Star Wars: Jedi Academy EAX4 on the Audigy RX:
https://youtu.be/BeXf9VAkdQU

sharangad wrote on 2026-06-29, 18:42:

Star Wars: Jedi Academy EAX4 on the Audigy RX:
https://youtu.be/BeXf9VAkdQU

Nice work! According to this page on Creative's old website, it was the first EAX 4.0 game ever released. Haven't played it myself yet, but I might at some later point.

On that note, I think I found the very first reference to EAX 4.0 drivers on this archived news page. Looks like the relevant driver update was released on November 7th, 2003. Around that time, Creative's Audigy 2 ZS page was stating "Requires online update for EAX 4.0 ADVANCED HD support.", so it kinda tracks.

Yeah, those are the October 31 2003 drivers (date when they were compiled) I mentioned in reference to F.E.A.R. and the Audigy 1 vs. Audigy 2 weirdness on the previous page. If you search in quote marks for the installer names, there may be references to them in old forum threads.

Dipshidian wrote on 2026-07-01, 03:25:

Yeah, those are the October 31 2003 drivers (date when they were compiled) I mentioned in reference to F.E.A.R. and the Audigy 1 vs. Audigy 2 weirdness on the previous page. If you search in quote marks for the installer names, there may be references to them in old forum threads.

Cheers! I was looking into this for the Vogons Wiki page, as I wanted to narrow down the time period when EAX 4.0 initially became available to consumers. At first, I thought the relevant drivers shipped on the Audigy 2 ZS installation CD alongside the card, but that doesn't seem to be the case, at least for the initial release.

Later installation CDs (like the one uploaded here) do have EAX 4.0 compatible WDM drivers on the disc. But from my testing, it seems that VxD drivers (from the same disc) were never updated with EAX 4.0 compatibility. Which kinda makes sense, as Win98/ME were entering extended support by that time. It's likely that WDM drivers were favored due to being usable on Win9x/2K/XP, while VxD drivers were only compatible with Win9x.

I would really appreciate it if anyone can direct me to a link to download Windows 10 drivers: You see, I need to be able to adjust the TREBLE and BASS and without the official drivers, I am not able to do so.
Many thanks in advance!

C0deHunter wrote on 2026-07-19, 11:11:

I would really appreciate it if anyone can direct me to a link to download Windows 10 drivers: You see, I need to be able to adjust the TREBLE and BASS and without the official drivers, I am not able to do so.
Many thanks in advance!

I use DanielK's drivers for my X-Fi under Win10.

If you really want Creative's official version, it should still be somewhere on their support page. But that website is a mess to navigate, especially regarding legacy products.

Yeah, the DanielK's pack is as close to the official CD driver pack as you can get. His releases mostly focus on patching every utility and the drivers themselves to work on modern systems, and on packing everything together with a nice installer. No "B4SS enchantments!!1" or other nonsense, that was never the point (apart from official utilities - these are in place).

At some point in time there was also an unlocker utility included for DTS Connect and DD Live encoders, which caused a lot of shitstorm, but this was very long ago. Latest releases do not include it.

TBF, if you don't own the X-Fi version, that includes the license for the encoders (afaik, that's X-Fi Titanium and Titanium HD only, maybe Onkyo Wavio thing), you're out of luck as Creative brought down the activation servers sometime in 2022 or so. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but none of the official drivers will work properly (including the ones downloaded via Windows Update, I think) after Windows 10 1903 release or some such due to some changes in Windows Audio stack.

Also also, be sure that Memory Core Isolation feature is off, as X-Fi drivers won't work with it enabled.

All my current modern gaming PCs include some sort of X-Fi solution and each of them uses DanielK's drivers. One of them being that Onkyo card, the other is Titanium HD, and the main is X-Fi Elite Pro with chinese custom made PCI to PCIe bridge Elfidelity AXF-117. Love that thing. But any other will do, I think.

Edit: by the way, the official drivers actually should include a way to tune bass and treble (provided, they're installed and working correctly, which I actually doubt, see above). Check the audio device properties in the classic Windows Control Panel. There should be sliders in there just for that.

Many thanks as usual!
Say should I download X-Fi Support Pack 8.0 (Refresh 3) or the Audigy Support Pack 8.1

You mean the version numbers? Just grab the latest available for your card - i.e. Audigy or X-Fi. These numbers don't mean that X-Fi pack is older.

In fact, these two were released almost on the same day if I remember correctly. They contained fixes for the 1903 changes. Then the Audigy drivers were re-released due to some bug that crept in, hence .1 numbering.

I meant what is the difference between the refresh 3 (8.0) and 8.1?

I just unpacked both of them, and it seems that the compile date for 8.1 is 01/22/2023,. whereas the Refresh 3 (8.0), is 08/08/2021!

I am confused!

