News: July 19 -  July 25, 1999

Sunday, July 25, 1999

Monsoon MM-700 Multimedia Speaker - Mikael @ 22:49 EST

The Hive has posted a great review of these flat panel speakers. Here's just a taste

But the feature list doesn't stop with great sound: Sonigistix also claims to be able to reproduce 3D audio using only two satellites (as opposed to the normal four or more in traditional surround sound speaker systems). The result is one of the better implementations of two-speaker 3D audio, but still not quite as believable as a true surround setup. Using 3D audio demonstration software on a Sound Blaster Live! Full Version with LiveWare 2.0, I would close my eyes and randomly position a sound. If I opened my eyes and found that the position on-screen matched the position I thought I was hearing, I considered the 3D positioning to work. Surprisingly, it did work most of the time. Subtle sounds didn't seem to position themselves as well as more pronounced sounds, but they performed admirably. It is important to note, however, that it is imperative that the speakers be positioned correctly for 3D audio to work. Sitting outside the sweet spot really causes the 3D audio to fail.

Aliens versus Predator launcher - Mikael @ 22:48 EST

The Aliens versus Predator Launcher lets you access some of the debug commands and cheat codes of the Action game Aliens versus Predator e.g.

• display frames/sec. and number of polygons


• adjust volume and speed of the motiontracker


• adjust time- and leanscale


• adjust RGB-coloring of the sky


• access cheat codes like GOD and ALLWEAPONS


• pre-load additional bots

UltraQ Review - Frank @ 15:38 EST

3Dimensional 128 just competed a review of QSound's UltraQ. Here's a bit:

...The UltraQ is a pass-thru device which enhances and expands the normal L/R balancing of the output device giving a wider sound field. Because of the increased depth and sound field, the size of the listening "sweet spot" is also increased. This is extremely beneficial for small systems like personal CDs, PCs, and bookshelf systems..."

Ultima IX: Ascension Movie - Mikael @ 01:58 EST

You can dowload a 24MB Movie of this game where one of the developers demonstrates many of the game's features during a 6 minute walkthrough.

Tribes Sound Pack Final - Mikael @ 01:53 EST

3Dfiles has now released the final Tribes sound pack

DMX review - Mikael @ 01:16 EST

Hardwarezone has done a review of Terratec's DMX card. In this review they mention the Canyon3D chips support 5.1 speaker configurations and that may be true but the DMX don't support it. Hardwarezone also point out a few bugs they found and all of them are new to me but I found several others like the fact that I can't select headphones as output and quite often the 4 speaker support is broken and you need to reboot to fix it. Other problems include no AC-3 pass-thru and front-rear fader doesn't work for 3D sound games. Having said that I must also say the 3D sound on this board, especially 4 speaker, is the best available when it works and having both optical and coax in/out makes it the most full featured consumer card available but I probably would wait to buy it until they put up new drivers. I will post a quick summary later today (Sunday) on all products I'm currently reviewing and then with more details about the DMX card.
News Source: AGN

Creative NOMAD review - Mikael @ 01:15 EST

Hardwarezone has posted a review of Creative's MP3 player, Nomad. At the end of the review they have a "summary of all existing MP3 players there are in the market" where they list Diamond's Rio and Jaz Piper. There is certainly many other MP3 players available so I wonder how they define the market.
News Source: AGN

Saturday, July 24, 1999

Mortyr demo walkthrough - Mikael @ 12:46 EST

If you want some help to finish the Mortyr demo check out Damage Gaming Mortyr walkthrough.If anyone tested the demo let me know what you thought about the 3d sound (assuming it's there). You can mail me directly or post a blurb on the forum
News Source: Voodoo Extreme

AOpen 6X DVD review - Mikael @ 12:44 EST

3DHardware.net has slapped up a reviewof AOpen's 6X DVD drive. Here's the good part about the drive

Pros: Fast, compliant with all the new DVD standards and all the old CD ones and comes with a good software MPEG-2/AC-3 decoding application that saves you a PCI slot.

More Ultima IX - Mikael @ 01:00 EST

Ultima Horizons let me know Richard Garriott, creator of the Ultima Series, gave them the following interesting bit about the audio

We are recording the speech for Ultima IX in Origin's own studio which is
the worlds first THX rated recording studio exclusively for interactive
games. (THX is a standard that sound specialists use to ensure a high level
of quality in the finished product, you will not need special playback
equipment to here the THX quality sounds.)

