**OFFICIAL** AT Battlefield 3 FAQ and News Thread

[modestninja]

+1

I have the 700's and they are some of the best cans for this price. Add a cheap clip on mic and you are done. Blows the socks off the "gaming headsets"...

+2

That being said, in BF3 it seems like there just aren't as many positioning queues like footsteps as in some other games (COD, Q3, UrT) so it's much harder to use "earhacks".

 

[Zargon]

+2

That being said, in BF3 it seems like there just aren't as many positioning queues like footsteps as in some other games (COD, Q3, UrT) so it's much harder to use "earhacks".

I dunno, I can hear people coming sometimes, not very directionally, but when I am crouched behind something and I hear footsteps thats usually good enough

 

[destrekor]

Consider these: http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/pc-gaming-headsets/ear-force-z6a.aspx
They are an updated version of the HPA2 which I have and they work very well. A nice feature is the inline amp has a master volume control as well as individual control of each channel for adjustment on-the-fly without having to get into software to make changes. Once set up I leave them pretty much alone except for the bass control. Usually it is at the lowest "volume" so as to not interfere with directional cues however there are those times when something nearby is about to explode or a tank is rolling by and I crank it up.

A bunch of people are probably going to pounce on this and tell me they are garbage. However, I have tried quite a few virtual surround systems on pc and console (such as astro mixamp, CMSS3D, sennheiser hd555 (modified), logitech g35, g930 plus many more). For the pc, the hpa2's have worked the best for me (connected to soundcard with analog).

As has been stated, no matter what solution, you'll never hear footsteps of someone creeping up behind you to knife you however.

People complain about audio quality of various gaming-specific headsets, but in some ways, they are better designed for gaming. But ultimately it also depends on games - some games sound best on audio hardware that is basically balanced toward gaming sounds, other games don't work as well with such audio balances.

I try and buy the best audio hardware I can afford, because I enjoy quality audio. That said, I have good stereo cans, but I wanted virtual surround (since any multi-driver speakers were getting even more mixed opinions than the G35) that were easy to use, and DD Headphones actually produces really good audio with a DD source (compared to virtual surround in general). I have a 5.1 setup but it's not truly 5.1, and the integrated mic really makes life quite a bit easier (though I rarely ever use it).
Are they the best cans? Hell no, but they are balanced quite well for an immersive surround effect when playing games. Not necessarily the most accurate, but quite helpful in regards to positional audio and sound effect balance.
For me, gaming mostly consists of FPS and racing. With sim racing and these cans, it's absolutely breathtaking.

For me, sometimes function is more important than other considerations, though I do usually focus on audio quality first. In this case, I find the sacrifices, for my specific usage, do not detract nearly enough to outweigh the perceived (and real) benefits.

 

[destrekor]

+2

That being said, in BF3 it seems like there just aren't as many positioning queues like footsteps as in some other games (COD, Q3, UrT) so it's much harder to use "earhacks".

BF3 has a lot of earhack worthy audio when configured correctly, but indeed, footsteps are easily the Lowest Common Denominator in terms of pitfalls of Frostbite 2. They have terrific sound effect quality for almost everything in-game (as in weapons, vehicles, environmental effects, etc) and positional audio is amazing... yet footsteps are very much hit and miss. Sometimes you can hear footsteps to call attention to an immediate threat, and at other times, all factors should point toward very audible footsteps yet you hear nothing.

Every now and then positional audio is also absolutely terrible, with the sound of bullets completely impossible to locate (most commonly an issue when the sound comes from your rear)... but most often you have very useful positional audio queues. Now the question is: are you able to focus enough on those cues with all the chaos that is happening in the audio? It's good audio, but there are a lot of audio distractions in BF3 (number and quality of audio effects is one consideration, the other is simply the amount of chaos that occurs in BF games, something less likely to be found elsewhere, especially 64p matches).

 

[modestninja]

BF3 has a lot of earhack worthy audio when configured correctly, but indeed, footsteps are easily the Lowest Common Denominator in terms of pitfalls of Frostbite 2. They have terrific sound effect quality for almost everything in-game (as in weapons, vehicles, environmental effects, etc) and positional audio is amazing... yet footsteps are very much hit and miss. Sometimes you can hear footsteps to call attention to an immediate threat, and at other times, all factors should point toward very audible footsteps yet you hear nothing.

Every now and then positional audio is also absolutely terrible, with the sound of bullets completely impossible to locate (most commonly an issue when the sound comes from your rear)... but most often you have very useful positional audio queues. Now the question is: are you able to focus enough on those cues with all the chaos that is happening in the audio? It's good audio, but there are a lot of audio distractions in BF3 (number and quality of audio effects is one consideration, the other is simply the amount of chaos that occurs in BF games, something less likely to be found elsewhere, especially 64p matches).

