Battlefield 2 + Sensaura (m-audio 5.1) = nasty frame hit :(

[Jodiuh]

Lo guys. Thanks for stopping by. If you did vote, please throw down a reason

I've had my M-Audio Revo 5.1 for almost a year and have flip flopped back and forth with Sensaura. I'm not convinced it's worth enabling. The whole, "yes/no" beneficial aspect has me a bit confused. For instance, do the new Advanced HD effects on the environment help or hinder your game? Can hear a fella sneaking up on me easier or harder with EAX. How do you guys feel about it? As far as quality/helpfulness is concerned anyway?

Now for the nasty part. Recently, I've noticed my rig hurtin' with Battlefield 2. I tested it with AA/AS, without AA/AS, with textures, dynamic lighting, dynamic shadows set medium, etc. Finally, I checked the performance with Sensaura game mode off, EAX mode off, and Software audio rendering. There was a difference of about 30 frames!! Anyone else notice this? (test stuff below pic)

Test done on multiplayer server of 32+ populations. Ping was around 20 and the average was taken with fraps while shooting and being shot. Obviously, there was variation in the two tests, but I thought 10 mins of real world play was enough to merit a decision. If I'm way off, please tell me

System Specs:

Intel P4 630 2MB L2 cache @ 3825mhz
Abit AS8 v1.2 @ 255
Supertalent 2x512 GB DDR 510 @ 2.5-3-3-7
BFG 6800 GT OC @ 420/1120
Western Digital Raptor 74GB HDD @ 10,000 RPM
M-Audio Revolution 5.1
Windows XP Pro Service Pack 2
Open apps - Xfire, Miranda IM, Fraps, Bit Defender ODS (no active scanning)

Driver Settings:

v. 77.72
Anti - Aliasing - Application Controlled
Anistropic - Application Controlled
Vertical Sync – Application Controlled
Image settings - Quality
Trilinear – On
Anisotropic mip filter –Off
Anisotropic sample – On
Negative LOD bias – Clamp

Game Settings:

Video Options

Resolution - 1280x1024, using +szx 1280 +szy 1024 in the Target line of the BF2 shortcut
Terrain – High
Effects – High
Geometry – High
Texture – Medium
Lighting – High
Dynamic Shadow – Medium
Dynamic Light – Medium
Anti – Aliasing – Off
Texture Filtering – High
View Distance Scale – 100%



Edited to show audio options, sorry!

 

[OuTLaWzSm]

Ouch thats quite a performance hit, I suggest you just turn it off its definately not worth the 30+FPS drop. You have such a kick ass system but why no audigy ZS? It does all the audio Special Effects with no hit whatsoever, I'm running high on my system and its 2 years old.

AMD 3000+
Tyan 9700PRO
Abit nForce2 Ultra 400
Audigy 2 ZS

 

[bboynitrous]

He likes great soundnig music, can't blaim the guy. Wish you did have a audigy2zs to bench against. I was thinking of trying one of those revo 5.1's .

 

[SJetski71]

yes i've seen nasty frame hits with my turtlebeach santa cruz, i cleared it up in the settings somehow but didn't pay attention to how i fixed it, since i decided to swap audio cards. I now run the game with a spare audigy2 i got my hands on (with no such issue).

The audigy2 with unoptimized settings runs the game faster + sounds nicer than the santa cruz optimized for the game (for me anyway)

 

[OTL]

Hasn't M-Audio updated their drivers to the QSound engine like the other Envy24 card makers?

 

[GodsMadClown]

Can you characterize the qualitative difference in the sound between Sensura enabled and disabled?

 

[H-street]

explain the graphs a little bit better

is the top graph with hardware sound turned on in BF2 + Extra and the bottom is software in BF2/-EAX - Driver extras?


BF2's soundcard support when under hardware is pretty poor at the moment, the fact you got better framerates is most likely a product of BF2's poor sound support while the hardware option is enabled.

a better benchmark would be to run both the Top and Bottom benchmarks while in software mode in BF2/+EAX

just to show you how messed up BF2 is..

- We recommend Creative sound cards for use with Battlefield 2.

- The following sound cards do not support the Hardware Audio
Renderer option:

...
Creative Labs SB Audigy 2 NX
Creative Labs SB Audigy LS - (5.1)
Creative Labs SB Extigy
Creative Labs SB Live 24-bit
Creative Labs SB Live
Creative Labs SB Live PLATINUM
Creative Labs SB Live Value
Creative Labs SB Live X-GAMER
Creative Labs SB Live X-GAMER 5.1
...

so basically the only cards that will run in Hardware mode (or i should say are supported) are Audigy1/Audigy2(certain versions)/+Creatives new card

 

[Jodiuh]

@ OuTLaWzSm - I had an Audigy 1, but switched to an M-Audio Revolution so I could listen to my Sennheiser 580's on the pc. Combined with Foobar, listening on the pc became a wondeful reality.

@ bboynitrous - Thankfully, a friend is bringing his Audigy 2 ZS over today, so I'll get a chance to compare. Quite a few folks are runnin' dual cards, and I may just join them, we'll see.

@ OTL - As of last month, they're has only been 1 xp driver for the Revo 5.1. No updates, just the one on CD...

@ GodsMadClown - Here's a big one, no sound from the rear channels. As long as Sensaura is off, I get 2 channels just like in Farcry.

