reforger-surround

PipeWire/PulseAudio helper for exposing Arma Reforger's 5.1 output on Linux.

This project has two parts:

• Create a temporary 5.1 sink so Reforger negotiates surround channels.
• Manually open the Carla EQ project and wire it to your real stereo output.

Watching the graph in qpwgraph is recommended while testing.

Requirements

• PipeWire with PulseAudio compatibility
• pactl
• Arma Reforger through Steam/Proton

For the Carla EQ stage on Arch:

sudo pacman -S carla lsp-plugins-vst

Install

install -Dm755 reforger-surround ~/.local/bin/reforger-surround

1. Expose Reforger 5.1

Preferred flow:

reforger-surround launch

This creates the 5.1 sink, makes it default, launches Reforger, waits for the game audio stream, restores your previous default device, then exposes Reforger back to the 5.1 sink.

Check the result:

reforger-surround check

Good:

Sample Specification: ... 6ch 48000Hz
Channel Map: front-left,front-right,front-center,lfe,rear-left,rear-right

If launch errors or times out, use the manual flow:

reforger-surround up
# launch Arma Reforger manually
reforger-surround restore
reforger-surround check

If Reforger negotiates only 2ch, restart the game and investigate manually with qpwgraph, reforger-surround status, and pactl list sink-inputs.

Expected final QPWGraph wiring:

2. Open ReforgerEQ Carla

Open reforger-audio.carxp through Carla:

pw-jack /usr/bin/python3 /usr/share/carla/carla --with-appname=carla --with-libprefix=/usr /path/to/reforger-audio.carxp

Optional KDE launcher:

• Open the start menu.
• Choose Edit Applications.
• Create a new item.
• Name: Reforger EQ Carla
• Program: pw-jack
• Command line arguments: /usr/bin/python3 /usr/share/carla/carla --with-appname=carla --with-libprefix=/usr /path/to/reforger-audio.carxp

3. Carla Output Wiring

Carla patchbay example:

Wire Carla outputs to your real output device's playback ports:

Output 1 -> playback_FL
Output 2 -> playback_FR
Output 3 -> playback_FL and playback_FR
Output 4 -> playback_FL
Output 5 -> playback_FR

Useful Commands

reforger-surround up       # create sink, save default, make 5.1 default
reforger-surround launch   # up, launch Steam app, wait for stream, restore
reforger-surround restore  # restore previous default, then expose Reforger
reforger-surround expose   # move running Reforger stream to the 5.1 sink
reforger-surround check    # report whether Reforger is 2ch or 6ch
reforger-surround down     # restore default and unload the 5.1 sink

Configuration

REFORGER_SURROUND_SINK_NAME=reforger_surround_51
REFORGER_SURROUND_DESCRIPTION="Reforger Surround 5.1"
REFORGER_SURROUND_APP_NAME="Arma Reforger"
REFORGER_SURROUND_STEAM_URI=steam://rungameid/1874880
REFORGER_SURROUND_WAIT_SECONDS=90

LFE may be silent even when Reforger is outputting 6ch.