TechieDude wrote on 2020-06-02, 21:17:I have an AWE32 on one of my DOS rigs, an ALS100 on the other and an SBLive on my Tualeron/V3 Win98 rig, and I'm quite pleased w […]
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truemaster wrote on 2020-06-02, 16:05:for dos sound awe64 and even better the awaited awe64 legacy for win32 games go aureal vortex 2. and you will never want to hear about sblive. and i have apollo pro 133a aureal is great
I have an AWE32 on one of my DOS rigs, an ALS100 on the other and an SBLive on my Tualeron/V3 Win98 rig, and I'm quite pleased with them. I also have an Audigy 2 on my P4 overkill WinME/2K rig. I would have loved to use an Aureal Vortex 2 in the latter, but sadly I don't have any. Plus, I actually like the SB Live! card, especially EAX and SoundFonts. I am aware of the fact A3D is technically superior to EAX, but EAX was more widely used in 90's games. Also, I'm not at all a fanboy. SB Lives are much easier to find. Having said that, if I ever find an Aureal Vortex 2, I'll happily install it in the overkill PC.
dr_st wrote on 2020-06-02, 16:37:
Yeah, I go to the grocery store about once a week. Sometimes they are out of Mac&Cheese, but the Dell SBLive OEM shelf is always full.
🤣
I have a vortex 2. It's neat, but super overrated. There are three games I have tried where the vortex 2 is actually better than EAX or just standard windows sound, and even in these cases each comes with some pretty serious caveats.
1. Half Life 1 has more effects enabled in A3D 2.0 that is pretty nice. For example, added 3D spacial audio on some intercoms and additional atmospheric sound effects in some rooms. Unfortunately a lot of cards, including mine, have really muffled audio that more than negates any of the benefits. Also, for me at least, it was a pain in the ass to get working. EAX is easier and nearly just as good. ALsoft with HRFT mods for half life source are way better than either.
2. Quake III on a very specific patch has A3D 2.0 support and it is phenomenal. This is really the showcase game for A3D 2.0 IMO. Alternatively, you can also download a quake III source port that is better in literally every way.
3. Painkiller has a bunch of really cool effects but it is very poorly optimized and the framerate tanks with all of them enabled.
I have played other games, like Unreal Gold and American McGee's Alice that support both A3D 2.0 and EAX 2.0, and to me they sound basically the same. Not great by modern standards but neat to see in games of that era. Even if A3D 2.0 is a technically superior API, few games made full use of it. The performance cost at the time was prohibitively expensive.
My audigy 2 zs , on the other hand, was 20$. There is no comparison, it sounds miles better than my vortex 2. The output is way crisper and cleaner. It also supports digital CD audio, and it has drivers for more than one version of windows.