State of Surround Sound Gaming (5.1/7.1) and its downfall. 1990-2006

[FreedomEclipse]

Ive had a bit of time to think about it and basically come down to the opinion that surround sound gaming is dead and has been dead for a long time or held in a cryogenically frozen/comatose state unable to decide if its dying or completely dead....

Most of the sound card makers from days of yore at least on the PC gaming market are long gone and have slowly been boiled down to two existing pillars of existence... Creative and Asus but everyone knows that Asus didnt really enter the sound card market until very late in the game and by that time with the death of Hardware Acceleration with the advent of Windows Vista. It was only a matter of time when the market became a featureless barren land.

Without hardware acceleration, sound cards are partially meaningless when it comes to gaming. Having a dedicated sound card might be a little better but onboard sound has also come a long way in the last few years.

Creative -- one of the last bastions when it came to audio in PC gaming has shifted focus more on other audio products rather than soundcards, even though they still make soundcards. Soundcard tech just hasnt moved. EAX is dead, DirectSound is dead, OpenAL is still alive but it might aswell be dead because creative has no desire to get it working properly and getting more games to support it.

searching for 5.1 speakers or 7.1 speaker sets for PC like the logitech Z5500's and its successor drew up very few hits, Creative dont really do 5.1 speakers anymore though they might have an extremely limited range Logitech have a few 5.1 speaker sets whereas the rest of the hits seem to be from Edifier and the usual rubbish from brands like TRUST and GENIUS

With the explosion of the Hi-fi audio and Audiophiles and the 'redirection' of the previous years speaker manufacturers pushing more or deeper into the headphone market. It it seems that the consumer market have abandoned surround sound gaming and play with a 2.1 or 2.0 speaker or headphone setup.

Asus's sound cards were never that great for gaming IMO. they couldn't reach the same pinnacle as creative did even without hardware acceleration. with their GX feature which worked like 'creative alchemy' was only a cheap imitation and i suffered many issues when using Asus cards back in the day when it came to gaming on older EAX supported titles.


Do you think that Soundcards or surround sound will become a thing again when it comes to PC gaming?

Or is the industry at a point where it doesnt matter anymore as developers use different technologies and most consumers dont have space for a surround sound setup??

Id like to hear your thoughts.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Sound cards, no. There's really nothing to justify their cost.
Surround sound gaming works as a function of most game engines. Virtually all have positional audio systems. I'm sort of excited for sound tracing technology that could be coming over the next few years.

Even with Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1 speaker system, I'm almost always gaming with my Sennheiser HD 598 headphones. Less power, less heat, less annoying other people in the house, more clarity because less air to pass through.

Developers don't target Creative's proprietary technology because it's rare. Sound design, in general, isn't a huge priority for them beyond music (stereo) and voice over acting (mono-positional).

 

[cadaveca]

I have an older HT amp with bookshelf speakers and a sub hooked up to my main gaming PC, along with a set of decent headphones. A lot of things are natively in surround on the PC still, so for me, it's a requirement that whatever audio solution I have offers some sort of digital encoding over optical in surround. For many motherboards this is either via Dolby or DTS support of some sort. I like DTS because it works with things like YouTube, too.

Things like Netflix and such are offering surround content for PC users, so why would games stop doing so? They haven't been that I have seen...

Sound cards ARE pretty meaningless these days because we have pretty good audio on most motherboards, but not all boards are so lucky, so there are a lot of instances where some sort of device would be great. Having used so many boards myself, I've literally heard the difference between what's on offer out there, and there are definite differences too, so maybe what one board offers isn't to your ear's liking, so you need something different, and a sound card can offer that.

 

[ArbitraryAffection]

I recently bought a Logitech Z906 5.1 Surround Sound System to replace my dead Corsair SP2500 2.1 system, which I use with my Creative SoundBlaster Z in 5.1 mode. It does work in the games I have tried like Warframe and Fallout 4 (I don't really play a lot of games), but 99.9% of my music is in 2.1 mode. They do have a 4.1 mode which I use for music. But they do work in 5.1 in games I've played.

On the note of soundcards; it's true, my onboard audio on my X470 Pro Gaming is at least as good as the sound card and has the same outputs for 5.1, 6 channel surround sound but I prefer the creative interface and some of its features (one called 'Crystaliser').

 

[Deleted member 67555]

I use a set of Dayton Audio T-652 Air towers on my PC... They don't sound great or bad at all but sound a lot better with a Sound Blaster card than with the mobo's 1220 something integrated.
I also use a pair of SoundPetes headphones for night...

I hate gaming with 5.1 unless I'm the only one home.

