Is CS surround sound?

My friend keeps insisting that CS 1.6 is surround sound capable... Is it?

Wild Card said:
My friend keeps insisting that CS 1.6 is surround sound capable... Is it?

its old, so its doubtful, but it seems to me it would depend on your sound cards ability to render surround sound.. without which you couldn't prove or disprove it :razz:

I'm thinking...would you really notice anything? Maybe it's just plain support for "surround" speakers but is really just stereo output?

I dont see how any number of "surround" speakers can beat headphones. you only have 2 ears, after all.

because you dont hear life through headphones :biggrin:

mazemaster said:
I dont see how any number of "surround" speakers can beat headphones. you only have 2 ears, after all.

true surround sound beats headsets hands down, but for gaming purposes, i'd have to agree with mazeman, i don't see how any game could sound better... but a movie, watching a movie is forking awesome with surround sound.

Wild Card said:
My friend keeps insisting that CS 1.6 is surround sound capable... Is it?

CS has something like EAX, erh ... should improve sound quality and positioning.

Wild Card, I'm offended you didn't just PM me the question !! :razz:

Yes, CS has EAX which is totally awesome, but you need a sound card which is capable. This makes it surround sound :wink:

edit: it also has A3D hardware support. Im not sure what it does, but It didnt seem to make any difference when I tried it, so like EAX it is unsupported by my onboard sound. meh. it pumps out music and sound in other games in 6 channels, so im happy.

CS just uses my 2 speakers and subwoofer.

If you have EAX or A3D 2, half-life will make use of four or more speakers. For example, I have EAX on my card, and as a result I can play half-life in dual stereo (not that I actually do this). Many cards have A3D 1, but if yours isn't A3D 2, it won't make use of multiple speakers, or make any difference in half-life that I know of.

So basically, no half-life does not support 'surround sound' in the true sense, i.e. dolby, but you can get it to make proper use of a surround sound speaker setup using EAX or A3D 2, if you have either of these.