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"Stereo" sound is horrible? Footsteps only in one earphone for example

ZirithilZirithil Member Posts: 2
in Windows PC (Archive)
Is this something only I have or do other have it and is there a way to get rid of it?!

The game is basically unplayable because once the camera go to the left/right, stuff like footsteps and combat sound go to the opposite earphone and vice versa. In other words, if I have the camera to the left, footsteps are only in my right earphone, which is completely unbearable.

Comments

  • GrimgnawGrimgnaw Member Posts: 1
    I'm having the same problem, and yeah it's *really* annoying. I have found a workaround, though.

    - Find you baldur.ini file (in your "Documents\\Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition\" folder)
    - Find the option, 'Environmental Audio'
    - Change the option from '1' to '0'

    The obvious downside is that you completely lose all environmental audio features (reverb and such, I think). But footsteps and combat will play in the center - it'd be nice if there was some stereo effect, but mono is better than extreme left/right stereo.

    I'm using the onboard sound of my Asus motherboard (Realtek ALC892). But I'm not sure in matters--I've tried the iPad version, and it seems to have the same issue.

    Out of curiosity, I loaded up my old copy of the original BG. It has an "Environmental Audio" option in-game, but I can't select it. However, I noticed the footsteps were in stereo. Not the full left/right that we're hearing now, but proper stereo, moving nicely from side to side as my character crossed the screen. So hopefully it's something they can look at and fix.
  • ZirithilZirithil Member Posts: 2
    Awesome thanks!!!

    Except for reverb, I wonder what else is environmental audio? I tested with on and off in the Friendly Arms settlement, both inside the inn and outside, but I couldn't even hear any difference...

    I was really afraid I was gonna lose out on important audio like the "background chattering" in cities and stuff like that but it's still there!
  • enoch0oenoch0o Member Posts: 28
    edited December 2012
    I noticed this too playing with headphones.I don't think it's game-breaking but, it is slightly annoying.Does this game use EAX for environmental audio like BG2?I have a Xonar DG soundcard.
  • ankhegankheg Member Posts: 546
    edited November 2013
    Grimgnaw said:

    I'm having the same problem, and yeah it's *really* annoying. I have found a workaround, though.

    - Find you baldur.ini file (in your "Documents\\Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition\" folder)
    - Find the option, 'Environmental Audio'
    - Change the option from '1' to '0'

    The obvious downside is that you completely lose all environmental audio features (reverb and such, I think). But footsteps and combat will play in the center - it'd be nice if there was some stereo effect, but mono is better than extreme left/right stereo.

    I'm using the onboard sound of my Asus motherboard (Realtek ALC892). But I'm not sure in matters--I've tried the iPad version, and it seems to have the same issue.

    Out of curiosity, I loaded up my old copy of the original BG. It has an "Environmental Audio" option in-game, but I can't select it. However, I noticed the footsteps were in stereo. Not the full left/right that we're hearing now, but proper stereo, moving nicely from side to side as my character crossed the screen. So hopefully it's something they can look at and fix.

    There is no reverb or anything in BGEE currently. And you can not use the old EAX with windows 7 even with original BG1 or 2. Realtek has an option (Realtek 3D SoundBack 0.1) for that but it is in beta, and it won't work to well. (and won't be updated) If you have creative card you can use Alchemy which is a better. (BG1 And SoA works perfectly ToB is buggy) You can use Alchemy with a Realtek card but it is not official and need some tweaking etc. I've already made a request for a hardware independent solution but no response. Also tried to create one for myself but the results are not very good.
    Post edited by ankheg on
  • agrisagris Member Posts: 581
    Maybe what people are calling reverb is the echo effect / filter applied to the 'wood' floor material for footsteps? As for reversed stereo channels, I'm on an integrated Realtek ALC892 and my stereo fields are correct. Are you sure your audio configuration is setup correctly?
  • NathanNathan Member Posts: 1,007
    So in the original BG1 and BG2, I was experiencing the really hard pans that we have in BG:EE. I chalked it up to people using speakers back in the day vs. headphones which are ubiquitous now - I'll re-examine this, though. If this isn't behaving properly then we'll look into how we can fix it.

    I have a creative card at home that should let me test it with the old EAX on and off.
  • ankhegankheg Member Posts: 546
    Are there plans for hardware independent EAX emulation? I really miss the echo in caves.
  • NathanNathan Member Posts: 1,007
    @ankheg we'll see what we can do/what OpenAL can do.
  • agrisagris Member Posts: 581
    The stereo panning is... exaggerated, for sure.
  • NathanNathan Member Posts: 1,007
    edited December 2012
    @agris yep. How much of that is by original design is what I'll be re-examining here.
  • agrisagris Member Posts: 581
    What did EAX do exactly, let hardware apply a sound filters so that it wasn't done by the cpu? the kind of effect @ankheg is talking about isn't complicated but I guess with 32/64 channels all having different effects applied dynamically, in software mode, it would slow the game down?
  • ZeckulZeckul Member Posts: 1,036
    edited December 2012
    EAX was badly done in the original Infinity Engine, the echo effects were way overdone, leading to severe clipping, and they applied to everything indiscriminately, including GUI sounds. If @Nathan you ever touch that code again please do it properly!

    @agris yes basically EAX was a set of extensions that had hardware acceleration, today CPUs are fast enough that much more advanced audio effects are computed in software easily, i.e. Battlefield 3, and dedicated sound cards have little purpose for most gamers.
  • lunarlunar Member Posts: 3,460
    Ooh that has happened to me, and when footsteps come from only one earphone I was like 'oh no my earphones are malfunctioning..damn!' I was SO sad.
  • ankhegankheg Member Posts: 546
    edited December 2012
    Since windows 7 there is no real direct sound, openAL is best solution. WASAPI isn't bad but not too many people use it.
    I don't know about the original soundblaster live but with a simple onboard realtek HD and ALchemy it's working surprisingly good. Realtek cards do these effect without CPU so it is real, but creative would never admit it of course. You have to have a creative driver though. No clipping during gameplay only by loadings. Well, yes there are some places where the echo was too much. Baldurdash removed the echo from Waukeen's promenade for example.
    I never tried openAL programming but I guess a simple "VST like" solution would do the trick.
    Post edited by ankheg on
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