GS_EAXManager rev2.0b ready for testing

Hi all, Well after having so many problems with my last effort
I decided to develop a new EAX2 wrapper GS Plugin from scratch again. Major changes and info are listed below:

1: No longer using OpenAL as it uses efx instead of EAX extensions and is not 100% compatable with quite a few sound cards as well problems reported with VISTA.

2: Can now use your own custom Enviromental Audio Library
for individual levels. The Library creator will be available
on final release, So it's up to you people to let me know
if this version works for future development.

3: Compatable with Direct Sound 7 and upwards "Not sure about Directx 10 though" I am using v9c. So It should intergrate
with GameStudio a lot better.

4: Better error handling, Although annoying popup dialogs
come up on errors and sometimes crashes EAXManager, Need to reboot computer if that happens. This won't be a problem
with the final release though. There shouldn't be any problems
with this if you don't have any typo's for selecting a custom
EAL Preset.

5: No documentation but the demo is well documented in the
EAX_Presets.h and the check_env() routine found in player.c
contained in the data folder.

6: Some presets may not work it depends on your sound cards
capabilites. But the Defaults should work. Also some may sound the same, They aren't they just have a very slight variation.

7: EAX is for enviromental effects and will not work with individual sounds, "Although I may be able to do it another way
in a futuer release" again this will depend on feddback.

8: The eax.dll eaxman.dll GS_EAXMan.dll and the examples.eal
files MUST be located in the main folder of your project.
To understand what I mean, Look at the file structure located
in the demo.

9: This and future releases will be FREE to use under the terms
and conditions of the Open Source agreement.

10: Well that's about it I think, So if you want improvements
in future releases PLEASE leave feedback! becuase it looks like
we will be quite some time before Conitec itergrate any type
of Enviromental Audio capabilited into GS.

Ooops, Almost forgot the link: GS_EAXManager Demo

Oh Yeah, The demo is a project I'm working on so it's not very good. I will include a decent demo with the next release.

P.S PLEASE leave feedback.

EDIT: Could a moderator please delete my old post found here Old topic Thanks.

sounds great, will try it out soon. thnx, this could be very useful

[Quick feedback]
You've done a good job with this pluggin.

I tested from the demo only.
Comp. specs are:
Intel P4 2.4Gh
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live
EAX2
DirectX 9c

The demo ran well and the sound transitions worked as coded. Two things you may want to work into the code though: First would be a trigger for threshold transitions. As is, the code triggers the outside environment sounds to stop as soon as the character enters a building or the pipe. A "threshold tigger" based on the distance that the character has moved beyond the entry point before the outside sounds are stopped would make the transition more natural (imo). This would also work in the opposite direction, when the character approaches the threshold trigger from inside the building. The second mod (related to the first) would be a fader affect that would reduce specific sounds. As an example, when the character enters the pipe and a threshold trigger is set, reduce the outside environment noise by a percentage while the footstep sounds continue at the normal volume. This would be applicable to any object that has a specific sound that would vary based on character distance from the entity. Another example, if a generator is running and the player character is close, the noise would be louder than if the character were further away.

Thankyou for your feedback. I understand what you mean and I realize a decent
demo would do this Plugin better justice. I was just to tired to put a proper
demo together.

In the next release I will make more of en effort for the demo.
Please note thought, This plugin can only change enviromental effects and NOT
the actual sound source. It is up to the programmer to do all the other
sound source manipulations this is becuase GameStudio still handles all the
major sound routines. EG: To get the effect your are talking about you
could possibly issue a snd_tune() statement between changing enviroments.
Hope you understand what I mean.

But I will see if I can hard code the transition into the plugin.
I am still only an amature programmer so please bear with me.

Once again, thankyou very much for your feedback.
This is the sort of encouragement needed for me to continue developing the
plugin even further.

How we going here people. Is this plugin worth the effort to continue with
development or what. Is it good enough for AUM and wikii.

Please let me know.

but does this uses or needs a EAX compatible??
i heard no effect? and a eax warning pops out...

