HiFi vs War Tapes sound setting

[Impen]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who couldn't figure out what War tapes meant in the sound settings list. I thought it was the lowest sound quality for really horrible sound cards. I stumbled across a thread on the Steam forums that linked to a comparison video on Youtube however. Keep in mind there's very little going on in these scenes compared to a full 32 player server, but you get the general idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cFgWKEYC2g

[Dash]

I watched these the other day and forgot to comment.

It does make a big difference. If I was playing through my speakers and not on TS I'd give the the War tapes one a go but on TS I prefer to be able to hear people. I have the game volume at 25% or less as it is with most games to make sure I hear people on TS (my hearing isn't the best so I have to). What do the other settings do though?

[drax0r]

Ive been using Home Theatre as it seemed to give the best positioning for 5.1 surround sound, tried war tapes last night and it was great, but i had to reduce the volume another 25% and even then it was pretty hard to hear anyone on TS, very good for some added realism though.

Switched to HiFi for an hour or two, gave pretty good sound on my headset, vibration was going mad.

All in all, I think war tapes for single player / realism
home theatre if you want to be anal about direction
and hi fi probably a good default

[Dash]

Thanks Drax. I will probs just stick to HiFi for my headphones then as I don't have any surround sound.

[drax0r]

You should deffo play a few hours on war tapes to get the atmosphere levels up, but ditch it if you find it too hard to hear i guess

It might work better for some others as I found the volume on my computer is pretty outrageous since getting a sound card.