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beebarb

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 10, 2015
288
258
I recently got a Creative Sound Blaster Omni Surround USB external sound card, and a 5.1 speaker system.
Now, I have been trying this setup with various things, and when I get to Doom 3 and Quake 4, I have no audio whatsoever.

It's completely mute.
I've tried what I know about these games, but I can't get the sound to work.

They are fine with the internal speakers, but when using the Omni Surround, nothing.
They also have a weird thing where they aren't properly detecting my system specs.

Doom 3 reporting it thinks I have 2GB RAM instead of 8GB, and 256MB VRAM instead of 512MB.
Quake 4 reporting my RAM correctly, but again getting the VRAM wrong.

How do I fix this?
I really don't want to have to change the output device just to get sound in these games.
 

saturnotaku

macrumors 68000
Mar 4, 2013
1,978
97
I had one of those Omni Surround things and ended up returning it because of poor software on the Mac side. If you're looking to improve your audio, you may be better served with something like a FiiO E10K.

As far as the games themselves, if you have a Mac with switchable graphics, disable the integrated GPU and see if that helps. It's what I had to do on my 2011 MacBook Pro in order to get Doom 3 to work properly.
 

beebarb

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 10, 2015
288
258
Except, the FiiO E10K doesn't have the I/O ports needed for me to use my surround system. I'd basically have to permanently pack away the rear and centre speakers.

Oh, and the newer Macintoshes no longer have a line-in jack, so I can't do any recording.
If Apple would actually provide the ports, that would be fantastic...

Essentially I need the Omni Surround.

It's just got the one GPU.
GPU errors wouldn't have anything to do with the audio problem anyway.

I've been playing the games fine since 2006 on both my old Mac and my current one. It's just for some reason they don't play sound when the Omni Surround is the output device.
 

keysofanxiety

macrumors G3
Nov 23, 2011
9,539
25,302
Except, the FiiO E10K doesn't have the I/O ports needed for me to use my surround system. I'd basically have to permanently pack away the rear and centre speakers.

Oh, and the newer Macintoshes no longer have a line-in jack, so I can't do any recording.
If Apple would actually provide the ports, that would be fantastic...

Essentially I need the Omni Surround.

It's just got the one GPU.
GPU errors wouldn't have anything to do with the audio problem anyway.

I've been playing the games fine since 2006 on both my old Mac and my current one. It's just for some reason they don't play sound when the Omni Surround is the output device.

Sorry to do the obvious troubleshooting. Have you installed the OS X drivers for it? http://support.creative.com/downloads/download.aspx?nDownloadId=13551
 
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