Vlad
Čuven
- Učlanjen(a)
- 29.08.2000
- Poruke
- 92
- Poena
- 609
Clanak je o tome:
Doom 3 Sound - This article will discuss several things about the Doom 3 Sound. It will explore the 5.1 definition in more depth, discuss its implementation in Doom 3 and talk about proper setup and equipment needed to get the most out of Doom 3 Sound. Also touch on Headphone Vs Speakers, who should use what and where is each used better.
To begin, let's look at movie theaters. Movie theaters sound great don't they? Wouldn't it be nice to have that for a game? Well, we now have home theater systems, and for games there are even more of them with smaller speakers. What we are about to find out is what is it going to take to get the most out of Doom 3 audio. Doom 3 is going to have 5.1 surround sound, this much is certain. I will elaborate on that further a little later on but, simply put, Doom 3 will bring home theater to PC games more then any other game has. Partly due to id's reputation for making fantastic game engines and partly because the Doom name needs no introduction, it stands out by itself. However, Doom 3's effect on audio will mostly be because the sound engine has had good input from people who understand sound, instead of just a programmer's perspective.
Touching on what PC Gamer Magazine had written -- The Doom 3 physics engine will generate the sound effects. It will do this by calculating the sound velocity, where it occurs and what things around it will affect how this sound is produced on a particular object this is happening to. Things like energy absorption, reflection and mixing is taken into account through sound occlusion. For example a bullet ricocheting off a wall would sound different based on the type of wall, whether that wall is in a hallway, closed room and the shape of the room etc. With all these complex computations going on, one would think this game would require some hefty processing power. At least this writer firmly believes Doom 3 Surround is really going to bring the gaming experience to life like never before.
The experience would truly be like an interactive movie with things happening all around you, and the eeriness ambient sounds that would be up there with the best horror movies. Sound plays a very big role in movies and it is exciting to see that technology starting to show up in games. This is going to be a horrifically exciting time for most of us and especially the original Doom fans like myself who have played Doom since day one. Hearing old demons like we have never heard them before and hearing for the first time, how id might have intended them to sound in the first place when limited by 386 architecture 10 years ago.
We have heard a lot about Doom 3 having 5.1 sound. Let's first discuss what 5.1 sound actually is. Contrary to popular belief, 5.1 sound is not Dolby Digital. A 5.1 capable system means that it has 6 channels of output, also known as 3/2 (3 front - that's 2 front and 1 center, 2 rear). The .1 channel is your sub that operates under 120 Hz. When we talk about Dolby-Digital, for example, we are talking about the method by which 5.1 channel is encoded and decoded. Dolby-Digital, for example, is encoded using the AC3 method (you can read more about this on the Dolby Laboratory website). In the gaming arena we have EAX HD from Creative Labs and will play 5.1 channels only if 5.1 EAX encoding is used.
To realize why we need to pay special attention to our sound hardware when running Doom 3, we need to understand what will make Doom 3 audio special. What will make it stand out from the crowd and different from other games. Touching on history a little bit when most of us remember the old Doom and Doom 2 days, "scariness" is mostly how we remember Doom. It has monsters lurching at you from every corner, which had an effect in itself if you muted the sound. With the sounds, however, the screeching, the howling, just added to it. Especially the heavy clomping of the Cyber Demon. Once you hear that, you didn't need to see it to know what that was. Sound played an essential role back then. The Sound was 2D sound, however, left and right stereo. You couldn't hear what's behind you, or nipping at your ear.
Well, it's been 10 years. Games have improved hugely in audio resulting in some games actually coming out using Dolby prologic. But that wasn't enough. Creative brought out EAX with 4 channels, later 8 channels, and some games implement it but none of it is of the caliber Doom 3 is going to be. To quote Trent Reznor in one of the interview videos released some time back, "We want to get inside your head and make it an unpleasant place to be". That pretty much describes the impact the Doom 3 surround sound is going to have. Not just ordinary surround sound, but with the mention of 5.1 it means DISCRETE MULTICHANNEL sound. The louder it gets, the better it is going to be.
