UCyborg wrote on 2025-09-28, 19:17:

May be interesting to check what saving the report in dxdiag.exe says. With up-to date DirectX on Windows XP at least, I remember it does list some details about supported EAX versions.

Does anyone know why the 3D Mark 03 60 sound test doesn't run on the RX with Alchemy? I've set the number of channels to 63. I even tried 128 but only the 24 sound test runs. Does it need an X-Fi?

[EDIT] Figured it out. On Win 11 the RX only has 57 free buffers when Windows starts up, so no 60 sound test, or at least that's what Rightmark 3D Sound test reports.

sharangad wrote on 2025-10-03, 09:40:

[EDIT] Figured it out. On Win 11 the RX only has 57 free buffers when Windows starts up, so no 60 sound test, or at least that's what Rightmark 3D Sound test reports.

Are there any real-world implications to this? Or is this finding only relevant to a benchmark? Thank you.

Barley wrote on 2025-10-03, 14:52:

Are there any real-world implications to this? Or is this finding only relevant to a benchmark? Thank you.

A few WinXP era games actually checked the number of hardware voices to determine which audio quality preset should be available on your sound card.

One such example would be Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter as shown in this post of mine.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-10-03, 14:59:

Barley wrote on 2025-10-03, 14:52:

Are there any real-world implications to this? Or is this finding only relevant to a benchmark? Thank you.

A few WinXP era games actually checked the number of hardware voices to determine which audio quality preset should be available on your sound card.

One such example would be Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter as shown in this post of mine.

I just wonder if it's because I've set the windows speaker setting to 7.1 with the rx speaker setting set to headphones. I am under the impression this is needed for surround on headphones. This used to be the case on win xp and 98.

sharangad wrote on 2025-10-03, 16:02:

I just wonder if it's because I've set the windows speaker setting to 7.1 with the rx speaker setting set to headphones. I am under the impression this is needed for surround on headphones. This used to be the case on win xp and 98.

Whether that actually improves positional audio when using headphones might depend on the game.

For my (limited) understanding, if a game isn't using DirectSound3D nor OpenAL, then it can make sense to set Windows speaker settings to 7.1 while keeping the sound card in headphone mode (preferably also with CMSS turned on). But such games usually come from the Win7 era and up. For most WinXP titles, it shouldn't be necessary to do this. I've talked about that in more detail here.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-10-03, 18:14:

sharangad wrote on 2025-10-03, 16:02:

I just wonder if it's because I've set the windows speaker setting to 7.1 with the rx speaker setting set to headphones. I am under the impression this is needed for surround on headphones. This used to be the case on win xp and 98.

Whether that actually improves positional audio when using headphones might depend on the game.

For my (limited) understanding, if a game isn't using DirectSound3D nor OpenAL, then it can make sense to set Windows speaker settings to 7.1 while keeping the sound card in headphone mode (preferably also with CMSS turned on). But such games usually come from the Win7 era and up. For most WinXP titles, it shouldn't be necessary to do this. I've talked about that in more detail here.

I seem to remember some games using the Miles Sound System had a habit of switching the windows speaker setting to 2.0/2.1 on exit, which in turn disabled surround, because Creative mixer synced with Windows. I think there was a popular WW2 shooter around the turn of the century which did this and it was pretty annoying, can't remember what it was called. I seem to to recall Creative added the "sync with control panel" option to disable this. I had a 5.1 speaker setup at the time and had to check the setting before starting pretty much any game.

sharangad wrote on 2025-10-03, 18:43:

I seem to remember some games using the Miles Sound System had a habit of switching the windows speaker setting to 2.0/2.1 on exit, which in turn disabled surround, because Creative mixer synced with Windows.

Sadly, a lot of games do that. I have 5.1 speakers, and I always double check if my settings are correct before playing anything on WinXP. And yeah, what you described does disable surround sound on my setup.

