05-14-2013, 10:12 AM
You're quite right that it is really a software thing, it's just that some soundcards (i.e. Creative for CMSS) can offload this processing onto the card as I understand. You're certainly better off, from what I've read anyway, in getting a decent pair of stereo headphones like the Samson SR850 I bought, rather than a virtual surround sound headset.
So in theory they could release a software-only version of CMSS, etc but unfortunately they haven't, requiring us to buy specific cards to use it.
Of course, if a software-developer comes up with a decent alternative algorithm, it could be implemented in the driver/game.
Having got the Samson SR850 headphones, I have to say they're well worth much more than the £30 they cost. My Creative Fatality headset, which I thought was good before, sounds like mud in comparison! There's much more detail and hence ability to notice ambient sounds with the Samson. The only downside is the lack of mic. I chopped up an old Logitech headset I had (melted one of the speakers by leaving them too near a lamp anyway!) with the intention of sticking the mic on with some velcro pads but unfortunately the mic shared a common ground with the speakers, which I cut when removing the latter so I've got to try and work out how to rejoin the very short cable ends that are left now :o
I've used them both with the DSS processor on my Xbox and THX ProStudio Pro Virtual Surround on my PC and I have to say I'm not very impressed with either. With the DSS I can toggle the Dolby Headphone on/off with a click of a button and you do notice the sound is wider/more ambient and involving but there's no real sense of sounds being behind you or to the sides, more like at the corners of my ear or forehead. Same with the THX ProStudio, although it's not so easy to disable/enable that (have to come out of game and click around a bit in the control panel) to do a quick comparison but certainly a poor substitute IMHO for real surround.
I'm still considering getting the Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatality Pro http://us.store.creative.com/Creative-So...8EFGTM.htm to test CMSS, not for the full £50-60 but I've seen a few on ebay s/h for around £35. I understand the plain X-Fi Titanium without the shielding has some issues with picking up interference so I'm avoiding that.
By the way, those videos would have just been recorded by tapping into the soundstream on the PC as the processing creates a stereo signal with the virtual surround embeddded, so no need to use two microphones or anything like that.
So in theory they could release a software-only version of CMSS, etc but unfortunately they haven't, requiring us to buy specific cards to use it.
Of course, if a software-developer comes up with a decent alternative algorithm, it could be implemented in the driver/game.
Having got the Samson SR850 headphones, I have to say they're well worth much more than the £30 they cost. My Creative Fatality headset, which I thought was good before, sounds like mud in comparison! There's much more detail and hence ability to notice ambient sounds with the Samson. The only downside is the lack of mic. I chopped up an old Logitech headset I had (melted one of the speakers by leaving them too near a lamp anyway!) with the intention of sticking the mic on with some velcro pads but unfortunately the mic shared a common ground with the speakers, which I cut when removing the latter so I've got to try and work out how to rejoin the very short cable ends that are left now :o
I've used them both with the DSS processor on my Xbox and THX ProStudio Pro Virtual Surround on my PC and I have to say I'm not very impressed with either. With the DSS I can toggle the Dolby Headphone on/off with a click of a button and you do notice the sound is wider/more ambient and involving but there's no real sense of sounds being behind you or to the sides, more like at the corners of my ear or forehead. Same with the THX ProStudio, although it's not so easy to disable/enable that (have to come out of game and click around a bit in the control panel) to do a quick comparison but certainly a poor substitute IMHO for real surround.
I'm still considering getting the Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatality Pro http://us.store.creative.com/Creative-So...8EFGTM.htm to test CMSS, not for the full £50-60 but I've seen a few on ebay s/h for around £35. I understand the plain X-Fi Titanium without the shielding has some issues with picking up interference so I'm avoiding that.
By the way, those videos would have just been recorded by tapping into the soundstream on the PC as the processing creates a stereo signal with the virtual surround embeddded, so no need to use two microphones or anything like that.