I've been testing a few games that had no specific EAX version listed on our wiki, and came across this in Star Wars: Empire at War:

Was pleasantly surprised to see all the supported EAX versions plainly listed under Audio Options. That's a somewhat rare occurrence, and I usually need to check the version of eax.dll that ships with the game, or open the executable in a hex editor to determine which EAX version(s) a game supports. Kudos to the Empire at War devs for being so clear!

P.S.

I've been updating our EAX wiki page with new info and adding references for each change. The goal is to precisely identify which EAX version(s) a game supports. Ideally, I'd like the list on our wiki to be as accurate as possible, even though we inherited a bunch of unreferenced info as it was mirrored back when Wikipedia took down the original page.

Here are a few games that are currently undocumented on our wiki, which may use EAX 5.0 (unconfirmed at the moment):

• Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder
• Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45
• Test Drive Unlimited
• Watchmen: The End is Nigh

I won't be adding them until we have proper references. Ideally, we would need something that identifies the EAX version used. This could be a screenshot from the game options menu (if the EAX version is shown there), an excerpt from the game's manual or readme file, the version of eax.dll which the game uses, or a link to the old Soundblaster.com website via Wayback machine which identifies the EAX version that's used. So if anyone here is familiar with some of these games, feel free to chime in.

While testing a bunch of EAX games and updating our wiki page, I came across some interesting things. First, this EAX Quality Assurance document:

It was originally downloaded from here but I'm attaching it to this post as well, in case it gets lost to time. That document seems to be from 2003, so it's missing some EAX 4.0 and EAX 5.0 functionality, but it's still an interesting read. Basically, it describes how game designers and their QA teams used to test EAX during development.

Next, there's EAX Unified. The latest standalone redist that we currently know of is 4.0.0.1 and it can be found on this page of the PC Gaming Wiki. Note that some later games ship with slightly more recent versions of eax.dll but I haven't found a newer standalone installer. Anyway, it seems EAX Unified was initially developed around the year 2000 as a bridge between EAX 1.0 and EAX 2.0. Final Fantasy 8 ships with version 0.0.0.1 which is probably the earliest release.

Later versions of EAX Unified were used to ensure that sound cards which only had EAX 1.0 and EAX 2.0 functionality (e.g. SBLive and most on-board audio solutions) could be supported more easily by developers who used higher EAX versions (e.g. EAX 3.0 and EAX 4.0) in their games. From what I gather, EAX Unified sort of "translates" higher EAX versions to lower ones. A few of the more advanced effects might be lost, but it seems to work ok for the most part. So later games could be designed primarily for EAX 3.0 and EAX 4.0, but thanks to EAX Unified, you could still get some of that functionality even on less capable sound cards. Pretty neat.

Lastly, certain games like Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness require EAX Unified to be installed, otherwise they won't have any EAX support.

I recently did some testing with the Painkiller game series. To my surprise, they kept EAX support even for Painkiller: Redemption, which was released in 2011:

I'm not very familiar with these games, and from what I've read, they seem more like standalone expansions than proper sequels. But it's still interesting that the developers continued using EAX for so long.

XP didn't fall off the board until 2014 and Creative had their EAX ALchemy available for years, so gaming audio was not an all or nothing scenario with using EAX in the early 2010's.

After testing 50+ games over the last few months and updating the list on the Vogons Wiki, I decided to do a count and see how many games support various EAX versions. Here's the current state of affairs:

• EAX 1.0 - 210 games
• EAX 2.0 - 133 games
• EAX 3.0 - 125 games
• EAX 4.0 - 61 games
• EAX 5.0 - 20 games

Note that many games support multiple versions (e.g. both EAX 1.0 and EAX 2.0). On that note, the amount of games which support EAX 5.0 kinda surprised me, but it does check out. Whenever possible, I've included references which can be used to verify these findings. There is still some work to be done, and certain games remain undocumented (their EAX columns are completely empty) until they are tested, but I think it's looking a bit better than before.

Here's a mini guide in case someone else wants to play detective as to determine which EAX version a game uses. The steps are ordered by ease of use and accuracy, with the first three being the best case scenarios.

1. Check the game's manual, readme file and/or patch notes. Sometimes, the supported EAX versions are plainly listed there. Example game: Beyond Good and Evil.
2. Check the in-game audio options and/or external configuration utility. Sometimes, the supported EAX versions are plainly listed there. Example game: Star Wars Empire at War.
3. Check Creative's old "EAX Featured Games" website (archived). Sometimes, the exact EAX version is listed there. Example game: Colin McRae Dirt.
4. Some games show which EAX version was detected and used in their console output or debug log file. Example game: Clive Barker's Undying.
5. If a game ships with eax.dll that means it's using EAX Unified. Check the version number of that file via right click > properties. For example, if it's version 4.0.0.1 that means EAX 4.0 and everything below is supported. Example game: Street Racing Syndicate.
6. If a game ships with OpenAL.dll or wrap_oal.dll open those files in a hex editor and search for the string "EAX". The versions of EAX that you find there are likely supported by the game. Example game: Pariah.
7. If a game uses the Miles Sound System, open msseax.m3d in a hex editor and search for the string "EAX". The versions of EAX that you find there are likely supported by the game. Example game: Titan Quest.
8. If all else fails, open the game's executable in a hex editor and search for the string "EAX". The versions of EAX that you find there are likely supported by the game. Example game: Halo CE.

Those are the methods that I used to identify the level of EAX support in the games that I've tested over the last few months.

American McGee's Alice audio configuration menu allows you to select EAX and EAX2.