Aliens vs. Predator Europe patch - Mikael @ 00:59 EST

European users can now get the patch that will allow you to save the game 4 times each level.

Descent 3 review - Mikael @ 00:58 EST

Glideunderground kicked up a review of Descent 3. I snagged the following

The sound engine is also very strong and a great part of the game which is very immerse, and helps the player feel like they are in the heat of battle. With support for all major 3D Sound API's, A3D, DS3D, and EAX finding support for 3D sound is not a problem. The detailed sound effects of each of the weapons and collisions are excellent. The location in positional audio is great as it really sounds like something is creeping behind you or is above you

Friday, July 23, 1999

Mortyr demo fix - Mikael @ 23:26 EST

If you got an error message that says "Nie powiodlo sie" get a 440 kb patch that will fix it from 3dfiles.

Gabriel Knight 3 A3D update - Mikael @ 15:40 EST

Allen from Vortex of Sound took the time to see why the answer from Sierra 2 months ago about A3D 2 support in Gabriel Knight 3 changed and he got the following answer

Unfortunately, we've had to drop direct suport of A3D. They had a fairly severe bug involving mixing 2D and 3D sounds, and were unable to get it resolved before we had to lock down our hardware support code. We still have full support of Direct 3D, hovever, so having an A3D card installed still improves audio performance quite a bit.

Altec Lansing ACS54 Review - Frank @ 14:45 EST

AGN3D has reviewed the Altec Lansing ACS54. Jeremy rated it a 8/10. By the way the ACS54 are a 4 speaker setup, they include 4 satellite speakers and a sub and they retail for $66 and $59 for the OEM version. Awesome price!

The ACS54 from Altec Lansing is a great set of speakers offering a lot of bang for your buck. The quality of the audio is impressive, playing your MP3s and game audio at the same quality level of even Creative’s popular FPS 2000. Best of all you are not going to have to spend as much as the FPS2000 to be able to put the ACS54 on your home computer.

Ultima IX audio news - Mikael @ 14:06 EST

Ultima Horizons has a post about the audio in UltimaX. Here's the tasty bit

We support/use DirectSound for 2D sound playback (music, SFX for interface, anything that doesn't need to sound 3D, for performance reasons, etc.)

We support/use DirectSound3D for most everything else(speech, combat sounds, footsteps, doors opening, signs swinging, etc....)

We support/use EAX 1.0 *if your card supports it* for improving the audio "atmosphere" (EAX gives us reverberation control, which greatly helps the mood for places like dungeons, bathrooms, mountains, etc.)We do NOT support any version of A3D. At the time we implemented the sound system, we didn't feel A3D 1.0 gave us enough benefit. A3D 2.0 wasn't out yet, and it wouldn't have been cost/time efficient for us to support features such as WaveTracing. Adding support for A3D 2.x would be cool, but we just don't have the time and resources to do it at this point. (Requires editor changes, game code changes, art importer/exporter changes, etc...)

Diamond reports results - Mikael @ 02:07 EST

Diamond multimedia reported results for the the second quarter ending June 30 today. Here's a snip from the press release

For the quarter, net revenues were $128.7 million, compared to $172.3 million for the second quarter of 1998. The company incurred a net loss for the second quarter, including losses incurred by its newly formed RioPort division, of $10.8 million, or $0.30 per share, compared to a net loss of $8.3 million, or $0.24 per share in the second quarter of last year. Excluding the losses related to the RioPort division, which the company intends to carve out as an operating subsidiary in the third quarter, net loss was $5.4 million, or $0.15 per share. Net revenues year to date were $272.7 million, compared to $358.5 million for the first two quarters of 1998. Net loss for the first half of 1999, including the RioPort division, was $9.4 million, or $0.27 per share, compared to a net loss of $0.4 million, or $0.01 per share for the first half of 1998.

Dungeon Keeper II tweak guide - Mikael @ 02:05 EST

Hardware Haven has put together a nice tweak guide for the DS3D with EAX supporting Dungeon Keeper II. The guide offers the following sound tweaks

There are some settings that are only accessble from the registry (and I always prefer tweaking from outside of the game because then there's no way the game is gonna crash). Click "Start" and "Run". Type "Regedit" and hit return.
Next, go to "HKEY_USERS --> .DEFAULT --> Software --> Bullfrog Productions Ltd --> Dungeon Keeper II --> Configuration".

There are some good tweaks in the "Sound" folder :

EnvironmentalEffects
You'll get more sounds if you set this to "1". There isn't that much of a speed loss if you enable this so do so !