EAX was awesome on FEAR... Can't really remember anything else it was on.

 

[eidairaman1]

Cant stand headphones

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Good to see that a lot of people still have surround sound setups. apart from the Home Theater setups I thought the days of surround sound gaming were dead even if games do support multi-directional audio. I just dont really see a drive for people to get 5.1 or 7.1 for gaming anymore but thats only my opinion. From a movie perspective though. I wouldnt have it any other way. I watched Castlevania from Netflix and the 5.1 in that was just so glorious.

I also think that surround sound gaming isnt as popular as it was pre-2005. I see a lot of people have moved onto using external DACs for 2.0 or 2.1 speakers and headphones these days that its hard not to notice the direction that the consumer is going.

Mult-directional audio in gaming will never die but people just dont seem to be as gung ho about it anymore. Creative and Asus seem to promote more in the way of headphones/soundcards rather than they do actual surround sound gaming even though their cards support 5.1 etc etc.


Maybe im just feeling a little nostalgic. I remember playing L4D with EAX+surround sound and all that and it was one of the best experiences ive ever had as far as making me shit myself is concerned..... FEAR was also a game that gave me many a brown trousers moments but it just feels like those days are few and far between or long gone.


I remember being so chuffed to play BF2 with my new Creative XFi Xtreme Music card and i got some serious enjoyment out of that as did all the other BF titles that came after that. Having surround sound really added to the experience but maybe as Im getting old that Im starting to think of it as a bit more of a gimmick as developers dont really put any serious effort into directional audio on games?? At least this is how i feel about it. Its not as immersive as it once was.


Maybe quality matters to me more than quantity now.

 

[INSTG8R]

Strictly play in 5.1 and I assure you everything has proper 5.1 support. I have a pair of Cloud II for night gaming the difference is huge with the advantage going to 5.1

 

[windwhirl]

Sound cards are probably never again going to be as popular as they were in the '90s, except for audiophiles and professional use-cases. On-board audio has been deemed good enough for most people, although more than once we have seen motherboards that are not that good (the X470 Taichi Ultimate is a recent example of relatively bad performance, considering its price range).

On the matter of what I use to listen to sound, I go with a pair of Logitech headphones (G430) and 2.1 Logitech speakers. I never really bothered much about surround sound, because:

1- A surround speakers system takes space, which I don't have much of, and I don't like throwing cables in every direction to set it up. And I don't want to go wireless either, living in a building with a hundred WiFi networks around.

2- It's expensive compared to 2.0/2.1 systems, and it gets even more expensive if I want really high quality components/hardware. I don't have the wallet to pay for that. I'd rather buy a high quality headset, something that I can't pay for either.

3- I choose to use headphones for privacy or to avoid disturbing someone else most of the time. Headphones with 5.1/7.1 capabilities as far as I know are a somewhat recent development and need to install software or drivers or something for that surround functionality. I don't like that, and, besides, they will probably break constantly on Windows 10 Insider Preview.

4- Game engines emulate sound position, some do it fine and others not as good, but they do it. In a way, that makes surround somewhat pointless on headphones.

 

[Tomgang]

Logitech Z-5500 is what takes care of all my sound from pc to tv. Games, music, movies. In short every thing. And it has been like that since day one i got it back in 2008. Gonna be a sad day, when it finally crap it pants an goes to hardware heaven. Un til then i will keep use it til it dies.

 

[AsRock]

Cant stand headphones

Same here, i have had 0 issue's over many years just using the pass though of the HDMI though a 5.1 \ 7.2

got sick off buying sound cards to get endless problem's due to compatibility or bugs or what ever. Thanks for Creative for that as since i have had not a single issue and sounds much better than your typical 5.1 + computer mockup.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

AC'97 and then HDA (Intel High Definition Audio) killed the sound card industry. Before AC'97, sound was a proprietary mess like video cards were. AC'97 unified the standards which lead to the surge of Realtek popularity. The trend continued with HDA. The environmental sound processing that was an argument for dedicated cards in the 1990s can now be done over USB 2.0 in stand-alone hardware. Even if sound tracing becomes popular, dedicated hardware for it will not go beyond niche because the value/benefit isn't there. HDA is adequate for 99% of use cases. The remaining 1% are best served via SPDIF or HDMI into a receiver.

got sick off buying sound cards to get endless problem's due to compatibility or bugs or what ever. Thanks for Creative for that as since i have had not a single issue and sounds much better than your typical 5.1 + computer mockup.

