FF8 PC EAX Questions

[Trek234]

Hi all,

I have some questions about EAX and FF 8 for PC.

Does FF8 PC support EAX 1.0 or 2.0?

How does this work exactly?  I mean it seems kind of odd for EAX on a game like FF 8.  Is it a noticeable improvement over no EAX?

Right now I have a Blaster PCI 128 card.  If I upgrade to an Audigy 2 will I be able to use EAX in FF 8?  

Regardless of EAX, would an Audigy 2 over a Blaster PCI 128 make much of an audio difference in both FF 7 and FF 8.  (I have both for PC)

Thanks!

 

[Mofokubik]

the only improvement eax would give, is reverb. although reverb sounds nice, it is bad for some games. personally, i use eax effects with ff7. but the best thing you can do to your computer to make it sound better, is repleace gm.dls with a new dls file. dls files are like soundfonts, and make your midi sound alot better when you use the microsoft synth. This means you dont need an audigy or even a sblive to load soundfonts. any soundcard will work with dls files.

 

[Goku7]

I have reason to believe it uses EAX 1.0.

The default EAX stuff in FF8pc seems to simply make the sound effects quieter, without any neat FX added to them, at least on my card.  It's probably due to either my card's implementation of EAX1.0, or bad game programming.

However, included with Samuel's DLS on the FFSF site, is an EA Preset that you can use with the SBLive!/Audigy/Audigy2, or any card that allows use of EA Preset files.

The preset was designed to get as close as possible to the way the PSX's reverb sounded.

 

[Mofokubik]

i really dont know much about ff8 and what it supports because i dont own it...i played the pc demo of it, and it forced me to use microsoft synth...

 

[ficedula]

FF8 does use the EAX (EAX2, I *think*, although it may be EAX1) exactly as its supposed to; it loads an environment preset appropriate to the scene being displayed.

So, in the ice caves, all the sounds go quite echoey. Sewers sound fairly echoey too, outdoors is more "open" and less muffled than indoors, and so on.

TBH, it's not a gigantic effect; FF8 just isn't the type of game where it makes much difference. You can notice it, but it's hardly a big change.

(Music will be hit by the environment preset too, assuming it's going out through the wave output at some point, which it normally will be, one way or the other).

 

[Goku7]

Hmm.....if that's so, I wonder if my card (which isn't an SBLive!/Audigy, but a Sensaura-based Yamaha chip capable of doing EAX1.0 and 2.0), is not applying it to the output totally correct?

Or, it could just be that the M$ DLS synth just completely overpowers in volume the EAX-effected sound FX playback.

Either way, I'm definitely noticing an overall decrease in sound FX volume when it's on, and DirectMusic isn't being affected by it at all (read: volume is the same with EAX on or off.)

Oh, and Fice, what does the program do when it's NOT using EAX?  I have a hunch that its doing software-based DSound3D routines, but I'm not sure.

 

[ficedula]

Hmm.....if that's so, I wonder if my card (which isn't an SBLive!/Audigy, but a Sensaura-based Yamaha chip capable of doing EAX1.0 and 2.0), is not applying it to the output totally correct?

Possibly ... everybody *always* seems to write EAX aimed at the Live/Audigy, after all...

Or, it could just be that the M$ DLS synth just completely overpowers in volume the EAX-effected sound FX playback.

Either way, I'm definitely noticing an overall decrease in sound FX volume when it's on, and DirectMusic isn't being affected by it at all (read: volume is the same with EAX on or off.)

Possibly so. While I remember the music on my Live! being affected by the EAX environment, I suppose there's no reason that midi output *has* to go through EAX processing - if your card doesn't, well, that seems plausible to me.

Oh, and Fice, what does the program do when it's NOT using EAX? I have a hunch that its doing software-based DSound3D routines, but I'm not sure.

Hmm. Well, I don't know - but I don't see why it couldn't be doing "normal" DS3D routines, ie. hardware when supported.

EAX is an extension on top of DS3D (IIRC), so you can take a game already using normal DS3D (with hardware where possible) and add EAX support fairly easily ... bearing that in mind, when FF8 *isn't* using EAX, there's no reason it *has* to fall all the way back to software, it *could* use hardware.

I don't know what it actually does, though.

 

[Goku7]

Well, I do hope the case is that it's using Hardware DS3D when EAX isn't being used.  Especially considering that would mean I'd get full DSound acceleration without the sound FX being hushed, LOL.