Looking for an EAX games to 'wow' me

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Konstantinnovation

Gawd
Joined
Jun 25, 2001
Messages
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I have been playing Guild Wars which has fairly basic sound and want to have some really nice experiences with my new Audigy 2 Platinum Pro ZS.

Any suggestions from the audio guys?

I specifically put this under audio not games. I am more interested in the audio of the game than the actual game play. What game would really make me go 'WOW' with my new sound card?
 
MaxPayne2 has some very good surround sound, highly recommend it for its great story and great gameplay..


you should be able to pick it up for 10$ now..

and if you are interested in the story then see if you can pickup MP1 too, you should be able to breeze through the first one in a good 5 or 6 hours of play..
 
haha, I didnt realize MP2 had really good sound, I'll install it and check.

I was thinking of Jedi Knight 2 or something but thats because Creative was pimping it.

I want a new Aliens vs Predator game... =P
 
yea Republic Commando has good sound, most LA titles will have good quality sounds..

dont' remember COD much but then again most WWII War games i've played had good sound,

Pacific assualt and Hidden and Dangerous 2 come to mind..


my favorite surround sound in MP2 is when in bullet time and you do the reload animation (circles around)..

makes me want to play MP2 again..
 
GodsMadClown said:
I said "Wow," after I turned my EAX off. It made things sound silly.
Click to expand...

Are you talking about turning off EAX settings in the EAX control panel or disabling EAX from within the game? They are 2 different things. When gaming, the EAX control panel settings should all be off.

I would agree that mucking with EAX settings when playing music isn't much more than a toy application. However, I think the gaming end of EAX is worthwhile. I wonder if most people who complain about EAX realize that there is a difference between settings for music playback and settings for games? I'll admit that Creative has confused the issue over the years by using EAX as more of a brand name applied to ALL of their tech rather than as a name for some precisely defined set of features. I've seen people use the term EAX (incorrectly) in reference to 3D positioning, "surround sound", or as an alternative tech to Dolby Prologic, Dolby Digtal, etc.
 
I like the EAX (the in-game- settings) in:
FarCry 1.3
Doom 1.3
Colin McCrae Rally 2005
Shadow ops : Red mercury
Rome Total War

Terra...
 
peltman78 said:
Call of duty was great.
Click to expand...

No thanks, the tinny ultra-unrealistic rifle, smg, grenade, and pistol sounds echoing is not a pleasant experience.
 
Since you have been mentioning versions of th egames, how do the patches for Farcry and Doom3 affect the sound?

*edit* Never post at 6am just after waking up.
 
sickpuppy said:
Since you have been mentioning versions of th egames, how do the patches for Farcry and Doom3 affect the sound?
Click to expand...

The EAX support in Farcry improved with the 1.3 patch for me, before that the sound would "glicht"...some sounds would dissapear after a while of gaming.

The Doom3 1.3 patch gave EAX4.0 HD support, as there where no EAX support before...

Terra..
 
ScHpAnKy said:
No thanks, the tinny ultra-unrealistic rifle, smg, grenade, and pistol sounds echoing is not a pleasant experience.
Click to expand...

1. Turn up the bass.
2. Have you tried firing a real gun in an urban enviroment? The sounds does infact echo...

Terra - 2½ years in the Danish Army Recon Force ;)
 
ScHpAnKy said:
It has damn good virtualization, though
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There is no virtualization in HL2 either (if by virtualization you mean HRTF-based 3D source positioning over headphones or 2 speakers). From what I can tell, it does not support any 3D audio API. It uses the Miles Sound System but the included Miles components lacks any xxx.m3d files which I believe are 3D audio API plugins (RSX, Miles Fast 2D Positional, DirectSound3D, QSound, etc).

One way I have verified this is that the game sounds different on an Audigy 2 ZS soundcard depending on whether CMSS1 or CMSS2 is selected. According to the Soundblaster Audio Technology Glossary on Creative's website, CMSS1 and CMSS2 are the same when you use headphones and the source is 3D (ie. DirectSound3D, OpenAL, etc.). Try a DirectSound3D game with both CMSS1 and CMSS2 and they will sound the same. However, if the source is non-3D (2-channel or multi-channel), CMSS2 adds "Virtual Accoustics" while CMSS1 does not. This basically equates to reverb/echos which you can definitely hear when playing HL2 with CMSS2. So I conclude that HL2 audio is not a 3D source and instead has a custom engine that directly outputs sound to however many speakers you have selected.

