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Music Media Entertainment Games

THX To Certify Videogame Audio 65

Posted by simoniker from the but-not-game-quality dept.
dan_linder writes "According to an article on CNet News, THX are starting to certify the audio produced for video games. Good, now all I need are something better than my Labtec speakers on my PC..." According to the piece, "When a company signs up as a licensee... THX sends them specifications on what the company's audio and video production rooms should look like, down to the types of desks people sit at when they are working."
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THX To Certify Videogame Audio More

THX To Certify Videogame Audio

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  • Ultima IX (Score:3, Informative)

    by Godai ( 104143 ) * on Tuesday September 30, 2003 @02:04PM (#7096511)

    I'm fairly certain Ultima IX did this 4 or 5 years ago. I remember reading that Origin had a new sound system put in, that THX can and inspected it and everything (I think it even had the THX logo on the box). Which make senses, given that that article says that EA had to do much the same thing.

    So if I'm right EA is NOT the first to get the THX certification...and this isn't a new idea.

    • Er...take a look at who wrote U9, and you'll see that, if they did it, EA was the first.

      • Whoops, true enough. I suppose what I mean is not that EA isn't first, but rather those games the article listed aren't the first ones. My bad :)
    • i don't see it on my box.
      dolby surround, 3dfx & etc but no thx.

      quite useless qualification imho though.. ultima IX didn't have that good audio, and they could have very well spent the time and money on something else than surround sound.
    • "So if I'm right EA is NOT the first to get the THX certification...and this isn't a new idea."

      If you had RTFA, you'd see that THX has been approached a number of times before for this. (i.e., no it's not a new idea, nor do they claim it to be) What is new and interesting here is that they're gearing up to support games (plural) down the road.

      • I did read the article -- it implies that while they've been 'approached', they've never done it.


        I did a little googling and found an article [computergames.ro] [www.computergames.ro] that backs up my admittedly hazy memory.

        It's mentioned in the second last paragraph at the bottom.

  • Rock on. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Lendrick ( 314723 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2003 @02:10PM (#7096567) Homepage Journal
    I'm not much of an audiophile myself, but if this means getting that cool THX splash screen like in the movies, I'm all for it.
    • But they need to be funny ones, like the robot one..

      or better yet, have the game's character be in the THX thing, sorta like what lucasarts does with its logo sometimes.

  • Wuh? (Score:5, Funny)

    by captainstupid ( 247628 ) <dmv@@@uakron...edu> on Tuesday September 30, 2003 @02:17PM (#7096630) Journal
    ...down to the types of desks people sit at when they are working.

    What do desk types have to do with sound quality? Is THX concerned with the comfort of sound engineers?

    • Re:Wuh? (Score:2, Informative)

      by sahonen ( 680948 )
      Desk means the audio mixing console.
    • What do desk types have to do with sound quality?

      I'm no expert, but I would assume that the shape and even materials the desk are made of can have a big effect on sounds within the room.

    • Re:Wuh? (Score:3, Funny)

      by NanoGator ( 522640 )
      "What do desk types have to do with sound quality?"

      I get a pretty good beat going on my desk sometimes.

  • useless.. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by gl4ss ( 559668 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2003 @02:24PM (#7096699) Homepage Journal
    'give us your money for a nice logo on the box, please.'

    that's what it is really, as the specs can't include "the game must have good music and sound effects that fits into it's atmopshere".

    sure, they sat on a certain type of desk or used certain type of devices and software, but where does that really get you in creating game audio that works well with the game? nowhere.

    more importantly, when did you buy a game purely for it's audio? and no, i don't think star control 2 would have qualified for this thx logo.
    • I think that's a problem, but not a massive one. The THX logo should, in theory, be a control for the quality of the audio, though not it's appropriateness. As long as people understand that, it should be fine.

      At the same time, I'm wondering when THX will step up to the plate and start certifying sound cards and drivers. They're doing the game, and PC speakers, but none of that does much good if the sound cards add noise or barely work at all because of a combination of bad drivers and cheap hardware (and
      • The Audigy 2 [newegg.com] says, rather promenantly [newegg.com] that it is THX certified. Whether that means crap, though, is still being debated. There probably are more accurate cards than the Audigy 2 (maybe something from M-Audio [Midman]), but the Audigy has the certification. My Megaworks 550's are THX certified, and they indeed do sound good (and will sound better when I get something that has decent Linux/ALSA support, not my Santa Cruz), but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't buy a non-THX system if it was better. What w
        • hmm I hadn't noticed that, and I picked up an Audigy 2 a few months ago because I thought I was having problems with my sound card. I still haven't gotten any of the software that came with it (the drivers and utilities) to work properly under XP.

