The Week in Review: May 6-12, 2002

Last week's features at 3DsoundSurge

Last week's sound news

Drivers and bugs

• New nForce drivers from Asus
  Warp2Search has spotted new nForce drivers (the audio ones of version 2.47) from Asus. You can find some details and download links on Warp2Search.

• Vortex Control Panel for Windows XP
  A new beta version (v2.10) of the Vortex Control Panel for Windows XP has been released

• Audigy drivers from Gateway
  Gateway has released new drivers for the Audigy. They are slightly older version than the Compaq drivers (5.12.01.0241 vs 5.12.1.244) but much smaller (only 25MB) so much more practical to download.

New games, demos, patches and bugs

• Tom Clancy's The Sum Of All Fears Game For PC Goes Gold
  Soft® Entertainment's PC game based on Tom Clancy's novel and the upcoming Paramount Pictures' release, The Sum Of All Fears, has gone gold. Developed by Ubi Soft's Red Storm Entertainment, The Sum Of All Fears PC game will be available at U.S. retail stores in conjunction with the movie release on May 31. You can find more details in the press release or Ubi Soft's official site. No mention of 3D sound or EAX but previous Tom Clancy based games by Red Storm Entertainment have taken advantage of both 3D sound and EAX.

• Mobile Forces Gold
  Blue's News reports that Rage Software has announced that its 3D sound supporting and Unreal engine powered vehicular team-based shooter, Mobile Forces, has gone gold and "is expected in stores in UK and Europe on the 31st May 2002 with a RRP of £24.99. Mobile Forces is being published in the US by our partners Majesco - a US street date and pricing is TBC." For more details check out the official site.

• Mobile Forces Updated Demo Released
  An updated demo of Rage Software's Unreal engine powered vehicular team-based shooter has been released. You can grab it from 3D Gamers. The game supports 3D sound.

• Jedi Outcast Demo
  Raven Software has now finally released the playable demo of Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. You can grab your copy from Gigex or 3D Gamers. The demo features a new new single-player level that isn't available in the retail game. 3D gamers also offers just the new demo level for owners of the retail game.

  As we mentioned several times now the full game takes advantage of EAX Advanced HD and hopefully the same is true for this demo level but I have yet to try it.

• Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast Patch
  Lucas Arts has released a patch (v1.03) for its top selling Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. Among other things the update will allow you to enable 3D sound including EAX Advanced HD in the menu. The link to the ftp site on that page is currently wrong, this is the correct one. For those that still haven't bought the game it can be interesting to know that a demo will be released on Friday.

• Jedi Knight II and EAX ADVANCED HD
  As we mentioned previously Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast takes advantage of Creative Labs EAX Advanced HD. Lucas Arts has now posted a page with some details of what EAX Advanced HD technologies they now take advantage of with the latest patch. Gamers using other soundcards (e.g. Live and soundcards using QSound or Sensaura) will still get 3D sound but not any of the reverb effects.

  Not mentioned on this page but interesting to know is the game uses OpenAL. If you want to take advantage of the OpenAL hardware acceleration available in the latest Audigy drivers offered by some of the OEMs (e.g. Compaq) or the soon to be released drivers from Creative make sure you rename the OpenAL32.dll that is in the game folder. The game will then use the OpenAL32.dll in your Windows\System directory. You should of course first make sure you have the OpenAL32.dll in your Windows\System directory. As previously mentioned if you use drivers that lacks OpenAL hardware acceleration you will still get the same type of hardware acceleration your soundcard offers with any DS3D supporting game.

• Global Operations Patch
  A new patch (v2.0) for Global Operations has been released

Reviews of soundcards, speakers, headphones and MP3 players.

• Midiman/M-Audio Audiophile 2496 Sound Card
  Digit-Life has posted a positive review of the Midiman/M-Audio Audiophile 2496 sound card, a product with clear strengths in sound quality and low latency interfaces (ASIO, GSIF, EASI) rather than gaming and effects processing.

• Altec Lansing 4100
  Gaming Horizon has posted a very positive review of Altec Lansing's 4100 4.1 speaker system. While the review is as noted very positive it lacks context in terms of just what they compared the 4100s against and clearly the 4100s don't have any special ability to "pump out more sound" than all other speakers currently on the market. One other point is the gaming mode and not the stereo x2 mode is the appropriate setting for watching DVDs if you have a sound card with 4 speaker out and a software DVD player that supports 4 speaker out.

• Hercules XPS 510 Speaker
  Digit-Life has posted a review of Hercules XPS 510. It's a sub $100 5.1 system which Digit-Life found to perform well considering the price, the satellites even better than Cambridge SoundWorks DTT3500.

• Logitech Z-560
  If you want to read yet another Z-560 review you now got the chance to do that on Overclockers Melbourne. As other reviews they found it to offer excellent quality for the price, in this case AU$499 but they also mention you can find it for AU$394.

• Parasound Halo Series Audio Components First Look
  Parasound Products has introduced the first of a new premium brand of high-end audio and video components that will be sold under the name Halo by Parasound. DesignTechnica has posted a short bit on what this new series includes. Here's a snip:

  Today, Parasound begins delivering three Halo audio components designed to set new standards for stereo sound quality (see picture). The Halo A 23 Power Amplifier (MSRP $850), P 3 Preamplifier (MSRP $800), and T 3 FM/AM Tuner (MSRP $600) combine to form what may well be the ultimate affordable two-channel music system.