Here's a link to a table describing CMSS on Creative's site:
CMSS table

Here is a quote from Kelly Bailey (Valve's sound guy) confirming the same:
"There is no current plan in HL2 to directly support HRTF or other driver-provided headphone modes. However, there is an embedded headphone mode which enhances spatialization of mono audio sources by providing a left/right differential delay based on room size."
And a link:
Halflife2.net forums

So they have included the differential delay part, but not the more important HRTF part. In generally, it totally ignores hardware-based 3D audio which means for example that HL2 will not benefit from the new HRTF implementation on Creative's new X-Fi processor. That kind of sucks because it means that the original Counter-Strike, which supports DirectSound3D, will (and probably already does) have better 3D positioning over headphones than CS:S.

If anyone has found any info to the contrary, I'd like to hear it.
 
I just popped the 1.3 patch onto doom3, and I may need to play the expansion so I can experience something new.

Interesting, very interesting.

I think my video card came with Farcry, I'll try that next.
 
EAX is like an aural spatialzer? Like Qsound? Or is it a 5.1 system?

Its not a game, but Madonna's Immaculate Collection was recorded in Qsound, and tastefully so. I think they only applied it to certain instruments instead of the whole recording itself.

I had a Montego sound card that had something like EAX, but I can't remember what it was.

In this day and age as a game maker I wouldn't worry about improving the 2ch, I would go directly to multichannel. Halo2 with Dolby Digital on the fly is one of my favorite sounding games. The single player missions are best because of alot of ambient noise.
 
Terra said:
1. Turn up the bass.
2. Have you tried firing a real gun in an urban enviroment? The sounds does infact echo...

Terra - 2½ years in the Danish Army Recon Force ;)
Click to expand...

1.) It's not the lows that sound tinny, it's the mids and highs
2.) Yes, I own several, I do realize it echos but the EAX echoes are a joke
 
thomase said:
There is no virtualization in HL2 either (if by virtualization you mean HRTF-based 3D source positioning over headphones or 2 speakers). From what I can tell, it does not support any 3D audio API. It uses the Miles Sound System but the included Miles components lacks any xxx.m3d files which I believe are 3D audio API plugins (RSX, Miles Fast 2D Positional, DirectSound3D, QSound, etc).

One way I have verified this is that the game sounds different on an Audigy 2 ZS soundcard depending on whether CMSS1 or CMSS2 is selected. According to the Soundblaster Audio Technology Glossary on Creative's website, CMSS1 and CMSS2 are the same when you use headphones and the source is 3D (ie. DirectSound3D, OpenAL, etc.). Try a DirectSound3D game with both CMSS1 and CMSS2 and they will sound the same. However, if the source is non-3D (2-channel or multi-channel), CMSS2 adds "Virtual Accoustics" while CMSS1 does not. This basically equates to reverb/echos which you can definitely hear when playing HL2 with CMSS2. So I conclude that HL2 audio is not a 3D source and instead has a custom engine that directly outputs sound to however many speakers you have selected.

Here's a link to a table describing CMSS on Creative's site:
CMSS table

Here is a quote from Kelly Bailey (Valve's sound guy) confirming the same:
"There is no current plan in HL2 to directly support HRTF or other driver-provided headphone modes. However, there is an embedded headphone mode which enhances spatialization of mono audio sources by providing a left/right differential delay based on room size."
And a link:
Halflife2.net forums

So they have included the differential delay part, but not the more important HRTF part. In generally, it totally ignores hardware-based 3D audio which means for example that HL2 will not benefit from the new HRTF implementation on Creative's new X-Fi processor. That kind of sucks because it means that the original Counter-Strike, which supports DirectSound3D, will (and probably already does) have better 3D positioning over headphones than CS:S.

If anyone has found any info to the contrary, I'd like to hear it.
Click to expand...


I mean it in the most literal sense possible, for example: something happens behind you... it happens BEHIND you. And doesn't the HL2 engine use ogg vorbis or uncompressed wavs? Regardless, the sounds are crystal clear, and it absolutely astounds me
 
ScHpAnKy said:
I mean it in the most literal sense possible, for example: something happens behind you... it happens BEHIND you. And doesn't the HL2 engine use ogg vorbis or uncompressed wavs? Regardless, the sounds are crystal clear, and it absolutely astounds me
Click to expand...

