5.1 sound in GTA3 using onboard AC97?

[noTHINGface]

Hey all

Just bought GTA San Andreas and having a great time with it. I have an on-board AC97 sound chip but Im unable to get 5.1 surround sound to work via the options menus. Is there a way to enable 5.1? Perhaps by altering a config file somewhere?

Cheers.

[streetster]

you set the options to 'EAX' from the 'miles fast 2d positional audio' (or something like that, havent played gta3 for a long time)... dont think eax3 works, but plain eax should work..?

[ajbrun]

Just bought GTA3 San Andreas

(or something like that, havent played gta3 for a long time)

noTHINGface - GTA3 is a different game to GTA San Andreas. Yes it's the 3rd 3D GTA game, but there were 3 (i think) before that. These used a top down view instead of 3D, and came out first on the PC.

[noTHINGface]

Oops, error. Sorry about that. I amended the post.

[streetster]

it was early.. though i imagine the same applies for gta san andreas.. 5.1 works fine for me and im using the onboard sound ac97...

[noTHINGface]

it was early.. though i imagine the same applies for gta san andreas.. 5.1 works fine for me and im using the onboard sound ac97...

Did you set this as an option menu item or was auto detected by the software? I had the same problem with brother in arms, I had to manually mess with the conf files to get that to work. I wonder if its something driver issue or my mobo (Asus a8n sli deluxe).

[ajbrun]

Have you updated your sound drivers?

[Trippledence]

I could NOT get 5.1 to work in any games with AC97. Unreal managed to figure it out, but as the soundcard has no DSP prosesser it took my fps from 90 to 20. Fixed it by getting an old Audijy 2 off my mate.

[noTHINGface]

Have you updated your sound drivers?

Yeah - im pretty good at keeping things up to date, I have the most recent realtek's I believe. I have an audigy 2 ZS that I bought from this lad, never got it to work (unable to allocate enough resource error 12) but since he's gone to ground I may have another look at using that!

I never had a problem with the AC97, it just always seems to work, apart from BIA and now San Andreas :-(

[silent ben]

Is anyone else having problems with sound in GTA SA? some cut scenes dont have sound, and its not a real problem, but it is a bit irritating to watch people talk and no sound

[yamangman]

If your motherboard dosn't have the MCP-T southbridge or dedicated APU, then you may have trouble getting 5.1 to work. AC97 with the MCP-T processor produces 5.1 sound more than eqivalant to Audigy 2.

[Trippledence]

Is anyone else having problems with sound in GTA SA? some cut scenes dont have sound, and its not a real problem, but it is a bit irritating to watch people talk and no sound

hehe, nice sig. AC97 isnt worth having for 5.1 IMO, its fine for music and films, but when theres prosessing to be dont it jsut cant, The chip on my NF4 mobo might be difrent, but if its anythign to go by, look into this.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...206648116&rd=1
A note to any one who buys a creative soundcard second hand, make sure they give you the CD>

[noTHINGface]

Just to give an update; I came back from work and uninstalled all the realtek drivers and re-installed. This seems to have addressed the issue, I now have 5.1. I wont pretend to understand why this fixes the issue but it did.

I also get the vanishing sound error every now and then, sometime mid mission rather confusingly! I bail out of the game and reload, that sorts it.

It is true that AC97 is not the best for games and I did buy an Audigy 2 ZS to replace it with but I never got it to work (it was an OEM card and I did have the original creative disk). I may have another go with it but im ok with the onboard sound for now.