          That being said, I think the problem that I thought was with the sound card was actually with the Klipsch speakers, either due to power requirements (the power in the apartment doesn't seem to work quite right, but since IANAE(lectrical)E(ngineer), I don't know qu
  • the article doesn't say whether the certification is for PC or console games. Great if they mean PC games. But shouldn't we be bitchin about the shitty audio from our x-box and PS2? I don't give a rats ass if the game is THX if all I have is 2 channel analog out from my machine. I want an x-box with digital multi channel outputs. ProLogic sucks when compared to DTS.
    • Isn't there an adapter for the xbox that lets you output optical dolby digital 5.1? I'm not sure, as I haven't tried yet... so if someone can clarify, that'd be great.

    • Re:PC or console? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Cecil ( 37810 )
      I don't know about X-Box, as I would never touch one of those, but my PS2 has an optical out port and is very much capable of outputting everything right up to full Dolby DTS. I often use it for playing DVDs, and FFX (among other games) also plays 5.1 surround in its FMVs. I would be immensely surprised if X-Box did not have similar features -- X-Box's specs either equal or beat out all the other consoles in every other area, why should sound be any different?

      Are you trolling, or have you simply never seen

      • Re:PC or console? (Score:3, Informative)

        by Satai ( 111172 ) *
        outputting everything right up to full Dolby DTS.

        Dolby and DTS are two competing standards for audio encoding, in fact separate from the number of channels (while a light correlation does exist between sub-specifications, like Dolby EX, the Dolby Digital marker simply indicates encoding. In fact, it's required that all DVDs made to spec have a Dolby Digital audio track, even if it's mono.) www.dolby.com has further information on PS2 and X-Box capabilities (AND it's fun to read!)
        • Actually, they aren't forced to have a Dolby Digital track in the DVD [movie] standard as companies can choose instead to go with a PCM track - 99% choose to go with Dolby Digital but there are discs out there with PCM only.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • The PS2 is capable of outputting DTS in real-time if whoever codes the game cares to devote one of the vector units toward audio encoding. EA has done this with a couple of games, like SSX Tricky, for example.
        • As the sibling to this post implies but does not come out and say, the PS2 does not have hardware dedicated to doing any kind of multichannel audio where multi means more than two. Some games do 5.1 audio, but they have to do it in software.

          The Xbox, by comparison, has it built into the audio hardware. This is easy, since the Xbox is just a PC, and PCs have been doing true 5.1 positional audio for some time now.

      • You actually use the PS2 to play DVDs? When I used it for movies the quality seemed to be lacking. Anyone else notice this? It is commendable however that you don't have to buy a stupid $30 remote a la XBox to play DVDs.
        • Well, my TV sucks at the moment, so quality doesn't make much difference to me. My TV has composite inputs (not component) only, not even S-Video. How sad is that?

          That said, I don't imagine that the difference between a standalone DVD player and the PS2 really amounts to a whole lot more than the difference between the PS2's (at most) S-Video out versus the DVD player's component out. There is no Component out for the PS2 as far as I know (and if there was one, I wouldn't buy it because it would be 99% lik
    • Uh Xbox with the HD pack outputs DTS, and almost all their games support it. And the only PS2 game that supports DTS is GTA:VC(I believe)

  • that suuuupid loud robot (Score:4, Funny)

    by ArmorFiend ( 151674 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2003 @02:34PM (#7096804) Homepage Journal
    I hate the damn THX robot that shows up before movies to loudly announce the presence of THX sound. The stupid THX noise is so discordant, ugly, and more often than not too LOUD. it puts me in a bad mood before the movie even starts.

    I'd better not hear it before I play my video games too, god dammit! Oh wait, something tells me not too many Linux games are going to have to worry about this. Whew.
    • [...] and more often than not too LOUD.

      THX - The Audience Is Now Deaf

      Or like Grandpa Simpson said: "Turn it up! Turn it up!"
  • THX isn't a certification of audio quality. It's certification of audio quality inside an architecturally THX-certified room. So, it means that the sound on the game is best heard in an architecturally THX-certified room....

    Unless they also hand out pamphlets on how to arrange your room according to THX standards, you'll get, at best, average sounding audio. At least this is how I understand it. Anyone?

