Spatialized sound in Windows 7

[GiudiceLab]

We recently switched over to using Windows 7 (from Windows XP) and while we were debugging some scripts that use spatialized sound, we noted that the spatialization seems very basic, even with the sound3d.dx.algorithm set to HRTF_FULL. Same equipment and same script in XP produced very convincing spatialization.

Is there something different about Windows 7 (it uses DirectX 11) that complicates the sound3d_dx.dll plug-in? Is there a fix, or do we need to switch back to XP? Thanks in advance.

[GiudiceLab]

Is anyone else using Windows 7 with Vizard? Has anyone else had this kind of issue?

[Jeff]

Can you clarify what you mean by spatialization being basic on the Windows 7 machine and specifically what you notice working better in XP? Please post a sample script here for us to test or send it to support@worldviz.com.

[GiudiceLab]

I've attached our sample script. It's rather difficult to explain concisely, except that the sound spatialization is much more convincing in XP. It's like the hrtf_full algorithm is not applied at all in Windows 7. In fact, changing this setting in Win 7 seems to have no effect on the sound, while changing it in Win XP produces a noticeable difference.

Most significantly for our needs, trying to orient toward the sound in Win 7 produces high variation--it is easy to tell when the object is dramatically left or right, but very difficult to localize within about 90 degrees, and front and back are indistinguishable. In XP, we can localize the sound within about 10 degrees, and rearward sounds are slightly muffled, so it is easier to distinguish front and back.

I hope you can help. We really want to continue moving forward with development on this platform.