[leftear]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bryson /img/forum/go_quote.gif Now that EAX is dying and the essence stx supports openAL

Yes, forget about EAX that is dead, new game now all DirectX supported with direct sound go for Essence STX

 

[ear8dmg]

Where have people got the idea that EAX is dead? It keeps getting repeated like a mantra with no justification. Of the games I'm currently playing through, Bioshock, Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed and Far Cry 2 all use EAX 3-5. There are plenty of other new games that do too.

EAX works in Vista either by OpenAL or with Alchemy.

It's precisely because EAX is showing no sign of going away that I've moved back from a Xonar D2 to an X-Fi Prelude. It will continue to be used frequently as long as Creative keep encouraging developers to use their proprietary technology. They're still actively marketing X-Fi and branching out into motherboard audio supporting up to EAX4 so it won't go away any time soon.

The Xonar's implementatation of EAX up to 5 is better than any other non-creative card out there but an X-Fi gives real improvement over Xonar in many games.

 

[RicHSAD]

I tried using EAX with all sorts of sound cards and it always sounded like crap in every single games. It seems to add a lot of echo/reverb to the sound and it just doesn't sound natural at all. The sooner it dies the better.

 

[43st]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RicHSAD /img/forum/go_quote.gif I tried using EAX with all sorts of sound cards and it always sounded like crap in every single games. It seems to add a lot of echo/reverb to the sound and it just doesn't sound natural at all. The sooner it dies the better.

As with anything it's how it's implemented that matters.. And of course some games do a much better job than others. But to say that environmental effects in games should die is a bit of an ignorant comment.

BTW, most EAX/OpenAL capable cards allow you to either turn on or off the feature or adjust it's level.

 

[ear8dmg]

As stated, EAX is very dependent on the developers for convincing implementation.

If done well (i.e. sounding so natural you don't notice it), I've enjoyed it. Good examples of EAX games are Bioshock (EAX5), Assassins Creed (EAX4), Theif: Deadly Shadows (EAX4).

A bad example would be Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Awful echoing that's best disabled.

Although X-Fi, Audigy and Xonar can do EAX well, I've never had a pleasant experience with EAX using onboard.

Edit: List of games using EAX (1+2) and EAX Advanced HD (3, 4 +5) here: http://www.soundblaster.com/technolo...ax&j2=gamelist

 

[ear8dmg]

By the way, I swapped out my old Sony minidisc AC adapter for a generic 500MA balanced unit with 3v input. SU-DH1 is now working fine with the new AC adapter. The problem with it not reconising 24/96 is gone.

 

[ear8dmg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROBSCIX /img/forum/go_quote.gif We developed software a little while back that allowed a person to use two cards one with a hardware DSP and one for output. They were linked internally using low latency software patch. This gave the user the ability to have full hardware gaming effects but higher quality sound from the second card. Any fatures avilable on either card was avilable to the user. The software is called "Velbac" To note, I have been playing Mirrors edge and have had no issue with the STX and ingame videos...

ROB, I tried running with a Xonar D2 and a Prelude in the same machine a few months ago. I found I couldn't get Alchemy working if more than one sound device was installed.

Have you been able to get Alchemy working in Vista x64 with a second soundcard installed?

 

[ROBSCIX]

The software was really tricky with the X-fi based cards.

I never did any testing with X64 sorry.

I had a Audigy 2 and X-Meridian running with ALchemy installed and the other tester was using a X-fi and the X-Meridian 7.1. These tests were all done quite a while ago though. Have you tried contacting the author?

Wish I could be of more help.