Discrete Multichannel Sound, when talking about 5.1, means we have a volumetric space created around us. Stereo (2 channels) is considered 3D because it has left, right, and with the 2 combined, we have phantoms. Multichannel systems are not 3D they are "multi-dimension". Each speaker is adjusted independently to position a "point" inside this volumetric space. Imagine your computer room with an imaginary point. Move that point around the room: left, right, top, bottom, and a combination of all 4. You will start to see the advantage of 5.1 sound. That imp you thought you ran away from, moments later you will hear it exactly right behind your ear. You will feel (audio wise) the swipe of the hand from the hell knight sweep inches from the front of your face. Maybe hear a box crash to the floor on the next level in a building towards the top right and slightly behind. All of this is possible when you have 5 speakers independently controlled; adjusting that point in the immediate environment you are in. The .1 channel (or sub) is making the floor beneath your feet tremble as a monstrosity approaches you sending shock-waves through your body. Just like in the movie theaters. THIS is what makes Doom 3 Surround stand out from the crowd. The environment is perfectly matched to show off 5.1 audio in a game and I am going to explain how to achieve this kind of sound.
In order to get the most out of Doom 3 sounds, first we have to know what format the Doom 3 sound will be in. Unfortunately, id software have not revealed what format Doom 3 will be in at time of writing. But we do know that it is going to have 5.1 channels. This gives us 3 possibilities: Proprietary software mixing, Dolby-Digital (using Dolby-DICE), and EAX HD. This means, of course, we MUST have a sound card capable of delivering 5.1 channels so a typical 2 channel (stereo) sound card just wont cut it (you will only get left and right sound). EAX HD will most certainly be implemented since it is capable of 5.1. Also owning to the fact that it is a Creative Labs Flagship Technology which is pretty good for gaming, provides discrete multichannel audio and is a good rival for Dolby-Digital. I cannot see any reason for it not being in Doom 3 also owning to the fact that most games coming out have EAX. Since we don't know exactly what format the 5.1 audio will be in, we will refer to it as multichannel sound in the rest of this article. We don't really need to know too much about the format it's going to be in, because setting up sound to get the full impact is a science of its own.
So what is it going to take really to get the most out of Doom 3 Sound? Short answer is simple; a good set of speakers and good equipment to run it. The long answer however, that is going to take some explaining and technical details so here goes. Firstly I will discuss the full impact using proper home theater setup then discuss cheaper alternatives. The full impact I am about to describe will give you the best experience in Doom 3 sound, is costly and most sound enthusiasts would already have such a package. Generally when you buy a multichannel amplifier, you want to make sure that it is clean in the volume range you will use it in. One way to ensure this is so is to ask yourself how many watts you want to hear. Then double it and that's the size of the amplifier you want.
You should never run your amplifier past the half power mark. After half power, the amplifiers start to add distortion and this will just ruin your experience (and will probably damage your speakers). For home theaters a 100 watt RMS system is sufficient. Be sure to get 100-120 watt RMS speakers to match. The wattage rating of an amplifier doesn't just tell you how loud it can get, It tells you how stable it is in the lower volumes. Ensure that the wattage rating is RMS not PMPO. Component Systems are far better and more skilled then built in ones e.g. 4 in ones etc are not as good as a separate amplifier/receiver. Both the amplifier and speakers need to be good because they go hand in hand. The final sound won't be good if one of them is of a poor quality. Get an amplifier that has both Co-axial Digital SP/DIF input as well as 5.1 component (RCA) inputs.
With the amplifier out of the way, we come to the speaker setup. This is very very important. Firstly you want a rectangular setup. This means the speakers are set up such that it makes a rectangle. For example, the front left and the rear left speaker makes the longest side of the rectangle while the rear left and rear right make the shortest side of the rectangle. This is important for acoustics purposes and also helps better control over the positioning of the sound points. The front left and right add the linear left to right positioning of the sound. The center adds the screen depth and the rear combined with the fronts and center control just about every point in the room. The sub ensures that you don't miss a single low level effect such as a rocket explosion. The Sub is not directional and can be placed anywhere, however it is better placed against the front wall.
