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With the Environmental Audio Extensions API, Creative is focused on delivering a powerful sound design tool that allows developers to truly explore the art of creating compelling, immersive audio environments in games, Internet audio applications and interactive entertainment titles. The new features in EAX 3.0 leverage the power of the EMU10K1 processor in the Sound Blaster Live! family of audio accelerators to deliver a new level of intensity to the Environmental Audio entertainment experience. There are currently over seventy Environmental Audio titles, of which thirty-six are available today. For a complete list of titles available to date and titles in development, please visit Creative's Web site at www.soundblaster.com.
Creative's Approach to Sound Design in Interactive Audio
Creative's EAX leverages its industry-leading expertise and audio
expertise from wholly-owned subsidiary, E-mu Systems, which has
been delivering powerful audio production solutions for professional
musicians and Hollywood sound designers for more than twenty-five
years. With Environmental Audio Extensions (EAX), Creative's
goal is to continue building on the base API by offering developers
a full palette of sound design parameters for interactive audio
applications. The programming and sound design concepts of EAX
are specifically designed for a broad range of applications including
games, education titles, simulations, Internet audio programs,
Internet music and music creation. Creative has taken a phased
approach to delivering these concepts through its popular EAX
API by offering the ability to produce the most perceptually important
effects first, giving them higher priority in a flexible application
development and sound design process.
Phase 1: Providing a Sense of Environment with EAX 1.0
EAX builds on DirectSound 3D's positional audio capabilities with
property set extensions. EAX 1.0 was designed to provide developers
with the ability to create a convincing sense of environment in
entertainment titles and a realistic sense of distance between
the player and audio events. EAX 1.0 provides a variety of environments
with different characteristics of reflections and reverberation,
different room types and/or room size. The API also allows for
customizing late reverberation parameters (decay time, damping,
level) and automatic level management according to distance.
EAX 1.0 provides for enhancement of distance cues on a per source
basis. Many developers have been using this API to add interactive
audio environments to 3D games.
Phase 2: Building on the Environment with EAX 2.0
EAX 2.0 builds on the ability of EAX 1.0 to create a more compelling
and realistic environment with tools that allow simulating the
audio effect of partitions between environments and obstacles
within environments. These features include occlusion and obstruction
and can be applied on each individual audio source. In addition,
EAX 2.0 provides adjustable reflections with a more complete reverb
interface, a tunable air absorption model and an improved source
directivity model. Creative will be providing a driver update
supporting the features of this new standard through its Live!Ware
program.
Phase 3: Adding More Realism, More Flexibility with EAX 3.0 Features
EAX 3.0 builds on EAX 2.0 with powerful, easy to use sound design
tools. EAX 3.0 introduces new levels of realism to interactive
audio applications. The new tools include the ability to use
and tune localized reflection clusters or isolated individual
reflections, to continuously "morph" between environments,
and to further improve distance rendering and naturalness with
Creative's proprietary statistical reverberation model. These
features allow the developer to create dynamic reverberant environments
with superior, more robust distance cues and enhanced control
over each audio event in the virtual sound scene. Creative plans
to debut the EAX 3.0 SDK at its annual developer's conference,
Creativity, taking place on May 17 and 18 in Universal
City, CA.
Creative's Environmental Audio Platform
Creative's new audio standard, Environmental Audio, takes a systems
approach to delivering the Environmental Audio experience - from
the processor and Environmental Modeling algorithms, to the speaker
systems and the API for developers - Creative provides a complete
experience with systems for its Environmental Audio Platform.
Based on the new Sound Blaster Live! family of audio accelerators,
Environmental Audio delivers a completely new way to experience
games, music and entertainment on the desktop.
Sound Blaster is a registered trademark and EAX is a trademark of Creative Technology Ltd. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other products mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners and are hereby recognized as such.