Setting Steam Games to Output Audio to Headphones Rather Than Speakers

[xTheDarkChemist]

I'm trying to figure out how to setup my computer to where I can have the audio coming from my games go into my headphones, while all other audio goes through my speakers. My girlfriend sometimes uses my left monitor to watch tv/movies (especially on the weekends), and I'm trying to be able to use my right monitor to play my pc games while she's using the other monitor, without having to play my games without sound (which is dumb) or only being able to choose from my console games.

If any of y'all know of a way to set this up, please let me know, as it's frustrating to want to play a computer game, but my girlfriend wants to watch tv and I basically have to give up the option of playing my pc games.

Thanks in advance for the help, guys!

[Merdic]

I don't really have an answer for this but I am curious how you are able to game on one screen while your girlfriend watches a movie on another. the only way I could think of is you are gaming in windowed mode. Is there a way to full screen on both?

[Totally not tilted]

Why is this so hard to do in Windows? Just do it in the way the stupid thing will understand.

1) Have whatever the non-game audio device is (in my case the TV via the HDMI connection) be the default audio device
2) Put on Dance Moms: Season Two on the big screen in Chrome.
3) Launch Dota 2, go the Video/Audio section in Settings and select your sound device (in my case my on-board Realtek). You already have the Display Mode set to 'Borderless Window' right?

[melodysium]

Цитата допису N3RDG4M3R:

Hey, I don't know if you've (the OP) has resolved his problem yet but I may have some helpful input if you haven't. I'm in a similar situation as I like to play music out of my speakers (using iTunes) while playing a game at the same time through my headphones. My speakers going through the normal stereo 3.8 mm output and my headphones go through SPDIF/ Optical Audio Output. The way you accomplish this is by using the windows 'Default Communication Device' and the 'Default Device' function. I don't think Microsoft actually meant these functions to work in the way I've made them work but nevertheless I got them to.
I'll use the OP's situation as an example for this. First you set up your speakers as the 'Default Device' and you start up what ever your girlfriend is using to play the movie. Make sure you get sound from that. Second, you set your headphone output as the 'Default Communication Device'. Third, you set your headphone output to 'Default Device'. Yes, you read that correctly. In other words, your speaker output is no longer marked as anything. Despite this, however, you should still be getting the movie sound coming through your speakers. Now you should get all sound except the movie through your headphones.
It sounds complicated in writing but you'll get quick at it. Unfortunately, you have to do all of this every time your girlfriend wants to watch a movie. If you exit out of the application you began the process with, you will need to set it up again once you re-open it.
In your specific situation, it might be a better long term solution to just use Windows Media Player to play the movie. WMP has a setting in the Tools>Devices(I think) to select an individual sound output for the program. Sorry for the long post but I've been struggling with this for quite a while and wanted to help out others that were in a similar situation. I may make a Youtube video explaining all of this in the near future and I'll post a link to it here when I do for future readers. Happy gaming :)

This will only work for some applications, but lucky me, itunes is one of them. I don't need to do the communication device step at all, either. However, I don't know of a long-term solution. For now, I just keep itunes up all the time :P. Thank you so much N3RDG4M3R!

[Bawse]

There is a way to designate which application goes to which output without using thitrd party software. I don't know if your question was ever answered as I just skimmed through all the "third party software" suggestions. May I ask what OS you use?

[Raw Moose]

Цитата допису Bloomers:

There is a way to designate which application goes to which output without using thitrd party software. I don't know if your question was ever answered as I just skimmed through all the "third party software" suggestions. May I ask what OS you use?

Don't post useless nonsense. if you have something that could be useful post it. ie "If you are using ____ OS you can do it this way, ____" And if you read the posts you would know that they are talking about using Windows. Even if you don't read the posts you can assume that everyone uses Windows given that 95% of Steam users use Windows.

Цитата допису Yolo Slater:

If anyone is actually interested in a solution to this even after the year it has been up, here are a few programs that will do the job;

http://www.chevolume.com/Default.aspx
http://www.indievolume.com/

They will let you assign what programs to come through whatever output you like, I've mainly used CheVolume and it's very userfriendly!

I'd like to add Audio Router

Anecdotally I've had a similar experience to N3RD in that you can route them separately by Defaulting to Speaker 1 then launching Program 1 then Defaulting to Speaker 2 and launching Program 2.

ie. Default Headset > Launch Game > Default Speaker > Launch Chrome

Due to the different ways programs handle audio if one way doesn't work try reversing the order.

Cheers

[JoJoesolo]

Цитата допису N3RDG4M3R:

Hey, I don't know if you've (the OP) has resolved his problem yet but I may have some helpful input if you haven't. I'm in a similar situation as I like to play music out of my speakers (using iTunes) while playing a game at the same time through my headphones. My speakers going through the normal stereo 3.8 mm output and my headphones go through SPDIF/ Optical Audio Output. The way you accomplish this is by using the windows 'Default Communication Device' and the 'Default Device' function. I don't think Microsoft actually meant these functions to work in the way I've made them work but nevertheless I got them to.
I'll use the OP's situation as an example for this. First you set up your speakers as the 'Default Device' and you start up what ever your girlfriend is using to play the movie. Make sure you get sound from that. Second, you set your headphone output as the 'Default Communication Device'. Third, you set your headphone output to 'Default Device'. Yes, you read that correctly. In other words, your speaker output is no longer marked as anything. Despite this, however, you should still be getting the movie sound coming through your speakers. Now you should get all sound except the movie through your headphones.
It sounds complicated in writing but you'll get quick at it. Unfortunately, you have to do all of this every time your girlfriend wants to watch a movie. If you exit out of the application you began the process with, you will need to set it up again once you re-open it.
In your specific situation, it might be a better long term solution to just use Windows Media Player to play the movie. WMP has a setting in the Tools>Devices(I think) to select an individual sound output for the program. Sorry for the long post but I've been struggling with this for quite a while and wanted to help out others that were in a similar situation. I may make a Youtube video explaining all of this in the near future and I'll post a link to it here when I do for future readers. Happy gaming :)

This worked like a charm. Thanks so much!

[Michael]

Цитата допису Barry is Welsh:

If anyone is actually interested in a solution to this even after the year it has been up, here are a few programs that will do the job;

http://www.chevolume.com/Default.aspx
http://www.indievolume.com/

They willl let you assign what programs to come through whatever output you like, I've mainly used CheVolume and it's very userfriendly!

do you pay for CheVolume or is there a workaround to get it for free?

[CannabisKing]

The way you can do this and here is how.

1. Close all applications.
2. Set default sound device to headphones.
3. Start Game Application (this will inherit the headphones as the default sound device for the app).
4. Alt-Tab out of game and reset default sound device to what you want.
5. Enjoy.

This is the only way I have found to circumvent Windows managing where sound is applied.