Creative is it's own worst enemy. It should have open sourced all iterations of EAX to promote the sales of their cards. Instead, they sat on their licenses so hardly any games implemented it. Now the only reason to buy a card is for environmental effects the Windows audio stack can do in software.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Same here, i have had 0 issue's over many years just using the pass though of the HDMI though a 5.1 \ 7.2

got sick off buying sound cards to get endless problem's due to compatibility or bugs or what ever. Thanks for Creative for that as since i have had not a single issue and sounds much better than your typical 5.1 + computer mockup.

Do you use the HDMi from your soundcard to your AV Receiver?

 

[Frick]

I had a Cambridge Soundworks 4.1 system ages ago and it was nive for the games that supported it (Thieeefff). In later years music (and space/general layout of my home) has become more important so 2.0/2.1 it is.

 

[xkm1948]

Surrond sound setup for VR application is pretty dope TBH

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Surrond sound setup for VR application is pretty dope TBH

Not everyone can afford a VR setup though

 

[xkm1948]

Not everyone can afford a VR setup though

Windows mixed reality HMD is dirt cheap these days around $200

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Windows mixed reality HMD is dirt cheap these days around $200

thats still $200 and then the cost of a 5.1/7.1 surround sound system if they havent got one. so another $300-500??

 

[Bitgod]

I use headphones plugged into my old SB X-Fi Titanium HD and use CMSS-3D. I'm just old enough that a sound card was always the way to go. If I get around to a new system build someday, I'll probably just put the card in the system because I'm used to the SW. I had some 5.1 headphones years back, they worked ok, but overall sound quality just isn't as good as my Senn's.

 

[AsRock]

Do you use the HDMi from your soundcard to your AV Receiver?

From the video card, ATI\AMD have had the option for a hell long time now.

The sound card on my motherboard is disabled.

Video card to AV to TV, althouugh i have the sound coming from the AV to speakers and not the TV.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

From the video card, ATI\AMD have had the option for a hell long time now.

The sound card on my motherboard is disabled.

Video card to AV to TV, althouugh i have the sound coming from the AV to speakers and not the TV.

Same, Nvidia have always had audio passthrough on HDMi. Im on ebay looking for a 5.1 AV receiver It seems like a better idea rather than going for the 2.1 amp/dac that i was originally looking for although it will probably cost more.

one of the reasons I want to get rid of my soundcard is because it picks up all sorts of interference from my 1080Ti. the second reason being because I actually have good speakers so it might be more appropriate to have the right hardware to drive them

 

[eidairaman1]

Sound cards are probably never again going to be as popular as they were in the '90s, except for audiophiles and professional use-cases. On-board audio has been deemed good enough for most people, although more than once we have seen motherboards that are not that good (the X470 Taichi Ultimate is a recent example of relatively bad performance, considering its price range).

On the matter of what I use to listen to sound, I go with a pair of Logitech headphones (G430) and 2.1 Logitech speakers. I never really bothered much about surround sound, because:

1- A surround speakers system takes space, which I don't have much of, and I don't like throwing cables in every direction to set it up. And I don't want to go wireless either, living in a building with a hundred WiFi networks around.

2- It's expensive compared to 2.0/2.1 systems, and it gets even more expensive if I want really high quality components/hardware. I don't have the wallet to pay for that. I'd rather buy a high quality headset, something that I can't pay for either.

3- I choose to use headphones for privacy or to avoid disturbing someone else most of the time. Headphones with 5.1/7.1 capabilities as far as I know are a somewhat recent development and need to install software or drivers or something for that surround functionality. I don't like that, and, besides, they will probably break constantly on Windows 10 Insider Preview.

4- Game engines emulate sound position, some do it fine and others not as good, but they do it. In a way, that makes surround somewhat pointless on headphones.

Still got a zxr here and a X230 set, x230 from 2009, zxr from 2014, flawless.

 

[jboydgolfer]

Surroundsound in gaming has been more of an annoyance imo/ime ,than a positive function. It doesn't offer any benefit over traditional 2.1, except for possibly a select few titles that I've played.

 

[GoldenX]

I use Razer's virtual 7.1 on my HyperX Cloud Stinger on War Thunder for a great advantage, and nowhere else. Pure 2.0 for the rest.
If needed, I can power on my old amp and two 1 meter tall 50w speakers.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Surroundsound in gaming has been more of an annoyance imo/ime ,than a positive function. It doesn't offer any benefit over traditional 2.1, except for possibly a select few titles that I've played.

Directional audio hasn't been that good for a long time. Its just like in BF3 or 4 when I turn up the sound mode to wartapes when in surround sound on, its just a load of background ambient a noises to make it sound more immersive but in reality it's really lame and that's one of the reasons I've slowly been falling out with 5.1 when it comes to gaming. Directional audio isn't as great as it once was.