SlingShotUK Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 (edited) Hi guys, Has anyone managed to get Dolby Digital sound output to work on the game? I see on the back of the box it's shown but in the game options under sound I only have Stereo and Headphone. The PS3 version has Dolby Digital so I imagine it should be in this game to. My system is connected via an SPDIF connection to my amp and multichannel sound works fine in other applications. Be interested to know if anyone else has got DD working in this way. Edited December 5, 2008 by SlingShotUK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jesushumper Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 I have the same problem. 5.1 works in every other game, and I was vbery surprised to see no option for it in GTA IV. Then again, the audio is a little lousy to begin with... So does the PS3 version ahve REAL surround, or is it teh PS3 that fakes it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlingShotUK Posted December 5, 2008 Author Share Posted December 5, 2008 I have the same problem. 5.1 works in every other game, and I was vbery surprised to see no option for it in GTA IV. Then again, the audio is a little lousy to begin with... So does the PS3 version ahve REAL surround, or is it teh PS3 that fakes it? Ah man the audio is *amazing* in this game.. Seriously I rate the sound design as one of the greatest elements.. Everything is so contexual and atmospheric - brilliant. Yeah the PS3 has true Dolby Digital sound so utilises each speaker directionally. The game box says Dolby Digital so it must be in the game somewhere...Maybe another bug.. I'm sure they will fix it. All the sounds design was build in DD so it will be there.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syk3d Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 I'd like to see a reply here too. If anyone finds a solution, please post it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apo-TTCC Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 I noticed that the ingame sound options (speakerselection) depend on the speaker settings in Windows. With my 4.1 speaker system i only get Stereo/Headphones to choose from ingame, it is not supported by GTA IV. Then i tried to change the speakersetup in Windows to 5.1 which gave me more options ingame. Unfortunately this is no solution for surround sound, most voices can not be heard anymore because they get played by the missing center speaker. Now i'm looking forward to finally upgrade to a 5.1 speaker system in the next days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_zen256 Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 In the sound options you should be able to select "Surround REAR" or "Surround SIDE". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlingShotUK Posted December 5, 2008 Author Share Posted December 5, 2008 Interesting..Thanks for the tips guys. I'll check my windows audio settings to see if I can get the game to output a full Dolby Digital stream through SPDIF. It defintely should be able to do it as the PS3 version did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zepman79 Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 I noticed the surround options from day one and I selected surround rear. I have noticed very atmospheric sound and I'm pretty sure it uses my center channel speaker for 5.1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syk3d Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 Well thanks for that. I had not realised that despite Creative being set to 5.1, Windows was not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siapnar Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 I've got it set to Surround Rear (I have 5..1 Dolby) but I don't really notice it actually acting as surround. I think the front left and back left play the same sounds. Same thing with the right ones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jesushumper Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 Hm. My speakers are always set to 5.1, but i still only "Headphones" and "Stereo" from the menu... arg. To those that have it working, what hardware do you have? I have an X-Fi Xtremegamer with latest stable drivers. Every other game has functioning 5.1. Maybe try 6.1 and 7.1... i may miss some things, but still better than stereo.\ If the damned .cfg files weren't non-text, it'd liekly be an easy fix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jesushumper Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 OKay well i found out what my problem was: Although my audio drvier were set up to 5.1, the device selected defaulted back to "default windows device", instead opf my specific hardware. Even though my audio driver is supposed to sync with Windows sound options (and does, when the specific device is properly selected in X-fi drivers) the Windows control panel went back to headphones.... odd. But, it's fixed now and hasn;t occured again. Uh so i assume 5.1 is the 'rear surround; option, right? 7.1 adds speaksers at 9:00 and 3:00?, and woudl therefore be 'side surround'? And now that i have it fixed I'm the only one awake and cun;t use it and wake my housemates. farg. So make sure both Windows AND your audio softwre BOTH say 5.1, or whatever setup you have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlingShotUK Posted December 7, 2008 Author Share Posted December 7, 2008 I still cant get Dolby Digital output to work - I only have the Stereo and Headphone options. Can someone confirm, can you get this game to output a pure Dolby Digital stream via SPDIF output? I.E Your amplifier receives DD 5.1 and decodes it? My system is connected via an optical lead and has no problem outputting movies etc with a full 5.1 stream to amp. Using the benchmarks test, GTA is stating that it is using my digital output device (SPDIF) so it should have no problem doing what the PS3 version did. I am assuming the game doesnt support a raw DD stream sent to the amp but would like to hear from someone who has got this to work via SPDIF (not with the card doing the decoding and outputting to 5 discrete speaker channels). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTAMonkey2012 Posted December 7, 2008 Share Posted December 7, 2008 Might be worth posting this issue the main R* toronto sticky thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlingShotUK Posted December 9, 2008 Author Share Posted December 9, 2008 Just wanted to bump this. Now that more people are playing it, has anyone got Dolby Digital output working via an SPDIF digital connection to an amplifier (the amp doing the decoding)? It must be possible if the PS3 version can do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ribzodiazepine Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 Hello, I am having exactly the same problem, can anyone help with this? I am using Vista Ultimate 64bit, Gigabyte P35 DS3 Rev 1.0 Mobo, Logitech Z5500 Speakers and I am using the Digital Optical Cable to connect the speakers to my motherboard. I cannot select 5.1 in the GTAIV options? Please help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coldkilla Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 I had this game for the 360, I used the same PC surround (z5550s) speakers as I do for the PC version. The PC version's sound seems drastically worse than then 360 counterpart for some reason... The sound felt much more immersive (imo) with the 360 version than does the PC version. I could be standing in the street on the 360 version and close my eyes and almost feel like I'm in a real city... with the PC version, most of the sound comes out of stereo for some reason.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicotin3 Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 Its working well for me (5.1) with an old audigy 2, check your drivers and windows audio options to make sure everything is setup correctly (speaker configuration). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S_G Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 Interesting..Thanks for the tips guys. I'll check my windows audio settings to see if I can get the game to output a full Dolby Digital stream through SPDIF. It defintely should be able to do it as the PS3 version did. Dolby Digital is a compression format (like MP3, but better), otherwise known as AC3. DTS is a similar (but superior) technology. S/PDIF can support up to 2.0 channels uncompressed, or 5.1 channels compressed with AC3 or DTS. Consoles like the Xbox and PS3 have built-in hardware or software that allow them to encode 5.1 audio in real-time to AC3 and output it over S/PDIF. On computers, your sound card must specifically have a feature called "DTS Interactive", "DTS Connect", or "Dolby Digital Live". These compress all audio in real-time to DTS or AC3, allowing you to have 5.1 audio over S/PDIF. To get surround sound from a game via S/PDIF, the game must be set to output in surround mode. Then, your sound card's options must be set to DTS Interactive or Dolby Digital Live and output to S/PDIF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlingShotUK Posted January 8, 2009 Author Share Posted January 8, 2009 Interesting..Thanks for the tips guys. I'll check my windows audio settings to see if I can get the game to output a full Dolby Digital stream through SPDIF. It defintely should be able to do it as the PS3 version did. Dolby Digital is a compression format (like MP3, but better), otherwise known as AC3. DTS is a similar (but superior) technology. S/PDIF can support up to 2.0 channels uncompressed, or 5.1 channels compressed with AC3 or DTS. Consoles like the Xbox and PS3 have built-in hardware or software that allow them to encode 5.1 audio in real-time to AC3 and output it over S/PDIF. On computers, your sound card must specifically have a feature called "DTS Interactive", "DTS Connect", or "Dolby Digital Live". These compress all audio in real-time to DTS or AC3, allowing you to have 5.1 audio over S/PDIF. To get surround sound from a game via S/PDIF, the game must be set to output in surround mode. Then, your sound card's options must be set to DTS Interactive or Dolby Digital Live and output to S/PDIF. This is very true. After reading this on the troubleshooting thead I looked into the features of my motherboard and it supports "DTS Connect". Unfortunately it seems to be quite a hassle to find any drivers that work.. lol. I found some modified drivers by some guy who converted another set of drivers to the chipset my MB has but I haven't risked installing them yet. But yes, to get the same kind of multichannel output that the consoles have your MB or soundcard has to support Dolby Live or DTS Connect so that the 5 channels can be converted into a DD or DTS stream in realtime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S_G Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 Go ahead and use those drivers. Best scenario: it works. Bad scenario: It doesn't work, you uninstall and put your old drivers back. Worst scenario: You can't boot into Windows, so just go into safe mode and remove the driver. No harm should come of it, especially if someone has already tried it on your board model. Just wanted to point out that I myself use this method. HT Omega Striker outputs 5.1 via DTS Interactive to my Pioneer receiver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlingShotUK Posted January 8, 2009 Author Share Posted January 8, 2009 Go ahead and use those drivers. Best scenario: it works. Bad scenario: It doesn't work, you uninstall and put your old drivers back. Worst scenario: You can't boot into Windows, so just go into safe mode and remove the driver. No harm should come of it, especially if someone has already tried it on your board model. Just wanted to point out that I myself use this method. HT Omega Striker outputs 5.1 via DTS Interactive to my Pioneer receiver. Yeah defo going to give them a go soon. I just didn't want to throw them on quickly and risk losing my sound before a weekend of movie and tv watching. Be interesting to see if DTS Connect works.. Will be superb to get GTA running in full multi channel sound.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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