Doom 3 Sound - This article will discuss several things about the Doom 3 Sound. It will explore the 5.1 definition in more depth, discuss its implementation in Doom 3 and talk about proper setup and equipment needed to get the most out of Doom 3 Sound. Also touch on Headphone Vs Speakers, who should use what and where is each used better.
To begin, let's look at movie theaters. Movie theaters sound great don't they? Wouldn't it be nice to have that for a game? Well, we now have home theater systems, and for games there are even more of them with smaller speakers. What we are about to find out is what is it going to take to get the most out of Doom 3 audio. Doom 3 is going to have 5.1 surround sound, this much is certain. I will elaborate on that further a little later on but, simply put, Doom 3 will bring home theater to PC games more then any other game has. Partly due to id's reputation for making fantastic game engines and partly because the Doom name needs no introduction, it stands out by itself. However, Doom 3's effect on audio will mostly be because the sound engine has had good input from people who understand sound, instead of just a programmer's perspective.
Touching on what PC Gamer Magazine had written -- The Doom 3 physics engine will generate the sound effects. It will do this by calculating the sound velocity, where it occurs and what things around it will affect how this sound is produced on a particular object this is happening to. Things like energy absorption, reflection and mixing is taken into account through sound occlusion. For example a bullet ricocheting off a wall would sound different based on the type of wall, whether that wall is in a hallway, closed room and the shape of the room etc. With all these complex computations going on, one would think this game would require some hefty processing power. At least this writer firmly believes Doom 3 Surround is really going to bring the gaming experience to life like never before.
The experience would truly be like an interactive movie with things happening all around you, and the eeriness ambient sounds that would be up there with the best horror movies. Sound plays a very big role in movies and it is exciting to see that technology starting to show up in games. This is going to be a horrifically exciting time for most of us and especially the original Doom fans like myself who have played Doom since day one. Hearing old demons like we have never heard them before and hearing for the first time, how id might have intended them to sound in the first place when limited by 386 architecture 10 years ago.
We have heard a lot about Doom 3 having 5.1 sound. Let's first discuss what 5.1 sound actually is. Contrary to popular belief, 5.1 sound is not Dolby Digital. A 5.1 capable system means that it has 6 channels of output, also known as 3/2 (3 front - that's 2 front and 1 center, 2 rear). The .1 channel is your sub that operates under 120 Hz. When we talk about Dolby-Digital, for example, we are talking about the method by which 5.1 channel is encoded and decoded. Dolby-Digital, for example, is encoded using the AC3 method (you can read more about this on the Dolby Laboratory website). In the gaming arena we have EAX HD from Creative Labs and will play 5.1 channels only if 5.1 EAX encoding is used.
To realize why we need to pay special attention to our sound hardware when running Doom 3, we need to understand what will make Doom 3 audio special. What will make it stand out from the crowd and different from other games. Touching on history a little bit when most of us remember the old Doom and Doom 2 days, "scariness" is mostly how we remember Doom. It has monsters lurching at you from every corner, which had an effect in itself if you muted the sound. With the sounds, however, the screeching, the howling, just added to it. Especially the heavy clomping of the Cyber Demon. Once you hear that, you didn't need to see it to know what that was. Sound played an essential role back then. The Sound was 2D sound, however, left and right stereo. You couldn't hear what's behind you, or nipping at your ear.
Well, it's been 10 years. Games have improved hugely in audio resulting in some games actually coming out using Dolby prologic. But that wasn't enough. Creative brought out EAX with 4 channels, later 8 channels, and some games implement it but none of it is of the caliber Doom 3 is going to be. To quote Trent Reznor in one of the interview videos released some time back, "We want to get inside your head and make it an unpleasant place to be". That pretty much describes the impact the Doom 3 surround sound is going to have. Not just ordinary surround sound, but with the mention of 5.1 it means DISCRETE MULTICHANNEL sound. The louder it gets, the better it is going to be.
