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Gaming
wise, the SonicXplosion driver supports DirectSound,
DirectSound3D, DirectMusic, A3D 1.0/2.0, EAX 1.0/2.0, I3DL2,
Sensaura Macro FX, Zoom FX, MultiDrive, Sensaura 3D and
Sensaura Environment FX. EAX Advanced HD support is
unavailable, though this is also the case for every other
Soundcard except for the Audigy’s (no, no such support in
the Extigy either).
No
hardware OpenAL driver is currently available either. On a
similar, though far less important note, I3DL2 is
supported though games support is more lacking than
Creative’s EAX HD. A3D is also supported via conversion to
DirectSound 3D, though this shouldn’t be of much
relevance. For in-depth information on the supported
Sensaura extensions & their features check out Sensaura's
White Papers.
Perhaps
most critically MultiDrive 5.1 is not supported, which means
that as regards 3D audio gaming the SonicXplosion only
supports Headphones, 2 or 4 channel output. Other Soundcards
which lack MultiDrive 5.1 support, e.g. Santa Cruz, in most
cases offer a virtual 5.1 output mode though given this is a
mix of other channels (Front left & right in this
instance) it’s generally not recommended given the
somewhat detrimental effect on 3D positioning.
The
Sensaura Information utility reveals further information on
the SonicXplosion drivers:
The
Sensaura Version used in the Drivers is also a rather old
build, though to be fair other Soundcards like the Game
Theater XP don’t use a much newer build either, e.g. the
latest Hercules release uses build 2203.
The
SonicXplosion’s Control Panel offers the ability to change
several options regarding 3D Audio for the Soundcard as
well.
To
enjoy the full 3D audio capabilities of the SonicXplosion
you’ll want to keep both Sensaura(tm) and EAX &
MacroFX options enabled.
Testing
out the SonicXplosion in games I used Operation Flashpoint,
Unreal Tournament 2003,
America
’s Army,
Driver, Battlefield 1942 & a few others. As per the
above the SonicXplosion can at greatest provide 4 channel
output in DirectSound 3D supporting titles, which all of the
above are. 3D positioning is for the most part excellent
with Sensaura’s strength lying in front/rear transitions
& side positioning. 2 channel 3D audio output is also
quite good, much better than what the Audigy 1 is capable
of. 4 channel output though good (Certainly above the Live!)
will be somewhat dependent on your preferences compared to
what other Soundcards do, e.g. I find the Creative
Soundcards to provide more obvious rear speaker placement
than Sensaura does. Overall though 3D positioning with the
SonicXplosion is very favourable albeit it with the
limitation of 4 channel output at greatest, which does put
it at something of a disadvantage to those capable of true
5.1 or 6.1 output in DirectSound 3D, e.g. Acoustic Edge or
Audigy/Audigy 2.
As
regards EAX the SonicXplosion is somewhat less impressive
when compared against the quality & support offered by
the Creative’s own Soundcards, in general the reverb is
noticeably weaker. Where EAX Advanced HD support is offered
in games the SonicXplosion should be able to provide
EAX 1/2 effects, instead though in the games I’ve tested
this is not the case at all. This seems associated with the
fact that all current EAX Advanced HD supporting titles
provide 3D audio via OpenAL and currently all non-Creative
Soundcards seem to offer no EAX effects in these games.
Presumably this is down to lacking an OpenAL Driver –
which should also yield lower CPU utilization than using the
OpenAL wrapper supplied with those titles. 3D
audio/positioning is itself unaffected by this however so
it’s not a complete loss.
In
Operation Flashpoint I experienced rather severe weirdness
in audio output with EAX enabled, whereby several
sounds sources played at a somewhat extreme volume level
regardless of how far away the source actually was. This
problem wasn’t limited to the SonicXplosion though,
previous soundcards I’ve used also had the problem
(Hercules Fortissimo II & Philips Acoustic Edge), a
drivers update solved the problem (with the former at
least).
Performance
wise the SonicXplosion operated decently enough, though with
more CPU intensive titles I did notice the system stuttering
a lot more than with, say, the Audigy 2. Battlefield 1942
was perhaps by far the most noticeable of the games tested
to display this, making it unplayable at times, unlike the
Audigy 2.
Sound
quality is fairly impeccable (beyond the Operation
Flashpoint EAX weirdness) and I didn’t particularly notice
any area where the SonicXplosion seemed to lag, bar of
course as regards application of EAX effects.
Overall
gaming with the Soundcard wise was decent enough though
clearly the Drivers could well do with several updates to
add an OpenAL Driver & MultiDrive 5.1 support to make it
more competitive with other more gaming oriented Soundcards.
Improved EAX support/compatibility would be nice too of
course.
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