FlipSpeakers
Set this one to "1" if you get wrong stereo sound.

Headphones
Set it to "1" if you're playing with headphones. This will improve audio quality for headphones (not for normal speakers off course).

NumberOfVoices
This is the maximum number of simultaneous sounds. Reduce it to speed the game up (try 8 for more speed)

SoundQuality
Givingthis the value 1, 2 or 3 switches respectively between 11KHz, 22KHz or 44KHz. I suggest 22KHz (set it to "2") on low memory (64 megs) because there really isn't that much difference and it takes a lot less memory and CPU cycles.
Gamers with 32megs or less (ouch!) should either set this to "1" or invest in more memory (it'll be the best money you ever spent!)

QSound
This enables the environmental sound option provided by DK2. Creates a nice effect but not worth the speed hit ... in my opinion.

Halo - Mikael @ 02:03 EST

Bungie has announced a new upcoming game named Halo. Here's a few tasty bits from the press release

Halo, a game that shatters the confines of typical game environments. Halo is a third-person perspective, sci-fi action epic that takes place indoors, outdoors, in the sky and beneath the surface of a world of astonishing realism and visual impact.
Like most Bungie games, the Halo engine shines with the highest-end realism technologies: real-time shadows, inverse kinematics, 3D positional and ambient sound effects, multipass texture mapping, scalable polygonal models, deformable terrain mesh. Enemy artificial intelligence operates simultaneously on both individual and squad levels, accounting for morale, with the result that no combat situation plays out the same way twice

3DAI's Quadzilla review - Mikael @ 01:58 EST

3DAI has slapped up their thoughts on the Quadzilla.

Tribes patch - Mikael @ 01:57 EST

The 1.6 patch for tribes addresses a number of client and server bugs, as well as adds a few new features. The complete history of changes since version 1.0 can be found in the release.txt file. You can find download links at 3dfiles.

GK3 interview - Mikael @ 01:54 EST

3DRage come has posted an interview with Jane Jensen about Gabriel Knight III: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, where she gave the following answer about A3D 2 and EAX support

Will there be support for EAX and A3D 2.0?

No

Thursday, July 22, 1999

System Shock 2 FAQ - Mikael @ 23:16 EST

SSHock2.com has put up a FAQ with a lot of good info on the game. Here's what they say about the sound

The sound in System Shock 2 will be every bit as good as in Thief (its the same engine!), which some publications deemed to have the best sound system in any game ever made. Sound will be realistically modeled in the 3D world, and takes advantage of the latest EAX & 3D positional audio technology. Players can tell where an enemy is based on where the sound is coming from, and also from the type of sound, since all floor-types make a different foot-fall noise. You can also tell the type of enemy, since all enemies sound different, and the enemies awareness of the player, since it will broadcast this as it either stands idly, searches for you, or attacks you. Of course, the converse of this is all true as well.

More Vortex2 reviews - Mikael @ 18:06 EST

You can start with a review of the MX300 done by DimensionX. Then you can continue with a review of Xitel's Storm Platinum Gamers Pack at Combat Sim, which is very good. If you haven't read enough about the Quadzilla you can read yet another review of the Quadzilla, this time done by GameWire.org.
News Source: AGN Hardware

DXHexen build 0721 released - Mikael @ 18:01 EST

This is a port of Hexen to DirectX and supports 3D sound using DS3D. Fixes and new features in this release includes

MIDI subsystem replaced with (what else?) DirectMusic!

Music volume should now work on all sound cards.

Music-change crashes should be gone.

DirectMusic uses MOD-style music generation, so folks who don't have wavetable synthesis on their sound-cards still get digital-quality music (no more of that FM-synthesis stuff!)

Key mapping bug fixed -- your Home, Del, etc. keys work properly now.

All DXHexen options are now built directly into the in-game menu (no more command-line parameters)!

You can even switch resolutions while inside the game!

X v1.2 patch - Mikael @ 18:00 EST

A new patch for the German version of X has been released. You can get it from 3dfiles. The game supports DS3D and A3D 1.X and an English demo is available.

SoundBlaster PCI 512 - Mikael @ 17:59 EST

AGN Hardware has posted a review of this inexpensive soundcard, about 25% less than the Live!Value. The card uses the same chip as the Live. When we asked Creative about the differences a few months ago we got the following answer:

1. They both support headphones, two or four speakers in analog mode.
   The Live! Value can be upgraded to a digital output via our Optical I/O card ( href="http://www.creaf.com/sound/i-o-card/" target="_blank">http://www.creaf.com/sound/i-o-card/).
   The PCI 512 is not upgradable to any digital cards.