No no, they're completely separate. It's just a coincidence, that they're both at v8. Earlier the Audigy pack could've been, say, at v6, and the X-Fi one at v8, and the Audigy one could've been newer at the time. In other words, 8.1 is not newer than 8.0 in that case, because these are completely different packages, containing different utilities, drivers, etc.

So for My X-Fi Platinum (with the metal casing), which version do you recommend?

For the X-Fi series there's only one version - 8.0 refresh 3. That's the latest and unfortunately probably the last one.

OK, thanks! That's all I wanted to know!

Hey, @Joseph_Joestar, you mentioned something about a list of games that failed your EAX test on page 39 in this thread. Among these games, Wargasm was mentioned. This surprised me a bit, considering that both the game’s (big box) packaging and PCGamingWiki mention support for Environmental Audio/EAX. This had me curious, so I decided to test this out myself.

The result can be heard in this footage I’ve captured (WARNING: also contains annoying commentary):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o6U170smX0

Dipshidian wrote on 2026-07-27, 17:08:

Hey, @Joseph_Joestar, you mentioned something about a list of games that failed your EAX test on page 39 in this thread. Among these games, Wargasm was mentioned. This surprised me a bit, considering that both the game’s (big box) packaging and PCGamingWiki mention support for Environmental Audio/EAX. This had me curious, so I decided to test this out myself.

The result can be heard in this footage I’ve captured (WARNING: also contains annoying commentary):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o6U170smX0

Cheers! That sounds good to me, I'll update the wiki in a few days, since I'm a bit busy at the moment.

At a guess, this game uses a very early EAX implementation, which is why my standard tests couldn't catch it. But if it says that EAX is supported on the game box, I'll happily take it. Also, your video showcases it quite well, so I'll be linking to it as reference.

Dipshidian wrote on 2026-07-27, 17:08:

Hey, @Joseph_Joestar, you mentioned something about a list of games that failed your EAX test on page 39 in this thread. Among these games, Wargasm was mentioned. This surprised me a bit, considering that both the game’s (big box) packaging and PCGamingWiki mention support for Environmental Audio/EAX. This had me curious, so I decided to test this out myself.

I've updated the Vogons wiki now. Thanks again!

BTW, the most recent list of debunked EAX games is now at the bottom of the first post in this thread (hidden behind a spoiler button). I've placed it there for easy access a while ago.

To my dismay, I’ve come to the realization that my 6 months old Half-Life-EAX-1.0-vs.-2.0-driver-performance comparison video (that shows a noticeable performance gap between using older pre-Half-Life-era drivers and newer mid-1999 drivers.) is likely incredibly flawed and might potentially be misleading people. While browsing through the various SB Live driver pages on Vogonsdrivers, I only just now happened upon a readme-file from the LiveWare 2.1 (VxD 4.06.622) update mentioning a number of improvements, presumably over the last 2.0 version. This includes the following point: “Half Life frame rate has been improved.”

It was in this moment that I quickly checked to see what drivers I had used in my HL EAX 1 vs. 2 upload, and came to the horrifying conclusion that I had in fact been using the LiveWare 2.0 (VxD 4.06.610) drivers! Now I will have to redo the whole comparison to reflect the improved performance of HL in newer drivers. OOPS!

Remember kids: don’t be a dumbass like me!

I reacquired an X-Fi Ti Fatality Champion series (a refurbished model with multiple broken warranty stickers on the shroud). I have problems with OpenAL audio conking out in Quake 4 after saving. They come back after passing through a door. When I played Quake 4 on an X-Fi extreme music, I don't remember this happening and on the Audigy RX it doesn't happen at all. I never got that far in Q4 on the XMusic, kept running out of ammo after the medical bay, multiple times.

I still have the driver CDs from my original card, so I'm not sure if replacing the ct_oal.dll file will work. The drivers on the CD are for Vista. I actually stopped using the card back in 2010 because the audio would randomly die (Win 7) until I rebooted, which made life difficult, since I used the machine for work.

sharangad wrote on Today, 05:50:

I reacquired an X-Fi Ti Fatality Champion series (a refurbished model with multiple broken warranty stickers on the shroud). I have problems with OpenAL audio conking out in Quake 4 after saving. They come back after passing through a door. When I played Quake 4 on an X-Fi extreme music, I don't remember this happening and on the Audigy RX it doesn't happen at all. I never got that far in Q4 on the XMusic, kept running out of ammo after the medical bay, multiple times.

Is this happening on modern Windows (10/11) or under WinXP? If it's the latter, you can always try using older drivers. But on Win10/11, DanielK's X-Fi support pack might be your best bet. This is assuming that there are no issues with the hardware itself of course.

If it helps, this is the install CD that came with my own X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro (SB0886). Same model as Champion, just without the front panel I/O drive. That disc works fine on WinXP/Vista/Win7. But I never tried it on any newer Windows versions.