IL2 1946 & SoW Sound Cards v Onboard Chipsets

[KG26_Alpha]

Before going any further I'm only referring to a default installation of IL2 1946 no MODS

After some testing of various onboard sound chipsets ie :

ADI
Intel
C-Media CMI9739A
Realtek ALC655
AC97 Codec
Via

Its going to be obvious that these chipsets can never make IL2 sound as it was "intended" with the default sound engine.

I remember various comments from squad members and pilots that I've flown with on our TeamSpeak servers over the last 11 years that the aircraft engine sounds in IL2 were "All the same" and I would repeatedly tell them to install a pci slot sound card, at the time the Creative ones were the most common with Turtle Beach and Yamaha having features that were greatly improved over onboard sound chipsets.

The main thing that's surprised me after some more recent testing is that a lot of my customers just accept the fact that onboard sound is the be all and end all, and is "good enough" for their gaming needs, its only after pointing out their options for the PC build they want, that they have an option for a separate sound card, they then find out the benefits.

One demonstration I have is Call of Duty 5 set up with 2.1 surround sound with Realtek AC97 7.1, I let them play it with 2.1 & 5.1 desktop and then 5.1 headphones.
Then switch to a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music - 24-bit PCI - 7.1 Channel Sound Card doing the same listening test and they are amazed at the difference and level of immersion they are taken to.

The same applies to IL2 1946 v408m deafult installation, the sounds are totally different and the aircraft loose their "bland sounds" especially if EAX is enabled with CMSS/2.
Engine notes are totally different and superchargers can be clearly heard, engines with deep bass tones on fly by's and the guns have better sound differentials, also there's no sounds heard from miles across the map in the default sound engine.

Now there are many different sound cards out there that are extremely expensive and diverse, I chose a low cost Creative version as an example, It does the job extremely well for its price. Until motherboard manufacturers come up with a decent sound chipset ( Some Manufacturers are making their own already ) you should budget for a decent sound card to really improve your sounds In IL2.
As some of you will know most high end gaming motherboards don't come with onboard sound, but this is targeted at the middle market gamer looking to upgrade a half decent PC already.

I hope that the SoW sound engine is going to be secure from cheating and that those complaining of poor sounds have done the best to ensure it's not at their end that the problem lies, as happened in the past, remember the MOD sounds were mainly brought into IL2 for this reason (poor onboard sound) it was easier for some one to make new sounds than for you to improve your PC's and keep IL2 secure.

So make sure you have a decent sound card and speaker system for your PC not just for IL2 but all your gaming !!!
Your comments are welcomed with sound cards and onboard settings that have made a difference for you and may help others.

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