Anyone playing BtS with a Sound Blaster X-Fi card?

[Böle 1]

Hi!

The game manual /page 6) states that there should be a great difference in sounds with a proper sound card compared to standard motherboard sound?

I'm considering a new sound card (not actually for Civ, but for other purposes). I was wondering, can you really hear a difference in sounds in BtS?

 

[Virulent]

The manual also says that BtS is supposed to "look and play better" with an Nvidia card.

I have a ATI graphics card and an onboard sound chip and BtS looks and sounds just fine.

It's just an ad. Lots of game boxes/manuals now say: 'plays better on so-and-so hardware'. It doesn't really mean anything.

 

[ShredZ]

I have an X-Fi, sounds the same but maybe its just hard to tell. Also, BtS runs worse on my system than WL did...

 

[gelat]

I have an X-Fi, 8800GTS and notice no problems...

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

Well I notice a sound difference, because I mute the in game music and play my own music which sounds much better. Usually don't listen for the difference in sound of gunfire and explosions.

 

[OctopusOverload]

The soundblaster X-Fi series features seems kind of exagerrated...

 

[Reggie]

If you want an X-Fi get at least an Fatality, which has nice Sound in almost all Games i use to play and a great sound with my Medusa on DVD's....

ahh and btw no Probs with BtS but i cant see the thiong in it, the Sound is not what i play this Game for....

 

[Andy06r]

I have an X-Fi. I only have 2 speakers and a sub so I'm kinda wasting the power (no room in my dorm), but I can hear a difference compared to other computers. Its not that civ4 + X-Fi is special, just that the X-Fi card is really good at what it does. Its really hard to explain the difference though ... imagine sound that is perfectly blended with EAX everything (pigs on the left of the center of the screen squeel on the left speaker loudly, while a coast on the right washes up on the shore on the right speaker only).

Other things I have ... GeForce 7900 GS lets me run this game full max graphics

3.2 gig dualcore combined with a Aegis physics card (the engine for civ4 is supported) means that my AI load times on even large maps are very short.

Hope this helps.

 

[Keitosha]

Setting HD EAX 4.0 in Civ IV/Warlords/BtS gives me EAX, but the sound output is mono and i'm using 5.1 speakers (i've also tried 2.1 with the same result: mono sound with EAX enabled). I never set Civ IV audio options to support EAX, but Stereo. I'm having the X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro.

The problem occurs in both Windows XP Pro SP2 and Vista Ultimate 32 (with ALchemy). The audio console is set to Game Mode.

I really don't know what causes the problem since any other EAX game works fine.

 

[Lucky The Fox]

Lots of game boxes/manuals now say: 'plays better on so-and-so hardware'. It doesn't really mean anything.

When my old Radeon called it quits and I switched it to a more or less equal (in terms of memory) Nvidia card, I witnessed a clear change for the worse in the performance of The Movies, which incidentally advertises ATI's cards quite openly. Civ IV's performance fortunately improved at the same time.

So I believe it's not just empty words, even if I'm tone deaf enough to assure you that I wouldn't notice any difference if someone switched my sound card to Sound Blaster X-Fi.

 

[toft]

I bought X-Fi from Creative last week with a new set of speakers (5.1). I had onboard sound before with 2.1 speakersystem... to be honest, there is little or no difference. Unlike other FPS games, where the difference is huge!

So I wouldnt recommend buying the soundcard for just this game, but in generel its a better experience for other games/movies.

 

[HiroHito]

is there a real difference between the X-fi and the last audigy ? I'm too sure...

 

[Kinseek]

What I`m curious about is whether I should pick "5.1 discrete" or "EAX" for the best surround.

 

[NobleArc]

I have an X-Fi XtremeMusic and I can't even get EAX to work with it.

Only 5.1 discrete works. I tried EAX, EAX 3.0 HD, EAX 4.0 HD, and DirectSound3D.

I'm running Vista Ultimate, and this blows.

Other than that, the game is phenomenal.

 

[gelat]

There are new Creative X-Fi alchemy drivers that support Civ4 BTS at http://connect.creativelabs.com/alchemy/default.aspx

Enables EAX according to the games list...

 

[jpinard]

I have an X-Fi and both EAX 3 & 4 both have issues. Some sounds drop out like the lciking of the menu lines when setting up a game. 5.1 discreet does not have this issue.

 

[Fieryphoenix]

Yes. I use an X-Fi ExtremeMusic and I notice the difference. I enjoy the improved sound a lot, but I might not pay 120 bucks for it. However, I WOULD (and did) for the smoother gameplay. Gladly. There are frame rate advantages, a few get a larger maximum, but far more important is when your minimum frame rate goes up... I got a lot less cough, stutters, and hiccups once I put it in, and animation just seemed more steady and nice.

I was glad I caught this thread, mentioning problems with EAX 3 and 4, so I tried discrete and EAX 2... it sped things WAY up do do that! Both in game animation and turn resolution time, and also task switching (I read web pages a lot while conquering the world). I may try a huge map again now sometime.