What's after X-Fi?

M

mr saturn

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 6, 2006
Messages
205
Does anyone know if Creative has announced anything to follow the X-Fi line? I've done a bit of searching around and havent found anything, but I'd be interested to hear what they have planned. It seems as though computer audio is at a point where serious innovation is needed to continue pushing cards.
 
why? most games dont even use eax 5 save for a few like bf2.... no need to upgrade for a little while now
 
coolxboxgamer said:
why? most games dont even use eax 5 save for a few like bf2.... no need to upgrade for a little while now
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's exactly what I mean. Where can they go from here? Is the gaming sound card market as monopolized and stale as it seems?
 
mr saturn said:
Is the gaming sound card market as monopolized and stale as it seems?
Click to expand...
Pretty much. I mean, few games really utilize the latest EAX, and only a handful of games take advantage of Creative's X-Ram. The only other things that I see they can do is add PCI-E support (they are already working on it) & perhaps add some better DACs :D

*Or add 100.1 sound capability :eek:
 
mr saturn said:
Does anyone know if Creative has announced anything to follow the X-Fi line? I've done a bit of searching around and havent found anything, but I'd be interested to hear what they have planned. It seems as though computer audio is at a point where serious innovation is needed to continue pushing cards.
Click to expand...

Creative already talked about and demoed a PCI-E 1X X-Fi. This should be called the X-Fi 2 as there are leaked Drivers as well. There's a newer GUI but let's just hope there's less bloatware.

Sooner or later Creative will have to give and add at least DTS Connect. Some are hoping the upgrade DAC, ADC and OpAmps as well.;)
 
Why only think of creative, there are better options and companies out there already offering better things then what creative has.
 
Perhaps a soundcard with nice connectors for multi-core computers where the processor will take care of the audio processing instead of handling it on the soundcard itself. Sorta like DOOM and Carmack's comments on how the Creative soundcard was unnecessary since he already had the game engine handling all the audio without there being an appreciable difference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_3#Software_patent_controversy

Or Alan Wake seperating the cores to work on different tasks, physics on one, audio on another as mentioned in the first demonstration of the game's engine ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Wake see the IDF video referenced at the bottom, should also be on youtube or googlevideo) Since games have difficulty in getting both cores to work full-time because having two working on the same project causes problems in syncing them together in real-time, perhaps giving all the audio work to one core or the other would be a good idea. Still need nice connectors like I mentioned though.

And Creative does indeed have a monopoly on gaming soundcards.

But there are other soundcards available simply for music/movie purposes.
 
These sound cards already exist. They perform nearly every function via software, so nearly every function is handled by the CPU. In fact, a couple of the X-Fis already do this. No connectors are needed.

DirectSound and OpenAL are lightly threaded, so there is already some parallelization inherent in software audio processing. It is the developer's responsibility should they wish to thread the audio engine itself, and there is no conceivable way for a sound card to utilize an execution core independently, as there is no access route for that kind of processing. Changes would have to be made to playback APIs to allow for this kind of segmentation, and games would also have to support this, as synchronization is still required (data must be able to pass between each core and between the entire bus).

There's a good reason to perform DSP and other processing via a dedicated processor, but this processor should be on the sound card itself.

MrGuvernment said:
Why only think of creative, there are better options and companies out there already offering better things then what creative has.
Click to expand...
In some respects, absolutely. In other respects, absolutely not. It's not nearly as black and white as you make it out to be.
 
While a 4-core processor could handle seamlessly the audio part of a game, the raw processing power is just a part of the equation. Developers are time and resource constrained and most of them relegate the audio subsystem even having high level APIs and tools. If all of them are going to have to code down to the level of panning/reverb/obstructions, it will happen the same as in Doom3. It sounds very nice, but it doesn't work transparently with headphones/quad/6.1/7.1, you had to set Windows to "surround speakers", and the positioning is still lacking compared to the OpenAL renderer (although the EAX reverbs are way overdone IMO).

IMO to challenge Creative, companies don't need wow-factor technologies like EAX or wavetracing, they need a near-flawless DS3D/OpenAL engine based on quality HRTFs (at least on par with sensaura's) instead of panning and then build distinctive features on top of that.
 
HSE said:
While a 4-core processor could handle seamlessly the audio part of a game, the raw processing power is just a part of the equation. Developers are time and resource constrained and most of them relegate the audio subsystem even having high level APIs and tools. If all of them are going to have to code down to the level of panning/reverb/obstructions, it will happen the same as in Doom3. It sounds very nice, but it doesn't work transparently with headphones/quad/6.1/7.1, you had to set Windows to "surround speakers", and the positioning is still lacking compared to the OpenAL renderer (although the EAX reverbs are way overdone IMO).

IMO to challenge Creative, companies don't need wow-factor technologies like EAX or wavetracing, they need a near-flawless DS3D/OpenAL engine based on quality HRTFs (at least on par with sensaura's) instead of panning and then build distinctive features on top of that.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I could care less about all of this stuff.

What I want is a USB soundcard with a non-oversampling 24-bit DAC, an integrated audio processor.

I don't really care too much about 5.1 - I like my headphones just fine, and I've already got a very good stereo, soon to be upgraded to a pair of high-end frankenspeakers.
 
What I want is a USB soundcard with a non-oversampling 24-bit DAC, an integrated audio processor.
Click to expand...

I think the E-MU 0404 USB already does that.
 
MrGuvernment said:
Why only think of creative, there are better options and companies out there already offering better things then what creative has.
Click to expand...

What company offers better game support? I'd love to switch from Creative, I've had many many issues in the past.

I listen to a lot of music, and have an htpc for my movies (can't afford an amp yet so it's running directly to the tv) so I don't really have a need for Auzentech.

I was hoping Creative had an X-Fi 2 on the horizon that would have a lot of the kinks worked out, and it seems as though they actually are rolling it out.

I would love for another developer to enter the ring with a comparable line, though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top