Gaming with a Xonar

[dzmcm]

Every once in a while I like to entertain the idea that my Xonar D1 is a gaming card. It's a total failure with EAX 1/2/5. But suspect that my OS (win 7 x64) is the most poorly supported of any. If anyone has experienced particular behaviors from their Xonar cards please post. I'm trying to gather more information and hopefully gain a better understanding of why these numerous problems haven't been fixed since...ever.

Under the Rightmark 3D Positioning Accuracy Test I have found that without GX 2.5 enabled I don't even get stereo panning. It sounds as though the higher end (treble) moves a bit, but the sound remains mostly stationary. I don't know how this affects gaming, but it's a curious behavior that I'd like to figure out. This doesn't happen with GX

With windows set to stereo and outputting to headphones I find that I get no impression of front/back until I enable dolby headphones; then it becomes as clear as if I had 4, 5.1 or 7.1 setting. This confuses me since I always assumed the Dolby processing (<-- saving grace) was done at the end. This happens with software, hardware, and EAX 2

In Bioshock, EAX 5 appears to be enabled but I find it very underwhelming. I can't find any decent examples of occlusion or obstruction. I find it hard to believe EAX is working at all. There are stability issues when I use GX for any game sooner or later. System Shock 2 and other games based on the same engine fail promptly by cutting out sounds until they stop altogether. The one title that doesn't seem to have any issues is the URU demo, and it renders beautifully.

I've managed to get a particular version of Creative Alchemy to enable software, hardware and EAX 2, 3 and 4 under Rightmark (with my Xonar). The basic positioning of sound versus the Xonar's implementation is a bit clearer. It's more balanced and gives an impression of front/back even without Dolby Headphones. The EAX reverb effects are much more reserved and a lot nicer overall. Occlusion, obstruction and exclusion all work. I haven't gotten it to function with any games though. I've tried titles that Alchemy does support.

So now I'm stuck with a piece of hardware that doesn't function under any EAX modes properly for any length of time. There is software written that can render all that my Xonar can't and more, but doesn't (unless i have the obsolete hardware). I'm sitting here waiting to play games that take advantage of ancient technology (system shock 2). Is my only option is to buy a card from a manufacturer that has stifled innovation in 3d audio since Aureal!? I wont. I like my Xonar. Sure Asus mislead me into thinking I could have my principals and EAX too. And maybe it hurts a little that they've released several new pieces of hardware since then with the same nonsense drivers. But I'm still holding fast to the lesser of 2 evils, so anyone who has any insights or unique experiences with these fantastic sounding Xonars please share.

 

[dzmcm]

I've also found that there seems to be a lag with the positioning of sound. I noticed something like this before when I just had trouble placing the location of sounds. It dawned on me one day while playing Halo with GX that my own footsteps follow me. The sound seems to play on time, but the positioning is always a step behind. This doesn't happen without hardware rendering enabled. So regardless of how well Xonars place sound in space...it's the wrong space in time.

I don't know if this occurs in other games. I suspect it does; only becoming obvious in Halo.

Off topic: Halo has fantastic sound design by the way. I don't mean rendering, but actual design. I wish Ubisoft did with Farcry 2 half of what Bungie did with Halo. I wish people payed more attention to sound, especially since you can do a LOT with sound before running into a performance wall as with graphics hardware.

 

[Blitzvogel]

I have a Xonar DS. I opted for it with it's 192 KHz capability, EAX compatibility via emulation, and much lower price than Creative products.

The card performs well, but the EAX support is limited in what it will actually work with, and some games like BF2 and BF2142 will have a bit of a metallic sound to it, though lately I think the latest driver has cleared some of that up in BF2142. I just recently reinstalled Win7 on this machine with a new Xonar DS driver, so I don't know how any other EAX capable games do with the new software.

I did have a Creative Xtreme Gamer Platinum or w/e it was called a few years back with my first build, and it was well worth it, but I also had a better speaker system too at the time. My current 2.1 System is fine, and the Xonar DS does make a nice difference from on board sound, especially with general music playback. I still kinda wish I had opted for the current Creative Xtreme Gamer Platinum they have but went with the much cheaper Xonar DS. I think it was well worth the money. Yeah, I do wish the EAX support was much better (as I play an ASS LOAD of BF2 and BF2142), but games these days rarely use EAX anymore so it's not a big deal, and BF2 and 2142 still sound good though. According to a quick google search, EAX is a closed standard, with devs moving to OpenAL and less proprietary software formats, especially as multi-core CPUs became commonplace that easily handled decode on there own. I don't know the real relationship of integrated sound processors with CPUs these days, but I'm sure CPUs these days bare the brunt of the actual processing load with the audio processors more focused on the actual output.

I'm not the biggest audio nut, but I do like to rip CDs to my computer with very high bit-rates to get as close to CD quality as possible (I can hear the difference in many pieces of music), so once again, the dedicated sound card is nice for this. I have another desktop with an integrated SPU on an MSI 785GM-E51 mobo with 192 KHz capability that performs very well (it's HTPC centric), but I've never used it on a real outboard speaker system. It's still very good for integrated and even semi-runs EAX in some titles to a degree, but definitely not as good as the Xonar. Especially with 2142 I tend to listen to music while I play that really makes having the sound card worth having (music OSTs, "transcendental-ish music" lol). Being able to do this while still processing the EAX emulation and game sound altogether with very high quality is a wonderful luxury to have.

I think Asus did a pretty good job with the cards, as they are musts for sound-philes and HTPC systems lacking good integrated sound, especially when the Xonar DS was only $50.

One of my favorite songs to test a computer sound system with:
Princess Mononoke Tatara Women Work Song