Please be more specific. What is your setup? I can understand if you are using multi-channel speakers with 1 or more rear speakers, you will be able to hear sounds behind you.

However, I don't think this is the case with headphones. If HRTF was suppported, there should be a difference in a sound coming from the front-left compared to rear-left for example. The rear sounds should be slightly muffled. Personally, I can't hear a difference. This is NOT the case with games like Call of Duty or FarCry (hardware 3D audio supported). I CAN hear a difference in these games.
 
ScHpAnKy said:
1.) It's not the lows that sound tinny, it's the mids and highs
2.) Yes, I own several, I do realize it echos but the EAX echoes are a joke
Click to expand...

I must admit that I haven't played the game in question, but I know from Urban Warfare Traning and 2 tours in Former-Yugolavia, that echos are petty much all you hear, in a street fight...
We focus on visual spotting, not listening, as the sound bonces all over the freaking place...
And no matter how BIG you speakers are they will never be able to even come close to the dB/feel of real-war...

Terra - I have never heard NOTHING make so much noise as real-life-warfare...
 
thomase said:
The rear sounds should be slightly muffled. Personally, I can't hear a difference. This is NOT the case with games like Call of Duty or FarCry (hardware 3D audio supported). I CAN hear a difference in these games.
Click to expand...

I have a 5.1 audio setup and the first times I gamed with that, I took my self in turning my head away from the screen with sounds from behind, toward the apparent direcetion of the sound, in order to get a visual confermation..stupid army habbit...
But today after 5-10 min. of gameplay I get immersed into the game and don't do that any more...

Terra - But some reflecs die hard...
 
I have a 7.1 audio setup, matching 2 front, 2 side, and then 2 dipole rears. In CS:S the positioning is quite obvious and clear. I can immediately pick out what direction a weapon is being fired be it from behind me to the right or directly to my left side. It's the game I notice most of the difference in since it actually helps me play.
 
MonsterZero said:
I have a 7.1 audio setup, matching 2 front, 2 side, and then 2 dipole rears. In CS:S the positioning is quite obvious and clear. I can immediately pick out what direction a weapon is being fired be it from behind me to the right or directly to my left side. It's the game I notice most of the difference in since it actually helps me play.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but I have the impression(please correct me if I am wrong) that the sound in HL2(and thus CS:S) is software based, and thus eating up more CPU than a 3D audio solution would do.

Terra...
 
AznAnarchy99 said:
doom 1.3 hands down
Click to expand...

wow i didnt know they had a version between 1 and 2. you guys are like a decade behind. get doom 3.











[/joke]
 
Anyone know some other games that work great with 7.1, EAX or not? I'm getting some 7.1 speakers soon and would like to know.

And is Half Life 2 limited to 5 speakers?
 
Terra said:
Yeah, but I have the impression(please correct me if I am wrong) that the sound in HL2(and thus CS:S) is software based, and thus eating up more CPU than a 3D audio solution would do.

Terra...
Click to expand...

Ya maybe... but... guess the weight you throw with that really depends on your computer setup. If you have a CPU that would actually get bogged down by something like that then ya I guess you should care. I have a hard time believing that too many gaming systems these days are going to get really hammered with some more audio processing. 5% reduction in framerate? 100FPS to 95? who cares. even 50 to 48..


If you're not impressed with the audio in games today.. or the performance of the cards out today.. then ya I guess wait for the X-Fi (which sounds cool, was just reading about it today) and wait for more games to come out... in any case they are coming, and they'll be faster.

I just play WoW and CS:S like 95% right now. WoW is EAX HD friendly.. I was actually playing with it the other night after reading this post, turning in a circle (In Dun Modr listening to the rifle gunfire), listening to sounds come from different directions... it is nice.. it is immersive... can't say it's going to help my gameplay any but it does make things that much more enjoyable.
 
lmaro said:
Anyone know some other games that work great with 7.1, EAX or not? I'm getting some 7.1 speakers soon and would like to know.
Click to expand...
Nearly games that support DirectSound3D/OpenAL will support 7 channel audio as long as you have a soundcard like the A2/A4 series. The number of discrete channels that are supported are dependent on the soundcard, not the game.
 
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