EAX Settings

[FigKnight]

Hey, Taffers.
There's a setting in Thief called EAX which I'm not sure about. I play the game with no hardware acceleration with earphones or headphones and it seems to use stereo. I turned EAX on after switching to the OpenAL option and it seems to blend the directions together and makes the game sound very echoey. I've seen a lot of people say to play with EAX on but it doesn't seem very good.
Is it a problem or am I an idiot?

[Francisè von Spitroast]

Maybe you're just not used to the sound. It's far more realistic, simulating 5.1 type audio rather than just left and right providing better soundstage. It also simulates the sound of the environment in the game. If you're in an empty room with tiles for example every step will echo around the room. If you're underwater it'll provide better sound depicting how it would be underwater. Maybe you're just in a very echoey room?

I don't have an EAX card either. OpenAL from my understanding seems to simulate what hardware would usually do but with software meaning any sound card EAX or not can have 3D audio.

I couldn't imagine playing without it now, and I thought it would be objectively better despite anyones tastes but maybe not, and if not, then just play with whatever suits you. But I'd say play with it for a bit and see whether you grow to like it because I think it's pretty incredible.

[FigKnight]

I think it may have to do with my headphones. I'm not really good with audio channels or 4.1 or 7.1 headphones but the headphones might not support everything. I started playing thief a few months ago and I've loved it so far. How many audio channels should I have on I think that's what's causing trouble.

[Francisè von Spitroast]

Originally posted by FigKnight:

I think it may have to do with my headphones. I'm not really good with audio channels or 4.1 or 7.1 headphones but the headphones might not support everything. I started playing thief a few months ago and I've loved it so far. How many audio channels should I have on I think that's what's causing trouble.

My headphones are cheap stereo ones. It has no relation to hardware. I set audio channels to max.

[FigKnight]

I see. I played a bit more with EAX since my last reply and I've gotten quite used to it, although it doesn't seem to help that much and it can sound odd a few times. Will it work ok with earphones? I doubt it but I prefer playing thief with them

[Francisè von Spitroast]

Originally posted by FigKnight:

I see. I played a bit more with EAX since my last reply and I've gotten quite used to it, although it doesn't seem to help that much and it can sound odd a few times. Will it work ok with earphones? I doubt it but I prefer playing thief with them

Works well with anything, as long as it doesn't output mono, which is something incredibly hard to find nowadays anyway. I used to play it with earphones.

[FigKnight]

Thank you for your help. I shall now be playing with EAX enambled

[Francisè von Spitroast]

Originally posted by FigKnight:

Thank you for your help. I shall now be playing with EAX enambled

Np. Have fun

[Dramblys Vienaakis Išmintingas]

Wow. All this time I didn't notice the EAX setting and now that I enabled it, it feels like a brand new game.

[FigKnight]

Originally posted by yuuki:

Wow. All this time I didn't notice the EAX setting and now that I enabled it, it feels like a brand new game.

Glad I could improve your experience, albiet accidently

[historiainferro]

I love the EAX setting! It just makes the game soundscape so vibrant. Being able to hear the clicking of Craymen from below on Cathedral, the howling of the ambient wind loop.... Highly immersive. For me, at least.

I have to say that you need to give it some time to settle in. It's like an informational overload the first time you turn it on. You get too much thrown at you, and you need to re-train your ear to discern beteween distant and close-by footfalls, and the such.

Back in the day, I had some obsolescent audio card the game didn't properly support (this was in the Dark Project days), and I remember being amazed just how much it made the game play better once we upgraded to something more modern at the time.

Sad that sound design went down hill from the two LGS games. Deadly Shadows a noticable amount of roll back in terms of how sound propagated, because you had only three sound states during movement. And the reboot was the sound design being thrown to the Unwritten Times.

[FigKnight]

Originally posted by historiainferro:

I love the EAX setting! It just makes the game soundscape so vibrant. Being able to hear the clicking of Craymen from below on Cathedral, the howling of the ambient wind loop.... Highly immersive. For me, at least.

I have to say that you need to give it some time to settle in. It's like an informational overload the first time you turn it on. You get too much thrown at you, and you need to re-train your ear to discern beteween distant and close-by footfalls, and the such.

Back in the day, I had some obsolescent audio card the game didn't properly support (this was in the Dark Project days), and I remember being amazed just how much it made the game play better once we upgraded to something more modern at the time.

Sad that sound design went down hill from the two LGS games. Deadly Shadows a noticable amount of roll back in terms of how sound propagated, because you had only three sound states during movement. And the reboot was the sound design being thrown to the Unwritten Times.

I played the reboot/sequel/sin without knowing there were Thief games before it. I didn't like it. But now that I've started playing Thief Gold it's become one of my favourite series. And turning on EAX has improved my experience greatly

[Francisè von Spitroast]

Originally posted by FigKnight:

Originally posted by historiainferro:

I love the EAX setting! It just makes the game soundscape so vibrant. Being able to hear the clicking of Craymen from below on Cathedral, the howling of the ambient wind loop.... Highly immersive. For me, at least.

I have to say that you need to give it some time to settle in. It's like an informational overload the first time you turn it on. You get too much thrown at you, and you need to re-train your ear to discern beteween distant and close-by footfalls, and the such.

Back in the day, I had some obsolescent audio card the game didn't properly support (this was in the Dark Project days), and I remember being amazed just how much it made the game play better once we upgraded to something more modern at the time.

Sad that sound design went down hill from the two LGS games. Deadly Shadows a noticable amount of roll back in terms of how sound propagated, because you had only three sound states during movement. And the reboot was the sound design being thrown to the Unwritten Times.

I played the reboot/sequel/sin without knowing there were Thief games before it. I didn't like it. But now that I've started playing Thief Gold it's become one of my favourite series. And turning on EAX has improved my experience greatly

Don't listen to the hate about DS by the way, me and a lot of others think it's as good as the previous two. Definitely give it a shot.

[FigKnight]

I played a bit of DS a while ago and I like it but I think it's not as good as the first two. So far at least.

[historiainferro]

I'd second the recommendation on Deadly Shadows. Just a stellar game (once you get to the grips with some choices made by Ion Storm during development) all around. But, if you really want the best out of that game, you need the Sneaky Upgrade & Thief 3 Gold package.

Also, I've recently played DS, but not before instaling the sould librares for EAX. Does the same OpenAL library enable the EAX option in DS, too?

Also, also:

I played the reboot/sequel/sin without knowing there were Thief games before it. I didn't like it. But now that I've started playing Thief Gold it's become one of my favourite series.

Glad that we got you on the right side of the franchise! Builder be praised, at least one person was rescued from that glorious mess.

[Francisè von Spitroast]

Originally posted by historiainferro:

Also, I've recently played DS, but not before instaling the sould librares for EAX. Does the same OpenAL library enable the EAX option in DS, too?

I remember looking into this a while ago and for some downloading Audacity and messing around in there worked but it didn't for me after trying the steps. I can't exactly remember what you had to do in there either but I saw on the thread only a very few amount got it working. I wouldn't bother tbh