BF3 Positional Audio Tip

I am running, audio creation mode bit perfect playback, headphones, no eax or other options, windows in stereo mode, 48/24 bit, bf3 settings on hi fi, headphones.

Basically trying to eliminate any other processing beyond what the game engine does. Sounds pretty damn good. Works well with my stereo speaker setup too. When you set it up for speakers of course. Sounds like shit on speakers in headphone mode lol. Figured that out last night after wondering why the sound was so bad.
 
Thanks, good tip. I'll have to check once I get home.

Also, on a slightly related matter. I was killed by a sniper literally 10 feet from me when I could have easily killed him, all because the snap of the bullet passing by was MUCH louder than the actual sound of the gunshot. I honestly thought he was much further away, kind of strange.
 
Forceman said:
I tried both Hi-Fi and Home Cinema also, and I agree that they both sounded pretty much the same. I played with Hi-Fi in the beta and it was fine, and I'm using Home Cinema now, and it is also fine. Sure would be nice to know the real difference though - when did making a manual worth a damn become an anathema to developers?
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Yeah...it's not hard when the modes are "2.1", "5.1", etc, but with something like this with a vague description there really needs to be documentation.
 
war tapes is liked by some, disliked by others. a good number of audio guys feel it's an overly eq'ed sound effect track that gets louder, but does not help with positional audio. good for single player, bad for multi.

if the native track is 48khz, that is what you want your os set at. over sampling is not necessary and can cause trouble.

"enhanced stereo" should only be used by those with a 2 or 2.1 speaker setup or headphones that are not paired with a soundcard that does nice positional audio (if you have cmss-3d or some form of dolby headphone, leave it off).

they did a great job with audio in this game.
 
wow, its like a whole new game once i turned off that stereo enhance nonsense and turned either war tapes or home cinema on. I ended up with War Tapes because i like the nature noises :D

Havent done the 48k thing yet. But I love feeling the boom of the 50cal in my chest with the tank
 
No matter what I do, I hear sounds as they are too close from me, I can hear heli landing about 100m from me as it's 5m from me, all too loud...:/
 
criccio said:
From an audio engineering stand point this thread makes me want to tear my eyes out.
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A shame you've never come back to the thread. Assuming you really are who/what you say you are, your help would be appreciated.
 
Can anyone link an explanation of what the different in game audio modes actually do? This I am not so sure about.
 
This is a very interesting post and I always appreciate any tips to improve gaming performance.

I have the Asus Xonar_Xense sound card with the Sennheisers.
this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132018

I tried changing the settings suggested in Windows sound as well as the settings in game.
I monitored my frame rates and processor usage in game after making the changes and was unable to detect any sound degradation or loss/gain in any of my hardware's performance. The only changes that were noticed was a distinct degradation in the sound quality when lowering the settings.
I wonder if people with better overall hardware will even notice any problems...

I also really like the WarTapes setting because everything is more amplified and directional sound is outstanding.

I have this post bookmarked so i can keep up with this great info...Thanks.
 
SicKlown42012 said:
It's 44.1KHz.
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Ooops typo. 44.1Khz.

It is like
44.1KHz - CD (some audio is in 24 bits which is much better quality)
48 KHz - A lot of studio recording equipment?
88KHz - SACD
96 KHz - DVD-A
192 KHz - Some HD quality music downloads are in this format.

It seems game developers have not embraced the HD formats yet.
 
Fire488 said:
This is a very interesting post and I always appreciate any tips to improve gaming performance.

I have the Asus Xonar_Xense sound card with the Sennheisers.
this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132018

I tried changing the settings suggested in Windows sound as well as the settings in game.
I monitored my frame rates and processor usage in game after making the changes and was unable to detect any sound degradation or loss/gain in any of my hardware's performance. The only changes that were noticed was a distinct degradation in the sound quality when lowering the settings.
I wonder if people with better overall hardware will even notice any problems...

I also really like the WarTapes setting because everything is more amplified and directional sound is outstanding.

I have this post bookmarked so i can keep up with this great info...Thanks.
Click to expand...

So you are saying the audio was not as good when you lowered it to 48KHz? Interesting.
 
Blackstone said:
So you are saying the audio was not as good when you lowered it to 48KHz? Interesting.
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To me it was, but to be honest I will let my son check it out tomorrow he is younger with much better hearing than me...LOL

Mine has been set to: 24 bit, 192000Hz (Studio Quality) by default. I never touched it till now and that is where it was before I started.
 
I've never taken my settings off of 24/192 yet including for this game. No problems whatsoever.
 
I'm using 24/48 with Enhanced Stereo off and using War Tapes mode....it sounds incredible!!!
 
