I've got a problem running 5.1 speakers. There doesn't seem to be any constant engine sounds going to my rear speakers. The only sounds I get is when the car is moving close to a wall, at this point a hear the engine sound from which ever rear speaker the wall is on i.e. if the wall is on the left hand side of the car the engine sounds is transmitted out of the rear left and vice versa. Move away from a wall and there's no sound at all. This leads to very uneven sound and it ruins the whole sound experience. Anyone else have this problem ? I have Creative Speakers and an X-Fi Surround Sound card.
I have same soundcard X-Fi Titanium Creative 5.1 hooked upto Dolby Creative 5.1 surroundsound Speaker system using optical cable. I get no surround sound or engine sounds etc. from other cars or environment at all. Everything seems to go to the Front & Centre speakers ( 3 x sattelite speakers ) leaving the rear 2 mostly mute except for some very faint engine noise ( barely audible ). Hope the ISI sound guru can take alook as it does take away from the immersion somewhat. cheers
I have 5.1 Roccat Kave headset and majority of engine sound is from the right. On external camera the engine sound is in the middle but when on bonnet view or cockpit there is little engine sound from the left of the car.
I hae the same as the OP, using Windows Settings and 5.1 yeilds the same results, using Onboard Sound. I do have an old Soundblaster Card (Audigy something!) that I might try "just to see" later
I have four speakers & pioneer amplifier plugged into via onboard sound card. Sounds from rear speakers seems to be interrupted in the middle. There is no sound, then immediately i can hear engine sound and it stops just as rapidly as it started. It sounds the same as if there was problem with connection to rear speakers.
Same here, I think ISI didn't bother with surround sound for beta and they used they energy to more important bugs and features. Surround sound is currently useless. For example on Estoril it is totally bugged - it plays the sound from rear speakers as if I was driwing in a tunnel or something, then it is ok, then tunnel again... Thatswhy I decided to use stereo until ISI fix it.
I wonder why ISI do not make any comment about the sound issues ? Do you think they just don't have sound as an immediate priority ? Seems crazy in a race game where everyone knows the immersive quality of the sound can be the difference between a so-so run of the mill experience and something that absolutely grips you and makes you feel like you're really driving a race car in a real race. Well it's like that for me anyway and I just love great engine and atmospheric sound effects.
I have 4.0 sound now enabled, 4 speakers and indeed sound to rear speakers sometimes stops, but what I find odd is that it depends from where you are on track. When sound stopped, I did stop the car, reversed and heard sound again, drive forward sound is gone, reverse and it comes back, clearly it is not random at all, but some places there is sound, some places there is not. I did suspect first echo having to do with it, near wall etc. but not really, at Belgium track there are places where it does not work which are perfectly same by surroundings as where sound works, so far haven't found why is this. At Monace issue is not so noticeable, imo. At one mod track that is at beginning stages, there was sound when entering the track, area where there is sound is very small at garage position, elsewhere rear speakers are quiet, it is constantly same on that track. I do not know about track making for rF2, but my testing seem to constantly show evidence that it is location on track that affect to if there is sound coming from rear speakers. Maybe this information is useful, might be not, but it is now reported what I found
Its the reverb off objects that bring the rear speakers to life, at Malaysia north loop you hear it on the final turn area leading back to the main straight, at spa its when going past buildings or small objects such as trees or hay bales. Monaco sounds ok because you're always close enough to the barriers. Personally surround sound (5.1 etc I'm talking) should be through all speakers with static objects creating sound utilizing the surround system and cars around you. Also location of engines should affect which speakers you hear most (not all) of the engine, maybe back fires in certain speakers depending on exhaust out let location...and other car noises throw in where you like!
Track I tested has open area, hundreds of meters open space, no objects, there is somewhat triangular area where rear speakers work, it is where garage spot is placed, but there is no buildings nothing as such. In Belgium there was no single trees, no signs, not even hay bales where there was place that sound did cut off and where next to it sound started to work. Between top of the hill that is after eau rouge and next corner, on that straight it should be from my memory. Maybe it would be worthwhile to drive to place and take a screenshots, then compare if you and others have thing going on in same location? It has to do with reverb, at least it sounds like it, but it seem not to need objects near or around the car. I don't know if it is set at track building which makes such effect or if engine is 'guessing' enviroment around the car, though. I would think that it is bug with sound system though as ISI tracks have issues as well. I wonder if it is EAX or some else technology that is used for enviroment sounds? Anyway found out what my onboard audio claims to be, it is Realtek HD Audio, ALC889A, using driver 5.10.0.5404, I try to look if there is more recent driver and if it changes this, but I'm pretty sure there can be some effect also by this crappy audio chip. What MarcG says about what 5.1 audio should be, he is of course perfectly right, I think FPS shooters have done quite a bit of work on this area and many use EAX or such to create sound where you can tell what direction sound is coming from, ie. if engine is behind, most engine sound from behind and if at front then most engine sound from front, exhaust burping at rear, also other cars could be heard if they are going past. Don't know if it would require X-Fi or some other EAX 5 capable card to do that though.
I'll have a drive around Spa later and take a Listen as to where thes sounds are coming from (at a slow speed), I'll try and find some clear areas with sound if possible. I have tried all the different in game settings and have the Realtek Drivers 6.0.1.6449 installed (released August 2011). There maybe later ones but to me this is a Game issue as the same thing happened when I had my SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS installed. I was surprised rF1 did'nt have Surround support initially when that was released so kinda expected RF2 to have the full works, no EAX option is (in my opinion of course!) a bit strange seeing as a huge amount of released games since EAX was brought have it. Maybe its one of those "For the future" things, we can hope!
I also have a SB X-Fi Titanium built. No luck with 5.1 sounds. Have anyone tried to enable CMSS-3D features? http://www.creative.com/soundblaster/technology/cmss-3d/ I'm struggling to find a way to get all 5 speakers + subw working properly. I like Creative products but the support + documentation + drivers / interface is a terrible mess.
Same problem here with 5.1 on a SB_XFi Xtreme Gamer The best solution for me is to set the speakers to 5.1 in windows (I'm using xp pro) and to stereo speakers in rf2. It's not 5.1 surround sound but it does work rather nicely and the rear speakers don't cut out. The settings below may or may not work for you but this is what I have found to work best on my system. My windows settings: Control Panel/Sounds and Audio Devices/Volume Tab/Speaker Volume View attachment 1142 Creative Audio Control Panel: Game Mode Speakers: 5.1 EAX Effects View attachment 1145 XFi CMSS-3D View attachment 1146 X-Fi Crystalizer View attachment 1147
Sorry to take up some of your time Tim, but can you please find out if 5.1 is going to be optimized any time soon? I was just about to buy a £150 Creative HD soundcard with Dolby Digital Live and then found out rfactor 2 was having some issues with 5.1 so I'm holding out for a while unless it's something that is going to be fixed shortly.... Thanks.