2. They both support DirectSound, DS3D, EAX in hardware. They both do 32
   voices of DS3D in hardware, 64 voices of DS in hardware and 64 hardware MIDI voices.
   Software MIDI channels are now 1024 for Live! Value and 512 for the SB PCI 512.


3. The SB Live! Value supports digital input via the CD SPDIF in. The
   PCI 512 cannot, as it has no such connector.


4. The SB Live! Value has a full suite of utilities for audio playback,
   mixing and effects creation.


5. The SB PCI 512 has a greatly simplified interface for doing the same,
   thus not offering nearly as many options for tinkering.


6. The SB Live! ships with Unreal: Special Edition. The PCI 512 ships
   with Unreal SE and Half-Life: Day one. Other software packages (like Cakewalk, etc.) are
   not present in the PCI 512.

DOS and sound under NT? - Mikael @ 16:02 EST

I didn't know it was possible but softsystems has a product called SoundFX NT that makes this possible and has now released version 1.08. Here's a snip from the SoundFX page

As delivered, Windows NT provides a DOS box for running 16 and 32 bit DOS mode programs but due to NT's security model, direct peripheral access is denied. Most DOS multimedia titles (games) provide sound by directly accessing the sound card and as a result although many can be run under NT, until now none have been able to produce sound and hence lose a great deal of playability.

SoundFX provides a complete emulation of a SoundBlaster 16 card and hence enables old favourites such as Doom (1 & 2), Heretic, Duke Nukem (2 & 3D) etc to be run with sound under NT

Tribes Voice Pack updated - Mikael @ 16:01 EST

This version fixes a couple mistakes and adds a Seinfeld menu of sounds as well as quite a few user requested sounds. Download it from 3dfiles.

System Shock 2 gold - Mikael @ 16:00 EST

System Shock 2 has now gone gold and the game is on Creative's EAX list. The following bit pulled from Creative's EAX list should give you a clue why you should buy this game

System Shock 2 utilizes an enhanced version of Looking Glass Studios' proprietary Dark Engine, which is first being used in Thief: The Dark Project, to create an immersive role-playing world rendered in 16-bit color with colored and dynamic lighting models. The game will also contain advanced role playing features including character generation and growth, an elegant inventory system, a compelling science fiction world to explore and a unique multiplayer mode..

Soldier of Fortune sound file - Mikael @ 15:58 EST

Future Games Network has scored an EXCLUSIVE sound clip of the in-game music from Raven's upcoming Soldier of Fortune. Here's what Raven's sound designer, Chia Chin Lee, had to say about the clip.

The music is a part of the game score from Soldier of Fortune, a very filmic First Person Shooter.
In the game, the music will play
1)Dynamically (Responding to Player Actions, Enemy proxmity, health, etc)
2)Linearly (In Cinematics, or very straight-forward levels)
3)In Cues (Short music stingers that punctuate events or important action)

The mp3 I provided falls between example 2 and 1. The player rides on top of a train. You aim to reach the end of it and disarm a nuclear device, while a helicopter tries to get rid of you..

Vortex2 reviews - Mikael @ 15:57 EST

The Upgrade Center took a quick look at Videologic's SonicVortex2. No new info here if you read other Vortex2 reviews since they don't talk about the software bundle and just mentions that the card has a TOSLINK. Here's a rather funny quote from the review

For instance, if you're playing a game with A3D support if sound is coming from your right then your right speaker is isolated per say.

Mortyr demo update - Mikael @ 07:00 EST

The demo of Mortyr is now not only released but also got a lot of mirrors so if you failed to get it before you could try one of the mirrors at 3dfiles

MDK 2 Interview - Mikael @ 06:57 EST

The Firingsquad has kicked up a 6 page interview with Bioware's Greg Zeschuk about MDK2. Here's, as usual, the sound blurb

Firingsquad: How about the sound effects? Will you be implementing 3D sound? EAX or A3D?

Greg: Absolutely. We think sound is perhaps one of the most important parts of any game. We've got a basic 3D sound API working at this point and we plan to have A3D and EAX support. Part of the original MDK's appeal was sound and music. Excellence in sound and music is something we plan to continue in MDK2.

