EAX Alternative, trying to think outside the box

Socio · Apr 2, 2004, 11:27 PM

I just came across these KX drivers two days ago so I am real new to this, but one thing I have been reading about was no EAX support. Well I am not a huge fan of EAX and while playing around with the DSP panel I had an idea for something better.

Would it not be possible to go from the analog L&R to something like a Steinberg Dolby Digital encoder then to the AC3 passthrough to SPDIF out? I don’t know if this would even work or if these types of encoders can even encode in real time if they can you could have the encoder either do analog stereo to stereo DD or analog stereo to DD 5.1, customized to the users taste. Also I know from what I have been reading here that third party plugins would run on your PC's CPU not in the Hardware DSP so there would be some overhead. Because I am thinking in terms of using this for gaming this overhead could kill the games performance.

I am probably way off base on this; I don’t even know how much a DD encoder would cost even if it could work but if it could, and it was cheap enough I bet it just might blow the pants off of EAX.

**dj_stick** · Apr 3, 2004, 12:06 AM

a software plguin desgined for kx using the DSP… may be impossible due to memory size of the 10kx chips

HunterZ · Apr 3, 2004, 05:16 PM

Socio: While kX doesn't support EAX effects (mainly preset reverbs) it does support DirectSound3D positional audio in most games.

Also, I've noticed that between the proliferation of non-Creative sound hardware and the large number of games ported over from consoles, many recent games stick to DS3D instead of EAX anyways. Still, I hope to see EAX support added to kX eventually.

**dj_stick** · Apr 4, 2004, 03:04 AM

in any case i think that kx's postitional audio support is far better than creative drivers

**dj_stick** · Apr 5, 2004, 08:18 AM

and by the way EAX (Environmental Audio Effects) are simply there for games designers to use the same sound but make it sound different in a small room than outside in an open space - by using reverb - or more accurately - a number of delay effects

Apr 2, 2004, 11:27 PM	#1
Socio DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 82 Rep Power: 0	EAX Alternative, trying to think outside the box I just came across these KX drivers two days ago so I am real new to this, but one thing I have been reading about was no EAX support. Well I am not a huge fan of EAX and while playing around with the DSP panel I had an idea for something better. Would it not be possible to go from the analog L&R to something like a Steinberg Dolby Digital encoder then to the AC3 passthrough to SPDIF out? I don’t know if this would even work or if these types of encoders can even encode in real time if they can you could have the encoder either do analog stereo to stereo DD or analog stereo to DD 5.1, customized to the users taste. Also I know from what I have been reading here that third party plugins would run on your PC's CPU not in the Hardware DSP so there would be some overhead. Because I am thinking in terms of using this for gaming this overhead could kill the games performance. I am probably way off base on this; I don’t even know how much a DD encoder would cost even if it could work but if it could, and it was cheap enough I bet it just might blow the pants off of EAX.

Apr 3, 2004, 05:16 PM	#3
HunterZ DriverHeaven Addict Join Date: May 2003 Location: Seattle, USA Posts: 257 Rep Power: 0	Socio: While kX doesn't support EAX effects (mainly preset reverbs) it does support DirectSound3D positional audio in most games. Also, I've noticed that between the proliferation of non-Creative sound hardware and the large number of games ported over from consoles, many recent games stick to DS3D instead of EAX anyways. Still, I hope to see EAX support added to kX eventually. __________________ Athlon XP 3200+, Gigabyte GA7N-400Pro2 Rev 2.0 (nVidia nForce2 chipset), 1 GB DDR400 (CAS 2.0, dual-channel), ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB AGP 8x, WinXP Pro SP2, DX9.0c., Logitech Z-5500 5.1 speakers