VR and Speakers: Sound moves around when I turn my head.

Hey guys

I asked this question twice in the VR Discussions, Questions & Feedback Thread, but sadly, I got no answer. So I try my luck here with a new post.

I play in VR and use headphones mostly. But a couple of days ago, I tried hooking up my speakers and placed them around my rig. There I encountered a problem:
When I use headphones and I turn my head around, the sound behaves as it should. For example, if a car is on my right and I look forward, I hear the sound in my right ear. When I look at the car, I hear it in both ears because the car is now in front of my head. So far, so good. But when I used speakers instead of headphones, this effect was still happening. But with speakers, the sound around me should stay oriented with respect to the car, no matter how I turn my head. If the car is on my right, I should hear it on the right speaker, no matter where my head is facing. I hope you understand what I mean.
Is there a way to set up the audio for speakers and VR? I already turned off the "headphone mix" option, but it didn't help.

 

I'm fairly sure that the answer is no, but I could be wrong.

Most modern game development engines (from the past 20 years) have built in a feature where sound sources are linked to camera/viewport position and orientation. If the camera moves, so does the sound. When you use the Look Left / Look Right button in Automobilista 2, the sound sources change their orientation because the camera has changed its orientation. And the same happens when in VR: When you look around by moving your VR headset, the sound sources will automatically change orientation correspondingly. The game doesn't know about your speaker placement in your room, it only knows the camera orientation and calculates sound orientation from that.

The reason why headphones work so well for VR is because they their orientation remains pretty much exactly aligned with the VR headset orientation all the time.

Your suggestion of simplifying the sound source calculation down to a basic left-right panning based on the vehicle orientation is certainly possible, but it might be a very low-level change in the code that doesn't fit well with more advanced sound processing, such as speaker surround setups and headphone 3D HRTF surround effects, and making it work with 6DOF VR sound could be even harder. It might be easier to "trick the game into believing that the camera is static" somehow.

 

Maybe this can help?

3D Sound, surround sound problem?

 

My guess is that its because of the VR mode.
And without knowing it then the game via the launch in Steam VR mode does believe (rightly) that you are using VR goggles.
An Idea: What happens if you does set speakers to mono in Windows sound settings?

 

Thanks for your reply. Mono doesn't sound like an option to me. I will loose the spacial aspect of the in-game sounds. My goal is to use a 5.1 speaker system around my rig.

 

Oh sorry I wasnt clear.
The mono thing was just a test to hear if the sound moving around did stop.
Or if the moving VR sound still intercepted and moved the mono sound.

 

I would love an option to turn off the VR audio panning effect when using a headset with a home theatre system.

Having my home speakers rotate the sound with my head movements doesn't sound good but I appreciate why it is the default setting for headset speakers.

Is there not an option to swap a "0" for a "1" or a "true" to a "false" in an XML or CFG file we can adjust ourselves instead of asking Devs to implement new code into the public release?

EDIT: Just read a comment in another thread with regards to checking windows sound enhancements are switched off. Will try that.

 

I have been rethinking this problem.
And without having proof then I think I have a solution (hopefully ).
If you beside the sound solution integrated in the VR system does install a normal soundcard then you will have a possibility inside AMS2 to select either the panning VR sound or the soundcard sound.
The reason I think this is possible is because I have tested an USB headphone (Creative Gamer) out beside my Auzen X-FI soundcard.
And then I suddenly have 2x soundcards solutions to choose inside AMS2.
Worth a try because a soundcard is a rather cheap solution.

 

Thanks for your suggestion!
In the audio options in the game I can choose output to:
1. hdmi/amdRx6600 - which I use to send audio to home theatre amp. Doesn't need panning effect but has it.
2. Realtek - motherboard sound card, not connected to anything
3. Meta quest 3 - which should have the panning sound effect when you turn your head. Which it does.

I could possibly test connecting to the realtek device but it's not a long term solution even if it works. I'd rather just use the hdmi audio out for everything. Then not worry about changing amp connection just to play this one game/sim.

I checked spacial effects and enhancement settings for the audio devices last night and all were off already.

I can live with the sound as it is. I'd just prefer an option to switch the panning off, similar to the environmental reverb feature. That didn't sound good to me either.

I think I'm complaining too much and should just be happy with the amazing performance of this Sim in VR. It really is a breath of fresh air after the rabbit hole that is 'csp' and 'pure' in AC.

 

If my suggestion with a soundcard is correct you can test it out by enabling the mb Realtec soundcard instead of the sound through hdmi.
If the sound through Realtec is panning too my solution with an extra soundcard will not help

 

I'll give this a test later with some portable speakers and post any results. Might be useful for others and also an interesting experiment.

 

Probably not very suitable advice, but if you're desperate enough:
One thing that could work, although only in multiplayer mode, is if you have a second computer join your session in spectator mode and view your car from cockpit view. Then use the audio out from that second computer. This not only requires a separate computer - it also requires you to buy one more copy of AMS2. I didn't say it was an easy or cheap solution.

 

I don't think there is any workaround without Reiza attention, but it shouldn't be very hard to implement static position for sound, VR reset set static view for audio.
I have Quest 3 and to improve sound and add more volume and punch I was using my sub connected to PC to add low end to Quest 3 inbuilt speakers. Recently I added 4 mini bass shakers and mix-in in-game low end sound with Simhub haptic output. I really like sound improvements, Quest 3 speakers provide spacial awareness and sub/shakers adds revs and other low frequency sounds.

 

That sounds like a great setup. Did SimHub allow you to redirect bass to your sub as well as the shakers? Just wondering how you got the sound split between the headset and other devices.

I'm hoping to test home theatre sound for the game but headset speakers for crewchief. I think that could be pretty immersive. Engine in the room, spotter in headset. Just didn't get crewchief working last time I was on so couldn't test it, but now know the settings to change. (Need to re check YouTube as can't remember off the top of my head )

Incidentally the headset sound rotation thing isn't as bad after messing with audio volumes settings in the game. It seems the atmospheric sounds seem to get thrown around the speakers more than the engine. Turning down the echo and tires sounds reduced the effect a lot. It's most noticeable in replays in chase cam when looking around to watch other cars patiently waiting to overtake me. But now hardly noticeable at all while driving. That'll do me.

 

I use Voicemeeter Banana, it's software mixer, it allows to have two virtual audio inputs, I use one as main PC sound device and second one as input for simhub. Three output devices: main speakers, sub and 4 channel output for shakers. Two shakers on pedals and two shakers inside back of seat, I add in-game sound only to shakers in seat.
Voicemeeter allows to route simhub bass output to sub and shakers but after experimenting I don't use sub as I'm racing mainly at night so trying to keep setup relatively quiet.