Will HL2 support EAX?

[footsteps]

I have an Audigy2 ZL and have witnessed the brilliance of EAX through Thief3. I haven't heard much about HL2's sound, and the board wouldn't let me search for 'eax'.

 

[switch]

It should do seen as HL1 has eax1 suppost. Don't know which versions HL2 does. but try searching eax* as that makes it 4 characters.

 

[fragnemesis]

I can't imagine why it wouldn't. Every new popular game sans Doom 3 has had some measure of EAX support.

 

[A.I.]

It will support binaural headphones only :dork:

 

[Varsity]

Just ask anyone with CSS...

 

[Plug]

I'm pretty sure it actually doesn't. There's no option for it in Cs source, and in the thread of info from valve someone asked a while ago, and they replied with something along the lines of "Halflife 2 will have it's own dsp processing" Meaning they have made their own fx to use, which will unfortunately come down to cpu usage. i doubt it would be bad though.


Ask anyone who's played cs source, the sound fx are fantastic. It sounds incredible hearing people fire in a tunnel far away and knowing that's where they are because of the way it sounds.

 

[A.I.]

Yup, CSS sound impressed me very much. It's quite remarkable in-game unlike in many other games, although using EAX and other rings and bells.

 

[footsteps]

Yes I have cs:source and it doesn't have EAX (just surround sound). I have only once noticed reverberation in the game and that was in the beta in the dust hall. But I was hoping that the sp would have it, because it adds so much to a game's immersion.

 

[A2597]

CS:Source has some of the best surround sound I've EVER heard. it blows any other game sans Theif 3 out of the water IMHO.

dunno about enviroment effects though.

 

[jimbones]

CS:Source has some of the best surround sound I've EVER heard.

quoted for truth.

best ****ing sound ever!

 

[CreedoG]

I asked this to gabe months and months ago.. it's in the info thread somewhere. HL2 does NOT use EAX. They use a "proprietary DSP engine"... whatever that means.

 

[BlackMesaDude]

so its bad then if no EAX

 

[kaellinn18]

so its bad then if no EAX

No, it just means that they wrote their own sound engine that gets run on your processor instead of being processed by your sound card. It will still be good sound.

 

[MaDMaXX]

erm, it still runs on the sound card, just not using the sound cards eax cpu part. i know you mean the main cpu calculates it, but not in the way you said.

Btw, the sound engine is superb, its better in hl than in cs source as there is more you can do in single player maps.

 

[hunter-killer25]

oh man that sucks, gotta surrender some of my processing power instead of using my audigy 2's cpu? oh well.

 

[moondynejoe]

cs-s has decent sound but as far as i can tell it doesnt use any dsp style effects except for a little reverb in tunnels. the biggest problem with the sound it height occlusion. Play chateu and see if you can tell if the footsteps are above or below you. the use of eax4HD would make it possible to do this. actually there isnt any occlusion of any type, the footsteps sound the same weather they are clearly in front of you or comming through three walls.
hopefully HL2 will have better effects than cs-s, i can only assume that the licensing costs are to high for eax4 either that or not enough people have cards that support it to make its inclusion worth it for valve. makes my purchace of an audigy 2z a little pointless BAH.

 

[DirtyApe]

i dont know why you cant tell where the footsteps are located. right when i hear footsteps or gun fire i can tell right where its coming from. i play with surround sound when nobody is home and headphones at night. thats the thing ive loved about CS. i can tell exactly where someone is at just by the sounds they make. i can do that in real life as well. i dont have good hearing really but my hearing is really good at pin-pointing where noises originate.

 

[Pro[pH]et]

Must have A3D!

 

[DavE0r]

well seeming as Cs:S runs souround sound (god damn it its so much better nailing people around the world in 4.1) so i suppose it would support EAX>..i mean CS (the origional) does..im almost sure, and so does hl1!

 

[moondynejoe]

so what you are saying dirty ape is that when playing chatau you can tell just by sound whether or not the opponent is above, below or on the same level as you?

Cs-s does not use occlusion simple as that. hopefully HL2 will but i doubt it. even cs one using EAX doesnt use occlusion but then EAX one didnt support it i believe.

 

[LeXo5]

It will support binaural headphones only :dork:

your kidding right?........... if your not, holy c--p