jarreboum wrote:"Modern" audio solutions is something I admittedly know almost nothing about. The world of EAX etc is daunting. I barely managed to gather enough knowledge to settle on a DOS sound card.
Aren't there wrappers to do whatever these cards did, in software? Like Alchemy, or that Russian A3D one?I don't know how they compare to the real thing.
For the most part you can lay out EAX by year:
1998: EAX 1.0 (can't remember which card)
1999: EAX 2.0 (Sound blaster LIVE)
2001: EAX 3.0 (Sound blaster Audigy)
2003: EAX 4.0 (Sound blaster Audigy2)
2005: EAX 5.0 (Sound blaster X-Fi)
For A3D just stick to any Vortex based card, Diamond Monster Sounds are pretty popular although I cant say what advantage they would have over the much more common and cheap generic Vortex2 cards.
I'm currently running a LIVE Value (CT4670) in my Late 99' Windows 98 machine and an Audigy Platinum EX (SB0090) or Audigy2ZS Platinum depending on need in my XP machine.
Windows audio is much simpler than DOS.
My experience with alchemy with a X-Fi Pro was horrible. The effects were completely messed up in the Jedi Knight games and Battlefront II. I can't speak for the A3D wrapper however.
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I used to own over 160 graphics card, I've since recovered from graphics card addiction