SURROUND SOUND

Some games developed by GAYSOFT may feature some form of surround sound. Some games may use standard 5.1 surround sound, some games like PROJECT R and Stranded Island Fishing use matrix surround sound. The latter has been used in video games since the early 90s and was commonly used up to the mid-2000s. Since it isn’t widely used anymore, we thought it wise to give an explanation to inquiring players.

A short explanation…

A 2.0 setup and a 5.1 setup.

The basic idea is that the surround sound information is “interpreted” and picked apart from stereo sound and sent to specific speakers. In a stereo setup, the “center” is nonexistent; the listener (ideally positioned in the sweet spot) perceives sound coming from in-between the two speakers as if there was a center. (This phenomenon is known as the “phantom center”.) In a 5.1 setup using matrix surround, the shared sound between the left and right channels are combined and sent to the center speaker.

Additionally, audio meant for the surround speakers has its phase inverted in the left or right channel.

Animated GIF graph of two-channel audio with normal phase. — Two-channel audio with normal phase and inverted phase in the right channel. The audio with inverted phase will sound from the rear speakers in a 5.1 setup.

Animated GIF graph of two-channel audio with inverted phase. — Two-channel audio with normal phase and inverted phase in the right channel. The audio with inverted phase will sound from the rear speakers in a 5.1 setup.

And all audio within the range of 20–120 Hz is sent to the LFE or subwoofer for that extra bassy boom! The result is a two-channel file audibly indistinguishable from a regular stereo file, but it can be decoded to provide 5.1 surround sound.

How to experience matrix surround sound?

Matrix surround sound can be experienced using an AVR with Dolby Pro Logic II or Dolby Surround enabled. (Unfortunately, since these technologies are patented by Dolby, we would need a license to include the branding in our games, making this feature more apparent. GAYSOFT cannot afford that, though thankfully Dolby does not own the concept of inverting phase.)

It is recommended that all speakers are at ear level. If you do not have a system capable of decoding matrix surround or if you have a typical 2.0 system, you can experience the game in stereo with no further setup.

A demo of stereo vs. matrix surround sound. Ensure Dolby Pro Logic II or Dolby Surround is enabled.

Why not just use regular 5.1?

It is clear to us that standard 5.1 surround sound is technically better:

Developers have more control
Much more widely supported
No crosstalk
Can be downmixed to stereo or mono

That being said, there are a few reasons we develop games using this outdated form of surround sound:

It’s backwards compatible with regular stereo
Two-channel audio files take up less space than six-channel files
Some new AVRs still support matrix surround sound
It’s retro
We think it’s neat

A note on QSound

In addition to matrix surround, PROJECT R also uses QSound, a stereo enhancement algorithm. It is not a form of surround sound, but it can give a subtly “wider” stereo sound. It was commonly used in Capcom CPS-2 arcade games and Sega Mega-CD games in the 90s.