Did some searching about the cancelation and it is not being talked about anywhere. Really shows how little interest there was in this project.

At this point, there isn't anything more they can do with custom hardware, as bulk-order off-the-shelf chips do everything the consumer needs, while software can handle a lot of the old hardware stuff. That's why they moved to running all their hardware on DACs, after the SoundCore3D product line was introduced and didn't take off, as GPU and headset audio was becoming dominant and their cards became obsolete for all but niche users.

RetroGamer4Ever wrote on 2026-06-11, 12:47:

At this point, there isn't anything more they can do with custom hardware, as bulk-order off-the-shelf chips do everything the consumer needs, while software can handle a lot of the old hardware stuff.

I'm not so sure about that. On-board audio solutions (e.g. Realtek) can introduce latency into sound processing. See this post by @Falcosoft as an example. Also, here's a somewhat relevant video.

OpenAL can still directly access the hardware in Creative's Audigy and X-Fi cards, even under Win10/11. But I doubt many game devs would want to bother with that nowadays.

RetroGamer4Ever wrote on 2026-06-11, 12:47:

At this point, there isn't anything more they can do with custom hardware, as bulk-order off-the-shelf chips do everything the consumer needs, while software can handle a lot of the old hardware stuff. That's why they moved to running all their hardware on DACs, after the SoundCore3D product line was introduced and didn't take off, as GPU and headset audio was becoming dominant and their cards became obsolete for all but niche users.

I'm not sure about what exactly Sound Core3D (CA0132) is. They advertised it as something "quad-core" back then, but it's just HDA in reality. I wonder if there's any "real" hardware in it like EMU10K and EMU20K families...

I recall some gaming motherboards during that period also used Sound Core3D instead of normal Realtek codecs. However, support for Sound Core3D outside Windows was limited at that time, and it was not until 2018 that support for it in Linux was landed.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2026-06-11, 13:04:

OpenAL can still directly access the hardware in Creative's Audigy and X-Fi cards, even under Win10/11. But I doubt many game devs would want to bother with that nowadays.

Which is not idiot proof, there are some instances where trying to use Creative OpenAL will crash a game in question. Hammerwatch for example constantly crashed if I tried to use Creative OpenAL, because of some driver problem and X-RAM nonsense.

Since audio interfaces are so diverse these days (USB, bluetooth, HDMI, etc.), I think that selling a dedicated sound card for output is just not feasible anymore. That said, I still think that some portion of GPU resources should be used for advanced environmental audio effects. If we can have ray-traced graphics at somewhat passable frame rates, imagine what the hardware could do for audio with a far smaller performance impact.

I believe Nvidia and AMD have both shown examples of this (pretty sure I've posted about them here at some point), but, as usual... no one ever implements any of it in real games. Really, at this point we could be modeling actual sound wave propagation in space and it would probably be less resource intensive than turning on ray tracing. We don't need to go that far, but... come on, it's been 25 years since we lost Aureal. Isn't anyone going to do something interesting with sound?

Creative could have probably developed the technology (software) using existing graphics oriented APIs and licensed it to game developers or something, but... no. That's too risky. It makes a lot more sense to run a doomed kickstarter campaign for an expensive piece of hardware that has no market, no purpose and almost no connection to anything that anyone associates with the Sound Blaster brand.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-06-12, 00:40:

Since audio interfaces are so diverse these days (USB, bluetooth, HDMI, etc.), I think that selling a dedicated sound card for output is just not feasible anymore. That said, I still think that some portion of GPU resources should be used for advanced environmental audio effects. If we can have ray-traced graphics at somewhat passable frame rates, imagine what the hardware could do for audio with a far smaller performance impact.

I believe Nvidia and AMD have both shown examples of this (pretty sure I've posted about them here at some point), but, as usual... no one ever implements any of it in real games. Really, at this point we could be modeling actual sound wave propagation in space and it would probably be less resource intensive than turning on ray tracing. We don't need to go that far, but... come on, it's been 25 years since we lost Aureal. Isn't anyone going to do something interesting with sound?

Creative could have probably developed the technology (software) using existing graphics oriented APIs and licensed it to game developers or something, but... no. That's too risky. It makes a lot more sense to run a doomed kickstarter campaign for an expensive piece of hardware that has no market, no purpose and almost no connection to anything that anyone associates with the Sound Blaster brand.

Both nVidia and AMD video cards already have the ability to output audio since a long time ago, but only over display connections (HDMI or DP) which is very inflexible to set up in practice. I think it's more commonly used by TVs with such connections.

If nVidia and AMD video cards could provide dedicated 3.5mm jacks alongside video connections, for connecting the video card's audio interface directly to my speakers, mics, and others, then it can be somewhat more useful...

