I'm sure this was posted before but I didn't see it..

Since I can have an optical audio connection with my new PS2, are there any games at all that use Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1 sound, or are they all just basically sterio or "dolby surround"? If there aren't any now, are there any in the works that anyone knows about?

The only one I know of is The Bouncer. However, The Bouncer is only done in 5.1 during the movies and not during actual gameplay. I am guessing that Final Fantasy X will have 5.1 encoding on it but probably only in movies. I have not heard of any other 5.1 discs. It is very difficult to have a 5.1 soundtrack during a game for some reason (I forget what it is). There may be more, but I am unaware of them.

Klonoa 2 has 5.1 during some of the cinematics. And from what I have read SSX Tricky will have 5.1 support although I don't know if that will be in game or only cinematics.. The digital sound, even if it isn't 5.1, is very cool though... Games like SSX and Madden sound really good if you hook up your PS2 through the optical cable.

PS2 supports 5.1 encoding only for cinematics but not actual gameplay

XBox supports it for both

Gamecube supports it for nothing

>Gamecube supports it for nothing<

You sure about that? I've been reading that Rogue Squadron 2 will have 5.1 support.

Looks like he may be right, but they have a good reason for it.... here's the article.

http://cube.ign.com/news/28757.html

Hmm.. I imagine it will support Pro-Logic then. The N64 Star Wars games from Factor 5 did this, so I'm sure the Gamecube games will but with even better results.

I thought GT3 had 5.1 sound.

The ps2 can play back dd 5.1 sound, but it can't "encode" it. In other words, the only 5.1 sound you'll ever hear is from pre-recorded music files. No in game sound effects will be in dd5.1.

The x-box will be the only system with support for real time 5.1 dolby digital encoding, but it's questionable whether it'll actually sound better then a pro-logic mix. It takes very expensive equipment and hours in the studio to get 5.1 mixes right for movies, so I'm skeptical of seeing high quality real time dolby digital mixes from a game machine/programers.

Just a side note, with pro-logic II it's now possible to decode 5.1 sound from a pro-logic source. It wouldn't be too difficult to create a pro-logic soundtrack that would be as effective as a dolby digital track.

If you connect the optical output aswell as the RCA plugs for the sound, will PS/2 use the optical output as a default or would you need to actually unplug the L and R RCA sound outputs?

B5R2D22- It would probably use the RCA until you went into the PS2 main menu & turned on the digital-out. If you want 5.1 on movies, you have to start the movie, then stop it and turn on the digital-out on the PS2 dvd menu (different from the main). I don't know if it's because there's no internal decoder in the PS2, but I use the Monster optical cable and everything shows up as stereo on my receiver. However, even though it says stereo, I can hear sound behind me in many games- NHL 2001 during play, and ATV & GT3 during movies and on GT3 I can hear engines behind me right up until the race starts. Is this because it has no internal decoder that everything shows as stereo, but plays in the proper surround?

If you hook up the optical cable for the PS2, you also have to hook up the RCA plugs because some games won't support the optical digital sound. The best way to do it is to hook them up seperate, say the RCA to 1 input on your receiver or the TV itself, and the optical cable to another input. I default to always using the optical cable because even with games that don't have any 5.1 movies it still gives much cleaner and more powerful sound (Games like SSX and Madden you can really hear the difference).

However some games don't support digital sound at all (Fantavision comes to mind, not sure what the other I had that did this was) and you have to then use the RCA regular stereo sound.

I am positive I hear discrete channels in the replays.