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Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/1425
Introduction
Doom 3 is hands down the most intense, nerve-racking, and frightening experience ever created. The basic premise and story of the original Doom series has been developed and polished. The immersive environment created by id Software catapults the fear factor beyond rival forms of entertainment (including fellow "portal to Hell" work Event Horizon). The ability of the game to pull players deep under the Martian surface is due in no small part to John Carmack's latest graphics engine. The amazing use of light and shadow works wonders on the senses, and wreaks havoc on the nerves.But along with the amazing depth of the visuals comes a down side. One of the most frustrating features of the game is the ease with which evil can creep up and start smashing one's brains in with a wrench while the player is left spinning in circles trying to divine from whence the threat is coming. The shadows (while visually stunning) make it easy for zombies, and Hell spawn alike to hide away and wait for the unsuspecting gamer to turn his or her back before attacking and intensely frustrating the game play. Armed only with an underpowered flashlight to combat the encroaching darkness, it can be disappointing to die before a shot can be fired in defense.
In real life, a crow bar to the back, or a gunshot wound to the right arm would probably be sufficient for getting the attention of an unsuspecting space marine. Of course, we currently lack this tactile feedback in games (thank goodness). But Carmack and company didn't leave us empty handed in our fight against spinning in circles and firing like crazy.
Doom 3 has built in support for 5.1 surround sound, and if ever there was a game that could benefit from surround living up to its potential, this would be the one. In the following pages of this review, we explore the impact of different audio setups and how they impact the world of Doom 3.
Sound Experience Tests
When we first sat down to test with our copy of Doom 3, we didn't go with anything fancy. We had a 3 speaker (left, right, sub) setup and just jumped right in. The sound effects, voice acting, and overall impact of the audio was intense, even with our simple setup. Unfortunately, the issues discussed previously were very apparent only a little way into the game. When unable to see, feel, or hear exactly where enemies are coming from, death tends to reach out with its cold embrace rather quickly.Our hope, after this initial experience with audio, was that hooking up a 5.1 system and enabling surround in the game would allow us to hear where danger was coming from, turn towards it and unload without having to think about it. In our opinion, no matter how visually stunning, the dark and shadowy visual environment was too restrictive and frustrating to play in without some other method of sensing danger.
The first surround setup we tried was comprised of the Realtek AC'97 audio solution attached to our MSI K8T Neo2 board. The onboard 5.1 hardware was paired with Logitech Z5300 speakers (purchased for this test at $199 from our local retailer). We also tested a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 with our Logitech speakers in order to determine if there were any perceivable advantages to onboard or discrete audio when paired with Doom 3. After we tested our 5.1 system we hooked up a much cheaper generic 4 channel system just to see if the center channel and sub had a real impact on gaming.
We will compare our surround systems to our standard stereo setup. The computer system we used in this test is the same one we used for our Doom 3 Graphics article earlier this week, equipped with the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra and 2GB of RAM.
Sound Experience Test Cont.
We started a new game in order to get the full experience of Doom 3 in surround sound. When we first turned on our onboard audio and 5.1 speakers, we were hit by the wall of sound that is the Doom universe. To have the ambient sounds of Mars City active all around is a slightly disturbing (in a good way) experience. Our first real test of the sound card was in talking to some of the first few people we meet on Mars and spinning around. With a touch of satisfaction, we heard the voices pan around.More important than analyzing how well id Software could handle programming a rudimentary positional audio test is determining how effectively they put all the Mars City sounds together when evil is converging from every direction.
Taking our new audio arsenal into combat lived up to everything for which we could have hoped.
Hear a grunting noise behind you? About face and fire away! Navigating in the dark chambers of the Martian base with surround sound became much easier. With our two channel audio (either speakers or headphones) we can hear left and right, but determining front and back positioning without surround just didn't work as well as we needed it to.
For those out there with 4 speaker or 4.1 setups (or those who just want to hook two pairs of speakers up to their system to save a little on the cash flow, we tested audio with an old 4 channel system. We noticed that the center channel on our 5.1 system, in addition to playing noises that were directly in front of us, is used for radio communications, and audio played back via the PDA. But all is not lost for those without a center channel. Doom 3 seems to play all center channel data through the front left and right speakers as well. Not having a center channel doesn't impact our amazing surround sound gaming experience in any real way. Yes, the PDA, radio communication, and the like loose just a bit of distinction, but the real meat of the system is to be able to locate enemies via audio. This is just as amazing using 4 channel sound as it is with 6.
Discrete Audio Solution Testing and Performance
This is more of a foot note than anything else. We noticed absolutely no difference in audio quality when testing with the Sound Blaster Audigy 2. Of course, the Audigy offers more bells, whistles, and features, but as far as fulfilling its function as a 5.1 channel audio solution, it's no better or worse than our Realtek onboard hardware. Were we doing an in depth sound reproduction test, our results may or may not have been different, but from a subjective standpoint (simply taking gaming experience into account), we couldn't say one was better than the other.We have also attempted to test the performance impact of enabling surround audio in Doom 3, but had a very hard time doing so. When playing Doom 3, the frame rate is locked at 60 frames per second, whether vsync is enabled or not. Our original sound test system spent its time maxed out at 60fps, so we hooked up or Sempron 3100+ system and went to work. We still couldn't get the frame rate to drop sufficiently below 60fps without creating a graphics card bottleneck. We tested the cut scene right before the action starts in the decommissioned communications building, and noticed absolutely no difference in measured frame rate (with FRAPS) when playing with and without surround enabled. This test was performed at the default High Quality mode.
It is possible that on lower end processors a performance impact might be noticeable, but we don't believe it would be significant at this point.
Final Words
The bottom line when it comes to Doom 3 audio is surround sound. In fact, we tested the system with two sets of stereo speakers (one in rear and one in front) and got very playable results after fiddling around with the levels for a while. We feel that Doom 3, in spite of its intense visual experience, is an incomplete game without surround enabled. The enhancements provided by being able to hear where danger is coming from really makes a key difference in playability, usefulness, fun, excitement, and intense terror.While not necessary as a game play enhancing feature, the use of the center channel does add a nice touch to the overall effect. If a choice must be made between a center channel and a power sub, the choice is hands down the sub. The effects of some of the more intense scenes, hearing generators roar and feeling weapons fire is a very nice touch.
Our recommendation for a full Doom 3 experience is a 5.1 speaker system paired with a sound card that supports the same. For minimum playability, we absolutely recommend at least four speakers set up with a front pair and back pair on a sound card that supports at least 4 channels. Just set the speakers to surround in windows (even though the center channel is lacking) and surround can be enabled in Doom 3. As we've mentioned before, the game is still more than playable on surround without a center channel.
In the end, we may have preferred a personal radar system to locate enemies, as the additional impact of surround sound injected almost too much realism, and intensity, and fear into the game. Often times our expectations for the impact of additional features are a little low, while our hopes are set high. Surround sound under Doom 3 added more than we imagined, and is well worth whatever upgrade is necessary, even if its just a cheap 5.1 add-in card and 2 pair of stereo speakers.