Yeah, I guess I was talking mainly about footsteps. The weapon, gadget and exclamation sounds are generally very good at helping you determine where someone is, but I swear there are sometimes that you don't hear footsteps at all. There have been plenty of times where someone is running Tugs or MAV and I can see that there is someone right around the corner from me moving, but there are no footstep sounds. Whereas in a similar situation in other games, you can definitely hear them.

One nice thing about the AD700 when you're playing multiplayer is that they're light on bass so it's easier to pick out the important positional sounds and filter out all the noise since the "noise" (fun immersive stuff like explosions) is usually lower frequency.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

I'm thinking of buying a CD key for Origin off ebay for $30 for BF3. Looks pretty safe with plenty of good reviews. Anyone have experience with this?

 

[maevinj]

I'm thinking of buying a CD key for Origin off ebay for $30 for BF3. Looks pretty safe with plenty of good reviews. Anyone have experience with this?

NewEgg is running a special for the PC version for 39.99. I'd rather pay 9.99 more and not have to worry about it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-_-EMC-020712-Index-_-PCGames-_-32130293-L08B

 

[VulgarDisplay]

AD700's are great budget gaming cans. For me however the holy grail is my HRT Music Streamer II+, FiiO E9, and AKG Q701's.

The Q701's are the ad700's on steroids. Better in every way, but $250 for them. Totally worth it. The HRT Musicstreamer made my Auzentech Xfi sound like onboard audio.

The E9 is just there to provide a little juice for the Q701's because they need amping to sound their best.

 

[skipsneeky2]

NewEgg is running a special for the PC version for 39.99. I'd rather pay 9.99 more and not have to worry about it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-_-EMC-020712-Index-_-PCGames-_-32130293-L08B

LOL i love that one single review about it looking better and running better then BF2.

Try running BF3 on hd2000 graphics and see how far you go,its not gonna happen trust me i have tried all the way down to 320x240 i believe while BF2 can play on 1920x1080 low with no aa and be silky smooth.

By the time BF3 plays 800x600 on low,BF2 will be maxed out basically without much hassle.

 

[Zargon]

jeez thats a whole machine in $$$ just for the sound setup

 

[VulgarDisplay]

jeez thats a whole machine in $$$ just for the sound setup

It's a mid range machine anyways. $350 for the DAC, 250 for the headphones, and $100 for the amp. I may drop like $450 on a Schiit Lyr to replace the FiiO e9.

I have an internet shopping addiction that doesn't necessarily agree with my wallet. Good thing I can skimp on things like food to cover my expenses.

 

[frowertr]

It's a mid range machine anyways. $350 for the DAC, 250 for the headphones, and $100 for the amp. I may drop like $450 on a Schiit Lyr to replace the FiiO e9.

I have an internet shopping addiction that doesn't necessarily agree with my wallet. Good thing I can skimp on things like food to cover my expenses.

I understand where you are coming from. I run an Asus Xonar STX for my sound card and I am always totally blown away on how good it sounds when compared to my onboard sound.

I haven't looked for an external amp as of yet since the Xonar has a headphone amp built it but I think I will now that I read your message!

 

[Zargon]

It's a mid range machine anyways. $350 for the DAC, 250 for the headphones, and $100 for the amp. I may drop like $450 on a Schiit Lyr to replace the FiiO e9.

I have an internet shopping addiction that doesn't necessarily agree with my wallet. Good thing I can skimp on things like food to cover my expenses.

SQ is not really my thing. and I do not know much about audio hardware

but I am looking for headphones(would love wireless but unsure the G920's are worth it)

if that little desktop amp will great improve SQ I will snag it, but I imagine I would need the D/a Converter too? is there a more economical version?

I was looking at the Razer Megalodon because it uses HRTF for 'surround' and has its own SP onboard.


I also ran across this, NuForce Icon uDAC-2 that does amp and DAC



hmm maybe you should start a thread Vulgar and we can pepper you with questions there

 

[Destiny]

Thanks for all the tips everyone!

Bass is not important to me - I use to spend thousands of dollars on my car audio but I ignore the bass speakers...

Positional sound and other audio caused by opposing user/enemy actions is important for me in FPS because I play more by sound then sight. I see BF3 supports 5.1 or 7.1 so I want to take advantage of it... I'm not planning to get a sound card - I think a headset via USB connection would be fine - it doesn't matter to me if it has a mic... but I'm going to look into all your recommendations... Thanks everyone!

EDIT: I think my mobo supports the Turtle Beach Ear Force Z6A audio jacks for 5.1 audio... going to give this baby a run...

