Need help getting X-Fi digital optical input to output to USB

install the driver?
The X-Fi has doesn't really have anything to do with outputting the audio to the usb port. That is handled by software which is why you need a seperate driver from logitech.

Actually now I think alittle more on it, I wonder if the optical codec is blocking audio output to an unsecure (to usb) output like it would in a home theatre setup...
thats if you have the g35 sofware all loded.  

I definitely do have all the G35 software installed and activated. I have used it fairly often to play PC games (Left 4 Dead 2, CoD: Modern Warfare 2, Team Fortress 2), but I decided I'd like to use it while playing my PS3 and Xbox 360 as well. The digital input from the consoles works fine going into my X-Fi and then out my surround sound speakers, but when I want to use headphones I can't get the output to redirect to the G35. In the Control Panel's Sound Playback tab I have the G35 set to default, but the digital input keeps outputing through the speakers (even when I disable them). I can even output music or PC games through the G35 at the same time PS3/Xbox 360 sound is coming out of my PC speakers, but nothing I fiddle with gets the digital input into the X-Fi to ouput to USB.

I really like the sound field created by the G35 so I would love to use them with my consoles too. Any ideas?

All USB headsets use their own audio driver which pre-emps the soundcard. Using a G35 with a fatality is silly, as the Fatality will never actually DO anything when using the G35.

In this case, you want to use your soundcards optical input, and output via USB. Short answer: You can't. [Well, maybe using software, it MIGHT be possible, but ive never seen a reliable way...].

Its for this reason why people with soundcards should NEVER go the USB route...you kill any advantage a sound card gives you.

I realized that I wouldn't be using the features of the X-Fi if I could output the signal to USB, but I had been using the G35 on my laptop and found that I liked the virtual surround sound produced with the second generation Dolby Headphone technology used by the G35 more than the virtual surround sound created with CMSS-3D from the X-Fi on my desktop. Granted, the quality of the G35 headphones is substantially higher than the ones I was plugging into my X-Fi (Logitech Precision PC Gaming Deadset http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/gaming/headsets/devic... ). So perhaps the quality of the headphones was making me enjoy the Dolby Headphone experience more than the CMSS-3D Experience.

I guess I'll get a better headset to plug into the X-Fi, maybe that will change my opinion of CMSS-3D.