Descent 3 review - Mikael @ 03:30 EST

Intelligamer manged to finish their review of Descent 3 including more than 100 screenshots. The game currently supports A3D2 and DS3D with EAX. The A3D2 part currently is now just 3D sound but a patch will include support for wavetracing. Here's the sound bit from the review

3D Sound has not been forgotten either, with support for DirectSound, Creative's EAX and Aurreal's A3D. This gives each location a different feel, and allows you to detect the enemies by sound as well as vision. Underground areas echo, and weapons fire bangs and clangs around the metal walls of bases. As with most good sound, its almost subliminal, but once you're used to it, its difficult to go back to not using your ears to play the game and create extra atmosphere.
The spot effect sounds are also excellent, some of them taken from Descent 2, where they were just as good. Picking up powerups and energy give the same "whhhhuuup" noise, but now things also hum in 3D space when you are near. Weapons "whhhaaaarpp" as you change guns, bouncing off walls gives a great "clang", and robots striking you give a screech of twisting metal. Weapons noises are excellent, with missiles going "whoosh", the Omega Gun whining and arcing, and generally fleshing out your attacks with sound, as well as visual cues.
Music is varied with lots of ambient, techno and chant background music that fits in perfectly with the on-screen action, being only bettered by Hardwar's music tracks.

Intensor LX 350 review - Mikael @ 03:27 EST

Gamecenter popped up a preview of this gaming chair. Here's a tasty snip

As with last year's model, built into the seat and chair backing are five speakers (a 5.25-inch full-range driver and 5.25-inch bass driver, left and right 2-inch midrange drivers, and a 2-inch high-end driver or "tweeter"), which deliver an impressive 108 dB. Imeron claims that the Intensor LX 350 was tweaked for better stereo imaging, though both the quality and positional sensation of sound appeared to be about the same as the original Intensor's.

Tribes Extreme interview - Mikael @ 02:06 EST

Exxtreme3D.Com has slapped up an interview with Nels Bruckner about Tribes Extreme. He mostly focused on what would be different compared to Tribes and got the following surprising (to me anyway) answer about 3D audio

Nels Bruckner: I don't think we ever got 3D sound fully working in Tribes. It's one of those features that fell by the wayside. Since TE is essentially the same engine as Tribes the audio support will be identical. We will revisit things like 3D audio in Tribes 2.

Wednesday, July 21, 1999

Flat-panel speaker reviews - Mikael @ 23:24 EST

ComputingPros have posted a review of Benwins BW2000. Their impression about the sound quality is quite different than Mark's

How do they sound? They're actually decent, but the output isn't as good as the high quality traditional speaker. I felt as if Benwin tried to pump up the bass to compensate for the weaker satellites. Don't think this extra "pumping" of the bass means this system produces powerful bass. It merely means it produces too much bass when there shouldn't be as much.

DigiTheatre decoder is now shipping - Mikael @ 22:18 EST

Videologic announced yesterday that they now started to ship their DigiTheatre Dolby Digital / AC-3 decoder for £149.99 inc. VAT (UK.). This box, according to Videologic, "enables current owners of Dolby Pro Logic home cinema systems to easily upgrade to the far superior Dolby Digital standard." For more details check out the press release As you probably know the DigiTheatre Decoder is also sold as part of Videologic's DigiTheatre 5.1 speaker system which I received yesterday. I haven't even opened the box yet but I intend to through up a page with my first impressions later this week and a full review a week or two after that.

Windows 2000, equalizer and Aureal's speakers - Mikael @ 22:17 EST

I checked out the Ask Aureal section on Aureal's website and noticed 3 interesting answers. The first was that Vortex drivers"will be part of the RC2 release CD that is planned for 8/25" and they may also be available on MS website before that. The second is that the equalizer is always set to bypass after a reboot. This will be fixed in the 2035 drivers but if you can't wait Aureal gave the following tip

In the meantime, if you are very confident using the Windows Registry you can use regedit to workaround this issue. This is for advanced users ONLY.

In the registry, under HKEY_Local_Machine-Software-Aureal-Vortex-AU8830-Equalizer locate the EqBypass key. Change the value from 1 to 0 and reboot your machine.

