Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2026-09-18, 17:17:

Zoomer wrote on 2026-09-18, 17:10:

I tried reproducing the occlusion effect demonstrated in your post, Joseph_Joestar, with your save on GOG's BG2 with Alchemy and X-Fi Titanium HD. Even though Environmental Effects are enabled and I'm getting 3D speaker panning just as per your audio recordings, I'm not getting that occlusion attenuation unfortunately.

Sigh, I'm starting to wonder if people are actually reading my posts or just skimming through them without comprehending what I wrote. In Baldur's Gate 2, occlusion needs VxD drivers in order to work properly. Meaning, the game needs to be played under Win9x, since newer Windows versions don't support VxD drivers. The sole exception to this seem to be SBLive cards, which can provide occlusion in this game when using specific versions of WDM drivers under WinXP (as noted here). Anything newer than that cannot be used for the purposes of this test.

Anyway, I'm done explaining this any further. I simply don't care about the issue enough to spend more of my time and energy on it.

Sorry Joe, I only got as far as listening to the clips on your posts. I will actually read everything, including that post again.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2026-09-18, 17:17:

Sigh, I'm starting to wonder if people are actually reading my posts or just skimming through them without comprehending what I wrote.

Touche. That's exactly how it happened. I just skimmed through your post and tried to be useful working fast and using only my left ankle, pardon me 😀 /facepalm

I kinda missed the fact that the part with VxD/WDM was already firmly established. I wonder, however, why exactly it happens even when using highly abstracted solutions like d3d -> oal translation.

Again, my apologies for my previous shallow post. I deeply respect the work you're doing on documenting and bringing the light to EAX, its wildly varied implementations, driver/OS quirks and everything in between.

It wasn't out of disrespect, but simply due to lack of personal time to properly follow.

I'll refrain from such posts in the future!

It seems to me that early and late versions of EAX 2.0 (1998–2001) differ significantly.
This explains the compatibility issues between early EAX 2.0 games and newer cards like Audigy, X-Fi or those using ALchemy.

I’m looking for early EAX 2.0 SDK, does anyone happen to have one lying around?
There is one on the Internet Archive (with files dated July 15, 1999), but the download cuts off at 0.9MiB/2.9MiB (33%) with an "EOF from the server" error.
https://web.archive.org/web/20000817091715/ht … es/eax20sdk.exe

ott wrote on 2026-09-19, 09:49:

I’m looking for early EAX 2.0 SDK, does anyone happen to have one lying around?

I tried getting it from here but it keeps failing for me as well. The Miles Sound System archive from the same page works fine though.

EDIT - this link seems to work, but it's for the newer version from 2001.

I found EAX 2.0 documentation from 1999 (59 pages).
The latest doc from EAX20SDK.exe (2001) expanded to 88 pages (chapters dedicated to OpenAL were added).

Here're a bunch of levels from Baldur's Gate 2 from an Audigy 2 ZS (VXD drivers) on Windows 98SE:
https://youtu.be/olONfAuyEpU

sharangad wrote on 2026-09-20, 03:46:

Here're a bunch of levels from Baldur's Gate 2 from an Audigy 2 ZS (VXD drivers) on Windows 98SE:
https://youtu.be/olONfAuyEpU

Thank you! 😊

A question for people who use surround speakers with their PCs: what are some games that make very good use of them? Joe already mentioned Quake 4 as a strong contender; I was wondering if there are others that shine.

AndreaColombo86 wrote on 2026-09-24, 14:24:

A question for people who use surround speakers with their PCs: what are some games that make very good use of them? Joe already mentioned Quake 4 as a strong contender; I was wondering if there are others that shine.

I've been messing with 5.1 surround and EAX3 with GTA3 and GTA VC. It takes some jumping through hoops, but it is possible and quite nice. I have nothing to compare it to so I can't say if it "shines." But if I turn around in circles, the sound moves across my speakers as expected.

AndreaColombo86 wrote on 2026-09-24, 14:24:

A question for people who use surround speakers with their PCs: what are some games that make very good use of them? Joe already mentioned Quake 4 as a strong contender; I was wondering if there are others that shine.

Here's a long list, that likely has some games you own on there. Your milage will vary, depending on your speaker and audio processing setup, along with how well the game's audio happens to work on your particular PC. For clarity, you may want to also try headphones and audio processing, if you have a good pair of them that connects to your particular setup.

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/List_of_gam … _surround_sound

AndreaColombo86 wrote on 2026-09-24, 14:24:

A question for people who use surround speakers with their PCs: what are some games that make very good use of them? Joe already mentioned Quake 4 as a strong contender; I was wondering if there are others that shine.

Most of the games of that era used surround speakers rather well. My personal favorites are Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time, Uru: Ages Beyond Mist, Splinter Cell 1 and Pandora Tomorrow, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, and probably Mafia: City of Lost Heaven, Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness.

Those in my opinion excell not only in sound positioning, but also in creating this special coherent atmosphere, so I'd definitely consider them proper benchmarks.

I wasn't that impressed with Quake 4 actually, and was totally unimpressed with Prey (apart some rare and forgettable scenes, like the bar at the beginning), even though these are considered pretty high tier.

Apart from these the arena shooters like ut1 (especially with eax patch), ut2004 and ut3 are simply unplayable for me without surround speakers. Though, the Creative's UT2004 EAX patch is pretty weird imo. It's better without it.

Oh, and the racing games sound way more dynamic with surround speakers - especially with the police chases around, like NFS 4 High Stakes and NFS Most Wanted 1. Codemasters games like Dirt 1, GRID 1 make fine use of them too.

With the appearance of soundbars I find latest games somewhat lacking, when it comes to proper surround speaker use. However, some still manage to impress. Battlefield Bad Company 2 comes to mind. The sound is amazing, including occlusion effects, dynamic environments, proper echoes for distant sounds. No really, this pared with a decent surround setup will blow your mind (no EAX or anything of course, just their proprietary engine).

Zoomer wrote on 2026-09-25, 10:16:

My personal favorites are Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time...

Agreed. That game makes excellent use of both EAX and surround sound to further enhance the atmosphere. I vividly remember a scene from one of the later levels, when the Prince is searching for Farah inside a bath house with many doors. Finding her is a sort of puzzle, since you need to carefully listen for the sound of water coming from the doorways. This is much easier with a 5.1 surround setup, as the water splashes can be heard from the front center speaker when you're standing near the correct door.

In addition to what was already mentioned, the Thief games make good use of surround speakers, especially the third one (Thief: Deadly Shadows). Though one could also make a case for playing those games using headphones, as sounds coming from above or below the player might be easier to discern that way.

I also remember the first two Max Payne titles having nice positional audio on a 5.1 setup. Similarly, the original Deus Ex has decent surround support. This can be heard at the start of the fist level, when the heavy patrol bot walks around the player. Oddly, its sequel (Deus Ex: Invisible War) only had surround support on my system when played under Win7. Might be due to DirectSound vs. OpenAL shenanigans, or perhaps some game engine quirk.

Far cry 2 sounds fantastic on 5.1s.