I have vista, onbord sound card ( i think..well its a laptop right..?)

Yes you do need an EAX2 comapatible system.

What did the popup say just out of curiousity?

it says;

"Full EAX2.0 support was not detected.
Be sure your primary audio device is EAX2.0 Capable."

i tried to install a eax emulator but for me it did not work, maybe there is a better emulator somewhere.

its a pitty i can't do anything, because this is a laptop, not a deskop pc, that i can remove audio card and buy a new one..

i still though openal could be a solution, they say its the future, but if you say its not its ok.

OPENAL - stuff

Thanks MMike, That version is outdated which is why I think I was having so many problems before.
I am trying a newer version and so far so good. I've managed to get the Efx going on a per sound source basis instead of a global effect,
which will give developers more freedom. "It's also a lot easier to work with.

The downfall is you will not be able to include the sounds in a *.wrs because it needs them to be in certain folder to load them.
The other thing is they have to be either *.wav or *.ogg.

The other good thing is with this newer version is, It allows person to choose either hardware or software for the sound.
The way I understand it is that with hardware it will only use it's capabilities and is less CPU intensive.
With software, It is a lot more compatable and SHOULD work as it uses the software for all Efx translations but is a lot more CPU hungry.

Anyway, Will see how I go. I really hope this is going to work the way I am expecting it to.

but the "demo" i downloaded had no choices about soft/hardware

Sorry I was talking about the newer version of the openal sdk.

Ok I've been doing a bit more research and found this.

In Windows Vista, Microsoft has decided to remove the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) for DirectSound and DirectSound3D. The HAL is the software layer that in previous Windows operating systems enabled an audio accelerator such as the Sound Blaster X-Fi to provide DirectSound3D applications with hardware accelerated audio. This enabled soundcards to perform tasks such as sample-rate conversion, mixing, 3D spatialization using HRTFs, filtering, and effects processing. Without the HAL, DirectSound on Windows Vista will be rendered in software with no advanced functionality such as EAX.

Although OpenAL has arguably replaced DirectSound3D, particularly in many modern PC Games (e.g. Battlefield 2142, Doom3, Quake 4, Prey, etc.), there are hundreds of older PC games that support DirectSound3D and EAX technology. All of these games will sound empty and lifeless on Vista. As most DS3D games only enable 3D Audio and EAX if a hardware accelerator is present, most of these games will be reduced to a stereo output.

The good news is that the Creative ALchemy Project allows you to run your favorite DirectSound3D games on Windows Vista as the developers intended - with full hardware accelerated 3D Audio and EAX support! This is done by translating the legacy DirectSound calls into OpenAL. In order for this to happen, a couple of files need to be installed into each game directory. This is handled automatically by the ALchemy installer - but can also be performed manually by advanced users.

The Creative ALchemy Project is still in development and the ALchemy installer only supports a limited number of PC games. However, with your help, we would like to add more titles to the DirectSound3D Games list so please download the ALchemy installer, run it, and enjoy 3D Audio with EAX effects in your favorite games. Please share your experiences with ALchemy in our discussion board.

Unfortuantly Alchemy is only available for Vista systems using Audigy or X-fi sound.

OpenAL on Windows Vista
As already stated above, Microsoft® will be removing DirectSound 3D Hardware support from Direct X with the launch of Windows Vista. DirectSound and DirectSound3D will still function; however, they will no longer use hardware acceleration.

The native OpenAL devices on Sound Blaster Audigy and Sound Blaster X-Fi™ soundcards do not use DirectSound or DirectSound 3D and so they will be completely unaffected. For games that use these devices, nothing will change. The game will continue to enjoy hardware based 3D audio and effects.

The Generic Hardware device will no longer be available, as it requires the use of hardware DirectSound 3D Buffers. Instead, this device will gracefully, and automatically, fallback to using the Generic Software device, which will continue to work as before.

