Vortex 1 is the first Aureal ASIC. It's an improvement on the original Aureal tech used on Diamond Monster Sound. That was a multichip solution.

A3D 1.x sounds great. There are quite a few games with support. And it does DS3D fine too. Has a daughterboard header. Decent DOS support.

No EAX support though. Vortex 2 lacks that as well however.

Compared to a contemporary like the AUDIOPCI / SBPCI64/128 it is a much more interesting card for 3D audio.

Compare charts in the AU8820 and AU8830 product briefs.

AU8820 has 48 total voice channels, AU8830 has 96.
AU8820 lacks hardware HRTF, AU8830 has hardware HRTF support.
AU8820 provides hardware mixing for 32 channels to 16 and sample rate converters for 16 channels. AU8830 uses the same hardware.
AU8820 has hardware wavetable for 32 channels, AU8830 tacks on an extra bank for 64 total wavetable hardware channels, can be repurposed for directsound streams.

Not bad for 1996, not sure anyone really needs an AU8820 if you can get hold of an AU8830 card. Same hardware but more of the good stuff.

Thanks Zan, you are a true gentleman. I'm sure hundereds/thousands of people will use and appreciate your new drivers when they are finished. Be sure to include ways for people to send a donation for your time in the readme file 😀

Yeah lots of info there. Thanks.

Offhand I know I've played Jedi Knight and Battlezone on Vortex 1 and the 3D audio is excellent. Both A3D 1.x games.

For some reason the pre-Vortex 2 hardware didn't have the same hype attached to it which is a shame.