Halo in 5.1 digital sound

This game is already great. But to experience this movie-like game with digital 5.1 surround sound takes it to another level. From the gun fire to the big booms to the space craft hovering above to the aliens\' crying and wailing sounds... it\'s all there.

The fact that the xbox supports digital 5.1 sound in its games is a huge plus! Now all it needs is more great games to fully take advantage of the hardware. Final Fantasy anyone?

PS2 uses 5.1 DTS in SSX Tricky and will be doing so in more games in the future so its not just an Xbox thing in case thats what you thought

Originally posted by ddaryl
PS2 uses 5.1 DTS in SSX Tricky and will be doing so in more games in the future so its not just an Xbox thing in case thats what you thought

From my understanding I thought it was just an xbox thing because when you goto settings you are given the option to enable or disable digital sound from the xbox interface. But in any event who cares. The more games that come out in 5.1 the better whether it\'s on Ps2, Xbox or gamecube. I just felt the need to post this because Halo truly does sound great in didgital 5.1. Do you know what specific games for the PS2 in the near future will support 5.1?

Nope the PS2 has full DTS and Dolby Digital capabilities and you can set this in the PS2\'s main menu as well. It even has a place in the back for your fibre optic cable

In games like SSX Tricky you also need to set the DTS option in the games menu as well.

but the PS2 is capable of in game surround

as for future games I do believe all near future EA games will support DTS on the PS2 as well as Xbox

and I\'m sure a few other games will soon join the ranks

The only problem is that there is no hardware support for it on the PS2 so it has to do it through software so it takes some of the CPU away from other aspects of the game.

I personally would prefer the resources used for AI or graphics--sure I like surround, Halo does sound amazing, but it\'s lower on the list for me.

Originally posted by Watchdog
The only problem is that there is no hardware support for it on the PS2 so it has to do it through software so it takes some of the CPU away from other aspects of the game.

I personally would prefer the resources used for AI or graphics--sure I like surround, Halo does sound amazing, but it\'s lower on the list for me.

are you sure about that. Why is EA willing to put into all its future PS2 games ?????


I would think since DTS/Dolby Digital is capable on DVD playback that it has the hardware capabilities.

Also the PS2 does have an extra chip which essentially is the original PS1 processor that can and is utilized to help these things along including the analog functions on the controllers

Originally posted by Watchdog
The only problem is that there is no hardware support for it on the PS2 so it has to do it through software so it takes some of the CPU away from other aspects of the game.

This is what I meant by it being an "xbox thing" in that while the ps2 is fully capable of producing surround sound it is not directly "wired" in the hardware and thus requires the software to help unleash its potential.

In the infamous xbox vs. Gamecube edition of EGM in the Hardware Horsepower section the editor states,  "The xbox is capable of outputting real-time Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, which is currently the most prevalent digital surround sound standard. This feature is built into the xbox\'s sound chip, so it won\'t cause the rest of the machine to take a performance hit."

100% ddaryl.  The Sega Genesis is theoretically capable of 5.1 in software mode, but I don\'t think you\'d get any graphics with your game hehe.

Yeah, software only for PS2, I hope they don\'t use it much because it is a frill and like I said I\'d prefer framerate or AI issues be fixed before they include digital sound.

EA is willing to do it so they can put it on their boxes and try to sell more units--that really is all EA is concerned with.

well like I said the PS2 has extra chips in it. and does have a sound processor as well. The original PS1 chip is utilized for situations like this and therefore I do not think it eats up much if any of the main processor which would be the only concern

From what I have read, my understanding is that it takes up processing power but developers can try to tweek it so it doesn\'t take as much to do

Well it eats up enough to make it worth mentioning, and really that is too much if you ask me.  Give me more AI.

Originally posted by Watchdog
Well it eats up enough to make it worth mentioning, and really that is too much if you ask me.  Give me more AI.

Agreed, until they make it where it doesn\'t effect the processing I would rather have some gameplay

I just have one thing to say, software decoding for dobly digital is shlte comapred to hardware decoding. I\'m gald to hear that PS2 can decode DD in software, but that sort of thing takes up processer power.