How do you get EAX sound working? (Sneaky Upgrade)

[sull]

Hey all, I've been playing TDS and I've noticed that enabling "Audio Hardware Mixing" in the audio options seems to mute the game's sounds. The EAX options are grayed out entirely.

This is strange, since my computer has been able to take full advantage of OpenAL and EAX sound processing in both of the previous Thief games.

I am using the Sneaky Upgrade, and cannot recall if these options worked before installing the patch.

[😎 𝓣𝓪𝓯𝓯𝒆𝓻𝔀𝓸𝓬𝓴𝔂 😎]

Yeah, I don't think anyone can get that to work. You need eax on your soundcard. Thief 1 and 2 only support openal because the fan patches had direct access to the source code and could manually add it in, but the sneaky upgrade is more of a hack job and can't make such complex improvements.

[sull]

Tafferwocky strikes again! xD

I guess I was a bit spoiled by being able to "max out" the sound options in the older games. Curse these new-fangled game engines!

I must say, however, that Deadly Shadows sounds really good even without the spooky reverb effects. #2immersive4me

[😎 𝓣𝓪𝓯𝓯𝒆𝓻𝔀𝓸𝓬𝓴𝔂 😎]

Haha yes, I remember helping you before! :)

Personally I've never been bothered by the lack of EAX, as it always makes the games sound ridiculously reverby. As if you're in a massive stone cavern, when you're actually in a small carpeted room. Fortunately the games's sound effects have a certain amount of reverb pre-baked into them to compensate for people who don't/can't use EAX.

[sull]

You have a point there. Some indoor spaces did sound strange due to the excessive reverb in Thief 2. Outdoor spaces fared better IMO, but even then it confused the sound-based gameplay: your footsteps would seem to echo a great distance, but no one would actually notice your approach.

Since Thief 3 has higher quality sounds and is simply more modern to begin with, I figured it might be more realistic about the EAX stuff. I guess it's not really necessary though.

Thanks for the helpful response!

[Anderson]

I think it's just a matter of getting used to.
Like, when I played a little with EAX and turned it off, it was odd how i could play the game 2/3 times without it! The thing that needs to be probably a little set up is how it works in small apartment-like rooms, but even then it should be fine for the most part. Great attention was given to sound reverb in stone built corridors.

[donwallo]

I just played Thief Gold and Thief 2 back-to-back and am now one hour into TDS. On my PC the sound seems to be better in TDS.

I had not considered the lack of reverb until someone mentioned it in this thread. But the reverb was so overdone in Thief 1&2 that I'm not sure it's worse not to have it. I always thought it sounded like another person was walking near me.

Anyway what I wanted to say was the sound seems better to me in TDS. The directional sound seems to work better and the sound seems to be appropriately muffled when someone is above you or below you.

I'm feeling kind of optimistic about TDS so far. Knowing almost everyone thinks TDS is the worst of the original three seems to have appropriately lowered my expectations.

[Anderson]

Originally posted by donwallo:

I just played Thief Gold and Thief 2 back-to-back and am now one hour into TDS. On my PC the sound seems to be better in TDS.

I had not considered the lack of reverb until someone mentioned it in this thread. But the reverb was so overdone in Thief 1&2 that I'm not sure it's worse not to have it. I always thought it sounded like another person was walking near me.

Anyway what I wanted to say was the sound seems better to me in TDS. The directional sound seems to work better and the sound seems to be appropriately muffled when someone is above you or below you.

I'm feeling kind of optimistic about TDS so far. Knowing almost everyone thinks TDS is the worst of the original three seems to have appropriately lowered my expectations.

The game in my opinion came a little better than Thief 2. It mixes many elements from the previous games into a very good experience.
Just remember to save often and make multiple save files on many levels. Never take second chances with them.

[😎 𝓣𝓪𝓯𝓯𝒆𝓻𝔀𝓸𝓬𝓴𝔂 😎]

I think the plot and themes of the levels were pretty much nailed in Deadly Shadows, but it falls short compared to Thief 2 in many other respects.

[Anderson]

Originally posted by Tafferwocky:

I think the plot and themes of the levels were pretty much nailed in Deadly Shadows, but it falls short compared to Thief 2 in many other respects.

