Quote:
Originally Posted by CingularDuality
The software and sound card are what makes game sounds directional. They're much more important than the actual headphones when it comes to making sounds directional.
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what makes a sound appear to be coming from a source while wearing headphones is an interesting topic.
My advice is to get a sb xfi card or similar quality card with a decent stereo headset.
in normal hearing conditions, sounds are shaped by your shoulders, head and the fleshy outer part of your ear (the pinnae). collectively these body parts shape the sound in a predictable way that allows you to perceive the location of the sound source.
however, several other factors come into play.
you have interaural (between the ears) time differences (sound reaches one ear before the other), phase differences (sound wave peak at one ear while valley is at other), and intensity differences (sound is louder in one ear than the other). You can take advantage of these facts to easily determine the sound source location by simply moving your head around. As your head moves, the location of the sound is pinpointed due to the ongoing stimulation at the ears produced when you move your head about. Whatever remains invariant under that movement transformation is specific to the location of the sound source. In addition to head related transfer functions, these 3 factors contribute greatly to sound source localization. It is widely accepted that HRTF and those 3 factors are the ONLY variable of importance in determining a sound source location.
Theoretically, Stereo headphones should be as good as 5.1 sound for determining a sound source location. IN 5.1 the drivers at are located at something like center 12, 3, 6, and 9 oclock. Placing speakers in these locations eliminates any kind of natural head related function. The HRTFs have to be produced by software and are programed for the average head in vid games.
you can make a very cool hrtf by getting stereo mics an sticking them where your ears are (Binaural recordings). The sound recorded under these conditions allows subjects to determine sound location with great accuracy.
In some unpublished testing I did, 5.1 headphones were just as good or as bad as stereo headphones. If the HRTF was there, you could localize the sound effectively. Headphones had no effect. it was not even close. (we use a 6d (x,y,z, pitch, yaw and roll) motion capture machine and they point to where they think the sound is while blindfolded.) Accuracy for both types of headphone were identical. The only thing that made any kind of difference was how we modulated the sound (software) and the way we recorded the sound (binaural or monaural). neither of these interacted with headphones or had a main effect.
Perhaps there is enough structure in the sound to support a pinnae related transfer function, but since most headphones sort of crush your pinnae, I find that this argument is a bit less compelling.
Anecdotal evidence from many gamers says that 5.1 gives directionality better. I remain unconvinced.
<edit> just found this interesting read on the topic. he does a nice job of presenting some cool stuff. </edit>
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000494.html
