Never heard anything about this being worked on. You have to check the roadmap posts to see info on things being worked on.
What do you mean by not working? I have a 5.1 system and get sounds from all speakers. Occasionally it changes to the front speakers, but I have found that is an issue with my system. Have you checked under >Options>Audio that 5.1 is selected?
Damn i never saw that... Maybe its because im running 7.1. Sounds strange. Some sounds way too loud and the positioning is not good. I stand corrected on the 5.1 though. Bad me.
I have a 4.0 speaker setup, and with that selected in the game I get occasional sound from the rear speakers in cockpit view (rev limiter, and when very close to walls so presumably the half-canned 'reverb' effect). In the March I get nothing else from the rear speakers, despite the engine being back there, and in the middle of a pack I get nothing from the rear speakers. Sitting on the side of the track I also get no indication of anything coming up behind me, all the sound is from the fronts. I'm actually surprised I'm getting anything at all from the rears, as my setup is a simple 4-channel amp, no decoding going on, so it would seem the game is actually sending something to those rear channels, but not the majority. Actually hearing the engine behind, and surrounding cars, would be great. Maybe one day. *Trackside cameras do have a little more sound, but it would appear that's the same wall/fence 'reverb' effect, being activated because the cameras tend to be near fences.
pCARS 2 does this the best of all sims, making great use of the channels. Everybody else (AC, AMS, & RaceRoom) are kind of tied for second place with muddier channel separation and one's impressions are then heavily influenced with the quality of the samples. Can't remember what my guilty pleasure, Wreckfest, does with surround sound. I've got a 5.1 card feeding a 6.1 amp with big old-fashioned speakers. In reality, 4.0 sounds best in all the sims by providing more channel separation within the typical space our simrigs use; the .1 disappointingly adds NOTHING to race sims because none of the frequencies played go that low, not even in the crashes (.1 is great for movies, though).
Hopefully when they get to looking at this sort of thing (if they ever get past graphics optimizations and UI) it won't take all that long to at least support multi channel setups properly. There are many other things they could do with the sound which are even less likely to happen, so I hope this one at least does materialize. Sound is too often overlooked, not just in games.
@Lazza My simple 5.1 system allows me to adjust the volume of the front/rear/centre speakers. I have the centre, subwoofer and rear speakers behind me and have adjusted their volume up and the front down. I get the sound of the engine etc behind me. Great for open wheelers/ rear engine cars, but seemed a bit odd with a front engine car. Hey-ho, have got used to that now
Unless it's a content thing, I think you're not hearing true rear channels there. I literally had my ear to my rear speaker(s) to check if they were making any noise, so it's not a low volume issue. I would guess you're hearing a stereo -> 5.1 conversion.
A better sounding system than the one we have now is going to give a fantastic immersion to the game which adds to joy they must work for the sound system for sure
Indeed, please studio 397 - add proper, true surround to the Rfactor franchise. Sound is half of the experience. Once you’ve heard the subwoofer really kicking in like in RaceRoom you know what you’ve been missing. Also AC(C) has made significant steps in the right direction. If the Rfactor sounds were only on the level of the Fonsecker mods it would be a huge improvement.
We are looking forward to a multi-channel sound system! This is actually the only minus of our favorite simulator!
Now it's 2021, this is maybe the only big sim racing title that doesn't have 5.1 surround sound implemented. What is the reason for this? For sim racing it's a must have feature to simply hear where the cars are coming from and to hear your own car in a correct way. The sound is not all coming from the front, especially with engines in the back it's very weird to hear the sound from the front. It's an "basic feature" imo #1 priority to fix. I just started with rFactor 2 but this is really unbelievable for me... I just simply never expected to find this thread because even in the sound option menu, the 5.1 selection is there and it's 2021, this is the first recent game that doesn't have surround sound. Why is the option there then if it doesn't work at all? Is there still an workaround for it to get it working?
I think what he is saying is the he is putting his centre speaker (which is a front speaker) at the rear. That way sound is coming from the rear, with the down side being that front engine cars have the sound coming from the wrong direction. 100% could not agree more. Actual surround sound would be awesome and it seems like something that sould definitely be in a sim in 2021!
