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Guild Wars and EAX®
Question
What is EAX®, which version does Guild Wars use, and how can I
enable it?
Answer
EAX® stands for Environmental Audio Effects. It is an algorithm used
to generate audio reverberation and echoes for the purpose of giving
an aural environment a more life-like feel. You should notice EAX
effects mostly in caves, dungeons, canyons, or other enclosed
spaces, since reverberation and/or echoes tend to be most pronounced
there. In open spaces such as fields and meadows, there is nothing
for sound to echo off of, and so you will notice little or no
difference there.
Guild Wars currently supports EAX versions 2.0 and 3.0. EAX 2.0 is
an open standard (along with I3DL2), while EAX 3.0 is proprietary to
Creative Labs™ hardware. If your sound card supports it, you can
enable EAX in the Options menu.
In the game, click Menu.
Click Options.
Click the Sound tab.
If your sound card supports EAX, you will be able to check the boxes
at the bottom for Use 3D Audio Hardware and then Use EAX.
If your sound card supports EAX but you cannot enable it in Guild
Wars, then Windows® may be disabling advanced features of your audio
hardware. To fix this:
In Windows, click Start.
Click Control Panel.
Double-click Sounds and Audio Devices.
Click on the Audio tab at the top of the dialog box.
Click on the Advanced... button in the Sound Playback section.
In the Advanced Audio Properties dialog, click on the Performance
tab.
You should see a slider labeled Hardware Acceleration. To use
hardware EAX, this must be set to Full.
Note: Windows 2000 users – The steps are identical except the
Control Panel item is called Sounds and Multimedia. Windows 2000
installs by default with Hardware Acceleration at one setting less
than full, meaning audio hardware is enabled, but advanced features
will not be available.
Note: Windows Vista beta users – DirectSound hardware acceleration
has been depreciated at the operating system level, and so only
software mixing is currently available. |
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