X-Fi Support Syndicate & Owner's Clubhouse

[FreedomEclipse]

I dont think its possible. but why would you want to do that anyway?

 

[Rat1sully]

I dont think its possible. but why would you want to do that anyway?

i like background music while i'm playing but also want to be able to hear when they're trying to stab me in the back, i know on the realtek onboard audio chips you can do this

 

[FreedomEclipse]

you can have a music player running in the background. - it doesnt make any difference asside from EVERYONE ELSE can hear your music but only you can hear whats going inside the game because your wearing a headset.

just because your in 'game mode' doesnt mean music wont play when you open WMP

 

[imperialreign]

Hi guys i was wondering if it would be possible to set the Optical SPDIF output on my X-fi Platinum Fatal1ty to be a separate output option in windows xp so that using directsound in music apps i could stream my music out of the optical connector to my stereo for background music and only have game noises coming through my headset?

tried asking the creative forum and got no replys what so ever hoping from looking at the knowledge available here you'll be able to help

thanks in advance

This could get a bit tricky and complicated, but, I believe it should be possible - mostly depending on your software you have installed.


First off, you'd have to make sure that whatever connections you want to use are hooked up - WIN won't "recognize" output channels that don't have a jack installed.

From there, it will be dependant on your software - whether or not you can choose which audio output device to use - if you can, just set your software to use the specified output.

You might run into some odd issues, though, as everything must still pass through the DAC - it's possible you might have some channel bleeding . . . as well, it could potentially seriously hamper performance (you might start experiencing audio clipping on the analogue channels), mostly due to the fact that WIN has to literally "share" the device's IRQ channel between two "devices" - as well, some games are very taxing on the hardware and don't like to give up their priority for other applications running in the background.

TBH, I don't exactly recommend having one device juggling two different styles of output - programs might start getting crabby over their output priority.

 

[Wile E]

Not to mention, I agree with FreedomEclipse on this. That's an awfully convoluted way to get background music. Just start your music player in the background, then fire up your game and run it all thru your headset.

If you keep the music turned down in the background, it won't be any more distracting than having it play thru speakers outside but loud enough for you to hear with the headset on.

Short version = it makes absolutely no sense to do that.

 

[Rat1sully]

thanks for your responses guys, this is only a temp solution until i get round to getting a new power supply for the laptop that usually does the music while gaming

 

[Wile E]

thanks for your responses guys, this is only a temp solution until i get round to getting a new power supply for the laptop that usually does the music while gaming

It doesn't really make sense to do that either. Seriously, just run your music player thru the headset, but turned down, then start your game. It's kind of a waste to run music thru a second computer, when just one will accomplish both tasks.

 

[Rat1sully]

it's not running for that alone, also open for msn web browsing etc.

 

[Wile E]

it's not running for that alone, also open for msn web browsing etc.

Well, that make a little more sense for the second computer, but a second monitor would accomplish the task on the same computer. But, even if all you can do is run the second computer due to funding or whatever reason, it really does still make more sense to run the music thru the headset while gaming, instead of external speakers which will waste a lot more energy to complete the same task as background music.

 

[imperialreign]

Well, that make a little more sense for the second computer, but a second monitor would accomplish the task on the same computer. But, even if all you can do is run the second computer due to funding or whatever reason, it really does still make more sense to run the music thru the headset while gaming, instead of external speakers which will waste a lot more energy to complete the same task as background music.

I would tend to agree - but it might also boil down to system specs.

Even with clocked quads and pretty uber setups, even a few selective programs running in the background can really but a kink in other program's performance. Even mundane tasks such as defragging HDDs, running A/V scans, etc. can slow down i-net browsers . . . even video rendering/filtering apps (i.e. vdub), photo editors, audio editors, etc. can also have the same effect . . . the opposite holds true as well - even just browsing the i-net can slow down other apps from finishing their tasks . . .

It really boils down to the rig's specs, and what apps you're running.

 

[Rat1sully]

yeah rig specs aren't up to much hence it's better to do it on a separate machine

skt478 prescott 3.2GHz clocked at 3.6
Abit A17
Corsair 2Gb twinx
HIS x1950Pro Iceq
X-fi platinum obviously
Hiper Tpye-R 650W
0.86TB assorted Hdd space

 

[Mussels]

yeah rig specs aren't up to much hence it's better to do it on a separate machine

skt478 prescott 3.2GHz clocked at 3.6
Abit A17
Corsair 2Gb twinx
HIS x1950Pro Iceq
X-fi platinum obviously
Hiper Tpye-R 650W
0.86TB assorted Hdd space

playing MP3's was a light task for my celeron 400. i'd hardly think it would bog down even your 'old' PC

 

[Rat1sully]

while running games it makes a big hit on my frame rate

 

[Mussels]

while running games it makes a big hit on my frame rate

what player are you using? i run winamp in the background all the time (and have for years) with no performance drops.

 

[Rat1sully]

using winamp to but i have a tendency to run game a bit too new for my spec so i expect that doesn't help

 

[Wile E]

Well, OK, I can kinda understand if it's a performance issue. I bet a good clean install would help a good bit in that area tho. As long as you don't run anything but the game and player, it should be able to handle music in the background while gaming. Not so much the second screen with apps running tho. lol.

That should at least get you some music while gaming to hold you off.

 

[Mussels]

i'd also make sure to have nothing fancy running in winamp. no visualisations, no skins, nothing but the playlist and the pause/stop/next buttons

 

[Rat1sully]

lol this thing gets a clean install every 3-6 months just to keep it ticking over in games ok, i've got mp3 player hoocked up to stereo for now, waiting on my DSA to fix the laptop

 

[btarunr]

Quick tip for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users of Winamp:

Use Wumpus OpenAL output plugin. Get it from here. Disable the "Use X-RAM" option, it only adds latency/delay. Use Game Mode. Sounds really good.

 

[AphexDreamer]

Hey guys just got my X Fi card. I've installed the latest driver but in Device manager it shows my X fi Card as using the Windows Driver. No matter how many times I install it. Everything seems to be working fine though.

X Fi Titanium

Is this normal?

 

[ShRoOmAlIsTiC]

anyone know of a filter for media player home cinema that makes the x-fi do all the sound decoding? So I can have my 4350 do the video and x-fi xtremegamer do the audio?

 

[Wile E]

anyone know of a filter for media player home cinema that makes the x-fi do all the sound decoding? So I can have my 4350 do the video and x-fi xtremegamer do the audio?

Yep. Go to options, then under Playback, select Output. In the output properties, select your XFi under DirectShow Audio.

 

[ShRoOmAlIsTiC]

so i dont need any special filter, cause under external filters there is a creative ac3 source filter, should I use that or no. I got PowerDVD8 doing the h264 decoding so I thought there might be something similar.

 

[Wile E]

so i dont need any special filter, cause under external filters there is a creative ac3 source filter, should I use that or no. I got PowerDVD8 doing the h264 decoding so I thought there might be something similar.

Nope. Just set it to use the Xfi as output. If your system is already set to use the Xfi, you don't need to do anything. As for audio filters, it doesn't matter which one you use, as long as it's set up to output over the same number of speakers as your setup. I use ffdshow for most audio decoding. There's no benefit to using creative filters or anything like that as Vista nad Win 7 don't allow direct hardware access to the card anyway. Just use what works for you.

 

[AphexDreamer]

Awww man how come no one helps me out.