Hey guys,
Here’s my issue:
You’ll need a Sound Card with a Dolby Digital Live encoder chip in your computer attached to a consumer receiver to test this. You’ll need to test and make sure Windows is using this card as default since Studio cannot detect/select a specific sound card. You’ll also want to be sure that your receiver is indeed seeing a 5.1 Dolby Digital signal (typically some kind of front panel visual). Full disclosure - I never actually ran this test on the XB1 or PS4, but I’m assuming I’m going to get the same results since I’m using a DD Live encoder on the PC. Please correct me if this logic is wrong.
- Set your Fmod Studio preferences to 5.1
- open the examples.fspro
- open the audio bin
- drag the file EN_Main_Menu into the VO folder making an event called the same
- Highlight the audio track within this event and change the panner to Surround
- pan the sound to the FL, C and FR to ensure discrete panning is happening for the fronts (this worked as expected for me - nice and discrete)
- now pan the sound to the Surround speakers
Result = no sound will play from the surround channels when audio is panned there
result in 7.1 = sound will come out front left and front right when panned to surround speakers and no sound will come out of the LR surrounds.
Desired result - sound panned to the surround (side) speakers comes out the surround speakers whether in 5.1 or 7.1
I think there is currently no way to test Dolby Digital Plus or DTS HD (the two main consumer 7.1 protocols) on a PC (the only 2 cards that have been manufactured so far seem to be discontinued). In order to find out what’s happening with the rear (back) speakers when Studio is set to 7.1, someone will need to test through each console (through a receiver).
Has anyone tested the surround panner through an XB1 or PS4 to ensure channel assignments are correlating and panning as expected?
Thanks,
-Rich