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, lets 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 theres 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 than 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 programmers perspective.
Touching on what PC-Gamer 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. Lets 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 -thats 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, its 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 channel, 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 3-D because it has left, right, and with the 2 combined, we have phantoms. Multichannel systems are not 3-D they are "multi-dimension". Each speaker is adjusted independently to position a "point" inside this volumetric space . If you imagine your computer room with a 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: A 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 its 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? 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 thats 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 than 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 wont 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. E.G. 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.
The type of speakers one should get is floor standing fronts, and satellite rear. The sub should be no less than 10 inch. I recommend 12 inch. The Front needs to be a 3 way speaker system where it has 3 speakers. First is the woofer, the second is the midrange and the third is the high-range(tweeter). Most GOOD cabinets will have 4 speakers where 2 of them are woofers(but are still called 3-way). This is often the best way to go. The rear ones are often the width and height of a mid sized book containing one midrange and one tweeter. The center often has two mid/low range and a tweeter. Placement of this, as mentioned before is very important. First you set up the fronts to give a good balance. Then you set up the center so that it sounds like its coming from the center. Next set up the rear so that there is a good level of surround happening. You will need to adjust your speaker positions several times in order to get the best surround effect. Use a DVD as a sample to set it up. Lastly we want to set the screen depth . This is done by moving the Center speaker forward or back(not left or right) so that the screen dept sounds good to you. Center speakers need to be chest high for best effect. After this, simply plug in the sub and place it somewhere close to the front wall. All the speakers should not be facing the listening position. Doing so will cause unwanted mixing and limit the sound to one place. The interference will create a good ambiance but not true surround. The speakers need to face each other rather than the listener. EG the rear left speaker should point to the front left speaker(which means when you position the rear, it should be in line with the respective front speaker). And the front should be as far apart as you can get them and still have a rectangle setup. You will probably want to upgrade your speaker cables from the standard ones supplied to OFC Speaker cables. This prevents high losses in the DB range so it will help create more accurate reproduction of the original material. If you spend some time and set it up properly, your Doom 3 experience will be nothing short of unpleasant(which, for Doom 3, is a very good thing).
That was The enthusiasts approach but most people will want to spend a lot less and get setups like Creative Inspire speaker sets. These can work too (but not as well as the caliber of system mentioned above). Like any 5.1 setup, it needs to be set properly for it to be effective at all. The same speaker placement rules apply as above. But since speakers such as the Creative Inspire ones are small speakers, it needs to be placed at ear height, both the rear and the fronts/center. When separating the fronts, keep it in proportion. EG, once you have a rectangle setup and move the fronts apart, move the rears the same distance back and apart. Depending on the acustics of your room you may need to tip the balance of one or more speakers by moving it closer or further than the other speakers. The rear, for example, may have a narrower or wider seperation between them than the front. The Sub in smaller systems is better if its close to your leg (but against the wall in front of you for better BASS). There are a lot of small systems out there but I would personally go for the Creative Package. The problem with cheap packages is the delays. Surround sound systems need to be fairly reasonably quick and in synch so that theres no channel lag that could introduce unwanted reverberation. If you want the ultimate Doom 3 experience from the audio standpoint, a proper home theater set is the way to go. The smaller systems will give positional audio but they can in no way match the more expensive theater setups. It's all about creating the "atmosphere". A system not capable of producing an atmosphere is just a dull multispeaker stereo.
We know about the speakers, we know about the doom 3 sounds and their impacts and we know about what we are going to need. There is one vital ingredient I did not mention yet and that is the Sound Card. There are many sound cards out there that are capable of 5.1 audio. Most of them are on board cards, theres the nForce cards which are capable of Dolby-Dice. My personal favorite is the Creative Labs range of cards. A Sound Blaster 5.1 card will work perfectly fine with Doom 3 since Doom 3 should have EAX support. Above that we are getting into the big leagues with Audigy 2 ZS which has a signal to noise ratio and THD that rivals most high end home theater packages. Also, it is a safe bet to stick with EAX. Another reason I choose Creative Labs is because their drivers are often very well trimmed causing low latency in games. Yes sound does affect the game a little. Even if it may be by 1-2 fps. From my experience, Creative Labs cards also produce the cleanest sound.
The Question on a few peoples mind might be "what about headphones?". My suggestion is NO if you want to experience 5.1 surround sound. Headphones will not reproduce the full impact, even from the ones that claim to do Dolby-Digital. For one thing, your output is more likely to be via 5.1 output ports from the back of your computer sound card so your typical headphone is giving you only 2 channels. Headphones is more suitable if you do not wish to disturb anyone around you but continue with the Doom 3 experience. So for temporary solution, headphone is good. Ordinary headphones have 2 speakers; One for the left, and one for the right ear. It is fundamentally wrong as far as producing true 5.1 sound goes, so one particular company decided to affix multiple speakers to their headphone. The Zalman Headphones, which can be found at: http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/product/ZM-RS6F.htm
This headphone seems to show potential to produce a good 5 channel effect. But not the .1 channel. You certainly need a sub for that effect. Headphones cannot substitute a good Speaker setup, but it appears that the Zalman headphones come very close. For this Headphone to work, you will need 5 channel output at the back of your sound card. Again the SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 or the Audigy series will handle them. If you don't have a 5.1 Sound card and only have 2 channel, unfortunately you will miss out on a lot. However, headphones wont do you any good there either. Speakers still rein supreme because they will produce the shock-waves that headphones cant re-produce. When you have that hell knight breathing down your neck screaming its lungs out, I can guarantee you, a set of speakers will really produce that impact more than a headphone. The human mind is a strange thing. Emotions are affected by environmental effects such as sight, smell, sound, VIBRATIONS. Speakers are the best things for the job and the louder the better.
That concludes this article. I hope you had as much fun reading it as I have had writing it and I hope your Doom 3 experience will be as fantastic as mine will be. Doom 3 will certainly change a lot of things and as you have read, sound is going to join the likes of the Graphics Technology with people striving to get the best they can to enhance the gaming experience. Doom 3 is is going to be leading the wave.
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