I tested Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 today, and the results are the same as with its predecessor:

Once again the X-Fi can use the "Extreme" sound quality setting, while the Audigy 2 ZS is limited to the "High" setting. Likely due to the same voice check as in the first game. Similarly, opening GRAW2.EXE in a hex editor reveals references to EAX 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0. Still no mention of EAX 5.0.

Ovenchips wrote on 2024-04-29, 12:48:

Using latest* (that specified supporting the SB0880) DanielK driver for the X-Fi - tried using the original creative drivers but it was having a mare with traces of the Audigy drivers still existing so would refuse to install, so DanielK was the only option unless I manually picked out all the old files. No codec packs .etc installed, it's a fairly fresh XP MCE SP3.

I'll have a pop with some different versions of the drivers & game and see if I can suss it out. Would be interesting to know if it's a known problem or not though!

Driver Cleaner Professional has been a lifesaver when I've had problems with Creative drivers on Win98SE but it works just as well on WinXPSP3, maybe give it a whirl.

For the topic I've noticed Diablo II has surprisingly good positional audio/environment effects, it's kinda funny to play as a summoner necromancer and hear the muffled sounds of all kinds of horrible things happening in the rooms around you 😁

Assuming only 2 speakers will be used (not headphones, not a surround setup), does it make any sense to switch to a Live! card supporting EAX 1.0/2.0 for same era Win9x games?

I have experienced EAX back in the days with a 5.1 setup and I do have a positive opinion about it. According to my understanding of how EAX works however, on a 2 speakers setup I'm expecting a perceivable difference, but not a good one. Am I wrong to believe that with 2 speakers EAX will make the sound weird, unnatural and the experience worse? If it's not clear I'm not worried that EAX won't be that pronounced on 2 speakers, I'm worried about effects sounding out of place.

konc wrote on 2024-05-01, 11:19:

Assuming only 2 speakers will be used (not headphones, not a surround setup), does it make any sense to switch to a Live! card supporting EAX 1.0/2.0 for same era Win9x games?

You'll still get reverb and occlusion effects, even with just two speakers. For example, many games use EAX for reverb when you're inside a cave or a large hall. Similarly, in some games EAX can provide occlusion effects when listening to sounds behind a closed door or while diving underwater.

Your positional audio won't be as precise as when using headphones or a surround speaker setup, but otherwise, EAX will work fine.

Positional audio isn't optimal with 2.0 setup as you can imagine, but can still add depth to the sound and things like occlusion effects/reverb work just fine.

As for how pleasing/weird it is is subjective and can be game dependant. I used to use 2.0 speakers back in the day with an integrated sound chip that supported EAX 2.0 and I grew to dislike EAX with a vengeance, I remember feeling like it usually made games sound overly echoy and somehow distorted the sounds coming from the sides/behind.

Then years later I went and got an X-Fi card and suddenly realized I liked EAX more often than not. I do use headphones these days but that only affects positional audio, not the effects, so either my preferences have changed or that sound chip butchered the effects somehow. WDM drivers on WinXP and I was playing Win9x games that expected VxD?

So I'd say give it a go, SB Live!/Audigy/Audigy 2 cards are plentiful and inexpensive.

Thanks guys, that was good feedback. It seems that 2 speakers + EAX doesn't necessarily mean total disaster as I thought it does, but even with this setup it can be a positive addition.
It's certainly worth a try then!

EAX + Good headphones = Boner-inducing audio!

EAX + Good speakers that are properly positioned = Pretty nice audio.

EAX + Monitor speakers = You're about to get slapped upside the head.

RetroGamer4Ever wrote on 2024-05-01, 17:37:

EAX + Monitor speakers = You're about to get slapped upside the head.

Wait is this good or bad? First time I encounter this expression😄 Because I am using decent studio monitors.

I believe what was meant was "speakers built into the monitor" (or possibly attached to it, though that's fallen out of fashion when CRTs went away). Actual "studio monitor" speakers usually qualify as good ones...

elszgensa wrote on 2024-05-01, 19:08:

I believe what was meant was "speakers built into the monitor" (or possibly attached to it, though that's fallen out of fashion when CRTs went away). Actual "studio monitor" speakers usually qualify as good ones...

Indeed, monitor speakers aren't really a common thing anymore, but some people still buy the few new monitors that have them in the frame - which is very rare now - or still use older monitors from the 2010's that have them.

I've briefly tested the PC version of Halo: CE to check its EAX capabilities. Compared to the OG Xbox version, it sounds like the audio is a bit cleaner (less compressed) on the PC. Opening HALO.EXE in a hex editor shows references to EAX 1.0, EAX 2.0 and EAX 3.0 so it's likely that the game supports all of those.

elszgensa wrote on 2024-05-01, 19:08:

I believe what was meant was "speakers built into the monitor" (or possibly attached to it, though that's fallen out of fashion when CRTs went away). Actual "studio monitor" speakers usually qualify as good ones...

Oh of course you're right! I'd completely forgotten these and immediately thought of what we call now monitor speakers.

Sombrero wrote on 2024-05-01, 11:59:

As for how pleasing/weird it is is subjective and can be game dependant. I used to use 2.0 speakers back in the day with an integrated sound chip that supported EAX 2.0 and I grew to dislike EAX with a vengeance, I remember feeling like it usually made games sound overly echoy and somehow distorted the sounds coming from the sides/behind.

Getting back to this, I just noticed that the Halo CE readme warns that the game's EAX shouldn't be used with Realtek on-board sound solutions. I remember seeing something similar in settings.xml from Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter.

Not sure if you had one of those Realtek on-board chips back in the day, but I did. And I remember EAX sometimes sounding "scratchy" to my ears. It also didn't work with some games. As you say, things are much better with a Creative card, especially an X-Fi Titanium.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-05-02, 09:42:

Not sure if you had one of those Realtek on-board chips back in the day, but I did. And I remember EAX sometimes sounding "scratchy" to my ears. It also didn't work with some games. As you say, things are much better with a Creative card, especially an X-Fi Titanium.

It was NVIDIA SoundStorm on one of those Abit NF7 motherboards that had it.

As far as I know they were considered to be high quality as far integrated chips went, but I haven't got the foggiest how they worked or who even wrote the drivers for it. Even if it was all NVIDIA themselves I also remember how the firewall on that nForce 2 chipset had a fun tendency to corrupt files, so yeah, who knows how well EAX and hardware acceleration actually worked with it.