ASUS Xonar soundcards and EAX Support - new drivers

by **Apoptosis** on Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:04 am

I just got an e-mail from the folks at ASUS about the Xonar soundcard series and a new driver update. If you have one of these cards it sounds like you'll want to update the driver!

Regarding recent inquires concerning Xonar soundcards and EAX Support:

The Xonar series driver update for DS3D GX 1.0 to DS3D GX 2.0 is our response to feedback/criticism favoring compatibility with games that feature EAX 5.0. DS3D GX 2.0 allows gamers to enable EAX sound options/schemes in games on Vista and legacy Windows XP. The solution involves:

1. Enabling EAX5.0 sound setting in games
2. Redirecting DirectSound3D Hardware and EAX calls to the DS3D GX core
3. Upgrading the DS3D GX engine.

The updated engine:

* Revives multi-channel (128 voice) 3D positional sounds and enhanced environmental reverberation effects on Vista for most DirectSound 3D HW compatible games including EAX 2.0/5.0 game titles.
* Installs automatically with driver updates. DS3D GX aims to be more convenient and intuitive than Creative’s ALchemy solution, which requires users to manually setup and assign games into the support list. Moreover, ASUS does not charge its users for driver upgrades.
* Retains vivid 3D sound and EAX effects for Vista users in most existing titles that do not support OpenAL.
* Allows users to reproduce comparable 3D positional sounds and EAX effects to native EAX 5.0 sound devices in EAX 5.0 game titles, instead of reverting to stereo, 2D, or Windows-emulated 3D sounds.
* Features VocalFX voice processing technology, which can apply realistic reverberations to users’ voices relevant to the dynamic in-game landscapes (VoiceEX), emulates background scenes as you use online chat (ChatEX), and modifies vocal pitches to disguise a user’s identity (Magic Voice).

Our implementation is not a 1:1 reproduction of EAX 5.0. Rather, DS3D GX allows users the choice to universally access gaming audio effects that would otherwise be locked behind specific X-Fi cards and ALchemy-patched game titles. While we do respect the capability of a dedicated DSP processor to offload the CPU work, we believe performance differences will continue to diminish based on the power of today's popular CPUs. We also expect more game developers to adopt software DSP effects for their flexibility and universally guaranteed user experiences. That being said, ASUS will continue responding to customer requests with products that unite the best in consumer audio with the most innovative features.