Mortyr demo released - Mikael @ 21:03 EST

The demo of Mortyr is released. Last time I checked the game was slated to support A3D 1.X, DS3D with EAX and RSX. Not sure if any of that is included in the demo but I'll download the demo soon. For download links and some info about the game head over to 3dfiles
Update:It currently seems impossible to get the demo. If anyone manage to get it you can post your experience (the sound one not how it was to download :-) at the forum

RioPort, MTV, Universal and SDMI - Mikael @ 20:17 EST

Last week Creative announced support for SDMI and now RioPort, a subsidiary of Diamond Multimedia, announced that Universal Music Group will deliver secure, popular music to RioPort's SDMI-compliant portable flash memory devices. RioPort has also announced an exclusive, multi-year agreement to deliver digitally downloaded audio content with MTV Networks Online. For some details about SDMI standard you can check out last weeks press release.

Article about Aureal's speakers - Mikael @ 20:14 EST

Aureal's Skip sent a note that there is an article on page 4 in the July 2nd issue of MCV Magazine about their new speakers. I haven't read it but according to Skip there should be some new info in that article that hasn't been published before. If you have no idea what I'm talking about check out the press release about these upcoming speakers.

Vortex2 SuperQuad Digital PCI review - Mikael @ 20:12 EST

DaGameBoyz has posted a review of Aureal's Vortex2 SuperQuad Digital PCI. Here's their conclusion

I found this card to be extremely functional and reliable. It has all the features I need and expect from a company on the cutting edge of a new technology. I give this card Players Choice Award rating. For gamers, this card is a must have as it provides the best positional audio feel I have tried to date. For music enthusiasts, I would also recommend the Vortex2 as a very MIDI digital compatible tool and well worth purchasing.

Vampire Preview - Mikael @ 16:36 EST

Thresh's FiringSquad has put together a 9 page preview of Nihilistic's Vampire: The Masquerade. Here's a short description of the game taken from the developers site

It's a 3rd person 3D roleplaying game based on the White Wolf "Vampire: The Masquerade" script and will tell an epic story of one vampire's (un) life throughout an eight hundred year time span. The title will feature a cutting-edge 3D engine, deep storyline and roleplaying, and innovative multiplayer features.

Out of sight... - Mark @ 09:23 EST

I am off for a few days of vacation. I know..who cares ;). I tell you just so you know why I don't reply to your emails. Please send all news to news@3dsoundsurge.com. Mikael will be doing most of the news so you can also contact him directly if you have questions. Frank may also kick in with a few updates. Another great place to send questions is to our forum as you will gain the combined wisdom of our readship and the answer may help others out. Thanks!

Vortex2, Windows 2000 and WDM - Mikael @ 04:47 EST

Just got the following from Daniel Bergholm

I mailed Aureal with this question:
"Hello I wonder when you will release Vortex 2 drivers for Windows 2000?
I also wonder when the drivers will support EAX 1.0/2.0?

Daniel
"

And got this answer:

"Hello,

Although we're working hard at getting WDM drivers ready, they have not yet been released. Additionally, according to our contractual agreement with Microsoft, we're not able to release beta drivers for Windows 2000.

When released, they will be posted to our website.

Thank you for your interest in Aureal!

Sincerely,
Aureal Technical Support
"

Tribes Voice Pack - Mikael @ 01:41 EST

3DFILES.COM has created a sound pack for Tribes. Here's what they say about it

It has most of the grempack sounds as well as a handful I added including Half-Life sounds, the ability to play animations to the public like you see people doing (hi, by, dance). I tried to keep it under 7 megs for the modem users. Instructions on installation are included. Enjoy!

Return to Na Pali review - Mikael @ 01:39 EST

Games.net has slapped up their review of Return to Na Pali. They gave it a score of only 5 and they hadn't much good to say about the sound either:

The music sucks. As much as I hate saying that, it's woefully true. It's inspirational where it should be scary, boring when exciting things are going on, and way too light-and-fluffy-instrumental for me. It'll make you feel like you've been stuck in an elevator too long. The weapon effects, even the new ones, are none-too-thrilling, though I still like the Nali chants, the Skaarj grunts, and the "hoom-hoom" of the Titans. The voice acting is decent, except for your character's nerd-boy voiceovers: for a guy who's supposed to be some sort of criminal, he sure sounds whiny.

