Online gaming has created a big ceiling of expectations, no matter your genre. First person shooter (FPS) players need a powerful system to see as far and with as much detail as possible to spot enemy forces, while gamers in the budding world of crafting survival games need to spot subtle differences to catch their prey or avoid other players trying to take them out.
Along with visual cues, sound is becoming a greater point of quality and immersion for gamers. Here's a look at both high-stakes gaming advantages and purely entertainment immersion value that can come from a quality sound system.
How Do Sound Systems Give Competitive Edge?
More games are delivering high quality, innovative experiences involving sight and sound. Realism is a complex subject because while it suggests bringing things closer to real life, in many cases it means trying to tap into human senses that players can appreciate as another point of pride for their favorite game.
The sound industry is strong in the gaming world. For realistic shooters like Call of Duty and high-carnage shooters like Doom, the ability to hear where certain shots are coming from, or to hear the ambient noises that give a bit more awareness if visibility is low can help you take cover from an approaching enemy, rush to a distant battle, or just have a better set of warnings than games with basic computer speakers.
Shooters aren't the only ones who gain an advantage. More high fantasy games with deep forests, lush jungles, and complex labyrinths include footsteps and armor noises with their gameplay experiences. As you prepare to cast spells or ready your weapon, knowing where the enemy is coming from can help you set up an advanced game of rock paper scissors that could be over before your opponent knows you're there.
Speaker Quality, Placement, & Tuning
Sound channels are the key. Sound engineers create an experience that speaks to your gaming system hardware, allowing specific speakers to create noise that represent specific areas. Although the experience is designed to support the greatest number of gamers who would play the game loyalty, the ability to throw in a bit extra for gamers who are willing to buy better gear is there.
Your game will usually describe the type of sound environment in use, such as 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound support. Along with the information is a large number of untold specifications that aren't often worth placing on a specifications page, but a sound system installer can help you get the right configuration to catch the sounds you need.
It takes more than putting speakers in a circle around you. Every room has a different set of acoustic properties, such as certain wall angles, materials, and paints reflecting sound in ways that produce sound experiences that could throw off your senses.
That footstep could sound like a static stomp from all directions on a basic headset or speaker group, but with more speakers, you could hear the footsteps coming from your rear and to the right. With professional tuning, you could even sense the yards and feet closing in from a specific direction, or be able to tell what types of tanks are setting up in the horizon.
Before investing in a speaker system and installing it randomly, contact a sound system installation professional to get it done in a way that unleashes your game's true atmosphere and performance potential.