@ H-street - I've edited the graphs to make sense.

Top Graph (45fps avg) - Sensaura mode on, Hardware + EAX
Bottom Graph (72fps avg) - Sensaura mode off, Software

So what you're saying is to run software + EAX with Sensaura on and off?

To further clarify this thread, I think it would be best for me to create a custom demo and then run through the scenarios again. I should have an Audigy 2 ZS sometime tonight to add to the comparison. What else could I do to make this more helfpul guys? For instance, what settings would you like to see?

Cheers,

Jod ;-)

ps. I tried to change the poll to something more...usable, but it's stuck

 

[H-street]

Jodiuh,

yes run it with software mode on + Eax.. (or EAX off, the EAX part isn't important)


essentially don't change the BF2 ingame sound settings and just change the Sensaura Mode..

that would be the best indicator of the FPS hit you take with the mode enabled/disabled.

 

[Jodiuh]

Okay, cool that makes sense. Thanks.

BTW, I'm messing with this guide on creating a nice demo.

EDIT: Well, that didn't work. I recorded a demo and set it up like this:

Pause, player view (right mouse button), Play + Benchmark (Fraps - F11)

1. Sensaura OFF, Software, EAX OFF
2. Sensaura OFF, Hardware, EAX ON
3. Sensaura ON, Software, EAX OFF
4. Sensaura ON, Hardware, EAX ON

I got the exact same average framerate for all three, lol! Might have to leave this up to the pros....

 

[H-street]

make sure your V-sync isn't enabled or else it will "limit" our Framerate..

it might be easier to use a program that has built in benchmarking..

when i benched my Mystique HDA i used Tombraider AOD..

 

[Jodiuh]

Well, I took another shot at it by creating a local server and racing around in my little buggy. Afterwards I would blow it up with the grenade launcher. Unfortunately, I ended up with about the same avg. fps. The four runs were between 70 and 75 fps avgs.

What I can say for sure is that on a multiplayer server with lots of people, Sensaura + Hardware + EAX forces me to tone down my graphic settings quite a bit. I can also say that enabling Sensaura was the only way to produce rear sounds. Using Sensaura with Software + EAX sounded much blander than Sensaura with Hardware + EAX. For example, instead of hearing a tank suddenly appear, I could tell how far away it was. There was a whole lot more variety as well.

Hopefully I'll be able to make a comparison when my bud gets here with his A2ZS.

 

[eastvillager]

hmm, just the opposite of my experience using onboard envy in a sn25p.

The game defaults to software sound, which I determined as the cause of some really nasty input delay type lag. Like you put in a move---and it doesn't notice you changed your move, so you start mashing different keys, and then it does them all really quickly and you're doing a bizarre dance, usually in front of an enemy t-90.

I switched it to hardware and that cleared up all of those issues.

 

[Jodiuh]

After spending a good amount of time with both the Audigy 2 ZS, M-Audio Revolution 5.1, Foobar, and Battlefield 2, I've come to 2 faily expected conclusions.

Music: The soundstage of the Audigy 2 ZS while listening to Toby Mac's "Burn for you" sounded compressed and lifeless against the Revo's wider and clearer sound.

Bottomline: Listening to tunes out of the Audigy 2 ZS had me immediately flipping back to my Revo. The lack of detail to these ears was obvious. YMMV

Games: The amount of, quality, and positioning of 3d game audio using Hardware + EAX favors the Audigy 2 ZS greatly. This is both for headphones and 4.1 setups.
note I have also found Sensaura mode MUST be enabled for rear satellites to function at all. Also must be enabled for 3d Virtualization with headphones.

Bottomline: Sensaura mode introduced a noticeable drop in framerate and an overall lack of immersiveness due to extreme varying of sounds in game. ie. low crawling produced overly loud "rock/gravel sliding" noises which distracted me enough to be knifed by an enemy

So what was I to do?

for gaming and for music

There's a whole lot more info than what I've given, but I don't want this to be long winded and confusing. If you're into tunes, go with the Revo, if you're into games, go with the Audigy. If you're into both, get both. If you have questions, please ask. I'll do my best to answer.

 

[Mister X]

lol.
I had the same setup for a while..... but the Revo got replaced with a 1212M and the Audigy 2 ZS got replaced with a DMX 6Fire..... that is gonna be replaced when my HDA card gets here.

 

[GodsMadClown]

After spending a good amount of time with both the Audigy 2 ZS, M-Audio Revolution 5.1, Foobar, and Battlefield 2, I've come to 2 faily expected conclusions.

Thanks for taking the time to do the tests and write up your impressions.

 

[IdiotInCharge]

Good stuff- it's what was expected, but it's also very nice to have it confirmed. Now if I just listened to sources that would necessitate a nice listening setup... now where'd I bury that credit card...

 

[Jodiuh]

@ Mister X - Ya, the main reason I picked the revo over an emu was the Sensaura support! Have you compared a Revo to an Emu? My bud just got an 0404 and I'm trying to get him over here tomorrow.

@ GodsMadClown - I would have wrote more, but BF2 with the Audigy + Beyer 770's + the ability to finally jack the bass for effect = FUNASHELL That was another bummer with the Revo and games...no eq AFAIK

@ IdiotInCharge - Want a buy a Revo?

 

[GodsMadClown]

No fair. My Revo was for sale first.