EAX in Old games

[Doug1952]

I love my new PC I built. The main reason I got his PC is for old and some new games. I'm loving the clear picture in my old games.

I know EAX is old but after hearing it on Halo CE I wanted to have that enabled in my other games. I've tried the indirectsound program to enable it but it doesn't work. I see in forms that I should buy a creative sound card or buy the creative software to enable it. I have a MSI B450 Pro Carbon AC motherboard. Has anyone in my position that has tried the software? Will it work? Again I don't have creative sound card.

[xSOSxHawkens]

Sup man,

OK, this will be a bit long but here is the skinny on hardware sound...

First, yes, EAX is amazing, and sadly, no, you cant get much of it anymore and its not used in any modern games. That said it is possible to get near the same experience using modern hardware level audio.

Hardware level audio on PC now days falls into two categories, internal sound cards and external USB DAC/AMP units. For *pure* 1:1 exact replication of sound the external DAC option will (almost) always be the better option. This is because they generally have better signal to noise ratios (SnR) than a comparable priced internal card. Main reason for this is b/c they keep the signal digital until it exists the case and then does the conversion to analog (where it will become susceptible to noise interference) once it is isolated outside of the main system (which has the largest EM interference potential).

Where DAC/AMP's fall short is in 3d audio processing and positional audio (especially in games that don't have their own good audio).

This is where internal hardware sound cards are still king. A good internal card will still over you 98-99% of the SnR to a DAC/AMP but will *also* offer you good quality 3d positional audio acceleration. This can make a night and day difference in knowing where people are located.

Sadly, there are *very* few people out there with true first hand *side by side* live time testing of the few. The side by side part is *super* important with sound testing, as science shows our own internal bias will almost always affect our view points if there is a sizable amount of time between each test. Sound is just too subjective to have a clear enough memory unless it was done as a quick side by side change.

I actually have setup side by side demos more than once, and have seen the experience that people have. Most will feel that the sound card is the best, as the quality is almost identical to a DAC while having a more clear 3d spread. Some will still take a DAC/AMP, but most of them will explain they don't plan to play and want 1:1 bit matched replication (which cards can also do) at the best SnR. I can appreciate that, they are not gamers and don't want game sound to be at its best.



___________________________________________________________________________

Long story short, get a sound card! :) They are well worth it.

If you have the time and want to see for yourself, watch this video. Before doing so open your sound control panel and set your quality to 24bi/192KHz as this will offer you the closest to bit-matched that Realtek can pull. Then put on headphones and enjoy this:

https://youtu.be/2BxO9cd-sYA

[xSOSxHawkens]

As for older titles that do use EAX, once you have a decent creative card (Xfi/Z/whatever their newest is (AE I think)) you will be able to install an app called Alchemy that will allow you to whitelist your games and restore their EAX support in windows vista through 10. This works from EAX 1.0 to 5.0HD

[vlad[54rus]]

You can try DSOAL, it can restore EAX effects (a bit buggy but works).
https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/65094

[Doug1952]

Originally posted by xSOSxHawkens:

Sup man,

OK, this will be a bit long but here is the skinny on hardware sound...

First, yes, EAX is amazing, and sadly, no, you cant get much of it anymore and its not used in any modern games. That said it is possible to get near the same experience using modern hardware level audio.

Hardware level audio on PC now days falls into two categories, internal sound cards and external USB DAC/AMP units. For *pure* 1:1 exact replication of sound the external DAC option will (almost) always be the better option. This is because they generally have better signal to noise ratios (SnR) than a comparable priced internal card. Main reason for this is b/c they keep the signal digital until it exists the case and then does the conversion to analog (where it will become susceptible to noise interference) once it is isolated outside of the main system (which has the largest EM interference potential).

Where DAC/AMP's fall short is in 3d audio processing and positional audio (especially in games that don't have their own good audio).

This is where internal hardware sound cards are still king. A good internal card will still over you 98-99% of the SnR to a DAC/AMP but will *also* offer you good quality 3d positional audio acceleration. This can make a night and day difference in knowing where people are located.

Sadly, there are *very* few people out there with true first hand *side by side* live time testing of the few. The side by side part is *super* important with sound testing, as science shows our own internal bias will almost always affect our view points if there is a sizable amount of time between each test. Sound is just too subjective to have a clear enough memory unless it was done as a quick side by side change.

I actually have setup side by side demos more than once, and have seen the experience that people have. Most will feel that the sound card is the best, as the quality is almost identical to a DAC while having a more clear 3d spread. Some will still take a DAC/AMP, but most of them will explain they don't plan to play and want 1:1 bit matched replication (which cards can also do) at the best SnR. I can appreciate that, they are not gamers and don't want game sound to be at its best.



___________________________________________________________________________

Long story short, get a sound card! :) They are well worth it.

If you have the time and want to see for yourself, watch this video. Before doing so open your sound control panel and set your quality to 24bi/192KHz as this will offer you the closest to bit-matched that Realtek can pull. Then put on headphones and enjoy this:

https://youtu.be/2BxO9cd-sYA

Thank for your Detail info about sound. You definitely convinced me to get a sound card. I do have a question. Does that mean my 30 dollar headphones won't achieve the high sound quality. It has an impedance of 32. Should I invest in a new one?

[xSOSxHawkens]

A good audio card will produce decent 3d sound regardless, but the actual *quality* of the sound will be impacted by the quality of the driver (speaker/heaphone) in use.

Personally, for basic media and games consumption I think you will be fine with any *decent* ~$50 or so set of headphones, with a few select 30-ish buck models just cutting the mustard. I currently use Logitech G430's and they cound great (plug into the sound card, sournd like ♥♥♥♥ if you use the included dolby dolngle they come with).

That said, most all of the decent hw audio solutions, soundard or DAC, will offer you a high powered headphone port. I know that my SB-Z card has one with dedicated amp circutry for high end headsets.

[xSOSxHawkens]

Newer SoundBlaster cards will use SBX as shown in the demo above, older X-Fi era cards (the last true hardware level EAX certified cards) use CMSS-3D. Personally I have always felt CMSS was and still is more accurate, but those cards are now pretty old and despite them still being given driver updates I would not expect Creative to put out much more for them in the future. They are XP era cards, even if they were amazing :)

The quality difference in 3d for SBX is not much less and the driver and software package is much more user friendly.