mirh wrote on 2021-12-27, 20:17:
An X-fi release day review argues they even had to tone down EAX effects in some points
I interpret the nordichardware site as talking specifically about the crystalizer functionality:
In short, we should have a lot to gain from using Crystalizer.
When we turn on the effect you notice how the sounds become more distinct, everything from footsteps to the jungle ambience. When we start to fill our enemies with led the setting is feeling a bit overdosed and we have to turn it down to 25-30% to make it comfortable for the ears. All and all Crystalizer boosts the sound but the sound image is a bit spiky in the higher regions which makes it a bit tiresome for the eardrums after some time. An ambivalent result.
I think Far Cry is the last game in the Crystalizer test section, before it goes on to CMSS. There is also a Far Cry section testing CMSS, but I don't see anything about reverb (or other EAX effects).
(Side note: It amuses me how much time they spent testing that stuff. I always turn anything like that off immediately in any hardware or software I have! I guess Creative's marketing worked, though...)
mirh wrote on 2021-12-27, 20:17:
(also this seems to be the alchemy bug I had mentioned)
I interpret this as talking specifically about DirectSound emulation issues (rather than EAX). The specific bug mentioned is about duplicate sound buffers (I also had bugs with that in IndirectSound hehe), and it is vague enough that it's not clear what the "problem" is (it seems to be a different problem from the bullet point immediately preceding it). I guess to me when I read it I don't get the impression that it says "EAX didn't work in Far Cry but now it does"; it seems more like some DirectSound wrapper fixes.
It does mention Far Cry as a "new game", but I bet this is talking about the utility they had that you could use to "install" ALchemy to work with games. Back then when ALchemy was introduced I didn't know anything about wrappers, and I didn't realize that the only thing that program did was look in the registry for recognized games and copy dsound.dll into the appropriate spot, so I definitely used that utility and would have been excited to have new games "supported", even if they would/should have worked regardless with the dsound.dll placed correctly.
mirh wrote on 2021-12-27, 20:17:
phil sounded enthusiastic about the XP experience.
I don't think that a lack of EAX means that the game doesn't sound good, far from it! In fact, after having listened to EAX reverb so much in a controlled environment (not in a game in context but with a single isolated sound playing over and over and over with different reverb settings) I actually don't think it sounds very impressive at all, and clearly games can sound good without it. Doom3 is the classic example in my mind that sounds worse with it enabled. I remember when they added it I was excited and turned it on, and immediately thought it sounded bad and turned it back off. I didn't know until years later that id was forced by Creative to add EAX so that DOOM3 could use the patented shadow method, and then it all made sense that it was added as an obligation and not designed with it in mind. There are some games, like F.E.A.R., that are clearly carefully designed to use EAX well and that using EAX is definitely the best experience and what the developers intended, but if a game wasn't designed to take advantage of it (like Far Cry seems to me), then that doesn't mean the sound design won't still sound great; it just might not have any reverb.