5.1. Sound missing?

[Antiphon]

I may not have noticed since I usually play pinaball sitting at the desk instead of on my couch, but the PC version is only emitting Stereo sound! I have noticed today when comparing the PS 4 version with the PC-Version, on the same setup with the same TV and same 5.1 speaker set. The PS 4 - Version had good sourround sound, r at least automatic upmix by the playstation itself. Resulting in a much more satisfying sound environment when sitting in the center of the speaker setup.

I haven't seen anywhere an option in the PC version to activate 5.1, and I double checked the speaker settings and tested it with different games that were definitely working, character voices coming from their respective postion etc.
It's not so crucial for a pinball game, but nonetheless, why do get console players get that full sound and PC players don't? To make up for them being limited to laggy 60 fps??

[Lord Squeak]

there is most likely an option to enable 5.1 upscaling from stereo in the audio drivers.

[Antiphon]

Originally posted by Lord Squeak:

there is most likely an option to enable 5.1 upscaling from stereo in the audio drivers.

There is also a button on my rig to do that...but using external means of upscaling is NOT what a game in todays age SHOULD need, nor is it optimal. It's rather like telling someone with a black and white photo album to pick some crayons and paint it themselves. The result will never be as good as native support.

-> The console players get the full deal. ----> Why don't we?

[Lord Squeak]

Well , just pointed it out since you said the playstation might have automatic upscaling.so you know, just saying the PC might be able to do the same.

[Antiphon]

Originally posted by Lord Squeak:

Well , just pointed it out since you said the playstation might have automatic upscaling.so you know, just saying the PC might be able to do the same.

Ok, I now understand the way you put it and appreciate it, plus I am sorry if I appeared to be somewhat rude.


On the other hand I had hoped that maybe some developer might have a quick look inside this thread and just state whether the game internally works with surround sound, or if the playstation just upscales a game internal stereo signal.

I am aware that there are many games that do not have a surround option in their respective audio menus, but automatically use the windows settings.
For example Assassins Creed Origins works like that, but there I can just turn my back to a random person speaking and instantly hear whether the sound comes from the rear speakers or not, a test that does ONLY WORK WITH TRUE SURROUND instead of upscaling (correct me if I'm wrong with this).
Obviously there is no such test for a pinball game, so I'd figure it'd be quick and easy just to ask someone who's worked for the game if an internal surround audio system has been intended or not.
A real pinball table might not give any sounds coming from the rear, but obviously from both left and right and the front, so I don't think it's that stupid an idea.

[Lord Squeak]

I suspect the all games just takes a look at what the default windows audio setting is, and uses that. And that some might be able to do 5.1 if that is a thing as default.
I don't think they made any changes to the audio handling in-game, So I would guess it is a case of the audio being upsampled by the console. (I dont recall anything being said about surround sound, just some years back that the older table got updated to stereo.)

[Fwiler]

There is no faux 5.1 even if you are set to 5.1 or 7.1 in sound drivers. The reason I know this is because I use a cabinet and have speakers and exciters inside the cabinet and there is no sound. But with VPX it works fine. They need to have the option in the program to set it.

[Lord Squeak]

Right so, I actually asked on their stream, an got the answer from someone in chat that it's dolby Pro Logic... which I assume is some kind of Official upscale. (rather than less official upscale?)

I'd imagine if you enable upscaling in the audio driver, it would just upscale everything from stereo.

[Akos]

I asked around and I got the answer that the version we send out to different platforms should not differ in means of sound so it could be the PlayStation upscaling you mentioned.

I don't think we have a dedicated 5.1 setting in the game right now, will bring this up.

[john.tonkin]

Did anything become of this? Just built a new HTPC with Windows 10, hooked to my 5.1 Audio Receiver via HDMI and very surprised to see that Pinball FX3 is outputting Stereo?

Windows is definitely set-up to output 5.1...

[Vyvyvn]

It's like no one's ever turned on the 'speaker fill' option on their surround setups before in windows.

Also how do you "Upscale" sound? That terminology only applies to resolutions and aspect ratios..

[john.tonkin]

Where is this "speaker fill" option in Windows 10? I am new to Win10 and I assume it is some sort of "enhancement"? I will check it out...

But be aware, an option that forces stereo sound into all 5 speakers is NOT the same as having an audio option that provides a proper 5.1 channel mix. A game as modern as FX3 should really have a proper 5.1 option in my opinion.

I can also force my audio receiver to output sound using all 5 speakers, but again this is not even close to the right way to do it... and it means I will need to switch my receiver settings when playing a game with a proper 5.1 mix.

Zen... please add a "Surround Sound" option into the game with a 5.1 mix!

[john.tonkin]

Oddly enough... when I was using an Optical/SPDIF cable from my PC to connect to audio receiver, my receiver would automatically switch to Pro Logic II when playing FX3... this is another way to force stereo into 5 channels. But now that I added a second Nvidia GPU in order to have a dedicated HDMI audio output, my receiver stays in MultiChannel mode and only outputs two channels. I'm assuming the Realtek driver used for the SPDIF output was re-encoding the stereo signal to AC-3 5.1 and my audio receiver was automatically switching to PLII?

So is there a way to have the Nvidia card re-encode the stereo signal and send it as 5.1? Or will WIndows do it?

Still not the right way, but it would work better for me... for now.

[Vyvyvn]

As far as I know, HDMI only outputs in stereo. Thus why many tvs only have two or at most 2.1 speakers.

[john.tonkin]

Uhhh... HDMI is certainly capable of outputting much more than stereo...including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master... which I get when watching a movie encoded with such format.

As mentioned above... the PS3/PS4 and other such consoles output games in 5.1 in Multi Channel PCM format... even if the game itself is only outputting stereo.

This has nothing to do with TVs or TV Speakers...

[Lord Squeak]

let think about this logically and rationally shall we... (yeah riiight)
A Pinball table usually only has 2 speakers in stereo. (and sometimes a subwoofer), so any in-game sounds would just be stereo.
However the physical sounds of the ball rolling around and pops and flippers are mapped nearer to the player.
There are some trickeries that can be done to make sounds, sound like they are nearer, or even behind you, with just 2 speakers. (but usually requires good placement to be good)
If this was based on real pinball tables, they would just need to change how the generic ball sounds are mapped, but this is FX,, so that's not gonna work.
... phew it's too hot to make sense so I'll just stop here.