DracoNihil wrote on 2026-06-11, 23:42:

Which is not idiot proof, there are some instances where trying to use Creative OpenAL will crash a game in question. Hammerwatch for example constantly crashed if I tried to use Creative OpenAL, because of some driver problem and X-RAM nonsense.

From my testing, most OpenAL games run ok under Win10 with an X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty (64MB X-RAM) when using DanielK's latest drivers.

Of course, there could be a few outliers, and I'm unfamiliar with Hammerwatch in particular. But I recently tested a bunch of mainstream FPS titles on the aforementioned system (including Doom 3, Quake 4, Prey, Battlefield 2, Unreal Tournament 3, BioShock etc.) and they all worked fine.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2026-06-12, 05:22:

But I recently tested a bunch of mainstream FPS titles on the aforementioned system (including Doom 3, Quake 4, Prey, Battlefield 2, Unreal Tournament 3, BioShock etc.) and they all worked fine.

Mainstream titles, especially ones that specifically licensed Creative's EAX usage and otherwise had consultation will be the exception to this rule of course.

DracoNihil wrote on 2026-06-11, 23:42:

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2026-06-11, 13:04:

OpenAL can still directly access the hardware in Creative's Audigy and X-Fi cards, even under Win10/11. But I doubt many game devs would want to bother with that nowadays.

Which is not idiot proof, there are some instances where trying to use Creative OpenAL will crash a game in question. Hammerwatch for example constantly crashed if I tried to use Creative OpenAL, because of some driver problem and X-RAM nonsense.

Hammerwatch only used OpenAL in the early versions. From 2016/2017 the game uses the FMOD audio middleware.
Regarding "hardware acceleration" related issues in general I had more problems with AMD's OpenGL implementation than with Creative's (Audigy/Audigy 2 ZS) OpenAL implementation. Yet no one thinks that the problem is the concept of 3d graphics acceleration itself. So I always thought that the explanation of MS why they removed the HAL completely from Directsound was simply nonsense.

Creative's legacy is a mixed bag... on the one hand they introduced console-competitive music to the PC. On the other, they killed Adlib with their predatory practices and by so doing halted the evolution of PC audio in its tracks, afflicting people who couldn't buy their AWE cards with horrible MIDI for a decade. Creative was always a hostile company to devs and was probably legit awful from the go... their corporate strats were onerous and unorthodox (sell RAM to users at high prices so they can make use of 1980s tech!). Good riddance I guess.

Adlib did that to themselves.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-06-12, 00:40:

Since audio interfaces are so diverse these days (USB, bluetooth, HDMI, etc.), I think that selling a dedicated sound card for output is just not feasible anymore. That said, I still think that some portion of GPU resources should be used for advanced environmental audio effects. If we can have ray-traced graphics at somewhat passable frame rates, imagine what the hardware could do for audio with a far smaller performance impact.

I believe Nvidia and AMD have both shown examples of this (pretty sure I've posted about them here at some point), but, as usual... no one ever implements any of it in real games. Really, at this point we could be modeling actual sound wave propagation in space and it would probably be less resource intensive than turning on ray tracing. We don't need to go that far, but... come on, it's been 25 years since we lost Aureal. Isn't anyone going to do something interesting with sound?

Creative could have probably developed the technology (software) using existing graphics oriented APIs and licensed it to game developers or something, but... no. That's too risky. It makes a lot more sense to run a doomed kickstarter campaign for an expensive piece of hardware that has no market, no purpose and almost no connection to anything that anyone associates with the Sound Blaster brand.

Sony's doing exactly what you are asking for in the PS5 with some custom Tempest 3D audio engine. When I saw the announcement I thought, finally we're going back to what Aureal did 20 years ago and are improving on it.

We'll just have to see if someone decides to try doing something like it on PC again. Though Microsoft adding it to a future version of DirectX to use on the next XBOX would be the best scenario as it would have the best chance of wide support.

Falcosoft wrote on 2026-06-12, 08:52:

I had more problems with AMD's OpenGL implementation than with Creative's (Audigy/Audigy 2 ZS) OpenAL implementation. Yet no one thinks that the problem is the concept of 3d graphics acceleration itself. So I always thought that the explanation of MS why they removed the HAL completely from Directsound was simply nonsense.

AMD continues to have broken OpenGL across the board, both in Linux and Windows. So you're definitely not alone in that regard...

I recall one of the reasons Microsoft retired "KMixer" for the "Windows Audio Service" was for "stability" reasons, because now all the audio is done only in software land and the sound drivers are only relegated to sending a simple buffer out to a DAC or whatever.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2026-06-12, 14:23:

Adlib did that to themselves.

