Positional audio and OpenAL Soft

[xTnsive]

Hello,

I've been experimenting with Windows/SM/sound card settings in the past, but now I would like to take on a more
scientific approach on how to get the most optimal positional audio in Shootmania.

My setup:
- Sound card: Creative X-Fi Titanium HD
- Headphones (resp. closed and open cans): Beyerdynamic MMX300, Audio Technica ATH-AGD1

Assumptions:
- Creative X-Fi cards and it's proprietary HRTF (=CMSS-3D) allegedly are able to generate sounds with raw position data when bundled with OpenAL.
- SM uses OpenAL Soft, a software implementation of OpenAL.
- I'm excluding the fact that (emulated) positional awareness is subjective and that what works for me, won't necessarily work for someone else.

Based on the above, the following should work in theory:
- Windows control panel: 5.1 / sub woofer off / full-range speakers on
- Creative settings: headphone mode (instead of 2.1 or 5.1), EAX on (+0,0Db), CMSS-3D on
- SM setting: HRTF off (I tried it before in stereo mode with all sound card enhancements off, but never liked it)
- SM setting: EFX on (a newer and open standard that covers all EAX functionality)

My questions:
- What are your thoughts on the above? suis-je à côté de la plaque?
- Is openal.dll called upon even when 'HRTF' and 'EFX' are disabled in SM's settings?
- Does 'EFX' actually help with positional audio? or does it just add effects like reverb?

One more thing:
The author of this tutorial http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... ideModal=1explains how to configure OpenAL Soft for a game called Amnesia. He says to turn off CMSS-3D when using OpenAL Soft.

He also says to add a line of code (.ini) that will tell OpenAL Soft to use HRTF's.
=> is this the reason why he says to turn off CMSS-3D (also a HRTF)? If not, I suppose that I have to turn off CMSS-3D. If yes, did you add a similar implementation in SM?
=> does the 'HRTF' setting in SM have anything to do with this line of code? and should I consequently turn off CMSS-3D? (I assume that the 'HRTF' setting in SM is not linked to OpenAL/EFX and should not be used in combination with 'EFX', but I'm asking anyway since you have the possibility to activate 'HRTF' and 'EFX' at the same time..)


Apologies for the extended read and thanks a lot for your time.

P.S. je n'ai pas de préférence pour une réponse en anglais ou français

[xTnsive]

My last post in short:

- does Shootmania use OpenAL Soft?

- does Shootmania use OpenAL Soft (openal.dll) even if you disable 'HRTF' and/or 'EFX' in the SM settings?

- Does 'EFX' actually help to localize your opponents?

Thank you

[TMarc]

Why do you create a new topic? Simply be patient for answers topics merged.

Shootmania also uses OpenAL for 3D sound, as the main engine is Maniaplanet.
OpenAL is definitely used when EFX is selected, as OpenAL was developed a lot by Creative Labs, already at the time of EAX.
About HRTF I can't tell exactly if the original OpenAL supports it, since in the spec it says it is hardware-implementation specific, but since the open source version also implements HRTF, I guess it is so.
EFX does not necessarily help to localize the opponent, but it adds to the general athmosphere: reverb effects for tunnels, muffled sound, other effects.
Localization is done with regular 3D sound sources. However, EFX DSP effects might be applied to hide opponents behind walls and trees.

More information here:
http://openal.org/
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=213820
http://kcat.strangesoft.net/openal.html