But if you're using headphones under WinXP, it should be enough to simply choose the headphone option in the Creative Console Launcher, and let it sync with Windows automatically.

AndreaColombo86 wrote on 2025-10-02, 20:00:

Has anyone tried a modern game with Dolby Atmos? I’m especially interested in knowing how Dolby Atmos for headphones compares to CMSS-3D/EAX.

"Dolby Atmos For Headphones" Is crystal clear, "CMSS-3D Headphone" is a mushy mess, from my experience I honestly think CMSS overall ruins sound quality, I keep it disabled whenever playing EAX games.
Dolby has created a wonderful generic HRTF synthesizer that works really well with compatible games using the now famous spatial audio format, Windows Sonic and THX headphones are not up to par but still better than CMSS was in its time.

SansPlomb95 wrote on 2025-10-13, 04:58:

"Dolby Atmos For Headphones" Is crystal clear, "CMSS-3D Headphone" is a mushy mess, from my experience I honestly think CMSS overall ruins sound quality, I keep it disabled whenever playing EAX games.

This is interesting.

What are some games that you found had a good implementation of Dolby Atmos for Headphones? I tried it very briefly on Baldur’s Gate III but it didn’t seem to make much of a difference (though it certainly warrants testing more than I did.)

Is everyone else’s experience with CMSS so negative?

AndreaColombo86 wrote on 2025-10-13, 18:35:

This is interesting. […]
Show full quote

SansPlomb95 wrote on 2025-10-13, 04:58:

"Dolby Atmos For Headphones" Is crystal clear, "CMSS-3D Headphone" is a mushy mess, from my experience I honestly think CMSS overall ruins sound quality, I keep it disabled whenever playing EAX games.

This is interesting.

What are some games that you found had a good implementation of Dolby Atmos for Headphones? I tried it very briefly on Baldur’s Gate III but it didn’t seem to make much of a difference (though it certainly warrants testing more than I did.)

Is everyone else’s experience with CMSS so negative?

I find CMSS over headphones even for XAudio 1 significantly better than say Nahimic or even the Xonar D2's GX mode. For EAX supporting games with headphones it's a no-brainer. Haven't tried Dolby Atmos for Headphones.

AndreaColombo86 wrote on 2025-10-13, 18:35:

Is everyone else’s experience with CMSS so negative?

I like how CMSS can enhance positional audio, especially for sounds coming from above and below. This is when using headphones with the newer version of CMSS-3D which is exclusive to X-Fi cards.

It's most noticeable in first person games. As an example, fire up Battlefield 2142, set everything up per Creative's guide, and hear the result for yourself.

AndreaColombo86 wrote on 2025-10-13, 18:35:

SansPlomb95 wrote on 2025-10-13, 04:58:

"Dolby Atmos For Headphones" Is crystal clear, "CMSS-3D Headphone" is a mushy mess, from my experience I honestly think CMSS overall ruins sound quality, I keep it disabled whenever playing EAX games.

This is interesting.

What are some games that you found had a good implementation of Dolby Atmos for Headphones? I tried it very briefly on Baldur’s Gate III but it didn’t seem to make much of a difference (though it certainly warrants testing more than I did.)

Gears of War 5 with its unique precalculated sound engine was well piped to work with Dolby Atmos and therefore Dolby Headphones, Calisto Protocol might also be a good candidate

Unreal Tournament GOTY:EAX1, Audigy RX (Alchemy):
https://youtu.be/Uoqcpq_YgdU

[EDIT]
Unreal Tournament GOTY:EAX2, Audigy RX (Alchemy):
https://youtu.be/W-R6_KMuvlE

sharangad wrote on 2025-10-16, 07:26:

Unreal Tournament GOTY, Audigy RX (Alchemy):
https://youtu.be/Uoqcpq_YgdU

There's also a special EAX 2.0 patch made by Creative Labs for that game. I've previously mentioned it here.

