E.Audio Games
Reviews on the Net and in print often lauded SBLive! as an outstanding general-purpose soundcard while recommending the Vortex2 as the card of choice if you're a hard-core gamer. No doubt this pissed Creative off and they set out to make things right through Live!Ware 2.0.
The improvements made to enhance the gaming experience on the Live! includes
- New 3D Audio Engine
- 3D Audio Elevation
- EAX 2.0
- Enhancement of reverb algorithms
3D Audio Engine and Elevation
The new 3D audio engine not only features improved HRTFs for both headphones and 2 speaker set-up, but also implement HRTFs with cross-talk cancellation on both front/rear speakers under a 4 speaker set-up. This is a big step up from the 4 speakers simple panning implementation earlier on and a step up that currently employed on a Vortex2 card ( HRTF on front speakers, simple panning on rear speakers ) . Besides trying to improve audio cues in the horizontal plane with the new 3D audio engine, the engine also attempts to recreate audio cues in the vertical plane. All of these sounds great on paper, but how does the new 3D audio engine perform in real life ?
In a nutshell, based on users feedback and my own experience, the general concensus is that the new 3D audio engine brings the audio positioning performance of the SBLive! more or less on par with that by a Vortex2 card. In other words, it blurs the line between a Vortex2 card and a SBLive. Let me elaborate on this a bit.
After spending some quality time with Audio Winbench'99 & the new Environmental Positioning demo , I feel that the most significant improvements can be heard in either headphone mode or 4 speaker mode. In both modes, the rear cues are more "ear-catching" and precise now while in the past, I get the "I-think-it's-around-there-somewhere" feeling. Specifically, the "teeny-weeny" headphone experience has been fixed and you no longer have to set to 2/4 speaker mode when you use a headphone. Playing games with headphone sounds great now ! HOWEVER , in 2 speaker mode, the rear cues seem to be less than convincing for me personally but it seems to hold true for only the minority as most people tell me it work great for them. Anyway, it doesn't bother me that much cause I don't use 2 speakers anyway :-)
Is that the end of the story for 3D audio performance ? Nope, not by a long shot. I haven't come to the vertical elevation part . Here's the juice on elevation cues - it works ! Not only in headphone mode but also in 2 or 4 speaker mode ! I used Audio Winbench 99's DS3D Helicopter Vertical Circle test and they all sound convincing. In fact, they sound more convincing than the MX300 and I got a 100% record ! The same situation happens in the DS3D Glass Breaking Test . Specifically, under 4 speaker mode, SBLive! produces better "rear top" and "rear bottom" cues than the MX300. I can't really say the effect is MILES better than that heard by the MX300 but it's definitely much better. So I guess HRTFs on 4 speakers works after all !
Well, all the above subjective audio tests are done with positioning demos. How about real world performance in games ? I would say that in games like Half-Life and Unreal, you can't really tell a difference in audio positioning between the 2 cards if you're using headphone or 4 speakers . If you wanna drive yourself batty enough, maybe you can hear slightly better elevation cues with the SBLive! ...but the difference is quite subtle . And with those Marines firing at your ass, I don't think you would care ....
To sum it up, in the area of positional audio, the SBLive! is at least on level terms with the MX300 now. Remember, DS3D or A3D are just APIs that specify the position of the sound source. Accurate reproduction of their positions depends on the rendering engine of the cards themselves.
|
Back To Top