So I recently put a YMF 724 back into my Win98 rig to test something, and I got curious about the Sensaura 3D sound while poking around the drivers. I installed Thief Gold and Unreal Tournament GOTY, turned on 3D sound and saw that Sensaura logo pop up, meaning that it was working in those games.
And wow, I was completely blown away by the 3D sound positioning that this thing does! I normally use an Audigy2 ZS on this computer and its EAX doesn't even come close to this. Note that I'm using a pair of cheap 2.1 speakers, nothing fancy, yet the sound positioning is insanely accurate. In Unreal Tournament, you can pretty much track enemies through walls with this.
This intrigued me so I did some reading on Sensaura, but I'm not sure I understand what it actually does. From what I gather, it seems to be capable of processing Aureal 3D (maybe even 2.0?) to some degree but I'm not 100% sure. Does anyone have some more info on this?
I tested a few more games and it seems that A3D compatibility on my Yamaha YMF724 is kinda hit and miss. Here are some of my findings:
Games which trigger the Sensaura splash screen and have functional 3D sound
Deus Ex GOTY
System Shock 2
Thief Gold
Unreal Gold
Unreal Tournament GOTY
No Sensaura splash screen, but still functional 3D sound
Thief 2
No Sensaura splash screen and non-functional 3D sound (A3D checkbox in Options won't activate)
Half-Life 1
Quake 3
Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force
I'm a bit surprised by this since I read that people had run some of these games under Sensaura with different cards like the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. I guess the YMF724 is on the lower end in terms of Sensaura implementation. Here's what sensinfo says about the card:
I did some more research and it looks like an update of the Sensaura drivers was released, which could possibly improve compatibility with some A3D 2.0 games. However, the ftp where the driver was hosted doesn't seem to be active anymore: ftp://ftp.sensaura.com/SensauraVxD2203.zip
Does anyone by chance still have a copy of SensauraVxD2203.zip?
I did some more research and it looks like an update of the Sensaura drivers was released, which could possibly improve compatibility with some A3D 2.0 games. However, the ftp where the driver was hosted doesn't seem to be active anymore: ftp://ftp.sensaura.com/SensauraVxD2203.zip
Does anyone by chance still have a copy of SensauraVxD2203.zip?
Take a look at these threads.
This one should have all the available Sensaura A3D files available even though not in an official driver pack: Best Sensaura Implementation
Thanks! I downloaded the A3D swapper by ZanQuance and using version 2008 does allow me to select A3D in Quake 3 and ST Voyager Elite Force, but not in Half-Life for some reason.
However, running those games with A3D enabled causes a bunch of crackling and other distortions. I guess the the YMF724 might not be powerful enough to play them under Sensaura. Not sure if using the official update instead of these DLLs would have made any difference.
In any case, I've taken a liking to positional audio, so I'll try to get my hands on a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. That appears to be the best card for running Sensaura, according to the threads linked above. It's also fairly cheap, unlike true Aureal 3D 2.0 cards.
Cheers! I've done some testing with these and they do improve the positional audio quality even further, compared to the Sensaura version which comes with stock Yamaha 1040 drivers that I've been using so far. Also, the Sensaura splash screen logo changed slightly after installing the update.
Same pack except it includes the A3D.DLL which the one .inf lists for the install:
Unless I'm mistaken, that A3D.DLL uses version number 4.07.00.1005. The one that I get after installing the stock Yamaha 1040 drivers appears to be newer at version number 4.12.01.2008. I've tried both and didn't notice much of a difference honestly, so I just kept the newer one.
I also found an older and much larger CRLDS3D.VXD from Nov 2, 1999 in another driver pack:
I tried this too but I didn't notice any changes in sound quality, despite the larger file size. I may need to test some more games to be certain.
So in summary, I think I've gotten the most that you can get from a YMF 7x4 card running Sensaura with this update. It doesn't enable A3D 2.0 games to work (like Quake 3 and Elite Force) but that's ok, since they produced distorted sound when I used the latest DLLs from the A3D swapper. The most interesting part is that the update enables ZoomFx and VirtualEar functionality, which was missing before, per sensinfo. Here's my current sensinfo log file:
I'll have to do some more testing, but so far, I think the optimal way to experience Sensaura 3D sound on YMF 7x4 cards is to install the stock Yamaha 1040 driver (I used the version from Phil's website) and then apply the Sensaura update from your post (without A3D.DLL). To me, the best sounding games were Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex, Thief Gold and System Shock 2. IMO, anyone who has a YMF 7x4 card should give those games a try.
i've been pleasantly surprised with the 3d sound quality too. it's hit and miss but when it works its quite good.
if only it had some sort of way to run the xg wavetable in dos. then it would be the ultimate sound card.
Yes, yes it would be.
On another note, I came across the information that there was an upgrade available on top of the regular Sensaura stuff that came stock with cards that supported Sensaura. They sold it for $25 on the Sensaura web site and it was included with some sound cards.
This upgrade, from what I can gather, gives you the ability to make custom Virtual Ear configurations.
