Stiletto wrote:
As far as I know, no. EAX is a Creative Labs-only thing. However, other sound cards may have similar environmental effects of their own devising.
If EAX is Soundblaster specific, how is it my sound card (not Soundblaster) adds reverb when I activate the EAX switch in a game (Baldur's Gate I and II)?
My understanding is that EAX is just a specification for how to store and send reverb parameters in a game. Any card from Turtle Beach, Creative Labs, or Philips will be able to read and use the reverb parameters.
They all have different reverb engines for what they do with the information. Sounblaster's is the best, though the competition is getting better at it.
If they were using something besides EAX you would need to have separate switches in the game for each sound card.
Everyone who uses EAX has to pay licensing fees to Creative Labs to be allowed to read EAX.
The reason Aureal got sued is that their cards implemented EAX without paying Creative Labs for reading the information.