lost_soul on 27/6/2009 at 23:23
Quote Posted by Bikerdude
i think that eat up a shed load of cpu cycles...:p
I remember games from ten years ago having reverberation effects and support for Dolby surround sound on any basic sound card (like Unreal/UT). If a Pentium 2 could do that, I'm sure our monster Core 2 Duos/quad cores could handle it with Thief.
Dan on 21/10/2009 at 20:24
Well the Audigy are capable of EAX, but I'm not familiar with this exact model. Maybe SE means Audigy 2. I had an Audigy 2 for quite some time and it run both Thief1/2 and Thief DS perfectly, plus its more affordable than the x-fi.
Somebody_Else on 21/10/2009 at 23:27
Quote Posted by Bonusbartus
Well first off, If you would want to install vista you can forget about EAX, it just doesn't work unless you buy an Asus Xonar which is reasonably expensive.
Not true. EAX still works just fine on Vista/7 with the Audigy/X-Fi cards, you just need to install Creative Alchemy and set up a profile for Thief I/II.
Quote Posted by ticky
Is this audio card good for Thief 2? Someone mentioned that some Sound Blaster series are not exactly compatible with it.
According to (
http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=205&product=14257) Creative it supports up to EAX 3, so it should work.
Dan on 22/10/2009 at 07:08
Yes, EAX works wonderfully on Vista but you need ALchemy installed - I all ready mentioned it for the Vista F.A.Q. update.
Quote Posted by Somebody_Else
According to Creative it supports up to EAX 3, so it should work.
Interesting. I wasn't able to find this edition on the creative site, but it indeed shows (in a review) EAX 3.0 as well as the Audigy 2 card. And I remember having ADVANCED HD Multiple Environment feature in Thief DS (which requires EAX 4). Then I remembered that Creative released a patch for all Audigys to support EAX 4.0.
So
ticky, you won't mistake with an Audigy card, if you use it for Thief 2 and even for Thief 3.
ticky on 22/10/2009 at 08:42
Ok, so I'll purchase an Audigy SE.
Dan on 22/10/2009 at 09:20
Quote Posted by ticky
Ok, so I'll purchase an Audigy SE.
To play Thief 1 or 2 to their full audio potential you need EAX 2, to play TDS and enable all the audio extras you need EAX 4. Do some research and decide what will suite you best.
piln on 29/10/2009 at 11:22
Quote Posted by Bikerdude
all Xfi cards (but not the xfi extreme audio)
I was wondering what you meant by this so did a bit of googling, thought the results were worth posting here for the OP & anyone else who ought to know:
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster_X-Fi#X-Fi_Xtreme_Audio) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster_X-Fi#X-Fi_Xtreme_Audio
Quote:
X-Fi Xtreme AudioThe entry-level model of the X-Fi series, the Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio, does not actually have the EMU20K1 chip but is a re-branded Audigy SE, using the same family of chips (CA0106-WBTLF), and even the same drivers.[9] Thus, not only is all of the X-Fi-related processing performed in software, but it also lacks basic hardware acceleration just like the SB Live! 24-bit, the Audigy SE and other budget Soundblaster models. The X-Fi Xtreme Audio does not use the same drivers as the rest of the X-Fi family, some games do not recognize it as being "X-Fi capable hardware", and the device's hardware profile resembles that of older Live! and Audigy cards.
Furthermore, users have reported that it slows down some applications and games, and that rear sound in games (all) is muffled and of profoundly low quality.[18][19][20] Thus, even if the card is marketed as part of the X-Fi line, it does not belong to it technically, just like the Audigy SE doesn't technically belong to the Sound Blaster Audigy series. The card is not marketed as supporting the "X-Fi Gaming Mode" (but is still marketed as "X-Fi"), and there are no official implicit or explicit statements regarding its having hardware acceleration or not.
I also found a thread on Tom's Hardware discussing EAX on ASUS cards:
(
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-264491_10_0.html#t1961416)
Quote:
Basically, only EAX 1, 2, and 5 are officially supported an ASUS cards (very few games used 3 or 4 anyways). What ASUS did was interpret the EAX calls driver level via its GX engine. Works very well, but some effects will be a bit off.
For instance, in "true" EAX 5 Bioshock, if you go from a large room to a small room, you'll get the gradual change in environmental sounds as you pass through the rooms, where on an ASUS card, you'll go from "Large room" to a "small room" environment instantaneously once you pass into the smaller room. Granted, this can still be improved in drivers, but its worth noting.
Assuming the above is correct, there might also be an issue with The Dark Mod as that uses EAX 4.0 I think.
Does anyone have any experience of the (
http://uk.europe.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=209&subcategory=669&product=17751) external X-Fi 5.1 USB thingy with any of the Thief games?