For my taste, they overdid the reverb in some areas, but the newly introduced occlusion effects are kinda nice. Those are most noticeable when you dive underwater, as shown in this video.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-10-16, 07:52:

sharangad wrote on 2025-10-16, 07:26:

Unreal Tournament GOTY, Audigy RX (Alchemy):
https://youtu.be/Uoqcpq_YgdU

There's also a special EAX 2.0 patch made by Creative Labs for that game. I've previously mentioned it here.

For my taste, they overdid the reverb in some areas, but the newly introduced occlusion effects are kinda nice. Those are most noticeable when you dive underwater, as shown in this video.

Thanks for that. I'll post another video in a bit.

[EDIT]
Unreal Tournament GOTY:EAX2, Audigy RX (Alchemy):
https://youtu.be/W-R6_KMuvlE

Barley wrote on 2025-09-19, 18:58:

Hmm, when I tried installing it, it said it was not a valid Win32 application. Not sure where I got it from. I'll try your link. […]
Show full quote

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-09-19, 18:30:

Barley wrote on 2025-09-19, 17:33:

Just wanted to clarify. This is on Windows XP. So EAX Unified would not work, right? I do have OpenAL installed.

I will try with an X-Fi and report back.

EAX Unified works on WinXP as well as Vista/Win7 (and up).

It's necessary for some games like Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness and Splinter Cell: Double Agent. They won't have any EAX effects unless it's installed. Originally, it shipped on the disc with the aforementioned games (and some others). The version that I linked to was taken from the Splinter Cell: Double Agent disc.

Hmm, when I tried installing it, it said it was not a valid Win32 application. Not sure where I got it from. I'll try your link.

***EDIT*** User error. I was trying to install ALchemy Universal. Makes sense that THAT would not work on WIndows XP.

***EDIT 2*** I installed EAX Unified, but it still did not enable hardware sound acceleration for GRID. Will go back to my original plan of trying an X-Fi Titanium.

I am reporting back. Switching from an Audigy RX to an X-Fi Titanium in Windows XP enabled Hardware Sound Acceleration in GRID.

I installed the X-FI Titanium using Joseph_Joestar's guide found here: Guide: Installing Windows XP drivers on PCIe X-Fi Titanium sound cards (version 1.2)

Thank you.

I’m not sure how worthwhile it is adding it to the EAX support list but I know from my own tests a while back that the semi-recent Halo pre-release leaks (Speartest and E32K) at the very least acknowledge a Sound Blaster Live when one is installed in the PC with compatible drivers.

Speartest I’m not sure about which EAX version it uses but you can definitely hear positional audio when using a Live card.

E32K, on the other hand, definitely uses EAX 2.0, with occlusion usage being very prominent for sounds emitting from behind walls and such.

Dipshidian wrote on Today, 10:07:

I’m not sure how worthwhile it is adding it to the EAX support list but I know from my own tests a while back that the semi-recent Halo pre-release leaks (Speartest and E32K) at the very least acknowledge a Sound Blaster Live when one is installed in the PC with compatible drivers.

There was some discussion a while back whether fan made mods/ports should be included on the list, since we inherited some of those entries from Wikipedia. I think pre-release/alpha/beta game builds would fall into the same category.

Personally, I would prefer to focus the list on actual retail games.

No, you are of course correct. It was wrong of me to word it that way. Even if it made it in as a note, there would be no end to the notes for any other game listed then!

I think what made me mention this was in relation to games with EAX support that doesn’t have any hardware acceleration and, or, EAX setting of any kind that still support both features fully when an EAX-capable card is detected. Requiem: Avenging Angel is one such game that I’m aware of. I’ve seen old but still quoted resources like A3DCentral’s 3D audio support list (only found via the Wayback Machine nowadays) claim that Requiem requires patch 1.2 for EAX support. I know for a fact that the unpatched 1.0 version works with EAX 1.0, despite there being no setting tied to it.