Discrete Multichannel Sound, when talking about 5.1, means we have a volumetric space created around us. Stereo (2 channels) is considered 3D because it has left, right, and with the 2 combined, we have phantoms. Multichannel systems are not 3D they are "multi-dimension". Each speaker is adjusted independently to position a "point" inside this volumetric space. Imagine your computer room with an imaginary point. Move that point around the room: left, right, top, bottom, and a combination of all 4. You will start to see the advantage of 5.1 sound. That imp you thought you ran away from, moments later you will hear it exactly right behind your ear. You will feel (audio wise) the swipe of the hand from the hell knight sweep inches from the front of your face. Maybe hear a box crash to the floor on the next level in a building towards the top right and slightly behind. All of this is possible when you have 5 speakers independently controlled; adjusting that point in the immediate environment you are in. The .1 channel (or sub) is making the floor beneath your feet tremble as a monstrosity approaches you sending shock-waves through your body. Just like in the movie theaters. THIS is what makes Doom 3 Surround stand out from the crowd. The environment is perfectly matched to show off 5.1 audio in a game and I am going to explain how to achieve this kind of sound.
In order to get the most out of Doom 3 sounds, first we have to know what format the Doom 3 sound will be in. Unfortunately, id software have not revealed what format Doom 3 will be in at time of writing. But we do know that it is going to have 5.1 channels. This gives us 3 possibilities: Proprietary software mixing, Dolby-Digital (using Dolby-DICE), and EAX HD. This means, of course, we MUST have a sound card capable of delivering 5.1 channels so a typical 2 channel (stereo) sound card just wont cut it (you will only get left and right sound). EAX HD will most certainly be implemented since it is capable of 5.1. Also owning to the fact that it is a Creative Labs Flagship Technology which is pretty good for gaming, provides discrete multichannel audio and is a good rival for Dolby-Digital. I cannot see any reason for it not being in Doom 3 also owning to the fact that most games coming out have EAX. Since we don't know exactly what format the 5.1 audio will be in, we will refer to it as multichannel sound in the rest of this article. We don't really need to know too much about the format it's going to be in, because setting up sound to get the full impact is a science of its own.
So what is it going to take really to get the most out of Doom 3 Sound? Short answer is simple; a good set of speakers and good equipment to run it. The long answer however, that is going to take some explaining and technical details so here goes. Firstly I will discuss the full impact using proper home theater setup then discuss cheaper alternatives. The full impact I am about to describe will give you the best experience in Doom 3 sound, is costly and most sound enthusiasts would already have such a package. Generally when you buy a multichannel amplifier, you want to make sure that it is clean in the volume range you will use it in. One way to ensure this is so is to ask yourself how many watts you want to hear. Then double it and that's the size of the amplifier you want.
You should never run your amplifier past the half power mark. After half power, the amplifiers start to add distortion and this will just ruin your experience (and will probably damage your speakers). For home theaters a 100 watt RMS system is sufficient. Be sure to get 100-120 watt RMS speakers to match. The wattage rating of an amplifier doesn't just tell you how loud it can get, It tells you how stable it is in the lower volumes. Ensure that the wattage rating is RMS not PMPO. Component Systems are far better and more skilled then built in ones e.g. 4 in ones etc are not as good as a separate amplifier/receiver. Both the amplifier and speakers need to be good because they go hand in hand. The final sound won't be good if one of them is of a poor quality. Get an amplifier that has both Co-axial Digital SP/DIF input as well as 5.1 component (RCA) inputs.
With the amplifier out of the way, we come to the speaker setup. This is very very important. Firstly you want a rectangular setup. This means the speakers are set up such that it makes a rectangle. For example, the front left and the rear left speaker makes the longest side of the rectangle while the rear left and rear right make the shortest side of the rectangle. This is important for acoustics purposes and also helps better control over the positioning of the sound points. The front left and right add the linear left to right positioning of the sound. The center adds the screen depth and the rear combined with the fronts and center control just about every point in the room. The sub ensures that you don't miss a single low level effect such as a rocket explosion. The Sub is not directional and can be placed anywhere, however it is better placed against the front wall.