Sneak Preview of GEAR PRO for DVD - Mikael @ 00:41 EST

GEAR Software gave a preview of their upcoming Gear Pro for DVD that will feature features drag-and-drop functionality and fast data transfer rates without loss of data integrity in France recently. Gear Pro for DVD will be released in September and is currently accepting qualified Beta Testers. For more details check out the press release or Gear Software's website

HP 8200i CD-RW Review - Mikael @ 00:39 EST

FPS3D.COM just finished their review of HP's 8200i CD-RW drive. Here's a snip

Hewlett Packard really loaded the CD-Writer Plus 8200's box with goodies. Along with the drive, you will find all of the necessary cables, a CD-R disk, a CD-RW disk, the installation disk, a very detailed manual, and a Neato CD Labeler. The gigantic manual covered every question possible, and was written extremely well. The Neato CD Labeler is tough to use, but is nice to have if you want a custom label on your CDs. I was very impressed with how much stuff HP crammed in the box, it gives first time users a chance to experiment with the drive without worry

DTT 2500 Digital shipping? - Mikael @ 00:35 EST

According to Riva3D the Cambridge Soundworks Desktop Theater 5.1 2500 Digital is now shipping for $299 USD. John Nemesh also says Riva3D has confirmed the story with Creative's PR Dept. There is no info available yet on Creative's website but according to a post on Creative's newsserver the last newsletter also said they were shipping and the price was 449.99 Canadian dollars or $300 USD. The newsletter also contained the following price info for other products.

2. New Products

The following products are now shipping:

Desktop Theater 5.1 2500 Digital$449.99
3D Blaster RIVA TNT2 $279.99
Nomad Digital Audio Player 64MB $379.99

Prices are in Canadian dollars.

. Current Pricing

Here are the current Suggested Retail Price for Creative Labs products

SOUND
Sound Blaster Live! $279.99
Sound Blaster Live! Value $149.99
Sound Blaster PCI 512 $109.99 new low price!
Sound Blaster 16 PCI $79.99
Sound Blaster 16 WavEffects $69.99
Creative Ensoniq Audio PCI $49.99

GRAPHICS and VIDEO
3D Blaster RIVA TNT2 Ultra $349.99
3D Blaster RIVA TNT2 $279.99
3D Blaster Savage 4 $199.99 (AGP or PCI) new low price!
Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT $149.99 (AGP or PCI)
3D Blaster Banshee $119.99 (AGP or PCI) new low price!
Video Blaster Web Cam II $79.99 (USB or Parallel) new low price!

SPEAKERS
Desktop Theater 5.1 2500Digital $449.99
Desktop Theater 5.1 $449.99
MicroWorks $349.99
FourPointSurround 2000 Digital $309.99
FourPointSurround 1000 $139.99
SoundWorks $159.99
PCWorks $79.99
SBS52 $79.99
SBS50 $69.99
SBS20 $39.99
SBS10 $27.99

KITS and DRIVES
PC-DVD Encore 6X $379.99
PC-DVD Encore 5X $299.99
Blaster DVD-ROM 6X (drive) $229.99
Blaster CDRW 4x2x24 $349.99
SB Live! Value/48X $229.99
SB 16/48X $149.99
SB Value 16/32X $119.99
Blaster CD 48X $109.99

Nomad Digital Audio Player $379.99

Tuesday, July 20, 1999

Midiland S4 Info - Mark @ 19:54 EST

Thanks to Joel for letting us know that Midiland has redesigned their site and has also put up some information on their upcoming S4-4060 and S4-7100 speaker systems. In brief, the 4060 is a 3 piece (they call it 4) system with satellites featuring 2.5" full range high power speaker driver technology powered by a 10 Watt (rms) per channel amp and offering a frequency response of 100Hz-20kHz and a 6.5" subwoofer powered by a 40 Watt (rms) amplifier and offering a frequency response of 20Hz-300Hz

The 7100 is a 5.1 system with all the satellites having the same specifications and power output as the sats on the 4060 and the subwoofer having the same specifications with an additional 10 Watts (rms) power output for a total of 50 Watts (rms). An interesting bit is the description of the speakers states "Sound Blaster Live® compatibility". I would assume this is to do with S/PDIF connectivity but why only SB Live compatibility? As per our usual, we will be looking to get our hands on both of these speakers for a full review as soon as possible.

Week in Review - Mikael @ 02:31 EST

We have posted our latest edition of the 3D Audio Week in Review covering July 12th to July 18th. This weekly newsletter covers new driver releases, games, patches and demos that support 3D sound including information on any new bugs, bug fixes and other tips. The newsletter now also includes links to all sound related hardware reviews on the web as well as updates on what we did and what we plan to do in the coming week. The 3D Audio Week in Review is a great way for busy people to be right on top of all latest in the PC audio world.

