MadDeCoDeR / Classic-RBDOOM-3-BFG

DOOM: BFA (Big Freaking Anniversary) Edition (former Classic RBDoom 3 BFG) is a source port based on RBDOOM-3-BFG and enchance the experience of Ultimate DOOM, DOOM 2 and DOOM 3.
GNU General Public License v3.0
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alsoft.ini settings are suboptimal. #141

Open MoerasGrizzly opened 7 months ago

MoerasGrizzly commented 7 months ago

Currently the BFA alsoft.ini included with BFA includes the following lines:

[General]
channels=surround71
hrtf=true
boost=-12

There's a few issues here: Channels=surround71 sets the game to output in 7.1 surround mode regardless of whether the user's system supports it. This effectively means that stereo users will miss a lot of sound information (for example, sounds coming from behind will be inaudible). OAL Soft by default will set itself to the channels that the user's system reports. As such, leaving this empty solves the issue.

hrtf=true is great when playing on headphones, and only on headphones. Notably, it is designed for 2 channel mode, so the first and second options are mutually exclusive.

My recommendation would be to change alsoft.ini to the following:

### Uncomment either the speakers or headphones line as needed ###
# stereo-mode=headphones
# stereo-mode=speakers
boost=-12

OAL Soft should automatically enable features like HRTF when the user is using headphones, but its reliant on the user's system to properly report if something is a speaker or a headphone and this isn't always reliable, so letting the player know what the options are should help there. Also, stereo-mode only applies when the system is in 2 channel mode. If stereo-mode=headphones is enabled but the user is in 7.1 channel mode (either when using surround speakers, surround headphones, or something like dolby atmos for headphones), this setting is ignored. Which is what you'd want.

MadDeCoDeR commented 7 months ago

Noted. In the next version Update (whenever that come) it will include your changes

MadDeCoDeR commented 7 months ago

It should be included in the latest nightly builds