 

[VenomXTF]

Had a couple fun rounds playing with Zargon and JDubz. JDubz kept escaping my bullets all round

Too bad they came right after this round. Was playing with a buddy and we switched between playing pilot/gunner the whole round. At one point we had 10 guys hunting us with stingers. http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/battlereport/show/20244004/1/233315602/

As far as the headphone discussion. I would recommend this for a headphone USB DAC/AMP http://www.fiio.com.cn/product/index.aspx?ID=28&MenuID=020301

Been using it with my Sennheiser HD600 headphones and think it's great for the price.

 

[96Firebird]

Had some fun games, I have an ability to dodge bullets.

This was the first time I've played in a while, and it seems like I am getting better performance. I was shocked at how smooth it was, changing nothing since the last time I played. Maybe it was all in my head, or I changed a setting without remembering. I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[Zargon]

Had a couple fun rounds playing with Zargon and JDubz. JDubz kept escaping my bullets all round

Too bad they came right after this round. Was playing with a buddy and we switched between playing pilot/gunner the whole round. At one point we had 10 guys hunting us with stingers. http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/battlereport/show/20244004/1/233315602/

As far as the headphone discussion. I would recommend this for a headphone USB DAC/AMP http://www.fiio.com.cn/product/index.aspx?ID=28&MenuID=020301

Been using it with my Sennheiser HD600 headphones and think it's great for the price.

it was nice to have AT'ers pull 1 2 3 in a round

http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/battlereport/show/20252920/1/228549105/


it was definately a nice run till the server basically died



I noticed the E17 has been announced and is out soon, basically a the E7 but 'higher end', and looks to cost about twice as much

Had some fun games, I have an ability to dodge bullets.

This was the first time I've played in a while, and it seems like I am getting better performance. I was shocked at how smooth it was, changing nothing since the last time I played. Maybe it was all in my head, or I changed a setting without remembering. I was pleasantly surprised.

have you been SWTOR'ing?

 

[ViviTheMage]

My KD is 1.75 ... so close to 2.0, must rape more metro.

 

[Northern Lawn]

Pos game. After not touching it for about 2 months, after even a reformat, I installed bf3 again and again it froze my computer after about 2 mins.

E8400, 4 gigz ram, gtx 560 ti, Win7 ultimate.

 

[chimaxi83]

Pos game. After not touching it for about 2 months, after even a reformat, I installed bf3 again and again it froze my computer after about 2 mins.

E8400, 4 gigz ram, gtx 560 ti, Win7 ultimate.

I get that bull all the time, only when flying though. Fresh OS install, drivers up to date, every clock stock. Its annoying.

 

[imaheadcase]

Have not had a crash with bf3 in months now. I used to have it all the time on my old system, but not since upgraded.

 

[Soundmanred]

Guys i have a problem , my portable computer have 4 gb ram , 2.9ghz speed and i use Gforce 7560 . Did my computer support this game ?

Thanks.

No, sorry. 2.9ghz speed on a portable has a no run good.
Regards,

 

[Zargon]

Pos game. After not touching it for about 2 months, after even a reformat, I installed bf3 again and again it froze my computer after about 2 mins.

E8400, 4 gigz ram, gtx 560 ti, Win7 ultimate.

check your GPU and Audio drivers

seems like older realtek audio drivers are causing ALOT of crashes

 

[VulgarDisplay]

SQ is not really my thing. and I do not know much about audio hardware

but I am looking for headphones(would love wireless but unsure the G920's are worth it)

if that little desktop amp will great improve SQ I will snag it, but I imagine I would need the D/a Converter too? is there a more economical version?

I was looking at the Razer Megalodon because it uses HRTF for 'surround' and has its own SP onboard.


I also ran across this, NuForce Icon uDAC-2 that does amp and DAC



hmm maybe you should start a thread Vulgar and we can pepper you with questions there

If you want to learn about high end audio check out http://www.head-fi.org . Wallet beware when click on that link. You may end up with an addiction to headphones that is hard to break.

I've owned a lot of different headphones for gaming purposes alone, and while I could start an advice thread a lot of audio is pure opinion. One headphone/DAC/Amp combo will sound great to one person, but another person will despise it.

Some people swear by dolby headphone and CMSS3d. I think they are both awful because they process the audio far to much. A good set of open backed headphones and a high end DAC will give you amazing positional audio. In call of duty with the AD700's and xfi prelude I used to run I could line up on corners and doorways to kill people just because I could hear their footsteps.

 

[GullyFoyle]

twitter.com/Battlefield: "Who won a trip to DICE and a place in Battlefield history? See the three winners of the Only in #BF3 contest now: Link"