SMAX Sound Degradation

[GM Blues]

Hi everyone! I just got my copy of SMAX and I'm very exciting (I've played SMAC every now and then for the last few years, so I figured it was about time I tried the expansion).

The game works fine except that I've noticed that the sound quality for the blurbs (for tech advances) has degraded. The blurbs sound as if the speaker is talking underwater. I wonder if anyone else has heard of / encountered this problem and if anyone has any suggestions as to how to take care of it.

I have installed the lastest SMAX patch (1.2) and already am using the latest drivers for my sound card. Thx for any insights into this matter.

[Darsnan]

Heah GM Blues,

welcome to the wonderful world of SMAX! Dumb question on my part: is the sound degradation on all techs, or just some? Reason I am asking is that for the techs spoken by the Progenitors, it does sort of sound like their talking underwater. Other than that, can't think of anything off hand that would be causing a problem like you are describing. Hopefully someone else might have an idea on this.

[Lefty Scaevola]

Its the surround sound program fouling up (EAX is the program if IIRC) Go to the alpha.ini file and set EAX=0. The Alien will therafter sound a little duller, but it will stop screwing up the other sounds. I do not remeber if there is an EAX=1 line already that you change to EAX=0 or if you have to add the line.

[Lefty Scaevola]

here is another thread of smax sound with winXP

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=39559

[Lefty Scaevola]

and here

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10201

For guys (me & Crayon for 2) the EAX=0 worked for other it was more involved.

[GM Blues]

Wow, the "EAX=0" line completely solves my problem!! Thx so much everyone!! Now I can get back to my game w/o pretending I'm underwater or sth ... on hindsight, I guess it would have been fitting if I was playing the Pirates

P.S. Darsnan: FYI (and anyone else who is having the same problem), the sound issue affected all tech sound files... I suspect it also warped the music and sound effects as well (the garbled words are much more noticeable). The Secret Project movies worked fine though.