Global Select Audio Output Device

[DezzyPog]

There should be a global option, perhaps under settings, that allows you to choose which audio output device is used in windows for games launched by Steam, if you do not wish to use the default audio output device for whatever reason. Windows 10 has added a feature like this into it's sound settings (Settings>System>Sound>App Volume and Device Preferences) where you can select what sound output source you want a specific window to use, but having to manually set each game to my surround sound system (not my default computer speakers) is really a pain, when I know Steam could just let you set things so that all games launched by steam were set to a specific audio device.

Ideally, it would be a very simple selection.
Do you want to use your default selected speakers for playback?
Or maybe you want to use your external sound card...
Or maybe you want to use a Virtual Audio Cable for recording purposes?
Simply set the device you wish Steam Games to output to under settings. This shouldn't be too difficult to do. I've seen browser plugins, video players, and all sorts of apps do this.

Currently Steam has no way of doing this in it's interface, and putting this in could save a lot of headache of constantly opening up the Windows 10 sound mixer. Also, the Windows 10 mixer breaks for some games, like TF2, if it detects the game being sent to an audio source that is not the default in Windows settings, so a first party solution would be ideal.

[Snapjak]

While it would be nice, that is something that would need to fundamentally change across all development as part of some standard API or something. Maybe DirectX could implement a method (if it doesn't already exist) and then everyone could use it.

Otherwise, Steam doesn't interact with games beyond telling them to launch and what launch parameters (if any) to use.

[Heavenly]

Originally posted by Snapjak:

While it would be nice, that is something that would need to fundamentally change across all development as part of some standard API or something. Maybe DirectX could implement a method (if it doesn't already exist) and then everyone could use it.

Otherwise, Steam doesn't interact with games beyond telling them to launch and what launch parameters (if any) to use.

The Xbox App allows for you to change the audio output device for when you launch a game through the Xbox App on Windows. Realistically it wouldn't be too difficult of an option to implement into Steam

[wuddih]

Originally posted by Heavenly:

The Xbox App allows for you to change the audio output device for when you launch a game through the Xbox App on Windows. Realistically it wouldn't be too difficult of an option to implement into Steam

that is for its voice chat, same function Steam already has.