Uploaded April 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
This is a considerably more detailed video than my last one, covering the video game Outcast running with both "3D sound" and "Soundblaster EAX" settings enabled in the options and also how these settings compare against the standard software-generated audio settings. Pay attention to the different room templates for reverb when indoor, outdoor (distant echo) and underwater when in EAX/3D mode, but also the differences and quirks associated with both EAX/3D sound and software sound! This is the original European retail CD version (1.00) of the game with no patches installed.
To actually make EAX and 3D audio work for me without the game crashing within the first few seconds of play, I had to use the original (VXD) driver CD for the Sound Blaster Live/Live Value from August 1998 (Liveware 1.00, basically). There are still issues/limitations with these drivers (that I'm not sure if fixed using some other obscure drivers for the sound card); there appears to be a fixed channel limit that cuts off sounds if there are too many sound sources in play simultaneously (happens often for dialogue and sound effects when at Shamaz Mazum's temple for example, due to the energy field sounds); most (if not all?) positional sources of looping sound effects can be heard from infinitely far away once they trigger so long as they aren't cut off by the mentioned channel limit or by the player pausing and unpausing the game (big thanks to NRave for mentioning it to me); sometimes when quitting the game, a "Blue Screen of Death" will appear, although it won't freeze up or reboot the system; sometimes pieces of dialogue will be harder to hear when the camera is situated or moving away from a character delivering a line, which is less of a limitation and more of a side-effect of the positional 3D audio (relative to camera view) doing its thing on SFX and dialogue alike; I'm sure there is some other quirk that I have yet to mention because I don't 100% remember how 3D audio compares to "2D audio" in this game.
Technical specifications / Hardware used for the computer in the video:
- Intel Pentium II 400Mhz processor
- Intel 440BX Slot 1 motherboard
- nVidia/Creative Labs Graphics Blaster Riva TNT (CT6710) AGP video / 3D accelerator card
- Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! (CT4620) PCI sound card
- 128 MB of 100Mhz (PC100) SDRAM memory
Recording was accomplished with the following hardware:
- GoPro Hero 7 Black camcorder
- Sound Devices MixPre-10 II audio recorder/interface
- 3.5mm stereo male jack to stereo XLR male connectors
- Mitsubishi Diamond Plus 200 computer monitor
Game was made in 1999 by Appeal for Windows 95/98.
This is a considerably more detailed video than my last one, covering the video game Outcast running with both "3D sound" and "Soundblaster EAX" settings enabled in the options and also how these settings compare against the standard software-generated audio settings. Pay attention to the different room templates for reverb when indoor, outdoor (distant echo) and underwater when in EAX/3D mode, but also the differences and quirks associated with both EAX/3D sound and software sound! This is the original European retail CD version (1.00) of the game with no patches installed.
To actually make EAX and 3D audio work for me without the game crashing within the first few seconds of play, I had to use the original (VXD) driver CD for the Sound Blaster Live/Live Value from August 1998 (Liveware 1.00, basically). There are still issues/limitations with these drivers (that I'm not sure if fixed using some other obscure drivers for the sound card); there appears to be a fixed channel limit that cuts off sounds if there are too many sound sources in play simultaneously (happens often for dialogue and sound effects when at Shamaz Mazum's temple for example, due to the energy field sounds); most (if not all?) positional sources of looping sound effects can be heard from infinitely far away once they trigger so long as they aren't cut off by the mentioned channel limit or by the player pausing and unpausing the game (big thanks to NRave for mentioning it to me); sometimes when quitting the game, a "Blue Screen of Death" will appear, although it won't freeze up or reboot the system; sometimes pieces of dialogue will be harder to hear when the camera is situated or moving away from a character delivering a line, which is less of a limitation and more of a side-effect of the positional 3D audio (relative to camera view) doing its thing on SFX and dialogue alike; I'm sure there is some other quirk that I have yet to mention because I don't 100% remember how 3D audio compares to "2D audio" in this game.
Technical specifications / Hardware used for the computer in the video:
- Intel Pentium II 400Mhz processor
- Intel 440BX Slot 1 motherboard
- nVidia/Creative Labs Graphics Blaster Riva TNT (CT6710) AGP video / 3D accelerator card
- Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! (CT4620) PCI sound card
- 128 MB of 100Mhz (PC100) SDRAM memory
Recording was accomplished with the following hardware:
- GoPro Hero 7 Black camcorder
- Sound Devices MixPre-10 II audio recorder/interface
- 3.5mm stereo male jack to stereo XLR male connectors
- Mitsubishi Diamond Plus 200 computer monitor
Game was made in 1999 by Appeal for Windows 95/98.
![Half-Life with Stupid Custom Sounds [Volume 2]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/m034moeBKAQ/mqdefault.jpg "Half-Life with Stupid Custom Sounds [Volume 2]
This is what tends to happen when the insanity continues from the previous volume, but I somehow dont mind any of that (hopefully you dont do it as well). Why yes, this mug of lunacy is moist indeed..")