The Future Is OpenAL
The good news for owners of advanced audio cards like SoundBlaster X-Fi is that the developer community has been preparing for this for over 3 years. Hardware audio will not be disappearing with the launch of Windows Vista. Games that support OpenAL today will continue to provide full hardware-enhanced 3D audio under Windows Vista. This includes games such as Battlefield 2, Doom3, Unreal Tournament2k4, Dungeon and Dragons Online, Prey, Quake 4, and many others (a full list can be found at http://www.openal.org/titles.html). These games have complete hardware-based HRTF support for multiple speaker and headphone setups as well as full support for all the different versions of EAX. Also, these games will be able to take advantage of the hardware-accelerated path on supporting hardware for performance and quality increases.

OpenAL support will also be incorporated into the Unreal 3 engine from Epic Games®, the new Doom 3 engine from Id Software® and the new Torque Gaming Engine from Garage Games®. These engines represent literally hundreds of upcoming titles for PC and will provide the majority of upcoming major PC title releases. All of these titles will have OpenAL support at the core and will sound as good as they look in Windows Vista. Other top tier developers including D.I.C.E.®, Turbine®, Bioware® and others are working to ensure their home-grown audio engines fully support OpenAL hardware. For game developers that are serious about the PC platform, OpenAL is presently the only viable option for delivering the 3D audio experience that gamers have come to expect.

OpenAL has an extremely strong future. The OpenAL community has been able to expand its API with new features, and these were delivered in the recent release of OpenAL version 1.1. With the flexible extension mechanism in OpenAL, more and more extensions are being created to handle tasks such as effects processing, multi-channel buffer playback, and support for features like X-RAM™.

Also, OpenAL is working across more platforms than just Windows -- support exists for multiple varieties of Unix®, OS X (from Apple), and Xbox® / Xbox360™ (from Creative Labs).

Windows Vista will be ushering in a new age for PC gaming, with great new graphics, physics and CPU support. When combined with OpenAL and the widespread developer support it is receiving, gamers will also be hearing some of the best audio ever on Windows Vista.


So I guess if Conitec don't pull thier finger out and start intergrating the OpenAL SDK into the engine they maybe might loose quite a lot of sales.
Also as a pro user myself I reckon we deserve it as well because I can't see any games we develop selling as well as they should with Vista becomming more and more popular, Not to mention the money that's already been outlayed for the purchase.

That's my 5 cents worth anyways.

I've tried myself to use the SDK for a plugin but it's just way beyond me. For instance, You need to know how to access the snd_buffers to load them into OpenAL SDK. Than manipulate the sound buffer for the output, Setup the Listner
for correct x,y,z values and the list goes on. It's a pity we can't force Conitec's hand to do this.


Also I would just like to appoligize to MMike for not having my facts right. Although the older OpenAL SDK I had was not fullly Vista comapatible and the newer summer 09' one is.

yeah , no problem, you welcome

Anyway .. how notebooks will enable eax? since there is no audicy hardware.. for alchemy?

Well I guess if you look at it this way. Most Notebooks or Laptops aren't actually designed for gameing are they?
I also suppose it also depends a lot on the type of sound chip they have installed in them as well.

This is kinda going offtopic, but if you look at it thát way, you miss a big group of players .

I'm sorry to hear you won't be continuing this project. It was an exciting feature that I'm sure many users in the community would be extremely grateful to have as they get further along in their projects. Myself, I was looking forward to it!

To be useful in commercial applications, it does seem inevitable that you would have to confront the wrs packing problem and find a way to load the sound to a buffer that openal could read.

why not creating a own GS EAX sounds effect chain? doing some presets, and 3d space location calculations for those effects?

Yeah, I am going to continue using what i've achieved in my own project.
Just have to let end players know that EAX wan't run on Vista. Does anybody know if the upcomming Windows v7 will have directx. I heard and from what I've read about Windows is that it will be replacing Vista but I couldn't find a mention of directx.

windows vienna (7) its not different from vista, its the same engine, but will be more compatible with windows xp and other below.
about the direct x i don't know...