3DSS Reviews Aliens vs Predator - Mark @ 02:02 EST

3DsoundSurge's Mikael Hagén has completed his full review of the award winning Aliens vs Predator. This is not like any other AvsP review that you have seen as the game is put through the paces using Creative's Sound Blaster Live, Trident's 4DWave-NX chips, Aztech's 368DSP, Terratec's Vortex2, Yamaha's WaveForce and Terratec's DMX (using the Canyon3D chip). Our thorough testing of various sound cards is the reason why we will never be first out of the gates with a game review. It simply takes a lot of time to play the same levels over and over with different sound cards! In the case of the Aliens vs Predator review Mikael's work load was reduced when some of the cards failed to work correctly in the game.

According to Mikael, this game makes great use of 3D sound with enemies lurking behind each corner and more than once you will be surprised with enemies coming up from the rear or even worse, with aliens dropping down from the ceiling right behind you. The game is so dark that unless you have some of the vision modes on, you will have to make very good use of your ears even for enemies right in front of you which is where a good 3D sound card comes in handy.

Read on for the most comprehensive review of the sound performance of AvsP that you will find anywhere!

Thief II Director Interview - Mark @ 01:06 EST

GA-Source has posted an interview with Steve Pearsall, Project Director for the upcoming Thief II. In the interview they chat about a number of things including sound and music. Here is a snip on sound:

Sound was very important to the actual immersion factor of Thief and it was been implemented extremely well. What new ways will the sounds in Thief 2 immerse the player?

There are two important ways we will improve the use of sound in Thief 2. The first really involves doing a little better job on the things we did in Thief 1. A good example of this is that the monsters in Thief 1, like the zombies for instance, didn't communicate with the player as well as the guards and other human opponents did. When a guard hears you in Thief 1 he'll say something like "What was that noise ?" whereas a zombie just made a different kind of groan. As a result a lot of players didn't like going up against the monsters as much. So, we plan on paying more attention to the noises non-human character make so that they will be just as enjoyable to defeat as the humans were in Thief 1.

We are also planning to use the additional features the hardware guys have been working on. The best example of this is the "occlusion" feature Creative Labs has put in EAX 2.0. The sound card will be able to synthesize the acoustic effects of objects placed between the player and the sound source. We will be able to use this to more effectively simulate the effect of listening at doors, and the way that objects in the environment change sound propagation. This should make the audio environment that much richer and more immersive.

Monday, July 19, 1999

Sound Forum - Mark @ 14:44 EST

Just a reminder that we have set up our own forum and would love to hear from you. Why not drop by, register, and post a message or two?.

Slave Zero Preview - Mark @ 14:44 EST

Our Future Games Network affiliate, Singularity, has posted a preivew of Slave Zero. This title is to ship with DS3D with EAX and A3D 2.0 support.

Spec Ops 2 to Support DS3D with EAX - Mark @ 14:37 EST

A Preview of Spec Ops 2: Green Berets over on Avault notes that the game will offer 11k or 22k sounds recorded from real weapons, a dynamic soundtrack and environmental audio. That should also mean 3D audio support as it will need to use DS3D for EAX. Here is a snip on on sound:

In a nod to Looking Glass' Thief, the player's chances of being spotted relies on his character's posture (standing vs. crawling), how illuminated he is by the lighting and how much sound he makes. Players will be able to trick the enemy AI by luring them away with audible distractions. Fans of stealth will love the possibilities in this title, as devious players can darken an area, sneak up on enemy guards and go for the silent kill with their knife.

More Quadzilla - Mark @ 13:57 EST

Gamewire has posted their review of the Quadzilla. Standard stuff other than it looks like the reviewer got a new digital camera ;). You can also check out our own in-depth Quadzilla review.
News Source: Aureal A3D Central

FPS2000 Review, etc - Mark @ 02:59 EST

Anandtech has posted a review of Cambridge Soundworks FPS2000. You can also check out our own thorough FPS2000 review. Here is a snip:

Today's latest craze in computer audio is 3D audio. Whether it be EAX or A3D, it's in almost every new game. Although simulating 3D audio on two speakers has been quite successful, it does not compare to four speakers. The FPS2000's sound fantastic when hooked up to a new 3d audio card, such as the MX-300, which is what I used for my tests. I tried various games like Unreal, Half Life, Need For Speed High Stakes, and Star Wars Racer; all of them sounded fantastic. Turn off the lights and play some Half Life, and the story, as immersive as it is, is taken to a new level with these speakers. The speakers also have the option of using a digital connection, which the Soundblaster Live supports. I tried this and didn't notice much of a difference at all.

News from July 12 - July 18

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