Yes and no. There is no telling how things might have been different if the Gold 1000 had actually launched in 1991, absent Creative's illegal shenanigans. The indisputable fact is that the Gold was superior in every way to the only competition that Creative would have for it for months yet: the original Sound Blaster Pro. The OPL3-enabled version of the Pro was a hasty attempt to catch up, but still fell far short in terms of audio quality, and that was something that was true of virtually every Creative design before or since; remember that its main competition was the better-sounding Ad Lib Gold and the PAS 16, which put even the Sound Blaster 16 to shame in terms of audio quality, even though Creative wouldn't deliver that for some time yet. Let's not forget that, by 1992, many were also eagerly awaiting the arrival of the UltraSound, which would eclipse the Sound Blaster 16 in playback quality, capabilities and price, leading Creative to scramble (again!) to get a response to market by buying E-mu Systems and taking a couple of years to get the AWE32 to market. As usual with them, big marketing splash preceding availability of a mediocre product that was barely competition for the original UltraSound. The surprise with that one is that Creative's own arrogance and greed led to middling native support for their EMU8k cards.

If we're being honest, Creative has always been a me-too company, never willing to take the initiative to innovate. To make matters worse, they are also vile and morally-bankrupt; not only did they not want to innovate, but they did whatever they could to prevent others from doing so: illegal collusion/extortion, misuse of the court systems, etc. They had the industry clout and the finances that would have enabled them to lead the PC world in audio innovation, but they couldn't be bothered. The current humiliating position in which they find themselves is, without exception, their own fault. They deserve every bit of humiliation they endure as they circle the drain, and they won't get one bit of sympathy from me when they finally get sucked into the vortex and go down the pipe into the sewer with all of the other excrement of history. Too bad it didn't happen when they originally deserved it; around 1993. The world of PC audio would have been much better off without them.

tcaud wrote on 2026-06-12, 09:24:

by so doing halted the evolution of PC audio in its tracks, afflicting people who couldn't buy their AWE cards with horrible MIDI for a decade.

I will agree that they are (they haven't gone bankrupt... yet!) an awful company, from beginning to end and in every respect, but let's not give them credit they don't deserve. Their AWE cards were the over-priced example of "horrible MIDI". The default instrument bank had no redeeming qualities, and because they couldn't be bothered to even talk to developers who weren't prepared to pay through the nose, native EMU8k support was not very common. It's a little ironic that native support for those cards was about as common as support for the Ad Lib Gold, but that should bring them even more shame, because they weren't subject to the illegal machinations of a competitor to cause the problem. They did that all by themselves by being too greedy and arrogant. Those cards were pretty awful, as sound cards go, but, unfortunately, they sold quite well anyway.

LSS10999 wrote on 2026-06-12, 01:46:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-06-12, 00:40:

Since audio interfaces are so diverse these days (USB, bluetooth, HDMI, etc.), I think that selling a dedicated sound card for output is just not feasible anymore. That said, I still think that some portion of GPU resources should be used for advanced environmental audio effects. If we can have ray-traced graphics at somewhat passable frame rates, imagine what the hardware could do for audio with a far smaller performance impact.

I believe Nvidia and AMD have both shown examples of this (pretty sure I've posted about them here at some point), but, as usual... no one ever implements any of it in real games. Really, at this point we could be modeling actual sound wave propagation in space and it would probably be less resource intensive than turning on ray tracing. We don't need to go that far, but... come on, it's been 25 years since we lost Aureal. Isn't anyone going to do something interesting with sound?

Creative could have probably developed the technology (software) using existing graphics oriented APIs and licensed it to game developers or something, but... no. That's too risky. It makes a lot more sense to run a doomed kickstarter campaign for an expensive piece of hardware that has no market, no purpose and almost no connection to anything that anyone associates with the Sound Blaster brand.

Both nVidia and AMD video cards already have the ability to output audio since a long time ago, but only over display connections (HDMI or DP) which is very inflexible to set up in practice. I think it's more commonly used by TVs with such connections.

If nVidia and AMD video cards could provide dedicated 3.5mm jacks alongside video connections, for connecting the video card's audio interface directly to my speakers, mics, and others, then it can be somewhat more useful...

Sorry, that's not what I am referring to.

I am saying that dedicated sound cards are not feasible these days because the audio interfaces that people actually use are very diverse.

Speaking as someone who has used basically all of these interfaces, they are all good. I have used HDMI output from a video card to a TV without any sound card in the system for close to 15 years with no problems at all.

On the other hand, some people use bluetooth (which generally uses the system's wifi adapter or a USB dongle), while others prefer USB interfaces to connect to various external DACs, headphone amplifiers, etc.

There is very little room in there for a dedicated sound card these days.

What I was saying with regard to using a GPU for acceleration is that the hardware could be used to process effects and audio "physics", similar to how a GPU can be used for CUDA processing. The GPU does not need to have audio outputs to do this, so the resulting processed audio could just go to whatever interface the end user desired (USB, HDMI, bluetooth, etc.).

