Sounds in 3D
[The feature associated with this page, DirectSound, is a legacy feature. It has been superseded by WASAPI and Audio Graphs. Media Casting have been optimized for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Microsoft strongly recommends that new code use Media Casting instead of DirectSound, when possible. Microsoft suggests that existing code that uses the legacy APIs be rewritten to use the new APIs if possible.]
Using DirectSound, you can create a 3D world for sounds that can be integrated with 3D graphics. You can locate sound sources and the listener in space, apply Doppler shift to moving sounds, and control physical parameters such as the rate at which sound attenuates over distance.
DirectSound can create virtual 3D effects on two speakers or a set of headphones. It will also take advantage of multichannel systems with WDM drivers if the user has selected a surround sound speaker configuration in Control Panel. For more information, see DSBUFFERDESC.
Information on how to use 3D sound in an application is found in the following sections: