THX Spatial surround sound in Borderlands 3
I am trying to enable surround sound in Borderlands 3. When I turn on Dolby Atmos or Windows Sonic, no problem. When I turn those off and try to enable surround sound through THX Spatial in Synapse, surround sound is disabled in Borderlands 3. I have verified that surround sound is turned on for Borderlands 3 on the Mixer tab in Synapse.
Has anyone else experienced this? I can turn on surround sound in Windows 10 (Dolby Atmos or Sonic), but it makes THX Spatial sound muddy and I'm guessing they're not supposed to be used in combination. Anyone experience this with Borderlands 3 and have a solution?
Posted Jun 1, 2020, 5:29 AM UTC
18
This is because THX Spatial Audio is NOT real Spatial Audio.
Unlike Dolby ATmos and Windows Sonic, which tap into the Spatial API built into Windows 10 itself and which is available to most games going forward; THX expects developers to get in contact with them and develop their audio solution using a different API separately that works for THX and THX alone.
If you want spatial, go with Sonic, Dolby or DTS. Since they will work on every game that has spatial audio, Borderlands 3 included, due to that being baked into Windows 10 itself.
Literally no game is compatible with THX Spatial Audio...
Got it. Thanks for the explanation. Was Razer betting on devs adopting THX when they made it part of their audio platform? Seems odd if THX is so poorly adopted in games considering Razer makes peripherals for gaming.
Precisely, they thought they were revolutionizing the market somehow, with the stuff about "send us a pic of your ear to improve spatial audio quality" and stuff.
Had they gotten a bit humble, and simply used Windows 10's API, everything would have been much different and you would have been able to use THX on Borderlands 3 for example.
The Halo games (MCC and Infinite), Gears, Forza, pretty much every single Microsoft game, Borderlands, MEtro Exodus, OVerwatch, the newer Tomb Raider games, EA games, Assassin's Creed Origin and newer, etc. all use the Windows 10 API, and so will every single spatial game that comes out.
Because you integrate it into that and not only will it work on Dolby Atmos, Windows Sonic and DTS' spatial audio solutions on Windows, but also ON CONSOLE (the Xbox One) without having to give it a second thought.
THX expected devs to, for some reason, limit themselves to use their API when there is no real difference in quality, no marketing, and at the time there was only one line of headsets (the Nari) that supported it. There were leaks about Paladins, Fortnite and some other game in talks with THX and an update for Synapse that would list games with THX Spatial Audio.
That was one year ago and no release like that has been released to the public yet. THX Spatial Audio for headphones is absolutely dead, you're better off deactivating it and using Atmos.
Amazing. And painful. So if I just turn THX Spatial off in Synapse and enable Dolby Atmos will there be any issues? I have my audio hooked up to the Razer USB audio controller. I also see different playback devices for THX Spatial and Razer Kraken TE headset. What a mess. Assuming I should use the Kraken one?
The Kraken TE is the one that has a USB audio card, right?
Alright, you can leave that plugged in, it is pretty much just a sound card, and chances are, it is better than what comes by default with your PC, so it will sound better than plugging the 3.5mm audio cable to your PC.
No harm in leaving the USB connector plugged in.
There should be three audio devices related to the Kraken, one's THX Spatial Audio, one is the Kraken itself, and the third one is the microphone.
You can keep on using THX Spatial Audio as the default playback device, simply DEACTIVATE THX Spatial Audio from within Synapse and that will be it, you won't need to do anything else.
If you want to be extra nit picky, you can try and change speakers from THX to the Kraken itself, because there COULD be a slight delay due to THX even if it is deactivated, but it's unnoticeable and I haven't tested that anyway.
So yeah, once it is deactivated, nothing else needs to be done, just open up the Dolby Atmos app and set it up (or use Windows Sonic if you don't wanna spend money on Dolby Atmos since it is still a Spatial audio solution). There will be no interference as long as THX is disabled in Synapse.
One thing to note tho, when using Spatial-enabled games and content, the Equalizer found within Synapse will NOT work, so you're better off using the Dolby Atmos equalizer found inside the Atmos app instead.