[owenhan]

I currently have A700's connected to a XtremeMusic and I'm pretty happy with the immersion in games due to CMSS3D and EAX or whatever it is the X-Fi does. I know the STX will be an enormous upgrade in terms of music but I was just hoping it wouldn't be a lot worse for gaming and movies.

So what do you guys think? I've heard you can enable 5.1 in windows and then use Dolby Headphone in games and movies but that the STX's imitation EAX is buggy and crap. I honestly have no idea what EAX does and games like MW2 don't have an option to turn on EAX anyway so that doesn't really make a difference right? I'm just worried about losing CMSS3D and whatever else it is the X-Fi does that makes my games sound so awesome. Will the STX and Dolby Headphone compare to what I have at the moment?

I'm most likely going to purchase this card purely for the music factor alone, but I'd like to know if I should expect an inferior gaming experience.

 

[Gilly]

If you run Vista/ 7 then EAX only works with Creative Alchemy and Alchemy profile. However, OpenAL games will run.

The only "problem" with the EAX on the STX is it will only run up to EAX 2.0 IIRC, and it uses CPU cycles (in other words, it's not hardware accelerated).

Not sure about the CMSS 3D and the Dolby Headphone, it's been ages since I played anything other than World of Warcraft (that ****ing game....) so I don't remember exactly what options you get here and there.

 

[owenhan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gilly /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you run Vista/ 7 then EAX only works with Creative Alchemy and Alchemy profile. However, OpenAL games will run.

By this do u mean that out of the games that do support EAX only some of them will work? Also is EAX an option you select in game or something the sound card does automatically? Because I have this checkbox in the Audio Control Panel that says 'Enable EAX Effects' and below it is a decibel slider and an empty box of 'Active Presets'. I have a feeling it doesn't do anything because I remember my ZS had a similar setting and there was a list of environments like theatre or concert hall that the sound card would try to simulate.

 

[Gilly]

Say for example EAX2.0 on COD2, if you play on XP the EAX extras are processed and used.

If you play the same game with same settings on Vista, it doesn't use EAX, Vista/ 7's "Audio Stack" doesn't work in the same way as XP does. This means that if you are playing a game that uses EAX, unless Creative Alchemy takes over, and bypasses the audio stack, the game plain wouldn't use it. What seems to be happening, is that EAX is dying out, and OpenAL and software audio is taking over. This is simply because....

It's easier to make the game, or port from consoles (increasing occurance) and fewer people have soundcards generally now, IMO, and the built in sound is closing the gap to X-Fi cards in gaming terms anyway.

What I am basically saying is.... I don't know how the Dolby thing will handle gaming in the same way as CMSS 3D does.

BUT you won't IMO be missing out on much with the lack of EAX 5.0 support (for example).

EDIT:

Some games have EAX option in the game. Over and above this, the Creative control panel has futher options called EAX, it is not one and the same thing

 

[owenhan]

Ok thanks a lot it's good to know I won't be missing EAX at least. I'd still like to hear some impressions of DH in games and the overall differences in experience between the X-Fi and the STX from anyone who's had a chance to play with both.