PC sound and vr

[Greenback]

Does anybody know if it's possible to have the valve index on my pc play it's own sound while my son plays on it, while I can watch Yt or whatever on my pc with the sound through my headphones,

Basically have a seperate sound playing in the index while the pc playes on my earphones

 

[AlienALX]

No. 99% sure you can't.

If it is anything like the Rift it is its own sound device/card. You can only play through one device at a time, as Windows needs to address it directly.

 

[Greenback]

had a feeling that would be the case, was hoping there would be a setting that could set default options for apps

 

[AlienALX]

had a feeling that would be the case, was hoping there would be a setting that could set default options for apps

There is the 1%. You would need to look up running two sound devices at the same time.

I know for 100% that the way sound works on a PC did change once many years ago. Sound used to be hardware accelerated. Hence having a sound card could actually make a big difference, as it would have its own onboard hardware. Back then a software accelerated modem or sound card was rubbish.

That changed with the rise of Win 7 though. Microsoft stopped addressing any sound card directly and switched to software. This is why so many sound cards were awful in Windows 7 (Creative cards mainly) as they simply were not designed to work like that and hence the drivers were just totally awful.

Now though? yeah, it's all done by the CPU and Windows. Whether that means you can run two devices simultaneously? I really don't know hence me leaving 1% there just in case you can. I don't think so though, as apps do not address the sound calls independently it is Windows specifically that does.

 

[KingNosser]

pick up a cheap tablet for the YT videos problem solved son takes over PC full time

 

[Greenback]

pick up a cheap tablet for the YT videos problem solved son takes over PC full time

I built my son his first PC when he was 7 so I could have my PC back, and he could play his lego games, now it's VR and a more powerful pc

 

[AlienALX]

I built my son his first PC when he was 7 so I could have my PC back, and he could play his lego games, now it's VR and a more powerful pc

Yeah now there's a rod for your back

 

[AlienALX]

Actually......

I think you can do this bro.

Look into assigning hardware in a VM. Basically you should be able to use a VM to do what you do, and assign hardware, RAM, CPU cores etc to it. Once in there you *should* be able to set your onboard/sound card as the device. Better still if you use Ubuntu it will cost you bugger all !

 

[NeverBackDown]

I'm pretty sure you can tell windows to play audio to different devices at the same time. It's on a per app basis. Now idk if you can do it at the same time however but I don't see why it is not worth trying. I would expect hiccups or performance loss in gaming though.

If I remember right it is under volume and devices preferences in the sound settings.

 

[AlienALX]

Not sure about apps. You can have two sound cards running at the same time though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV46UXLsVW4

It seems it uses the recording device (the input of one sound card) to play another sound card through it. However, all that does is basically output the entire PC sound through two outputs. Meaning you will hear the kiddo's game as well, and he will hear your YT video.

https://winaero.com/audio-output-device-apps-individually-windows-10/

That suggests that you can. So yeah, maybe that was added into 10 at some point !

 

[Greenback]

Not sure about apps. You can have two sound cards running at the same time though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV46UXLsVW4

It seems it uses the recording device (the input of one sound card) to play another sound card through it. However, all that does is basically output the entire PC sound through two outputs. Meaning you will hear the kiddo's game as well, and he will hear your YT video.

https://winaero.com/audio-output-device-apps-individually-windows-10/

That suggests that you can. So yeah, maybe that was added into 10 at some point !

Thanks that helped I have it sorted now you need to go into mixer on windows 11 and set the apps/games individually as they are playing and set steam vr to use the headset tedious but simple once yoiu have the info

 

[AlienALX]

Yeah I need to brush up on my OSes tbh. They have added a whole load of amazing stuff to 11. Like splitting up GPUs and so on.

 

[Warchild]

I'm pretty sure you can tell windows to play audio to different devices at the same time. It's on a per app basis. Now idk if you can do it at the same time however but I don't see why it is not worth trying. I would expect hiccups or performance loss in gaming though.

If I remember right it is under volume and devices preferences in the sound settings.

I think its more that you can choose for apps but not the browser. So you need to make the browser use default and set the app as different output. I had a look myself,

Ran a game with one audio and browser had to use the same audio out. However... with the game running, I could choose another audio output for my background programs/services like Aquasuite, steam, razer synapse software etc.

Quite odd, but I think this must mean its doable.


edit* and I see you solved it

 

[Greenback]

I think its more that you can choose for apps but not the browser. So you need to make the browser use default and set the app as different output. I had a look myself,

Ran a game with one audio and browser had to use the same audio out. However... with the game running, I could choose another audio output for my background programs/services like Aquasuite, steam, razer synapse software etc.

Quite odd, but I think this must mean its doable.


edit* and I see you solved it

Yeah you just need to change Steam Vr To use the headset and then do games as they are running