Sound warping/stuttering near other planes/fights

[Casper1]

Headset doesn't use the sound card or sound card drivers, IIRC.  It's its own separate device.


wrongway

hmmm...so where does the Digital-Analog conversion occur to transform those 0s and 1s into sound waves?  Do USB headsets have this hardware built-in?

[Denholm]

No, they tax the CPU the same way onboard chipsets do.

[Hajo]

USB taxes the chipset...yes.

But it also gives you the ability to remove your soundcard and drivers.  They aren't needed.

I use a powered USB Hub and Windows XP Pro has great USB Drivers which will handle your

USB Headset without installing any drivers which came with your USB Headset!

[TwinBoom]

USB taxes the chipset...yes.

But it also gives you the ability to remove your soundcard and drivers.  They aren't needed.

I use a powered USB Hub and Windows XP Pro has great USB Drivers which will handle your

USB Headset without installing any drivers which came with your USB Headset!

ditto

[Casper1]

Interesting...that would be a cheaper solution to a new sound card.

[Hajo]

Casper search for them.  I got my headset at Tiger Direct.

Provantage...new egg probably have them also.

[bustr]

After reading this thread I got a USB headset today.

I started hitting what I aimed at again.

I have a PCI sound card, SB Extream Gamer. In large furballs with all the explosions and vox chatter Ive been shooting people point blank who fly away. If I go to a smaller engagement elsewhere on the map I start hitting things again. My frame rates stay constant 59-60 in hoards or away from them. I just built the PC I'm using to fix these issues. I would venture the PCI sound card may be acting as a bottle neck. Even my joystick control inputs and button presses appeared to be more responsive while using the USB headset.

The obvious question: How much negative impact does your soundcard have on game performance while processing sounds and VOX versus the benifits of having the game sounds and VOX?

[Hajo]

bustr.....believe it or not newer soundcards have their own memory if I recall correctly.

Their impact should be nil.

I do know this....when using soundcards I used an SB live.  I upgraded to an SB Audigy ZS or X.

When I installed the new Audigy it would not work properly...I tried updating drivers. 

I tried everything to no avail.  I had to uninstall the Audigy and re-install the SB Live.

Then......doing a search found out for a fact that the Audigy and Via chipsets did not get along.

Some problems with adding hardware aren't advertised or known for that matter.

Every PC and it's set-up differ.  Drivers, chipset drivers, etc. can cause problems when installing

new hardware.  Sometimes we just have to fiddle around to try and make it work.

Sometimes they just won't be compatible.  A way of life in the PC world.  <shrugs>

[bustr]

I have some squad mates who detune VOX because they get low FPS and stuttering when players talk on range or squad channel. My PCI sound card is the only other device slotted into the bus than my PCIExpress Nvida 9800 video card. The sound card through my plantronics headset gives me surround sound. I had my external engine sound for other planes on 100. I would get a doppler effect as planes closed on my 6. I have the advanced setup for the sound card set for 360 degree sound. Wonder if the pretty sound effects in 4.1 sterio from my sound card are impacting my game performance? I'm not seeing a frame rate hit, but was seeing rubber bullets until I changed my primary sound source to the USB headset.

I suppose a valid test would be to reduce my soundcard to non effects and standard headset to see if I get the same results as using my USB headset. Wish skuzzy could make a few comments on sound cards and USB headsets and how they affect game play performance during cpu cycles.

[Denholm]

Bustr, do you have an onboard sound chipset? If so did you disable it in the system BIOS instead of leaving it on, "auto" when using your PCI sound-card?

[bustr]

OK,

So I removed the USB headset and turned off all the 3D sound effects on my sound card. Setup my analog headset as a basic headset in the creative console. When I shot at planes tonight they got damaged and blown up by my rounds. It was all the special effects processing on the sound card that was the problem.

This is kind of funny. We spend so much time concerned with our Video cards and their settings causing problems like this and it turns out to be the extra bells and whistles on my bad arse gaming sound card.   

Denholm, yes my onboard chipset is disabled in the bios. My sound card is a SB X-Fi XtreamGamer.

[Casper1]

Skuzzy -

Whats your take on this and what seems to be an audio controller + Aces High 2 compatibility issue?

Thread returned to correct topic

[bustr]

Casper,

Skuzzy could be really busy with the ATT update or as he has shown in the past by not getting involved, the answer to your issue is this whole thread.

[Skuzzy]

There is no compatibility issue.

All those special effects built into spound cards are for games that do not make use of a 3D sound field.  They assume a mono or stereo sound.  We generate a 3D sound field without anything else being needed, other than a decent sound card.

The compatibility issue lies with sound cards who try to over process the sound being generated instead of leaving it alone.

Our game adheres to the documented methods of generating sound using the DirectSound API.

[bustr]

Thanks Skuzzy for the reply.

At least it only cost me one USB headset to figure this out. Wife can use it for Skype. 

Personaly I'd rather be able to hit other planes than have the COOL 3D sound effects from my sound card.