Kaleid on 24/8/2008 at 19:40
Also depends on which soundcard is being used. I tried the integrated realtek and it sounded very very poor.
I've also tried Terratecs and M-Audios EAX and they both sound like crap compared to Creatives own cards.
noah on 25/8/2008 at 14:42
Creative's acronym, EAX, stands for "
Environmental
Audio E
xtensions". It is basically real-time audio effects processing (mostly delay/reverb) for in-game sound effects, be they 2D or positional 3D - at least in Thief's implementation. I believe newer versions of EAX (I think it's currently up to 5) might take some more advanced algorithms into account, such as acoustics and sound propagation. Since Thief (and to a lesser extent T2) was released just before/around EAX was first introduced in 1998, it uses the first incarnation of the feature.
With EAX on, in-game sounds occurring within a large cavernous interior space will produce the appropriate echo-y trails, where the same noise made in a small wooden interior will have very slight, warm room ambience, etc..
I found positional 3D audio and EAX effect processing to be highly immersive in PC gaming, and it proved to be one of my favorite hardware upgrades in all my years of gaming. This was due in absolutely no small part to Thief's implementation, post-patch. I recall Half-Life using it as well that year, good times.
Here's more/better info:
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_audio_extensions)
XavHalo on 1/9/2008 at 07:23
Ok, well i was about to post this same thread but i looked around first...
Anyways i have a new Audigy card, and having the same problem as the OP, not sure which thief hes playing but in thief 3's settings i cant even check the EAX boxes at all they're grayed out,
I just installed it so its not like i edited something or anything been going through the ini files cant seem to find any way around them being grayed out, i tried editing the options.ini to turn it on but as soon as you start the game the EAX options in the options.ini change to 2 and remain uncheckable in the game, came here wondering if anyone knew a way to fix it...
But probably not since no one helped the OP whos probably having same exact problem.
I'm not sure but most likely people who find it crappy, check it even though your cards don't support it fully which makes it crappy, or something, but yeah mines new and definitely has EAX capabilities and i cant even check the dang options lol...
Wille on 1/9/2008 at 10:34
The old Sound Blaster Live! works very well in Thief with EAX on. Newer cards, especially integrated cards like Realtek, muffle all sounds that aren't coming directly to player when EAX is set on. A real pity :/. Are newer Creative Audigy cards without flaws or do they muffle sounds too? I haven't bought a new sound card since 2000 so I'm a bit behind with these things :D.
XavHalo on 1/9/2008 at 11:19
To jtr7, tried that it didnt work, found the problem though, installing the drivers off of creatives site cause the Audigy to run as an 'SB Live!' card :p.
Thief 3 happens to literally block cards that are 'SB Live!', or in my case audigy cards accidentally labeled as 'SB Live!' cards from using EAX or hardware mixing, so i managed to find my driver disc that came with it and now that its picked up as an Audigy it works, i used the drivers off the creative site cause all the games say 'be sure your drivers are updated' which actually only made things a pain in the ass lol..
Anyways can check what your card is in dxdiag [Hit Start, Then Run,Type dxdiag, hit ok]. Then goto the sound tab and see what it says for Name on top, still not sure why creatives sites drivers made it an SB Live, but if it does say SB Live there you aren't going to get EAX on thief 3.
Just bought the audigy SE like 5 months ago or so, they are only 30$, alot better than integrated crap and to Wille, yeah, since creative makes/owns EAX, creative cards have no problems with EAX... [unless you install the drivers off of their site apparently lol], realtek and pretty much anything that isn't made by creative isn't going to go well with EAX on, unless they directly say that they support EAX of course, but like all of them don't.
And Wille if ur pc is from anywhere near 2000 :wot: you should probably just buy a new pc I always wanted to get like one of (
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103147) these cheaper, but really nice, comps then just upgrade the graphics and you got a cheap pc that should be able to run any of the newest games on high settings for the next 3-5 years :cool:.
Wille on 1/9/2008 at 11:31
My current comp is from 2007-2008 but my old one still has the SB Live! I have recycled it since 2000 but when I bought a new motherboard with integrated Realtek in 2007 I had no need for it anymore. However I would like to get a new top quality sound card that doesn't have flaws with EAX in new or old games :).