For Ultim@te Race Pro, the -SB32 can be used if your sound card supports 32 voices according to Ultim@te Race Technical support

Stretch wrote on 2024-09-28, 00:31:

American McGee's Alice audio configuration menu allows you to select EAX and EAX2.

For Ultim@te Race Pro, the -SB32 can be used if your sound card supports 32 voices according to Ultim@te Race Technical support

Added both, thanks!

X-COM: Enforcer and Dr. Brain: Action Reaction, both Unreal Engine 1 games, have the following entry in the log file generated after running the game.

1Init: EAX 1.x sound hardware found!

Just like Unreal 1, the Galaxy audio system prefers A3d if detected, and the log file will indicate A3D instead of EAX.

1Init: Aureal A3D 2.x 3D sound hardware found!

Stretch wrote on 2024-09-28, 22:09:

X-COM: Enforcer and Dr. Brain: Action Reaction, both Unreal Engine 1 games, have the following entry in the log file generated after running the game.

Thanks again! Added both of those as well.

The A3D 2.0 support got me a bit curious, so I started Deus Ex on my Turtle Beach Montego II card (Aureal Vortex 2) but it looks like that game only supports A3D 1.0 per the log file. I tried a couple of different drivers, including the latest 2048 version, but I couldn't get A3D 2.0 to be detected. It's interesting that Deus Ex left out A3D 2.0, while X-COM: Enforcer which came out next year did support it. I was wrong, A3D 2.0 does work in Deus Ex, see below.

Could be a Creative sabotage deal considering the Live 5.1 came with it.

leileilol wrote on 2024-09-29, 07:57:

Could be a Creative sabotage deal considering the Live 5.1 came with it.

Actually, it looks something went wrong when I was upgrading from an older version of Dell drivers (it's a Dell OEM Montego II) to stock Aureal 2048 drivers which caused A3D 2.0 to not be detected. I just did a clean install of Win98SE using only the stock 2048 drivers from Aureal and A3D 2.0 worked fine in Deus Ex. It's correctly detected by the game and shows up in DeusEx.log:

1Init: Aureal A3D 2.x 3D sound hardware found!

Furthermore, if you type in s_wavetracing into the console, you will get this:

So yeah, A3D 2.0 does work in Deus Ex, though you may need newer drivers. I have tested Aureal's stock 2041 and 2048 drivers and both properly enable A3D 2.0 in Deus Ex. However, the older Dell driver only enables A3D 1.0 for some reason.

Since JHexen, a source port, is on the list of games with EAX support, should IAS Quake2 Patch Beta With EAX Support!! also? The EAX provided is 1.x according to the text file included in the archive.

Stretch wrote on 2024-09-29, 12:14:

Since JHexen, a source port, is on the list of games with EAX support, should IAS Quake2 Patch Beta With EAX Support!! also? The EAX provided is 1.x according to the text file included in the archive.

I'm on the fence with regards to source ports and fan-made projects like Thievery UT.

They were on the original list which we mirrored from Wikipedia, but I'm not sure if we want that stuff or just commercial, retail games to be on ours. I have no strong preference either way, it would just be more work to document all of that. Let me know what you guys think.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-09-29, 12:29:

They were on the original list which we mirrored from Wikipedia, but I'm not sure if we want that stuff or just commercial, retail games to be on ours. I have no strong preference either way, it would just be more work to document all of that. Let me know what you guys think.

In my mind that would be like listing a DirectX 3.0 game supporting DirectX 9.0 because there's a wrapper for it.

I've got nothing against listing such things, but I do think they should be kept on a separate list away from retail releases.

FYI, I've added the "ALchemy Support" column to the EAX games list on the Vogons Wiki. This should make it easier to discern games which are officially supported by Creative's ALchemy utility.

Previously, this support was only indicated in the notes section, which led to needless clutter. Now, you can filter ALchemy supported games by simply clicking on the arrows in that column.

I'm not sure which game Pacman 3D in the wiki refers to. I own 2 Pac-Man games.

Pac-Man Adventures in Time supports EAX. There is a screenshot of the audio settings in PCGamingWiki.
Pac-Man All-Stars has a Miles folder with asi, dll, and m3d files. I'm not able to determine which driver the game uses though.

Stretch wrote on 2024-10-03, 10:56:

I'm not sure which game Pacman 3D in the wiki refers to. I own 2 Pac-Man games.

It might be a placeholder name from before the game was actually released. I've replaced that entry with the two games that you mentioned below.

Pac-Man Adventures in Time supports EAX. There is a screenshot of the audio settings in PCGamingWiki.

I gave this a quick test, but I wasn't able to turn on EAX under WinXP on my X-Fi Titanium. Then, I tried under Win98 with my Audigy 2 using VxD drivers and it worked. I've added a note about that.

Pac-Man All-Stars has a Miles folder with asi, dll, and m3d files. I'm not able to determine which driver the game uses though.

Older versions of the Miles Sound System used msseax.m3d for EAX 1.0 and msseax2.m3d for EAX 2.0. Later versions of Miles use msseax.m3d for all supported EAX versions, and they are listed separately inside that file (can be viewed via Hex Editor).

Pac-Man All-Stars doesn't have a menu option to select the audio provider, and I don't see an ini file or reg entry either.

After placing Alchemy dsound.dll in the game folder I noticed that no dsoundlog.txt was created after exiting the game.

I modified mss32.dll and renamed dsound.dll to esound.dll so that Alchemy can detect the game using the same methodology outlined in the 'EAX Alchemy Fix v1.0' from GTAGarage.com.

dsoundlog.txt has the entry 'Using Creative Software 3D Library', but I don't know if that means EAX is being used or not.