  Over the coming months these will be followed by state-of-the-art 7.5 Channel Controllers, a full-line of stereo and multi-channel power amplifiers, and multi-format disc players.

• iRiver-2 (iMP-250) MP3 CD Player
  HardwareZone has posted a detailed and overall positive review of the iRiver-2 (iMP-250) MP3 CD Player. This full featured player appears to be well worth checking out if you are on the market for an MP3 CD player. The only complaint was the quality of the supplied ear buds.

   

Other sound news

• QSound Labs Reports Q1 Results
  QSound Labs reported revenues for the three months ended March 31, 2002 of $755,000 as compared to $843,000 for the same period in FY2001. The operating profit for the quarter was $168,000 as compared to $33,000 for the same period last year. Including non-cash items such as depreciation and amortization of goodwill, net income for the period was $88,000 as compared to a loss of $(179,000) for the same period in FY2001.

  In the press release avid Gallagher, President and CEO of QSound Labs, mentions that several new product lines will be delivered in the second quarter, one of which will be the first delivery pursuant to the recently announced agreement with Philips. For more details check out the press release.

• Spatializer Audio Laboratories reports Q1 Results
  Spatializer Audio Laboratories has announced improved financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2002. Revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2002 were $440,000, compared to revenues of $426,000 in the first quarter of fiscal 2001, an increase of 3%. The company reported net income for the quarter of $21,000, compared with net income of $6,000 in the comparable period last year, an increase of 250%. You can find more details in the full press release

• Paul W. Klipsch Has Passed Away at the Age of 98
  The world of audio has lost one of its last great legends. Paul W. Klipsch, founder of Klipsch, has passed away at the age of 98. Our thoughts are with all those who knew him well...For more on the life of Paul W. Klipsch you can visit the official Klipsch web site. If you want to offer any words on his passing please visit this thread on our forum.

• Xbox Sales Surge in Europe
  Microsoft has reported a sizeable increase in sales of its Xbox(TM) video game system throughout Europe thanks to the recent price cut. Since the European price reduction took effect April 26, weekly sales are running neck-and-neck with PlayStation 2. Based on week-to-week sales since launch, Xbox represents 49% of the next generation console market in the United Kingdom(1), 46% in France and 55% in Germany(2). You can find more details in the full press release.

• InterVideo Ships WinDVD 4
  InterVideo has announced the availability of WinDVD 4. WinDVD 4 features over 30 new features and enhancements such as easier-to-use Time-Stretching and Video Desktop -- which lets you watch movies under your desktop icons while you work or check email. The new version also includes 10 new audio features including TruSurround XT (TM) from SRS Labs, Dolby Pro Logic II, Dolby Dynamic Range Compression, Dolby Surround EX and DTS-ES. You can find more details in the full press release

• Charter Communications Will Use Motorola DCP501 Home Theater System
  Motorola has announced today that Charter Communications, the fourth-largest U.S. cable operator, will begin distributing the Motorola DCP501 in Charter markets at the end of second quarter 2002, becoming the first broadband network operator to commit to deployment of the platform.

  The Motorola DCP501 Home Theater System combines a DVD/CD/MP3 player, digital amplifier with 5x100 watts per channel, AM/FM stereo receiver, and a DCT2000 interactive digital cable receiver in a single, space-saving, plug-and-play unit for high-performance home entertainment. Some of the audio related features includes Dolby® Digital Decoder, 5.1 channels Dolby Pro Logic II technology, Digital Theater Sound (DTS®) and SRS surround sound. You can find more details in the full press release

• Analog Devices Unleashes Soundmax At E3 2002
  At this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), May 22-24 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Analog Devices, Inc. will showcase the audio performance that the SoundMAX family of products deliver. The company will showcase its roster of SoundMAX SPX-powered games from the industry's top players, its new SMartTools developer toolkit and SoundMAX Cadenza Digital Audio System, the latest addition to the product line. Lot more details can be found in the full press release.

  
  

For more news from last week check out our news archive.

Upcoming features at 3DsoundSurge

• Reviews that we are currently working on:
  Updated Santa Cruz/Sonic Fury and GameTheaterXP reviews
  Hercules Fortissimo II
  Terratec DMX Xfire 1024
  CMedia CM8738 Reference Review
  Full Audigy Review
  Full Philips MMS305 Review
  
• There are several other hardware reviews in the pipeline including, but not limited to the following:
  Guillemot Maxi Sound MUSE
  Terratec m3po
  DigMedia MusicStore
  Philips Seismic Edge
  Lots of other stuff on the go in including several guides and major site revisions that we will soon be releasing more details on.
  

As always if you have any ideas for products we should review or features we should do, please let us know.

Previous "The week in review".

Subscribe to our 3D Audio Week in Review Newsletter

All content, design and work is © 2001 - 3D Sound Surge Please respect the copyrights of the articles and writers herein. All copyrights are enforced by 3DSS.  
View the 3DsoundSurge Privacy Statement