I have tried just about everything to get the game's sound to work. I downloaded drivers, uninstalled/reinstalled twice, reinstalled origin.
I had sound when I first DL the game last week but haven't had sound since. The live chat suggested I come here for an answer.
Any help is really appreciated
 
Blackstone said:
Whatever your audio solution is, be it dedicated sound card, external dac, whatever, make sure Windows or your audio control panel is set to 48KHz playback, which is the native format for BF3's audio. If you are all the way up to 96 or down to 44.1 the OS will resample the audio and you will get quality degradation. This is my experience with a VERY high end headphone and speaker setup.
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I noticed my Logitech G35 headset only goes up to 44
 
HOMBRE3 said:
I have tried just about everything to get the game's sound to work. I downloaded drivers, uninstalled/reinstalled twice, reinstalled origin.
I had sound when I first DL the game last week but haven't had sound since. The live chat suggested I come here for an answer.
Any help is really appreciated
Click to expand...

Well first of all, do you have sound in any games or applications?

Second, if you do, please make sure before you launch the game you do not have any media players open. That would be Windows Media Player, Winamp, Media Player Classic, JRiver, ect. Anything that might be hijacking your audio is suspect. I would go to task manager and kill all media player related processes BEFORE you launch the game. Having said that, I do not have conflicts and I can in fact run Media Player Classic, Windows Media Player, ect in the background and mix the music or movie in with BF3s audio. HOWEVER, those programs are all capable of modes (WASAPI, AISO) which take exclusive control of the audio system and could be suspect.

Third, make sure whatever your audio solution is, it is selected as "Default Device" in your audio control panel.

I would also deselect the following options: "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device" and "give exclusive mode applications priority." Note that I am not recommending everyone disable those settings because some applications benefit from exclusive mode, like some audiophile music players, but in this case since I know a program running in exclusive mode would block out battlefield's sound, it should be disabled.

Try that stuff and report back.
 
Vaelic said:
I noticed my Logitech G35 headset only goes up to 44
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Yes because your headset apparently contains a built in DAC (Digital Analog Converter) that only handles 44.1.

For clarification, you want to use 16/48 mode if your hardware supports it. I don't think 48KHz is better than 44.1. I think it is the same. It is just the native format for BF3 sound, I believe, so that makes it the best setting.
 
Q-BZ said:
I've never taken my settings off of 24/192 yet including for this game. No problems whatsoever.
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Same. I've never had this alleged 'oversampling' issue that I keep hearing about. Frankly with my modest understanding of sampling and rates, it doesn't really make sense to me why upsampling would ever cause a problem. Downsampling, sure, but...

Maybe a sound engineer can comment on this? Most of what I know is from a DSP course in college.
 
Blackstone
I have sound in everything. BC2 sounds fantastic. Youtube and music all work
I don't usually play with anything running in the background, so thats out.
I have went through and made sure my speakers were the default device and I just deselcted those 2 options with no luck

I started a separate thread on this problem
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1648341

Thanks for all the suggestions
 
I use 24/48 like most others. War Tapes but I leave Enhanced Stereo on because otherwise sounds are really awkward with my headphones. If it's off, a helicopter could be right behind me and it sounds like it's 200 meters away if I'm facing away from it.
 
Okay, anyone getting sounds reversed? I'm getting left-side sounds in the right side and vice versa... Changing to 48kHz and enhanced stereo didn't fix it
 
Last edited:
Colonel Sanders said:
If you're going to make a comment like this, at least explain yourself a little, or it's pretty much just trolling.
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Exactly. I don't know why people say such things then do not provide any insight. Sounds like trolling.
 
Does anyone have an official word of the exact sound mix for BF3?
Ive heard both
a: 16bit / 48000hz dvd
or
b: 16bit / 44000hz cd

thx
 
Blackstone said:
Whatever your audio solution is, be it dedicated sound card, external dac, whatever, make sure Windows or your audio control panel is set to 48KHz playback, which is the native format for BF3's audio. If you are all the way up to 96 or down to 44.1 the OS will resample the audio and you will get quality degradation. This is my experience with a VERY high end headphone and speaker setup.
Click to expand...

Does it matter if it is DVD or Studio?
 
i had to turn off enhanced stereo to get even semi-accurate positional audio with both 2.1 speakers and headphones
 
Somnambulator said:
i had to turn off enhanced stereo to get even semi-accurate positional audio with both 2.1 speakers and headphones
Click to expand...

Just curious, do you have a sound card or onboard? What is the rest of your setup?

I am still playing around with settings. I can't hear footsteps worth a damn unless the area I am in is really quiet. Not a common situation in this game lol.
 
spaceman said:
I am still playing around with settings. I can't hear footsteps worth a damn unless the area I am in is really quiet. Not a common situation in this game lol.
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Agreed. I think I've only heard footsteps once and that was with my ATH-A900 cans on with the volume up pretty high. My 5.1 setup doesn't produce the quiet noises as well. (or I'm just deaf)
 
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