it would not detect my speaker setup and would default to stereo, so for the last year or so i have been playing my games in sterero and not full 5.1 lol.

Regards

Whisky

[SgtMjr 10]

I enabled 5.1 manually as well. 5.1 works well in ARMA2 in fact it's essential, when you get flanked it's frackin' scary:eek: ZIP CRACK.

I was wondering why stereo(?) and went into control panel and enabled 5.1 ( Creative X-FI SC) and ARMA2 never sounded better.

[RabidSmurf 10]

Right click your speaker icon on the desktop -> plyback devices -> select your realtek speaker setup -> right click-> speaker configuration -> then make sure 5.1 surroubnd sound is selected. I found when i used on-board it would not detect my speaker setup and would default to stereo, so for the last year or so i have been playing my games in sterero and not full 5.1 lol.

Regards

Whisky

I want to do this but since I don't have speakers plugged in to the analog outputs on my soundcard the speakers are grayed out.

Configure option doesn't exist for the "Realtek Digital Output" which is what I am using however, 5.1 is enabled my Realtek HD Audio Manager.

I'll try plugging in a set of speakers to the analog ouput temporarily just to change the windows setting and let you know if that works.

Thanks for the ideas.

---------- Post added at 12:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:43 PM ----------

didn't work :(

[RabidSmurf 10]

BUMP

Any other ideas?

Has anyone successfully used a digital output to have 5.1 surround in ARMA II?

[Bulldogs 10]

Apparently this works for Far Cry 2 if you're having 5.1 issues;

...\Far Cry 2\Data_Win32\SoundBinary\DARE.INI

and change this line:

DISABLE_OPTIMISATION=FALSE

Job done!

As for Arma 2, I'm not sure. I believe the Creative alchemy program fixes the issue for creative users, you could try it under Realtek but I doubt it would work.

[RabidSmurf 10]

Still nothing, tried the above for Far Cry 2 and it didn't have any impact...

I wish these developers would just put the audio settings in the options.

Any other ideas?

[Dwarden 1125]

btw. there are new drivers from Creative Labs for X-fi dated 26.6.2009 for all OSes

[MPBR 10]

BUMP

Any other ideas?

Has anyone successfully used a digital output to have 5.1 surround in ARMA II?

Yep, sure do

Asus Xonar D2X with Digital out to a Yamaha 7.1 DTS reciever etc with kick ass speakers (Had a logitech unit for a bit .. man there speakers just suck)

All works, directional sound etc

[kylebisme 10]

Configure option doesn't exist for the "Realtek Digital Output" which is what I am using however, 5.1 is enabled my Realtek HD Audio Manager.

I'm guessing your onboard sound doesn't support DDL or DTS Interactive, in which case you can only get surround sound passed though from pre-encoded sources like DVDs, but not games, ARMA2 or otherwise.

[RabidSmurf 10]

Thanks, after doing some research I've learned that the realtek onboard chip, while it is very good for onboard sound. Does not support dolby live or dts connect through the optical out.

My solution is to buy a discrete soundcard that supports dolby live, I was actually looking into the XONAR D2, I think that's what I'll do.

Thanks guys.

[kylebisme 10]

If your receiver supports PCM over HDMI or multichannel analog input you'd be better off with one of those, as surround sound has to be compressed to fit over optical. That said, the Xonars are nice cards.

[blkjag 10]

http://www.driverheaven.net/general-discussion/90887- - posted on another thread., they may have a solution.. Also, if you thinking about buying creative cards, may sure you get one that allows you to download the Dolby Digital Live/DTS connection software for free, if not, will cost $35, if you want to have dolby digital.. creative does not turn this on, dues to licensing reason, you have to get it and activation it.