Special K and audio switcher, channel mixer

[askasys]

Maybe could be a strange request, but I have to say this just in case...

I usually play games in 7.1 ch virtual surround, with my stereo headphones.
There are many applications that do this, for example Razer Surround or Plantronics drivers...
But, I don't use none of them, I use the "Dolby Atmos for Headphones" application from Microsoft Store.
The Dolby Atmos application is not a virtual sound card, and some games does't work with this.
It works exactly like Windows Sonic, but better if used with headphones.

The problem is:

Some games does not work with this application, neither with windows sonic.
It looks like some games does not have the 7.1 ch audio by default, or have multiple audio tracks.
For example, NieR:Automata works extremely great with Dolby Atmos, while Dead or Alive 6 not.
Maybe those applicactions does not recognize 5.1 ch, and works only with 7.1ch

The request is:

It would be nice if Special K could manually select the audio tracks of the game.
Something like this: https://i.imgur.com/dsugW61.png (image edited)
Also, if possible, it would be great if you can make the audio upmix and downmix.
If a game have only a Stereo 2.0 or Surround 5.1 audio track, Special K will upmix the audio to 7.1 ch.

I know, there are softwares that do this, but it better an all in one solution like Special K


Greetings

[Aemony]

Enable “Virtual Surround 7.1” in the Spatial tab of Windows 10’s audio settings. Same tab where Sonic or Dolby Atmos is selected.

That’s all that’s needed, and the virtual surround tech will upmix as needed according to its algorithms.

You’ll still only have 2.0 channels visible in Special K, but that’s because neither Sonic or Dolby Atmos works by spoofing 7.1 channels at that level. Only some virtual surround solutions do, such as Razer Surround.

[askasys]

Originally posted by Aemony:

Enable “Virtual Surround 7.1” in the Spatial tab of Windows 10’s audio settings. Same tab where Sonic or Dolby Atmos is selected.

That’s all that’s needed, and the virtual surround tech will upmix as needed according to its algorithms.

You’ll still only have 2.0 channels visible in Special K, but that’s because neither Sonic or Dolby Atmos works by spoofing 7.1 channels at that level. Only some virtual surround solutions do, such as Razer Surround.

Yeah, I know, It's already enabled, but don't work with 5.1 ch audio, neither with stereo. That's why I need to upmix to 7.1ch. Could be a Windows related problem ?




Edit

nevermind, I just read on a forum that the next Windows 10 update introduce a totally new control panel for Dolby Atmos, and maybe some fixes.

[Kaldaien]

Atmos / Windows Sonic aren't even channel based :)

You'll always have 2 channels because they are spatial. Basically every audio stream has a position in space and Windows (in the case of Windows Sonic) mixes that down to your actual hardware configuration. In the case of real Dolby Atmos, it sends out streams and the audio receiver handles the motion of these audio streams and mixes them to the appropriate speakers.

You cannot have channel-based audio and spatial audio at the same time. Not even virtual channels make any sense when spatial audio is enabled.


You'd have to take Windows out of spatial audio mode for something like this to work, and Special K can't really do that because starting with Windows Vista, speaker settings are not something that you can change without administrator privileges (games used to change those settings all the time and they're a system-wide setting and Microsoft wanted to put an end to that).

I don't know if an API exists for normal applications to change spatial / channel settings. Even if you gave Special K admin. privileges, I think this is something Microsoft doesn't want software changing.

[askasys]

Thank you very much for the explanation, it was very comprehensive. :)