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                      <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><a href="../../2.1/uc/index.html"><font color="#904C10" size="3">Sounds 
                        From All Over</font></a></i></font></b><br>

                      
                      <div align="right"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">By 
                        <a href="mailto:jsimpson@ravensoft.com">Jake Simpson</a></font></div>
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                  <td width="45%" align="right" valign="top"> 
                    <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E">Vol. 
                      2, Issue 4&nbsp; <br>
                      November 29, 1999&nbsp; </font></b></h5>
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              <loonystart> 
              <p align="right">&nbsp;</p>
              
            <p align="left"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Developed 
              by Keith Charley of Creative, the idea behind Eagle is a tool that 
              loads up the raw map file that designers use to create their game 
              levels, and creating a low polygon version of it that contains all 
              the information necessary for setting property sets, as well as 
              data necessary for obstruction and occlusion, which we will talk 
              about a bit later. </font></p>
            <p></p>
            <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">As a tool, it&#146;s 
              a great idea, but it does have some drawbacks too. Firstly, it's 
              an extra step in the designer's development cycle. After building 
              your level, you have to set up all the sound info the game requires 
              too. Any change to a level requires the same change to the sound 
              map as well. Secondly, the map that it generates is extra data that 
              has to be loaded per level. It increases memory consumption, and 
              adds to the load time. Both bad things, especially if you&#146;re 
              looking at complex levels to begin with. However, the one thing 
              that it does offer you is that you end up with geometry that is 
              purposely designed for the job of adding cool sound effects to your 
              game. It's fast to access, which is something that comes into play 
              in the obstruction/occlusion areas.</font></p>
            <p></p>
            <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Something else that should 
              to be discussed is the move by Microsoft to include EAX support 
              inside of DirectSound. In their quest to support hardware sound 
              cards, Microsoft decided that EAX was the way to go. This could 
              be seen as both a drawback and a plus. A plus in that many people 
              can now use the EAX protocols, which means you don't <i>have</i> 
              to have a SB Live! to use EAX, just a card that can support its 
              property sets. This is a double-edged sword though, since EAX could 
              now be applied to a card that really isn't made for EAX support, 
              resulting in a sound system that doesn't do either the card or EAX 
              justice. It can also be seen as a drawback in that Microsoft have 
              a way of usurping control of systems like EAX to their own ends.</font></p>
            <p></p>
            <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Aureal offers a comprehensive 
              solution. The A3D system has its own way of doing things that covers 
              almost all the bases, and what it doesn't, it will soon. Currently 
              it&#146;s the major competitor for Creative Labs in the sound card 
              market. They offer a similar solution to EAX called, not surprisingly, 
              A3D. Their homegrown chip is the Vortex chip set, although A3D will 
              run on other systems. Interestingly, Creative even had a small A3D 
              emulation driver they shipped with the SB Live!. A3D is not property 
              set based, although coming in A3D 3.0, they will have A3D sets, 
              which just happen to map to EAX property sets, meaning that effectively 
              you can run A3D on a property set supporting card. Draw your own 
              conclusions about what this will mean. Also supported in A3D 3.0 
              is .mp3 decompression. It's software based, so it's not free, but 
              it would certainly be worth investigating for those music channels. 
              Something worth mentioning is that Quake III will support A3D 3.0. 
              This is bound to boost the popularity of this sound system.</font></p>
            <p></p>
            <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">As it stands right now, 
              there are tools being created to allow easier access to A3D functions 
              - but it's hard to comment on them without seeing them.</font></p>
            <p></p>
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Illustration 
  &copy; 1999 Dhabih Eng. This article is &copy; 1999 Jake Simpson. All other 
  content is &copy; 1999 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. 
  So don't do it, or we'll make your ears bleed.</font></i></p>
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