With that info I went searching for the upgrade but was not able to find a download for it. So then I went searching for cards that came with the Virtual Ear upgrade and found a boxed one for sale, the Hercules Game Theatre XP 6.1, and now have it on the way.
The upgrade is supposed to be a separate installer and I am hoping that the installer is separate with this card as it is listed as a separate software that is included.
I didn't find any information that said the upgrade installer was different for different cards so I think it should work.
The upgrade is supposed to be a separate installer and I am hoping that the installer is separate with this card as it is listed as a separate software that is included.
Interesting, I'd like to try this too. Might be worthwhile uploading that to Vogonsdrivers since the Sensaura website is completely gone now.
From what I understand, some cards like the Santa Cruz shipped with a Virtual Ear configuration panel which lets you fine tune the 3D sound positioning to your speaker/headphone setup and save that as a preset. I'm guessing that's what this upgrade brings to the YMF 7x4 cards.
So the card came while I was on a business trip. Looked at the CD briefly last night before going to sleep and Virtual Ear does have a separate installer. I have uploaded it to my Google drive for now: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sKO3v0sxwDt … 5Ocac04MJvIBJbG
I don't have a setup out with a Yamaha card in it right now, so some feedback on whether it works with the Yamaha cards would be great. I saw something about the sound card driver version having to be a certain version or newer but drawing a blank at what that version was.
I don't have a setup out with a Yamaha card in it right now, so some feedback on whether it works with the Yamaha cards would be great. I saw something about the sound card driver version having to be a certain version or newer but drawing a blank at what that version was.
I tried this with my YMF724 using 1040 drivers and the Sensaura update. VirtualEar installs fine, but when I run it, the program fails with a "You do not have a qualifying product installed" message. I also tried using WDM drivers version 2228 and got the same result. On that note, WDM drivers don't even have a Sensaura tab under settings.
The only thing I haven't tried is using the very last VxD driver (version 2020) but I can't seem to find that anywhere to download.
Hmmm... Guess I will have to do some testing on my own when I get a chance. Have a couple other projects I need to focus on first.
I wonder if they had different versions compiled that looked specifically for certain hardware strings or specific drivers. If that is the case and it isn't just a simple registry or .ini entry they are looking for then it may take a bit of doing to make it work on different cards.
With that being said, I can use a program to log exactly what is happening during the install.
Hopefully it won't be too difficult to figure out how to get it working depending on if the different versions were actually just the same program with different verification checks.
Having recently acquired a Turtle Beach Montego II (Aureal Vortex 2) I wanted to compare its hardware A3D against the Sensaura implementation on my YMF724 The results were... unexpected.
Unreal Tournament 3D sound positioning somehow sounds better on Sensaura. It's kinda hard to explain, but the effects "pop" more and sound richer with Sensaura. On the Vortex2, everything seems a bit more quiet. Similar situation in Deus Ex.
Thief also feels a bit quieter on the Vortex2, but the sounds are clearer than on Sensaura. Specifically, Garrett's footstep sounds seemed muffled when using Sensaura, making it hard to determine how much noise you're actually making. System Shock 2 was also quieter on the Vortex2.
Half-Life and Voyager Elite Force sound exceptional on the Vortex2. In particular, the Half-Life intro sequence with the train car is a real treat. On Sensaura, Half-Life won't enable A3D while Elite Force works but the sound crackles on my YMF724. I hear that some other Sensaura cards work fine with it though.
For reference, I was using headphones during these tests, with both A3D and Sensaura configured for headphone use. Maybe I'll make a video some day comparing the two directly. So far, Sensaura has really impressed me with what it brings to the table, especially since cards that support it are much more readily available than those that feature true A3D.
sorry for bumping an old topic, I tried Heretic II on a ASUS A7V600-X with integrated SoundMAX AD1888 sound card and it pops up the Sensaura 3DPA splash screen which means that I got A3d to work!
I tried this with my YMF724 using 1040 drivers and the Sensaura update. VirtualEar installs fine, but when I run it, the program fails with a "You do not have a qualifying product installed" message. I also tried using WDM drivers version 2228 and got the same result. On that note, WDM drivers don't even have a Sensaura tab under settings.
I figured out how to get VirtualEar working, VirtualEar does a check for cwcspud.vxd (Cirrus SoundFusion's driver specifically).
Once you obtain the right .vxd file and place it in C:\Windows\System, VirtualEar launches successfully.
VirtualEar appears to operate properly on my hardware configuration (I am using an ASUS motherboard with a Sensaura-compatible chip, the AD1980).
You can view the instructions and download VirtualEar on the Internet Archive as well: https://archive.org/details/virtual-ear-guillemot
Last edited by mrpenguinb on 2021-08-26, 02:51. Edited 1 time in total.
I figured out how to get VirtualEar working, VirtualEar does a check for cwcspud.vxd (Cirrus SoundFusion's driver specifically).
Once you obtain the right .vxd file and place it in C:\Windows\System, VirtualEar launches successfully.
Nice work!
I've been meaning to start experimenting with Sensaura again and this gives me some extra incentive. Could be a while before I'm able to do some proper testing, but I'll definitively give this a shot.