SScorpio wrote on 2026-06-12, 14:40:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-06-12, 00:40:

Since audio interfaces are so diverse these days (USB, bluetooth, HDMI, etc.), I think that selling a dedicated sound card for output is just not feasible anymore. That said, I still think that some portion of GPU resources should be used for advanced environmental audio effects. If we can have ray-traced graphics at somewhat passable frame rates, imagine what the hardware could do for audio with a far smaller performance impact.

I believe Nvidia and AMD have both shown examples of this (pretty sure I've posted about them here at some point), but, as usual... no one ever implements any of it in real games. Really, at this point we could be modeling actual sound wave propagation in space and it would probably be less resource intensive than turning on ray tracing. We don't need to go that far, but... come on, it's been 25 years since we lost Aureal. Isn't anyone going to do something interesting with sound?

Creative could have probably developed the technology (software) using existing graphics oriented APIs and licensed it to game developers or something, but... no. That's too risky. It makes a lot more sense to run a doomed kickstarter campaign for an expensive piece of hardware that has no market, no purpose and almost no connection to anything that anyone associates with the Sound Blaster brand.

Sony's doing exactly what you are asking for in the PS5 with some custom Tempest 3D audio engine. When I saw the announcement I thought, finally we're going back to what Aureal did 20 years ago and are improving on it.

We'll just have to see if someone decides to try doing something like it on PC again. Though Microsoft adding it to a future version of DirectX to use on the next XBOX would be the best scenario as it would have the best chance of wide support.

I guess we'll see if anything comes of it. Here are some examples of similar technologies that have been developed over the past 10 years but have seemingly not been implemented.

https://gpuopen.com/archived/true-audio-next/
https://gpuopen.com/radeon-rays/
https://roadtovr.com/nvidias-vrworks-audio-br … elerated-sound/

I wish some indie game developers would jump on board and implement these features in their games. AAA studios don't like to take risks like this, but small studios could use some of these features in games with much smaller budgets and it would genuinely be a selling point for environmentally modeled 3D audio enthusiasts that have been waiting for stuff like this for years.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-06-13, 23:26:

On the other hand, some people use bluetooth (which generally uses the system's wifi adapter or a USB dongle), while others prefer USB interfaces to connect to various external DACs, headphone amplifiers, etc.

I have Bluetooth headsets for use with mobile devices, since they nowadays no longer provide dedicated 3.5mm jack and have to use the Type-C port which means you can either connect to a headset or charge the device but not both.

They're useful for listening to music and maybe watch some video streams and that's it. You can't really use it for gaming, as it introduces an apparent latency of ~300ms. Some games apparently offered options for Bluetooth usage but as I never really used Bluetooth headsets for gaming I've no idea.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-06-13, 23:26:

There is very little room in there for a dedicated sound card these days.

True. I do have the feeling that even HDA is going obsolete. New "discrete PCIe" cards released these years are simply USB audio connected to a PCIe USB controller, and I did find some info that very recent mobos have switched to USB audio interfaces instead of HDA even for onboard as they can offer much higher spec values (sampling rate, SNR, etc.).

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-06-13, 23:26:

What I was saying with regard to using a GPU for acceleration is that the hardware could be used to process effects and audio "physics", similar to how a GPU can be used for CUDA processing. The GPU does not need to have audio outputs to do this, so the resulting processed audio could just go to whatever interface the end user desired (USB, HDMI, bluetooth, etc.).

I think AMD already had technologies like TrueAudio to do the work. Just that I don't have any software to understand better how these technologies work. Even now I've no idea if this can only be utilized when using HDMI/DP output (through the monitor speakers/jacks), or it can be forwarded to another audio device for output...

And for nVidia, I haven't found any detailed info about their TrueAudio counterpart (if there is one)...

LSS10999 wrote on 2026-06-14, 03:07:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-06-13, 23:26:

What I was saying with regard to using a GPU for acceleration is that the hardware could be used to process effects and audio "physics", similar to how a GPU can be used for CUDA processing. The GPU does not need to have audio outputs to do this, so the resulting processed audio could just go to whatever interface the end user desired (USB, HDMI, bluetooth, etc.).

I think AMD already had technologies like TrueAudio to do the work. Just that I don't have any software to understand better how these technologies work. Even now I've no idea if this can only be utilized when using HDMI/DP output (through the monitor speakers/jacks), or it can be forwarded to another audio device for output...

And for nVidia, I haven't found any detailed info about their TrueAudio counterpart (if there is one)...

See the links in this post I made right before yours. 🙂

Re: Creative Labs Introduces The Next-Gen Sound Blaster!