Yes, depending on what you value in these games.
To me the mystery and the gothic mattered a lot in them so Thief 3 was sort of a coming back to it, rather than the steampunk approach that Thief 2 took.

But all games are good anyway. Just like the Prince of Persia trilogy.

[😎 𝓣𝓪𝓯𝓯𝒆𝓻𝔀𝓸𝓬𝓴𝔂 😎]

Originally posted by Anderson:

Originally posted by Tafferwocky:

I think the plot and themes of the levels were pretty much nailed in Deadly Shadows, but it falls short compared to Thief 2 in many other respects.

Yes, depending on what you value in these games.
To me the mystery and the gothic mattered a lot in them so Thief 3 was sort of a coming back to it, rather than the steampunk approach that Thief 2 took.

But all games are good anyway. Just like the Prince of Persia trilogy.

Oh yeah, I agree about that. The supernatural stuff is cool. I wasn't such a fan of the way they made the pagans all cutesy, but apart from that it was great.

My problem is that the game is too clunky for me to properly enjoy. Garrett controls like a tank.

I need to try the Prince of Persia games! Heard they're good.

[Anderson]

Originally posted by Tafferwocky:

Originally posted by Anderson:

Yes, depending on what you value in these games.
To me the mystery and the gothic mattered a lot in them so Thief 3 was sort of a coming back to it, rather than the steampunk approach that Thief 2 took.

But all games are good anyway. Just like the Prince of Persia trilogy.

Oh yeah, I agree about that. The supernatural stuff is cool. I wasn't such a fan of the way they made the pagans all cutesy, but apart from that it was great.

My problem is that the game is too clunky for me to properly enjoy. Garrett controls like a tank.

I need to try the Prince of Persia games! Heard they're good.

Yep, just like the Thief trilogy. Try the Ubisoft games starting from The Sands of Time, next to Warrior Within and then to Two Thrones.

Thief 3 was clunky in a way, but I suppose my imagination made up for everything.

[😎 𝓣𝓪𝓯𝓯𝒆𝓻𝔀𝓸𝓬𝓴𝔂 😎]

Will do! Wasn't there a 4th game in 2008? Looks like a reboot and we thief fans know all about them haha

[Anderson]

Originally posted by Tafferwocky:

Will do! Wasn't there a 4th game in 2008? Looks like a reboot and we thief fans know all about them haha

Not as bad as the Thief 2014 reboot from what I played.
It's not a "must buy" but simply a thing that you can "try" if you want to. The trilogy though stood the test of time.

[donwallo]

I'm somewhat on the fence about the clunkiness so far. It's definitely there but it also feels more realistic. It can be annoyingly difficult to line up a blackjack hit. On the other hand the mantling is mostly better, except when you need to approach something at an odd angle.

I'm also a little confused about the NPC AI. In my first stroll through the second part of town (where you fence the stuff from your first mission) I was stealthy and stealing and whatnot and somehow a massive melee brawl broke out and almost all the townspeople killed each other.

Other impressions - the voice acting and incidental writing are better than in Thief 1 and 2. Better ambient conversations.

-Atmosphere appears to be much less steampunk.

-It looks like the maps are simply not going to be as good. I list as just another observation but of course it's extremely important.

-Shadow system is better in the important sense that you can almost always correctly

-The game has a very cramped feel compared to T1 and T2. FOV seems narrow, movement speed is slow. This isn't necessarily bad. It seems better for ghosting - ghosting is more "fair", enemies don't wander much or have long patrol paths, you tend to be lavished with water arrows.

[😎 𝓣𝓪𝓯𝓯𝒆𝓻𝔀𝓸𝓬𝓴𝔂 😎]

The blackjacking and leaning are the worst. I found mantling is also a lot worse in Deadly Shadows (at least compared with Thief 1 and 2 with the Newdark community patches, which improve mantling a lot) and sometimes doing it makes Garrett float in the air.

The Hammers and pagans will attack one another on sight. That might explain the chaos.

The writing is definitely funnier, although I'm not sure it's better in other respects in Deadly Shadows!

Maps are okay, but a bit small and samey. There is one standout mission though... it's called the cradle *evil laugh*

If you have the Sneaky Upgrade, you can adjust the FOV. It helps, although the game will still be cramped.