    Jeffool.
    • I remember reading that when they created THX a big part of it was making sure audio sounded as close to what the sound engineer heard as possible. They measured all kinds of thing and created EQ curves and whatnot to get as close a match as possible. I'm not sure if the game THX is anything like this, but it can't hurt.
      • I recall something similar, except the way I remember it, the goal was to have the sound equally good in every seat in the theater. Don't know if that's still the case for theater certification or not. THX does have their own EQ curve that is applied in certified receivers and such. I seem to recall it boosts the highs a bit, but I'm not certain.
    • "Unless they also hand out pamphlets on how to arrange your room according to THX standards, you'll get, at best, average sounding audio. At least this is how I understand it. Anyone?"

      Even if the situation is exactly as you describe, at least you get a set of instructions on how to build your THX room. You'd only have to build it once for the certified games instead of one for each new game that comes out.

      Is your sound going to be, at best, average? Well, if all the games are certified that way, then y

    • Re:Sad stuff (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Piquan ( 49943 )

      THX isn't a certification of audio quality. It's certification of audio quality inside an architecturally THX-certified room.

      It's the weakest-link thing. If you have a lousy presentation setup (for example, your speakers are misaligned), then you'll get bad audio no matter how good the sound is. But if the sound is good, then incremental improvements in presentation setup can produce corresponding incremental improvements in sound quality. They're making sure that the thing you can't control-- the game

      • Wow. Thanks for the corrections folk. I humbly bow out. (Now don't you wish others would on Slashdot when proved wrong? ;) )

        Jeffool.
    • Unless they also hand out pamphlets on how to arrange your room according to THX standards, you'll get, at best, average sounding audio.

      THX certified speakers usually come with a small pamphlet instructing on the best placement of the speakers.

      They could probably tell you how to design a room, too, but unless you spend a huge amount of money, they're not going to come out and certify your room.

      On the other hand, as everyone else pretty much already said, if everything from the sound source (the game or
  • Oh yeah: THX. Your ears are bleeding.
  • Good thing I've got THX certified speakers, and an auditorium to setup my computer in... Wait, no I don't, and neither does >99% of the world. On the other hand I might be convinced to buy a THX certified GBA game :)
  • I noticed the THX logo at the begining of SSX 3 and though it a little strange. But hey, if it makes people buy THX speakers and give money to Lucas I guess this is a good thing???

    Sorry if this is trollish...
  • It's not like this is a surprise. Klipsch was the first to market with THX certified speakers specifically for home PCs, and that was almost two years ago. Of course, you could argue that they were intended for those that used their PCs as a media centre (movies, music, etc...) but anyone who uses a PC for those purposes more than likely plays a few games. Regardless, would this actually make a game more attractive to me? Not freakin' likely.
  • While looking at AV receivers and speakers over the last few months, one thing I've seen repeated over, and over again is that THX certification generally isn't worth it. It costs a fair amount to be certified and those costs are passed straight on to the consumer.

    Most of these items cost $500.00 and up, and the price is just tacked on. What's this going to do for the cost of games then? Is it going to add $5 to the cost of games to cover it? The way they seem to be certifying, perhaps it's a one off cos
    • Check the prices of the games on the list in the article. IIRC, the games don't cost any more than any others, though they may require more sales to break even (or they may have cut into the budget elsewhere).

      THX-certified PC speakers generally run a bit high, but not higher than equivalent speakers in most cases (though some people may not notice or care and would be better off with cheaper speakers).

      As for home AV equipment, it's much more likely that THX certification is of less use there, as there has
  • To be THX certified you have to have the sound guys sit in special chairs?
  • There seems to be a bit of confusion over the part of the article where it says they are told what kind of desk to sit at. "Desk" is audio engineer jargon for an audio mixing board. Thus, it makes perfect sense to be told what kind of desk to use.
  • Headphones are seriously underrated as sound gear. You get more accurate sound for cheaper than equally accurate speakers, and IMHO it's more immersive, as they filter out outside sound and put the game sound right in your ears.

    I use Sony MDR-7506 headphones. They're usually used for monitoring studio recordings, but at $100, they give better sound than any equally or higher priced speaker setup. Mostly because with headphones you don't get room echo, and you can't hear your computer fans whining away as
    • Headphones are great, but unfortunatly, on the lower end of the frequencies you get into problems as they are more often than not felt rather than heard.

      My solution was to hook up only a subwoofer and run the rest through headphones. Little better, but the whole thing felt inelegant and unrefined
      • Hmm, I kinda get what you're talking about there. A couple times I've played drums in places where they put the subwoofer right next to the drummer. I did a little experimental tap on my bass drum not expecting it and I hear this huge BOOOOM. You haven't lived until you've played drums with a full PA stack right next to you for your monitoring. With proper hearing protection, of course.

        For the drummer who wants that feeling, but wants the advantages of in-ear monitoring as well (lower stage volume, cle
  • I knew I bought those klipsh promedia hunk of junks for something!

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